Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/207

 20O FEDERAL REPORTER. �well have seemed to him to bc, to sufïer the Judgment to be takon without telling the other trustees. It is also evident that he desired to get rid of the other officers and the stock- holders, and he looked upon a possible sale of the property on execution, as a means to this end. He spoke of this to one of the other credifcors. �On the question whether he -was the agent of his wife in ail this transaction, and especially in the negotiation for an arrangement with the other creditors, the evidence is not sat- isfactory. Giving fuU credence and efïect to the narration of the conversations of Mrs, Penny, as testified to by the witness Crane, I think they do not contain any direct and unequivo- cal admission on her part that she had committed the whole matter of a settlement to her husband as her agent. Her saying to Mr. Crane that he (Mr. Penny) could do as he liked about it does not, under ail the circum stances, amount to suoh an admission. She undoubtedly was consulting her husband, but she had her own attorney, and w&s giving him instructions from time to time. She seems, in fact, to have retained a considerable control over her own affairs, and not to bave constituted her husband her general business agent, as the complainant's counsel insists. It is, however, of little consequence whether or not she authorized her busband to give her consent to the final arrangement proposed with the other creditors. The only importance of it is as evidence in connection with her subsequent change of purpose, and other circumstances, as tending to show that she had from the be- ginning been acting an insincere part, and had at the time she acquired her lien been really in pursuit of an illegal pref- erence over the other creditors. Even if she had expressly and unqu'estionably consented to sign the papers she refused to sign, there would have been in law no agreement which she can be charged with having broken. There was no agree- ment, because it is entirely certain from the papers them- selves, as well as from the testimony, that the agreement, if made, was to be between Mrs Penny on one part, and ail the other creditors on the other part. Mr. Crane and Mr. God ����