"Mortimer, John - Rumpole and the Married Lady" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mortimer John)

As I walked through the Temple, puffing a small cigar on the way to the factory, I considered the question of divorce. Well, you've got to take what you can nowadays, and I suppose divorce is in a fairly healthy state. Divorce figures are rising. What's harder to understand is the enormous popularity of marriage! I remembered the scene at breakfast that morning, and I really began to wonder how marriage ever became so popular. I mean, was it 'Home Life' with She Who Must Be Obeyed? Gloucester Road seemed to be my place of work, of hard, back-breaking toil. It was a relief to get down to the Temple, for relaxation. By that time I had reached my Chambers, No. i Equity Court, a place of peace and quiet. It felt like home.

When I got into the hallway I opened the door of the clerk's room, and was greeted by an extraordinary sight. A small boy, I judged him to be about ten years old, was seated on a chair beside Dianne our typist. He was holding a large, lit-up model of a jet aeroplane and zooming it through the air at a noise level which would have been quite unacceptable to the New York Port authority.

I shut the door and beat a hasty retreat to the privacy of my sanctum. But when I opened my own door I was astounded to see a youngish female seated in my chair, wearing horn-rimmed specs and apparently interviewing a respectable middle-aged lady and a man who gave every appearance of being an instructing solicitor. I shut that door also and turned to find the zealous Henry crossing the hall towards me, bearing the most welcome object in my small world, a brief.

' Henry,' I said in some panic.' There's a woman, seated in my chair!'

'Miss Phyllida Trant, sir. She's been with us for the last few months. Ex-pupil of Mr Erskine-Brown. You haven't met her?'

I searched my memory. 'I've met the occasional whiff of French perfume on the stairs.'

' Miss Trant's anxious to widen her experience.'

' Hence the French perfume?'

' She wants to know if she could sit in on your divorce case.

I've got the brief here. "Thripp v. Thripp." You're the wife, Mr Rumpole.'

'Am I? Jolly good." I took the brief and life improved considerably at the sight of the figure written on it. 'Marked a hundred and fifty guineas! These Thripps are the sort to breed from! Oh, and I don't know if you're aware of this, Henry. There seems to be a child in the clerk's room, with an aeroplane !'

' He's here for the conference.'

I didn't follow his drift. 'What's the child done? It doesn't want a divorce too ?'

'It's the child of the family in "Thripp v. Thripp", Henry explained patiently, 'and I rather gather the chief bone of contention. So long now, Mr Rumpole.' He moved away towards the clerk's room.' Sorry to have interrupted your day at home.'

'You can interrupt my day at home any time you like, for a brief marked a hundred and fifty guineas! Miss Phyllida Trant, did you say?'

' Yes sir. You don't mind her sitting in, do you ?'

'Couldn't you put her off, Henry? Tell her a divorce case is sacrosanct. It'd be like a priest inviting a few lady friends to join in the confessional.'

' I told her you'd have no objection. Miss Trant's very keen to practise.'

'Then couldn't she practise at home?'

'We're about the only Chambers without a woman, Mr Rum-pole. It's not good for our image.' He seemed determined, so I gave him a final thought on my way into the conference. 'Our old clerk Albert never wanted a woman in Chambers. He said there wasn't the lavatory accommodation.'

So there I was at the desk having a conference in a divorce case with Miss Phyllida Trant 'sitting in', Mr Perfect the solicitor looking grave, and the client, Mrs Thripp, leaning forward and regarding me with gentle trusting eyes. As I say, she seemed an extremely nice and respectable woman, and I wasn't to know that she was to cause me more trouble than all the murderers I have ever defended.

'As soon as you came into the room I felt safe somehow, Mr Rumpole. I knew Norman and I would be safe with you.'

'Norman?'

' The child of the family.' Miss Trant supplied the information.

'Thank you. Miss Trant. The little aviator in the clerk's room. Quite. But if I'm to help you, you'll have to do your best to help me too.'