That evening Adeline said to her sister, at the end of the meagre dinner
they allowed themselves in these days, "Elbridge says the hay is giving
out, and we have got to do something about those horses that are eating
their heads off in the barn. And the cows: there's hardly any feed for
them."
"We must take some of the money and buy feed," said Suzette, passively.
Adeline saw by her eyes that she had been crying; she did not ask her
why; each knew why the other cried.
"I'm afraid to," said the elder sister. "It's going so fast, as it is,
that I don't know what we shall do pretty soon. I think we ought to sell
some of the cattle."
"We can't. We don't know whether they're ours."
"Not ours?"
"They may belong to the creditors. We must wait till the trial is over."
Adeline made no answer. They had disputed enough about that trial, which
they understood so little. Adeline had always believed they ought to
speak to a lawyer about it; but Suzette had not been willing. Even when
a man came that morning with a paper which he said was an attachment,
and left it with them, they had not agreed to ask advice. For one thing,
they did not know whom to ask. Northwick had a lawyer in Boston; but
they had been left to the ignorance in which most women live concerning
such matters, and they did not know his name.
Now Adeline resolved to act upon a plan of her own that she had kept
from Suzette because she thought Suzette would not like it. Her sister
went to her room after dinner, and then Adeline put on her things and
let herself softly out into the night. She took that paper the man had
left, and she took the deeds of the property which her father had given
her soon after her mother died, while Sue was a little girl. He said
that the deeds were recorded, and that she could keep them safely
enough, and she had kept them ever since in the box where her old laces
were, and her mother's watch, that had never been wound up since her
death.
Adeline was not afraid of the dark on the road or in the lonely
village-streets; but when she rang at the lawyer Putney's door, her
heart beat so with fright that it seemed as if it must jump out of her
mouth. She came to him because she had always heard that, in spite of
his sprees, he was the smartest lawyer in Hatboro'; and she believed
that he could protect their rights if any one could. At the same time
she wished justice to be done, though they should suffer, and she came
to Putney, partly because she knew he had always disliked her father,
and she reasoned that such a man would be less likely to advise her
against the right in her interest than a friendlier person.
Putney came to the door himself, as he was apt to do at night, when he
was in the house, and she saw him control his surprise at sight of her.
"Can I see--see--see you a moment," she stammered out, "about some--some
law business?"
"Certainly," said Putney, with grave politeness. "Will you come in?" He
led the way into the parlor, where he was reading when she rang, and
placed a chair for her, and then shut the parlor door, and waited for
her to offer him the papers that rattled in her nervous clutch.
"It's this one that I want to show you first," she said, and she gave
him the writ of attachment. "A man left it this noon, and we don't know
what it means."
"It means," said Putney, "that your father's creditors have brought suit
against his estate, and have attached his property so that you cannot
sell it, or put it out of your hands in any way. If the court declares
him insolvent, then everything belonging to him must go to pay his
debts."
"But what can we do? We can't buy anything to feed the stock, and they
will suffer," cried Adeline.
"I don't think long," said Putney. "Some one will be put in charge of
the place, and then the stock will be taken care of by the creditors."
"And will they turn us out? Can they take our house? It is our
house--mine and my sister's; here are the deeds that my father gave me
long ago; and he said they were recorded." Her voice grew shrill.
Putney took the deeds, and glanced at the recorder's endorsement before
he read them. He seemed to Adeline a long time; and she had many fears
till he handed them back to her. "The land, and the houses, and all the
buildings are yours and your sister's, Miss Northwick, and your father's
creditors can't touch them."
The tears started from Adeline's eyes; she fell weakly back in her chair
and let them run silently down her worn face. After a while Putney said,
gently, "Was this all you wanted to ask me?"
"That is all," Adeline answered, and she began blindly to put her papers
together. He helped her. "How much is there to pay?" she asked, with an
anxiety she could not keep out of her voice.
"Nothing. I haven't done you any legal service. Almost any man you
showed those papers to could have told you as much as I have." She tried
to gasp out some acknowledgments and protests as he opened the doors for
her. At the outer threshold he said, "Why, you're alone!"
"Yes. I'm not at all afraid--"
"I will go home with you." Putney caught his hat from the rack, and
plunged into a shabby overcoat that dangled under it.
Adeline tried to refuse, but she could not. She was trembling so that it
seemed as if she could not have set one foot before the other without
help. She took his arm, and stumbled along beside him through the quiet,
early spring night.
After a while he said, "Miss Northwick, there's a little piece of advice
I _should_ like to give you."
"Well?" she quavered, meekly.
"Don't let anybody lead you into the expense of trying to fight this
case with the creditors. It wouldn't be any use. Your father was deeply
involved--"
"He had been unfortunate, but he didn't do anything wrong," Adeline
hastened to put in, nervously.
"It isn't a question of that," said Putney, with a smile which he could
safely indulge in the dark. "But he owed a great deal of money, and his
creditors will certainly be able to establish their right to everything
but the real estate."
"My sister never wished to have anything to do with the trial. We
intended just to let it go."
"That's the best way," Putney said.
"But I wanted to know whether they could take the house and the place
from us."
"That was right, and I assure you they can't touch either. If you get
anxious, come to me again--as often as you like."
"I will, indeed, Mr. Putney," said the old maid, submissively. She let
him walk home with her, and up the avenue till they came in sight of the
house. Then she plucked her hand away from his arm, and thanked him,
with a pathetic little titter. "I don't know what Suzette would say if
she knew I had been to consult you," she suggested.
"It's for you to tell her," said Putney, seriously. "But you'd better
act together. You will need all your joint resources in that way."
"Oh, I shall tell her," said Adeline. "I'm not sorry for it, and I think
just as you do, Mr. Putney."
"Well, I'm glad you do," said Putney, as if it were a favor.
When he reached home, his wife asked, "Where in the world have you been,
Ralph?"
"Oh, just philandering round in the dark a little with Adeline
Northwick."
"Ralph, what _do_ you mean?"
He told her, and they were moved and amused together at the strange
phase their relation to the Northwicks had taken. "To think of her
coming to you, of all people in the world, for advice in her trouble!"
"Yes," said Putney. "But I was always a great friend of her father's,
you know, Ellen."
"Ralph!"
"Oh. I may have spent my whole natural life in denouncing him as
demoralization incarnate, and a curse to the community, but I always
_liked_ him, Ellen. Yes, I loved J. Milton, and I was merely waiting for
him to prove himself a first-class scoundrel, to find out just how
_much_ I loved him. I've no doubt but if we could have him among us
again, in the attractive garb of the State's-prison inmates, I should be
hand and glove with brother Northwick."