Suzette came back from Putney's office with such a disheartened look
that Adeline had not the courage to tell her of Matt's visit and the
errand he had undertaken for her. The lawyer had said no more than that
he did not believe anything could be done. He was glad they had decided
not to transfer their property to the company, without first trying to
make interest for their father with it; that was their right, and their
duty; and he would try what could be done; but he warned Suzette that he
should probably fail.
"And then what did he think we ought to do?" Adeline asked.
"He didn't say," Suzette answered.
"I presume," Adeline went on, after a little pause, "that you would like
to give up the property, anyway. Well, you can do it, Suzette." The joy
she might have expected did not show itself in her sister's face, and
she added, "I've thought it all over, and I see it as you do, now.
Only," she quavered, "I do want to do all I can for poor father, first."
"Yes," said Suzette, spiritlessly, "Mr. Putney said we ought."
"Sue," said Adeline, after another little pause, "I don't know what
you'll think of me, for what I've done. Mr. Hilary has been here--"
"Mr. Hilary!"
"Yes. He came over from his farm--"
"Oh! I thought you meant his father." The color began to mount into the
girl's cheeks.
"Louise and Mrs. Hilary sent their love, and they all want to do
anything they can; and--and I told Mr. Hilary what we were going to try;
and--he said he would speak to his father about it; and--Oh, Suzette,
I'm afraid I've done more than I ought!"
Suzette was silent, and then, "No," she said, "I can't see what harm
there could be in it."
"He said," Adeline pursued with joyful relief, "he wouldn't let his
father speak to the rest about it, till we were ready; and I know he'll
do all he can for us. Don't you?"
Sue answered, "I don't see what harm it can do for him to speak to his
father. I hope, Adeline," she added, with the severity Adeline had
dreaded, "you didn't ask it as a favor from him?"
"No, no! I didn't indeed, Sue! It came naturally. He offered to do it."
"Well," said Suzette, with a sort of relaxation, and she fell back in
the chair where she had been sitting.
"I don't see," said Adeline, with an anxious look at the girl's worn
face, "but what we'd both better have the doctor."
"Ah, the doctor!" cried Suzette. "What can the doctor do for troubles
like ours?" She put up her hands to her face, and bowed herself on them,
and sobbed, with the first tears she had shed since the worst had come
upon them.
The company's counsel submitted Putney's overtures, as he expected, to
the State's attorney, in the hypothetical form, and the State's
attorney, as Putney expected, dealt with the actuality. He said that
when Northwick's friends communicated with him and ascertained his
readiness to surrender the money he had with him, and to make
restitution in every possible way, it would be time to talk of a _nolle
prosequi_. In the meantime, by the fact of absconding he was in contempt
of court. He must return and submit himself for trial, and take the
chance of a merciful sentence.
There could be no other answer, he said, and he could give none for
Putney to carry back to the defaulter's daughters.
Suzette received it in silence, as if she had nerved herself up to bear
it so. Adeline had faltered between her hopes and fears, but she had
apparently decided how she should receive the worst, if the worst came.
"Well, then," she said, "we must give up the place. You can get the
papers ready, Mr. Putney."
"I will do whatever you say, Miss Northwick."
"Yes, and I don't want you to think that I don't want to do it. It's my
doing now; and if my sister was all against it, I should wish to do it
all the same."
Matt Hilary learned from his father the result of the conference with
the State's attorney, and he came up to Hatboro' the next day, to see
Putney on his father's behalf, and to express the wish of his family
that Mr. Putney would let them do anything he could think of for his
clients. He got his message out bunglingly, with embarrassed
circumlocution and repetition; but this was what it came to in the end.
Putney listened with sarcastic patience, shifting the tobacco in his
mouth from one thin cheek to the other, and letting his fierce blue eyes
burn on Matt's kindly face.
"Well, sir," he said, "what do _you_ think can be done for two women,
brought up as ladies, who choose to beggar themselves?"
"Is it so bad as that?" Matt asked.
"Why, you can judge for yourself. My present instructions are to make
their whole estate over to the Ponkwasset Mills Company--"
"But I thought--I thought they might have something
besides--something--"
"There was a little money in the bank that Northwick placed there to
their credit when he went away; but I've had their instructions to pay
that over to your company, too. I suppose they will accept it?"
"It isn't my company," said Matt. "I've nothing whatever to do with
it--or any company. But I've no doubt they'll accept it."
"They can't do otherwise," said the lawyer, with a humorous sense of the
predicament twinkling in his eyes. "And that will leave my clients just
nothing in the world until Mr. Northwick comes home with that fortune he
proposes to make. In the meantime they have their chance of starving to
death, or living on charity. And I don't believe," said Putney, breaking
down with a laugh, "they've the slightest notion of doing either."
Matt stood appalled at the prospect which the brute terms brought before
him. He realized that after all there is no misery like that of want,
and that yonder poor girl had chosen something harder to bear than her
father's shame.
"Of course," he said, "they mustn't be allowed to suffer. We shall count
upon you to see that nothing of that kind happens. You can contrive
somehow not to let them know that they are destitute."
"Why," said Putney, putting his leg over the back of a chair into its
seat, for his greater ease in conversation, "I could, if I were a lawyer
in a novel. But what do you think I can do with two women like these,
who follow me up every inch of the way, and want to know just what I
mean by every step I take? You're acquainted with Miss Suzette, I
suppose?"
"Yes," said Matt, consciously.
"Well, do you suppose that such a girl as that, when she had made up her
mind to starve, wouldn't know what you were up to if you pretended to
have found a lot of money belonging to her under the cupboard?"
"The company must do something," said Matt, desperately. "They have no
claim on the property, none whatever!"
"Now you're shouting." Putney put a comfortable mass of tobacco in his
mouth, and began to work his jaws vigorously upon it.
"They mustn't take it--they won't take it!" cried Matt.
Putney laughed scornfully.