"Too true! But do you know how few of these attempts ever succeed--even
get to a trial of the case? Almost none. Usually they are fraudulent
schemes of rascals who collect money from gullible persons and then put
the money into their own pockets and nothing whatever is done. It would
be very foolish of these cousins of yours to try anything of the sort.
It would make them miserable for years and eat up what little money they
have. You must make this all clear to the young man who is to meet you
here. Send him to me if he has any doubts!"
"What can I do about it, then?" Adelle demanded. "It belongs to them,
and I want them to have it. There must be some way!"
The judge looked at the young woman with a curious, indulgent smile. He
had gathered from her story that her own experience with Clark's Field
had not been a successful one by any means. Was that why she was so
anxious to shoulder off upon these unknown members of her family the
burden of riches which had proved too much for her? Just what was her
motive? A conscience newly aroused by her terrible tragedy and
hypersensitive? An interest womanwise in this young stone mason, who was
the only one of the California Clarks she had yet seen?... The judge
leaned forward and took Adelle's hand.
"Tell me, my dear," he said, "just why you want them to have your money.
For of course it would be _your_ money that they would get in the end,
if by any possibility they could win their case."
Adelle looked into the old man's kind eyes, but did not reply. It was
not easy for her to explain the persistent purpose that moved her.
"Has wealth meant so much to you? or so little?" the judge asked,
thinking of his own part in providing Adelle's fortune for her.
Adelle slowly shook her head.
"Do you think that these other Clarks would use it more wisely?" And as
Adelle did not reply at once he repeated,--"Have you any reason to
believe that they would be happier than you have been or better?"
"Money doesn't make happiness," Adelle said with a pathetic conviction
of the truth of the truism. The energy of her life, it seemed, as in the
case of so many others, had been given to proving the truth of axioms
one after another!
The judge smiled and released her hand. He sat back in his deep chair
watching Adelle with kindly eyes. He seemed to see the woman's awakening
mind slowly at work before him, struggling patiently to grasp what was
still just beyond her comprehension.
"What shall I do?" she appealed finally. "Tell me!"
"There is something you can do--a very simple thing! I wonder it has not
occurred to you before."
"What is it?" Adelle asked eagerly.
"You can give part of your own fortune--an exact half of it if you
like--to these new cousins of yours, and so accomplish what you want
without hurting any one but yourself."
"I don't think they would take the money that way--I don't believe _he_
would!" Adelle said doubtfully.
"There are few persons," the judge observed indulgently, "who cannot be
induced to take money in one way or another!"
"It isn't quite the same thing," Adelle said, in a disappointed tone. "I
don't think he would like it that way."
"It amounts to the same thing in the end, doesn't it?"
"Perhaps."
She did not tell the judge that if she should give these California
Clarks one half of the fortune she had received from Clark's Field, she
should be poor, perhaps destitute.
"But before you decide to do anything, you must make up your mind very
carefully, for it cannot be undone. Are you quite sure that you are
doing the wisest thing in turning over such a large fortune to persons
you know almost nothing about?"
"I know _him_--the mason, and I think it would be safer with him than
with me."
The judge smiled enigmatically.
"If he would take it from me like that--perhaps he need not know?" she
asked.
"I think that he had better know!... Bring him to see me when he comes
and we can talk it over together, all three of us," the judge suggested.
"I will do that!"
"And now I want you to give me the pleasure of lunching with me, a very
simple old man's lunch, when we can talk about other things than money!"
And with another gentle smile the judge took Adelle's arm and hobbled
out to the next room.
A cheerful bar of sunlight fell across the small table between the two
napkins and made the old silver gleam. Adelle felt more at peace, more
calmly content with life, than she had since the death of her child. She
was sure that somehow it was all coming out right, not only the money
from Clark's Field, but also her own troubled life, although she could
not see the precise steps to be taken. As usual her destiny, after
leading her by many devious routes, brought her to the one door where
she might obtain light....
"Tell me," said her host in his courteous tones, "about your
California--I have always wanted to go there some day."