“Oh, quite a while ago,” I answered. “She had some shopping to do.”
“Mebbe she ’lowed she’d be hum by this time,” he suggested, looking at his watch; and for the first time I noticed the deepening shadows and saw that I had consumed the whole afternoon in my work. “Now I wonder what it could ’a’ been she wanted t’ tell me?” He put his watch back into his pocket, and took a restless step or two up and down. “Ye haven’t heard her say anything about a law-suit, hev ye?” he demanded, stopping before me suddenly.
“A law-suit?” I echoed, perplexed. “What sort of a law-suit?”
“Well,” he proceeded cautiously, watching me closely, “I thought mebbe she’d got some fool notion in her head thet the courts could upset the will, ’r somethin’ o’ thet sort. These lawyer fellers air allers lookin’ out fer jobs.”
“Oh, she won’t do that!” I cried. “If we can’t get the place the way grandaunt wanted us to, we won’t get it at all—mother told Mr. Chester that only last night.”
“She did, hey?” and my visitor drew a sudden deep breath. “Well, thet’s wise of her—no use spendin’ your money on lawyers—though they’d like it well enough, I reckon.”
“I don’t believe mother thought of it that way at all,” I corrected. “She said we really hadn’t any claim on grandaunt, and that she had a perfect right to dispose of her property in any way she wished.”
My companion said nothing for a moment, only stood looking down at me with a queer light in his eyes.
“’Tain’t many people who are so sensible,” he remarked at last. “Well, I must be goin’,” he added. “Sorry I missed yer mother. The next time she sends fer me, tell her t’ be at home.”
“Sends for you?” I repeated again, more and more astonished. “Did she send for you?”