It was found when the party reached Washington that Richard De Jarnette was inexorable. And as Judge Kirtley explained to Margaret, the child was now of such age that his guardian could reasonably claim to be able to care for him, as he could not have done for an infant. The situation was grave.
They had gone directly to the Massachusetts Avenue house, which had been closed since Margaret's flight except for the periodical visits of a caretaker. It had been Mrs. Kirtley's task to see that it was ready for the sorrowful home-coming.
"No, I am not going to Maria's," Mrs. Pennybacker had told Bess. "Margaret needs us. And besides, Maria always rubs my fur the wrong way, and just now I want it to lie straight."
Several days elapsed after their return before Margaret saw anything of Richard De Jarnette. When she did he came to make a formal demand for the child.
She refused absolutely to give him up.
In thinking of that interview when he was gone she felt depressingly aware that she had done her cause no good, for she had said many bitter intemperate things, being under great provocation. To them all he listened without reply until she had spent herself. Then he said,
"My dead brother's will gave me this child. I accept it as a sacred trust. The courts have sustained that will and my claim. I shall have the child. I beg that you will not deceive yourself, nor let any one else deceive you into thinking that my determination is subject to change."
"You will never get him," she said, "unless you tear him by force from my arms!"
He bowed gravely then and left her.
The next day an officer appeared at the Massachusetts Avenue house with a paper to serve upon Mrs. De Jarnette.