"I hadn't the least idea that he was going off. I wrote to him when I found out where he was, and urged him to make a new will over there, but he replied that he would attend to it when he got home. I really think he intended to do it, but you know how he was cut off."
"Yes, that's it. We never have the warning we suppose we will have. We know that other people drop dead but we never expect to do it ourselves ... I hope you are right, for it is rather hard for me to forgive Victor De Jarnette. Living he made her life wretched, and from the grave he has reached up to strike her. He could not have given a crueler blow than this. And the other one,—I tell you, Jarvis, that man is going to give us trouble. Weren't you amazed at the stand he took?"
"Astounded. I cannot fathom his motive."
"Nor I," returned the Judge, helplessly. "But as sure as you are a living man he means business. I wouldn't tell Margaret so, but I don't believe there will be any back-down from this. We'll have to fight it out in the courts.... Poor child! she has had trouble enough to break the spirit of an ordinary woman."
"Do you know the De Jarnettes intimately?" asked Mr. Jarvis. "I was wondering what would be the best way to reach him."
"I know them well," said the Judge, energetically. "Better than I wish I did. I would have more hope of a peaceable settlement of this thing if I knew less. There is a cruel streak in the De Jarnettes. You have seen it in Victor and I have seen it in his father. And it was in his grandfather before him. They never forgive and they never forget an injury to any of the blood. I believe that is why Richard De Jarnette had taken this stand. I think he must consider her in some way responsible for his brother's going wrong. You know there are men who always charge everything to a woman. I can't see anything else that would account for his change of front."
"Judge," the attorney said hurriedly—he was expecting Margaret at any moment—"what are you going to do? Of course you will represent Mrs. De Jarnette. You will fight?"
"Fight!" Judge Kirtley drew his somewhat stooping figure up to its full measure. "Yes, sir, we will fight—to the death! I am an old war horse to be going into battle, but I hope there is one fight left in me! We'll see, anyway."
"I should not like to be your opponent, sir,—and I'll tell you this: I shall not be."
"The laws of the District are against us," said Judge Kirtley, reflectively. "That's a damnable law, Jarvis!"