“I—I—am helpless with him. He holds it over me that if I make any trouble he will claim my boys. He says he has the right to keep them from me. There is some quirk in the law that he quotes. I am sure I don’t understand it but I am afraid to test it. I’d give up all the money in the world rather than have my Ben and Philip under the influence of such a man.”
“Haven’t you any relations?” asked Josie.
“Only Uncle Ben Benson, my mother’s brother, and I don’t know where he is. He was very much put out with my poor little mother when she married Mr. Cheatham. He left Louisville and we have never heard anything from him. I loved Uncle Ben and he loved me. I felt he was hard on Mother and told him so, although Heaven knows it almost killed me for her to marry such a man. But she was young when my father died, young and so beautiful. Mr. Cheatham evidently had some influence over her that we could not understand.”
“What is his standing in the community?” asked Josie.
“He is not trusted or respected but he is so plausible that he has a certain following. He makes an excellent impression on strangers and Louisville is growing so, with such a large number of new people settling there every year, that it is quite a simple matter for Mr. Cheatham to worm himself into the good graces of the new and wealthy people. He is clever and has an engaging manner until you know him. Then you hate his manner as you hate him.”
“I think not, but I am not sure. He always finds out everything he wants to know. He doesn’t care where I am, just so I let him alone. The thing that determined my leaving home was not only his threatening to bring this woman, this Miss Fitchet, to the house, but an awful scene we had with him when he tried to whip my Ben. It was because of some trifling bit of naughtiness. Ben turned on the hydrant to which the hose was attached and could not get it turned off.”
“All boys like to play in water,” laughed Josie. “I like it myself.”
“He began to beat him unmercifully and little Philip rushed in and bit him on the leg and I—I’m not ashamed to tell you that I took a hand in the fight myself, although it was in the front yard of our home on one of the principal old residential streets of Louisville. I turned the hose on the wretch and he got it full in the face. I am sure we looked like a movie comedy; but he left off beating Ben.”
“Good for you!” laughed Josie.