She felt the utmost contempt for this man, and having been enabled to defeat his scheme for humiliating herself and husband, wished to remain in his company no longer than was absolutely necessary.
So she and Darry presently went forth, and how pure even the stormy atmosphere seemed after being for half an hour in that spider's web of a lawyer's den.
On the strength of the improved prospects Mrs. Peake felt that she was privileged to spend a portion of the small sum of money she had been hoarding against paying the interest, though as it had not amounted to the full sum she had not dared approach Darius with an offer.
Mr. Keeler, being a good friend of the Peakes, and inclined to be hostile to the lawyer, she naturally confided her late troubles to his sympathetic ear, feeling that she could not keep silent.
He shook the hand of the boy with sincerity, and declared that it was a great day for Abner and his brood when the surf man helped to pull the cabin boy of the Falcon out of the sea.
Being a modest lad, Darry escaped as soon as he could, and waited around until Mrs. Peake was ready to go home, when he showed up to carry her parcels.
The family feasted that night most royally.
Darry himself had purchased a steak in the store as his donation, and this was a luxury the little Peakes seldom knew.
Ducks and fish were all very well, together with oysters, when they could get them; but after all there was a sameness in the diet that rather palled on the appetite, and that beefsteak with onions did smell mighty fine, as even the good cook admitted.
The future looked very rosy to both Darry and Abner's wife.