“Yes, but she can’t meet the sort of people she should meet… You can take one look at Byrl and realize that she has a most unusual heritage.”
Mason said, “So far as the past history is concerned, Mrs. Tump, it has but little bearing on the legal situation. The trust doesn’t depend on the adoption. Byrl is now of age. You have no legal standing in the case. You aren’t related to her. The parents asked you to get the girl and protect her. You got her out of Russia. After that — I’ll be frank with you, Mrs. Tump — a shrewd lawyer would make it appear that, having received the jewelry and smuggled her out of Russia, you suddenly lost interest in her. Beyond making your monthly payments, you were, to be frank, rather lax.”
“I wasn’t lax,” she said. “I wrote the Home regularly asking how she was getting along, and they answered by telling me that she was a bright girl, and was doing well.”
“You’ve kept those letters?”
“Yes.”
“Of course,” Mason pointed out, “Tidings wasn’t a party to the original fraud, and as far as Byrl is concerned, she’s in no position to complain. She has inherited property because of those adoption proceedings.”
“But she never was formally adopted,” Mrs. Tump said.
“No?”
“No.”
“How did that happen?”