“And what is to be done? There must be some way to stop it,” said Kate.
“You will put these men in prison the first thing, won’t you, Mr. Tracy?” asked Ethel. “And oh, I forgot! Who are the men who are robbing us?”
Reuben smiled gravely, and ignored the latter question. “There are a good many first things to do,” he said. “I must think it all over very carefully before any step is taken. But the very beginning will be, I think, for you both to revoke the power of attorney your mother holds for you, and to obtain a statement of her management of the trusteeship over your property.”
“She will refuse it plump! You don’t know mamma,” said Ethel.
“She couldn’t refuse if the demand were made regularly, could she, Mr. Tracy?” asked Kate. He shook his head, and she went on: “But it seems dreadful not to act with mamma in the matter. Just think what a situation it will be, to bring our lawyer up to fight her lawyer! It sounds unnatural, doesn’t it? Don’t you think, Mr. Tracy, if you were to speak to her now—”
“No, that could hardly be, unless she asked me,” returned the lawyer.
“Well, then, if I told her all you said, or you wrote it out for me to show her.”
“No, nor that either,” said Reuben. “To speak frankly, Miss Minster, your mother is perhaps the most difficult and dangerous element in the whole problem. I hope you won’t be offended—but that any woman in her senses could have done what she seems to have done, is almost incredible.”
“Poor mamma!” commented Ethel. “She never would listen to advice.”
“Unfortunately, that is just what she has done,” broke in Kate. “Mr. Tracy, tell me candidly, is it possible that the man who advised her to do these things—or rather the two men, both lawyers, who advised her—could have done so honestly?”