"Margaret didn't tell me she had given you power of attorney over her property. I happen to know that she and my wife have a perfectly good understanding as to Berkeley Hill. It isn't at all necessary for you and me to discuss it."
"Oh, yes, it is, unless you want me to——"
"There is a much more important matter," Walter interposed, "that we need to discuss."
Daniel's sharp little eyes bored into his like two gimlets. "Eh? What?"
"The case of your step-mother's right to one third of her husband's estate."
"What do you mean?"
"Your wife's conscience, which you will of course think quixotic, but which I, being of her own class and kind and country, quite understand, will not permit her to live on money gotten by the defrauding of a helpless and ignorant old woman; nor will she consent to her children's inheriting such dishonest money. I must tell you this morning, Mr. Leitzel, that you and your sisters and brother must at once restore to your step-mother what is her own, or I will bring suit for her."
Daniel, though looking white, nevertheless answered quite steadily: "My step-mother is a New Mennonite; they do not sue at the law."
"But get others to sue for them."
"Did Margaret send for you to come up North for this?" Daniel demanded, a steel coldness in his voice and look.