Mr. Huxter thought this concession better than nothing, and, going out on the door-step, smoked his pipe in rather a cheerful frame of mind.
"It'll be a pretty good speculation," he reflected; "but I mistrust I'll have some trouble with young Oakley. But I guess I can manage him. He'll find me pretty ugly if he goes to oppose me."
Mr. Huxter was partly right. He was capable of being "pretty ugly" when he thought it safe to be so,—that is, to those who were weaker than himself, and in his power. He fawned upon those who had money or power, and was in the habit of tyrannizing over those who had neither. On the whole, I hardly think John is to be congratulated upon his prospects.
CHAPTER XI.
JOHN CONSULTS A LAWYER.
Mrs. Oakley felt very well pleased with the arrangement she had made about John. Her brother lived nearly one hundred miles distant. She would have liked John even further off; but this would remove him from the ability to interfere with her plans. She felt, too, that she would be more comfortable with him out of the house. Until the will was found and destroyed she would not feel safe, and she did not venture to search thoroughly till John was out of the way.
But there was one important question: Would John consent to go? On this point Mrs. Oakley felt doubtful. She knew that it would be a grievous disappointment to him to leave his class at the academy, and all his young friends in the village, not to speak of his natural regret at leaving the house where he had been born, and which had always been his home. Under the circumstances, therefore, she felt that it would be best to use a little stratagem.