"Did you get any satisfaction out of your conversation?" asked the doctor dryly. "If you did, I'll engage you as my official interpreter."
"Not very much concrete satisfaction, perhaps, but a good deal of subjective reassurance. I am firmly convinced that he is the victim, first, of his own pride and bitterness, and, second, of some unscrupulous enemy, who is taking advantage of the state of the public mind to throw unmerited discredit upon him."
"That's what Leslie says. But how are we going to make it clear to the world at large? And things have now reached a point where the world at large will have to be taken into the family confidence to a disconcerting extent. Leslie, I wish you were married and overseas."
Leslie looked as though it might be a relief to her to allow her spirits to droop, but at this challenge she lifted her head gallantly.
"Then you would put me to all the trouble and expense of a trip back overseas to come to you," she said promptly. "Counsel to run away from trouble doesn't come with a good grace from you, father. You have never set me the example."
"You see what influence I have over my children," said the doctor, appealing to Burton.
"I'm beginning to see. My sympathies go out to you. Let us talk of some less distressing matter. For instance,--Miss Hadley." He glanced from one to the other as he spoke the name, but in neither face could he read the slightest consciousness. A curious impulse of masculine loyalty to Henry made him hesitate to divulge the secret which Henry had evidently guarded so carefully that it was unsuspected by his family. "I have just been calling on Miss Hadley," he added, in lame explanation. "I wanted to get some further particulars. But that really should be the work of your son's lawyer, Doctor, and that's what I specially wanted to consult with you about. I want your permission to send for a real lawyer,--a big man who will bring the very best skill and experience to the case. You won't object?"
The doctor hesitated a moment before he answered.
"Is a big man necessary if the case is to turn on facts? Frankly, I can't afford a big lawyer, you know. I'd rather take a local man with a sickly family, so that I could work it out in bills! I know it sounds sordid, but that is the mercenary, habit of the world, and I can't hope to change it out of hand. I should be perfectly willing to ignore matters of that sort, but--the big lawyer wouldn't."
"I see," said Burton, recognizing that one of the impossibilities in the case was any offer of financial assistance on his own part. "Perhaps you are right. If we can simply establish the facts, we shan't need any hired eloquence to present them. They will speak for themselves. Well, we will establish the facts."