“We wish to make it quite legal,—quite perfect,” said Zelda.
“And we wish to avoid publicity. We must keep out of the newspapers.”
“I understand,” said Morris.
Zelda had purposely refrained from mentioning her father’s own plan of continuing himself as trustee to hide the fact of his malfeasance; but with Morris present, she felt that her uncle was easier to manage.
“We have agreed to continue the trusteeship, just as it has been. Father and I have had a perfect understanding about it.”
“No! no! we won’t do it that way,” shouted Merriam.
But Zelda did not look at him. Her eyes appealed to Morris and he understood that in anything that was done, Ezra Dameron must be shielded; and the idea of hiding Dameron’s irregularities struck him as reasonable and necessary.
“You can give your father a power of attorney to cover everything he has left of yours if you wish it,” said Morris.
“I won’t hear to it; it’s a farce; it’s playing with the law,” declared Rodney.
“Uncle Rodney, I’m glad the law can be played with. There’s more sense in it than I thought there was. You will do it for me that way, won’t you—please? And there are some people who have paid father for an option on what he calls the creek property. I wish to protect them, too.”