"You all are bothered! I can see that right now. And such glum faces—look at them, Natalia," Mrs. Houston said cheerfully, as the two men came up to them. "I declare you all look as if Phelps was prosecuting you, instead of the reverse! And I have gone to lots of trouble to get up a good supper for you—lye-hominy, some nice, fresh roasted yams, and waffles! And here you both look like you wouldn't eat a mouthful, and Natalia says she won't stay either!" Mrs. Houston sighed in much distress. "I wish sometimes there was no such thing as law. It upsets my dinner hour and my plans, and is disastrous in lots of ways."
"So you'd rather have your dinner on time," laughed Judge Houston, "than all the highwaymen in the country in jail!" He walked across the sidewalk to speak to Natalia, leaving Sargent and his wife together.
"Is it so bad?" she asked quickly, her face searching Sargent's anxiously. "Are you worried about the outcome?"
"I know I shall win!" Sargent's eyes blazed again, "but I don't know yet how I shall do it. If I should fail now—"
"Of course you will not. Don't let that enter your thoughts. Can't Felix help you?"
"Not now," Sargent answered, his features still drawn and tense. "It's all with me now, and I'm glad of it."
The gentle old lady looked at the youth before her, so earnest and flushed, her eyes clouding at the possible disappointment awaiting him. She had seen all these hopes and desires so often before, in the days long passed when she and her young husband had started on their long pilgrimage. Then, looking beyond him, her eyes dwelt on Natalia pensively. When she spoke again her face was brimming with cheerfulness.
"On your way home," she said softly, "be very good to her. Forget all this worry and this abstraction and talk to her. It will do you good. Do you realize the place you have taken in the child's life? It has made me wonder if it was good for her or not. Sometimes," she ended, reflectively, "I wonder what you have done to gain her love so—and yet, I think I know."
Sargent glanced to where Natalia was leaning from her saddle and talking intently with Judge Houston. For the first time that day the tenseness of his face relaxed, and the memory of the courtroom and all it meant slipped from him.
"I believe I gained her love," he answered slowly, "by first loving her. Don't you think that is the only real way to gain another's love?"