"Leave this place!" exclaimed Mrs. Carter, warmly. "Indeed, we won't do anything of the sort. I should like to see him try to turn us out! Old Hand, whose father used to blacken your poor grandfather's boots, turn us out of our own house! You don't know what you are talking about, Willie!"
To this Will made no reply. He merely smiled very slightly, and thrust his chin forward with an expression of mingled doggedness and good humor. His mother felt that he was not convinced.
"But, mother," began Ted, "Will does know all about it. Old Hand is going to--"
"You hush at once, Teddie," interrupted Mrs. Carter. "You are only a little boy. As for Hand, if he attempts to interfere with me I will drive over to Barchester and see the Hon. Mr. Germain about it. I will go to law, if necessary, to defend our rights!"
"The trouble is, mother, in this matter we haven't any rights left to speak of. It is the rights of Mr. Hand that the law will think of," said Will, gently.
"Willie," said his mother with severity, "I don't want to hear any more nonsense. I'm sure it was not so when I was young, that the law would allow our domestics to trample upon us. The judges in those days were all gentlemen. I'm sure, Willie, I don't know where you get those low, radical ideas. I fear I have been foolish not to look more closely into the kind of books you read!"
"Now, mother," began Ted, pugnaciously, fired as usual with indiscreet zeal to make his mother see things with Will's eyes.
But Will interrupted him. "Come off, Ted," said he, "mother's right. The very best thing she can do is to go and see Mr. Germain. Come along now, it's time the cattle were tended."
"Hurry in again, then," said Mrs. Carter, mollified. "I'm going to have pancakes for you to-night, because you've been working so hard."
"Bully for you, muz!" cried Ted, joyously, regardless of his mother's aversion to slang. And Will smiled back his gratification as they started for the barn.