“He can probably explain the whole thing away.”
“Will you go to him for an explanation?” demanded Wade eagerly. He would have liked that, it would probably finish Stephen with the old lawyer, and force him to side with his aunt.
“I? What do you take me for?” exclaimed Stephen, and his face was white. “Do you think I'd so grossly insult him, do you suppose for one minute I could doubt him—I, of all people, when he has conferred nothing but benefits on me all my life long!”
“According to my figures there is still something due you in the shape of cash,” said Wade coldly. “Your father's interest in that thousand acres.”
“Well, what does that amount to?”
“Very little, I grant you, Landray, but your aunt is not related to Mr. Benson as you are; she does not feel under any special obligations to him, she considers that she has been defrauded out of a large sum of money by him. That, you must admit, is a serious matter to her; a matter she can't well ignore.”
“And what are you going to do?” asked Stephen in a dry-throated whisper.
“If Mrs. Landray will take my advice, she will sue Mr. Benson.”
Stephen looked helplessly from one to the other.
“You are all wrong!” he burst out almost entreatingly. “I'd stake my life on it! You'll find you have no case; but think of the humiliation to him, the opportunity for mean-souled envy to smirch a great reputation!”