“I don't know, Stephen hasn't said, but he has left Mr. Benson for good;” her eyes flashed with the sense of triumph she was feeling, and which she could not hide from him. She had asked Stephen no question, and he had told her nothing beyond the fact that he and Benson had disagreed and that he could not go back there.
“Well, now we can go ahead, can't we?” said Wade eagerly.
“Yes, I am glad you came, for I want to know what I must do.”
“We'll offer Benson back the five thousand dollars he paid for the land,” said Wade.
“But I have no such sum as that!” said Virginia.
“Oh, that's all right. Mr. Norton will let us have the cash for an hour or so. Of course, Benson won't take it, the tender is the merest formality, and don't really mean anything in itself,” explained Wade.
“Is it necessary?”
“Well, yes, it's a good point. Don't you see, you will have offered him his money back; it shows you are in earnest. Yes, I should hate to dispense with that; and to tell the truth, I've already arranged with Mr. Norton for the use of the money. He quite agrees with me that we should leave nothing undone that will give our case authority. When it gets to trial, I expect that we will find that Benson has not been quite so inactive as he seems. He has influence and he has money, and he will use them both; that's a foregone conclusion. This is going to rip the town wide open, Mrs. Landray; nothing like this has ever happened here before; no case of exactly the same calibre has ever been brought to trial in the county.”
He took his leave of her with some precipitation, for he feared the riot of his own enthusiasm. He had doubted and feared, but now the case was assured; and the dinky little Queen Anne on Norton's vacant lot seemed to be digging itself a cellar among the roses; and then it grew as never a house had grown before, until he could fancy himself approaching it with springing step, and Clara, that paragon of charming femininity, waiting for him just inside the door.
That night Stephen went to see Gibbs. The general had prepared for the meeting with unnecessary elaboration. He had induced his Julia to retire to a neighbour's.