Maxwell looked at his client. There was nothing else to do but to agree and Downes knew it as well as the lawyer.
“Oh, yes!” snarled Chester Downes. “We will have to fight, I see.”
He and I had locked horns again; but he would not admit then that he was worsted.
Colonel Playfair had a few moments’ whispered conversation with Judge Fetter, and then we went back to the lawyer’s office. Chester Downes and Maxwell had hastened away from the courthouse. My uncle did not try to speak to me—and I was glad. I am afraid I could not have controlled myself just then.
There were some papers to sign and more discussion in Colonel Playfair’s office. He called in a brother practitioner, Mr. Charles Ahorn, and the matters were turned over to him. Colonel Playfair agreed to step into poor Mr. Hounsditch’s shoes, and be my guardian and co-trustee with my mother, if the other side could come to an agreement. I believed, when I had talked with my mother, that she would make no objection.
Crafty as I knew my uncle to be, I could not believe that he had so succeeded in warping my mother’s judgment that she would believe everything ill he had said of me. And I counted on her love as a surety.
Much as she might disregard my personal opinion of Chester Downes, I was sure she would welcome me with open arms!
Chapter XXX
In Which My Welcome Home Is a Real Welcome, After All
Ham and I went back in the hack to the hotel, where we had dinner with Phillis, Dao Singh standing behind my chair, and waiting at table. I had an idea right then and there that James, the butler, would find his job in danger when we got settled at Darringford House.