it. The soft word that turns away anger would not be of his speaking.

"It will be through sheer mismanagement if there arise a hitch," Mr.
John Short said. "You desire to obtain possession of the child--then you
must go quietly about it. She is of an age to speak for herself, and our
long neglect may well have forfeited our claim. She is not your
immediate successor; there are infinite possibilities in the lives of
your two sons. If the case were dragged before the courts, she might be
given her choice where she would live; and if she has a heart she would
stay at Beechhurst, with her father's widow--and we are baulked."

"What right has a woman to call herself a man's widow when she has
married again?" objected Mr. Fairfax.

"Mrs. Carnegie's acknowledgment of our letter was courteous: we are on
the safe side yet," said the lawyer smoothly. "Suppose I continue the
negotiation by seeking an interview with her to-morrow morning?"

"Have your own way. I am of no use, it seems. I wish I had stayed at
Abbotsmead and had let you come alone."

Mr. John Short echoed the wish with all his heart, though he did not
give his thoughts tongue. He began to conjecture that some new aspect of
the affair had been presented to his client's mind by the encounter with
Elizabeth in the Forest. And he was right. The old squire had conceived
for her a sort of paradoxical love at first sight, and was become
suddenly jealous of all who had an established hold on her affections.
Here was the seed of an unforeseen complication, which was almost sure
to become inimical to Bessie's happiness when he obtained the guidance
of her life.