"Margaret, this is foolish, child. The only thing he could do would be to get possession of the child as testamentary guardian by due process of law, and that is always long." "And if he got him and I could only get him back by due process of law--would that be long too?" "Yes, that might be longer still, for being his legal guardian he would have the law presumably on his side. But, my dear, we won't cross that bridge to-day. He hasn't got him yet. I don't believe there is a court on earth--certainly not in this District--that would take your child from you. Cheer up. We'll fight it out if worst comes to worst." She did not smile. "Do you think it is because he wants the money?" "I have thought of that, of course. It generally is because of money that most of the deviltry is done. But I had never thought he was that kind of man." "Oh, I hope it is! That would make it all so simple. Can't you find out if it is and tell him to take it, all of it--I don't want the money--only he must give up all claim to Philip." "Nonsense, Margaret," said the Judge, testily, "I shall do nothing of the kind. You have no right to relinquish this money--either your own or Philip's. It is willed to you and it ought to stand." "Yes, but the same will that gives me the money gives him Philip!... Oh, why did Victor do this wicked thing?" As he went away Judge Kirtley said, "I shall go to Mr. De Jarnette and see what I can do toward settling it out of court. I think it will turn out all right. I have great faith that he can be brought to see it in the right light. And if he can't and it has to go into the courts--" Margaret looked hopelessly at him--the case seemed lost already, so powerful and fearful a thing is the law to the inexperienced--"you must remember always that in any proceedings concerning the custody of children, even in the absence of any express statute, the court is obliged to consider the welfare of the child as paramount to every other consideration, and it has the power even to take a child away from its guardian if that seems best for the child." "But in this case it seems that there is an express statute, or law, or whatever it is," said Margaret, who had been listening with all the powers of a mind unused to legal terms and technicalities, "and that it is against the mother." "That does not make it certain that the courts would sustain the will. The court is always apt to favor the claim of the mother unless it can be proved that she is an improper person to have charge of it. So cheer up, my child." She was standing before him with the boy, who laughed and crowed unheeded, in her arms. "But if he should come when you are gone and try to take him," she said, her eyes big with fright. "What could I do?" "Margaret, he will not come. You need not fear it in the least. Richard De Jarnette would not go against the law to secure your child--even if he cannot be persuaded to give him up."