“I quite believe that you mean well, Mr. Tracy,” said Mrs. Minster. “But lawyers, you know, always take opposite sides. One lawyer tells you one thing; then the other swears to precisely the contrary. Don’t think I blame them. Of course they have to do it. But you know what I mean.” A little more of this hopeless conversation ensued, and then Mrs. Minster rose. “Don’t let me drive you away, Mr. Tracy,” she said, as he too got upon his feet. “But if you will excuse me--I’ve had so much worry lately--and these headaches come on every afternoon now.” As Reuben walked beside her to open the door, he ventured to say: “It is a very dear wish of mine, Mrs. Minster, to remove all this cause for worry, and to get you back control over your property, and to rid you of these scoundrels, root and branch. For your own sake and that of your daughters, let me beg of you to take no step that will embarrass me in the fight. There is nothing that you could do now to specially help me, except to do nothing at all.” “If you mean for me not to sue my daughters,” she said, as he opened the door, “you may rest easy. Nothing would tempt me to do _that!_ The very idea of such a thing is too dreadful. Good-day, sir.” Reuben this time did not repress the groan, after he had closed the door upon Mrs. Minster. He realized that he had made no more impression on her mind than ordnance practice makes on a sandbank. He did not attempt to conceal his dejection as he returned to where Kate sat, and resumed his chair in front of her. The daughter’s smiling face, however, partially reassured him, “That’s mamma all over,” she said. “Isn’t it wonderful how those old race types reappear, even in our day? She is as Dutch as any lady of Haarlem that Franz Hals ever painted. Her mind works sidewise, like a crab. I’m _so_ glad you told her everything!” “If I could only feel that it had had any result,” said Reuben. “Oh, but it will have!” the girl insisted confidently. “I’m sure she liked you very much.” “That reminds me--” the lawyer spoke musingly--“I think I was told once that she didn’t like me; that she stipulated that I was not to be consulted about her business by--by my then partner. I wonder why that was. Do you know?” “I have an idea,” said Kate. Then she stopped, and a delicate shadowy flush passed over her face. “But it was nothing,” she added, hastily, after a long pause. She could not bring herself to mention that year-old foolish gossip about the Lawton girl.