presume likely, knowin' the kind of father that has
turned up for the poor young one, she felt sorry for her. Of course,
nobody's hintin' anything against Phoebe Dawes's character. If you want
a certificate of that, you've only got to go to Wellmouth. Folks over
there are pretty keen on that subject. I guess the town would go to
law about it rather'n hear a word against her. Libel suits are kind of
uncomf'table things for them that ain't sure of their facts. I'D hate to
get mixed up in one, myself. Bailey, I'm going up street. Come on, when
you can, won't you?"

As if frightened at his own display of spirit, he hurried out. There was
silence for a time; then Miss Phinney spoke concerning the weather.

Up at the Cy Whittaker place the days were full ones. There, also, legal
questions were discussed, with Georgianna, the Board of Strategy,
Josiah Dimick occasionally, and, more infrequently still, Miss Dawes, as
participants with Captain Cy in the discussions. Rumors were true in
so far as they related to Mr. Atkins's appeal to the courts, and the
captain's retaining Lawyer Peabody, of Ostable. Mr. Peabody's opinion of
the case was not encouraging.

"You see, captain," he said, when his client visited him at his office,
"the odds are very much against us. The court appointed you as guardian
with the understanding that this man Thomas was dead. Now he is alive
and claims his child. More than that, he has the most influential
politician in this county back of him. We wouldn't stand a fighting
chance except for one thing--Thomas himself. He left his wife and the
baby; deserted them, so she said; went to get work, HE says. We can
prove he was a drunken blackguard BEFORE he went, and that he has been
drunk since he came back. But THEY'LL say--Atkins and his lawyer--that
the man was desperate and despairing because of your refusal to give him
his child. They'll hold him up as a repentant sinner, anxious to reform,
and needing the little girl's influence to help keep him straight.
That's their game, and they'll play it, be sure of that, It sounds
reasonable enough, too, for sinners have repented before now. And the
long-lost father coming back to his child is the one sure thing to win
applause from the gallery, you know that."

Captain Cy nodded.

"Yup," he said, "I know it. The other night, when Miss Ph-- when a friend
of mine was at the house, she said this business was like a play. I
didn't say so to her, but all the same