Part 12 (1/2)
”I got a letter from mamma yesterday. She says Professor Crabtree called again. But she had the maid go to the door, and she refused to see him.”
”That's good. Did he say anything to the maid?”
”She says he went away looking very angry and muttering something about making mamma see him. Mamma watched him from an upper window and she wrote that he hung around the garden about half an hour before he went away.”
”The rascal! You had better get Mr. Laning to look into this for you. If he bothers you any more he ought to be locked up.”
”Just what I think. But mamma is too timid to go to the police, or anything like that.”
”I wish I was there when old Crabtree called-I'd give him a piece of my mind!”
”Oh, d.i.c.k, maybe he would want to-to-shoot you, or something!”
”No, Josiah Crabtree isn't that kind. He belongs to the snake-in-the-gra.s.s variety of rascals. But perhaps he won't come again-now that your mother has refused to see him.”
”I wish I could be sure of it,” sighed the girl.
”What have you done about the fortune, Dora?”
”Mamma has everything in the vault of a safe deposit company in Ithaca.
We don't know just what to do-thinking Tad Sobber may tie the money up again in the courts.”
”I don't see how he can do that-unless he brings up some new evidence to prove that the fortune belongs to Sid Merrick's estate.”
”Uncle John thought it might be best to buy Tad Sobber off-just to end the matter. But Sobber wanted too much.”
”I'd not give him a cent-he doesn't deserve it-after the way he treated you, and us. I don't believe Sid Merrick ever had a right to one dollar of the fortune.”
”I believe that, too.”
”I suppose Crabtree came around because he heard that you had more money than ever. Gracious, Dora, some day you'll be real rich in your own name!”
”Well, won't you like it,” she demanded brightly.
”I'll not complain. But I'd take you just as quickly if you were poor,”
added d.i.c.k earnestly.
”Would you, d.i.c.k?”
”Do you doubt me?”
”No, d.i.c.k, I don't. I know you don't want me for my money,” and Dora leaned forward to let her hand rest for a moment on his shoulder.
”I've got a little money of my own,” he went on, after a pause, in which they looked straight into each other's eyes.
”A little! Oh, d.i.c.k, I guess you've got a good bit more than I've got.”
”Are you sorry for that, Dora?”