"I'd rather have company than not. It makes the time go quicker. So go ahead. It's all right."
David started the horse, and John rejoined the lawyer, who had been waiting for him.
"You say you were just going to post me a letter?" said Squire Selwyn.
"I will read it. That will be the shortest way of getting at what you wish to consult me about. After I have read it, I will ask any questions that seem needful. But first we will come in."
They entered the court-house, and went into a room to the left, where they found seats. Squire Selwyn put on his spectacles, and read the letter slowly and deliberately.
"You are in a difficult position, John," he said, when he had finished reading. "You are very unpleasantly situated, I should judge."
"And this Mr. Huxter doesn't seem a very agreeable man to have dealings with?"
"I should be very unhappy if I expected to be obliged to stay with him."
"He drank several times on his way back in the stage, and the boy with whom I rode over says he has been intemperate for years."
"Certainly he is not a fit person to have charge of you. Does he know that you have come over here to-day?"
"It is evidently Mrs. Oakley's intention that you you should not be allowed to communicate with me, or any of your other friends in Hampton. So, no doubt, she has instructed her brother. There must be some motive for this."
Squire Selwyn looked thoughtfully at John as he said this, perhaps with a view of drawing out John's opinion.
"I think," said John, hesitatingly, "that she is going to look for the will."
"I won't say whether I agree with you or not," said Squire Selwyn, cautiously. "It is not best to charge any one with wrong thoughts or intentions too hastily, but it is well to be prepared for what may be done to our disadvantage. Of course it is for your interest that the will should be found, provided the discovery is made public."
"But would Mrs. Oakley make it public, if found, when it is for her interest to keep it concealed? That is an important question."
"She can do what she pleases so far as I am concerned. She has sent me away from home, where I shall know nothing that is going on."
"In one sense you are wholly in the power of your stepmother," said the lawyer; "but you will have some one to look after your interests. Your father was my friend, and you are my son's friend. I shall do what I can in your behalf."