CHAPTER V

THE ENCOUNTER


Betty Malroy had ridden into the squire's yard during the
progress of the trial and when Yancy and Hannibal came from the
house she beckoned the Scratch Hiller to her. She was aware that
Mr. Yancy, moving along the line of least industrial resistance,
might be counted of little worth in any broad scheme of life.
Nat Ferris had strongly insisted on this point, as had Judith,
who shared her husband's convictions; consequently, the rumors of
his present difficulty had merely excited them to adverse
criticism. They had been sure the best thing that could happen
the boy would be his removal from Yancy's guardianship, but this
was not at all her conclusion. She considered Mr. Bladen
heartless and his course without justification, and she regarded
Yancy's affection for the boy as in itself constituting a benefit
that quite outweighed his unprogressive example.

"You are not going to lose your nephew, are you, Mr. Yancy?" she
asked eagerly, when Yancy stood at her side.

"No, ma'am." But his sense of elation was plainly tempered by
the knowledge that for him the future held more than one knotty
problem.