Carter, warmly. "Indeed, we won't
do anything of the sort. I should like to see him try to turn us out!
Old Hand, whose father used to blacken your poor grandfather's boots,
turn _us_ out of our own house! You don't know what you are talking
about, Willie!"
To this Will made no reply. He merely smiled very slightly, and thrust
his chin forward with an expression of mingled doggedness and good humor.
His mother felt that he was not convinced.
"But, mother," began Ted, "Will does know all about it. Old Hand _is_
going to--"
"You hush at once, Teddie," interrupted Mrs. Carter. "You are only
a little boy. As for Hand, if he attempts to interfere with me I will
drive over to Barchester and see the Hon. Mr. Germain about it. I will
go to law, if necessary, to defend our rights!"
"The trouble is, mother, in this matter we haven't any rights left
to speak of. It is the rights of Mr. Hand that the law will think of,"
said Will, gently.
"Willie," said his mother with severity, "I don't want to hear any
more nonsense. I'm sure it was not so when _I_ was young, that the
law would allow our domestics to trample upon us. The judges in those
days were all gentlemen. I'm sure, Willie, I don't know where you get
those low, radical ideas. I fear I have been foolish not to look more
closely into the kind of books you read!"
"Now, mother," began Ted, pugnaciously, fired as usual with indiscreet
zeal to make his mother see things with Will's eyes.
But Will interrupted him.
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