The pose held the old man's eye, and he moved in his chair; then he went on, speaking to the girl.
"It was kind of you, Abner, and you, Randolph, to come in to see me in my distress, but it was fine and noble in Miss Julia Clayborne. Men will understand the justice of the law and by what right it gives and takes. But a child will hardly understand that. It would be in nature for Miss Clayborne in her youth, to hold the issue of this lawsuit against me and my brother Adam, to feel that we had wronged her; had by some unfairness taken what her father bequeathed to her at his death, and always regarded as his own. A child would not see how the title had never vested, as our judges do. How possession is one thing, and the title in fee simple another and distinct. And so I am touched by this consideration."
Abner spoke then.
"Wolf," he said, "I am glad to find you in this mood, for now Randolph can write his deed, with consideration of love and affection instead of the real one I came with."
The old man's beady eye glimmered and slipped about.
"I do not understand, Abner. What deed?"
"The one Randolph came to write," replied my uncle.
"But, Abner," interrupted the Justice, "I did not come to write a deed." And he looked at my uncle in amazement.
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