y
pleasant one to me."

Octavius winced. Mrs. Champney smiled at the effect of her words; but he
ignored her remark.

"I like to see fair play, Mrs. Champney, and I've seen some things here
in Champo since the old Judge died that's gone against me. Right's right
and wrong's wrong, and I've stood by and kept still when I'd ought to
have spoken; perhaps 't would have been better for us all if I had--and
I'm including Champney Googe. When his father died--" Mrs. Champney
started, leaned forward in her chair, her hands tightly grasping the
arms.

"His father--" she caught up her words, pressed her thin lips more
closely together, and leaned back again in her chair. Octavius looked at
her in amazement.

"Yes," he repeated, "his father, Warren Googe; who else should I mean?"

Mrs. Champney made no reply, and Octavius went on, wetting his lips to
facilitate articulation, for his throat was going dry:

"His father made me promise to look out for the child that was a-coming;
and another man, Louis Champney, your husband,"--Mrs. Champney sat up
rigid, her eyes fixed in a stare upon the speaker's lips,--"told me when
the boy come that he'd father him as was fatherless--"

She interrupted him again, a sneering smile on her lips:

"You know as well as I, Octavius Buzzby, what Mr. Champney's will
was--too feeble a thing to place dependence on for any length of time;
if he said that, he didn't mean it--not as you think he did," she added
in a tone that sent a shiver along Octavius' spine. But he did not
intend to be "downed," as he said to himself, "not this time by Almeda
Champney." He continued undaunted:

"I do know what he meant better'n anybody living, and I know what he was
going to do for the boy; and _I_ know, too, Mrs. Champney, who hindered
him from having his will to do for the boy; and right's right, and
now's your time to make good to his memory and intentions--to make good
your husband's will for Champney Googe and save your husband's name from
disgrace and more besides. _You_ know--but you never knew I did till
now--what Louis Champney promised to do for the boy--and he told me more
than once, Mrs. Champney, for he trusted _me_. He told me he was going
to educate the boy and start him well in life, and that he wasn't going
to end there; he told me he was going to leave him forty thousand
dollars, Mrs. Champney--and he told me this not six weeks before he
died; and the interest on forty thousand has equalled t