He knew that, while the people would not themselves go to
the length of putting Deborah and her crippled boy out of their little
home, he had nothing to fear from the sentiment of the community should
he do so under the guise of legitimate business.
The attitude of the people had kept Deborah from earning as much as usual
and, for the first time, they had been unable to pay the interest. Indeed
it was only by the most rigid economy that they would be able to make
their bare living until Denny's garden should again begin to bring them
in something.
Their failure to pay the interest gave the Judge added reason for pushing
the payment of the debt. Everything had been done in regular legal form.
Deborah and Denny must go the next day. The widow had exhausted every
resource; promises and pleadings were useless, and it was only at the
last hour that she had given up.
"But have you no relatives, Mrs. Mulhall, who could help you? No friends?
Perhaps Dr. Oldham--"
Deborah shook her head. "There's only me an' Brother Mike in the family,"
she said. "Mike's a brick-layer an' would give the coat off his back for
me, but he's movin' about so over the country, bein' single, you see,
that I can't get a letter to him. I did write to him where I heard from
him last, but me letter come back. He don't write often, you see,
thinkin' Denny an' me is all right. I ain't seen him since he was here to
help put poor Jack away."
For a few minutes the silence in the little room was broken only by poor
Deborah's sobs, and by Denny's voice, as he tried to comfort his mother.
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