"The law prescribes the allotment to the child in such a case as this." His father was speaking now. "But I'm willing to do much more than it decrees. I'm anxious to have him taken care of, Lampert."
"That's twice you've spoken of law. If there's any going to law to be done, I'll be the one that does it. You're afraid of law. Goin' to law in this thing means scandal. Scandal don't bother me. I'm getting old—too old to like to work. The best job I ever had a man named Markyn fired me from. Before that, that same man took my daughter. Her boy—his boy, too—looks so much like that man that anyone can see that he's his son. Maybe I'll have to show people the boy. How do I know the boy wasn't born in wedlock? That's for the law to find—not me. I didn't know so much about my daughter all those years! I ain't afraid of scandal. But how about its worrying you? How about its worrying Mrs. Markyn?"
"I am willing to do for the boy anything that is within reason, Lampert."
Peewee straightened excitedly. He perceived
