“Why, what’s the matter?” exclaimed Vincent, looking in surprise from the one to the other.
“We none of us can tell where we may find ourselves in another month,” continued Louisa. “I foretell that I shall be finishing my education in Jersey, and Arabella in the Isle of Man.”
“What has happened?” cried Vincent impatiently; “anything in which our pretty step-mother is concerned?”
“Pretty step-mother, indeed!” exclaimed Arabella. “She has begun to change and overturn everything in the house. Nothing is free from her meddling. She has turned off Mademoiselle Lafleur without so much as the shadow of a reason.”
“Turned off mademoiselle!” cried Vincent. “Well, I don’t break my heart about that; but it was a bold stroke for a beginning.”
“Then Mrs. Ventner.”
“Mrs. Ventner!” echoed Vincent in amazement. “I should have as soon expected to hear of her moving the Monument of London!”
“It won’t end here,” said Lady Selina oracularly, pursing in her thin lips, as if to restrain them from uttering some dread prognostication.
“Is it really Mrs. Effingham who is turning everything topsy-turvy?” cried the schoolboy; “why, she looked as gentle as a dove!”
“A dove!—she’s a vulture,” said Louisa.