Elaine advanced one step, with flashing eyes.
“Who dares to beard me on my own ground!” screamed Lady Gaynor, losing all control of herself. “Girl, I am your legal guardian, and will force you into obedience! Do you think that I will permit my guests to be insulted as you insulted Miss Nugent? Do you think that I will endure your moping away in silence, with a maid dancing attendance upon you at my expense? What is your paltry five hundred a year? It will not keep personal attendants and buy you handsome clothes. I say that your maid shall be dismissed this very day; I insist that you appear downstairs at my request, and amuse my guests. I am determined to exercise my full authority, and since you have treated the viscount so shamefully I am sure that he will exact a similar obedience.”
At the end of her tirade she rose to her feet, her face purple with unbridled rage, and shook both her tightly-clinched hands at the astonished girl.
“Have you finished?” Lady Elaine asked, calmly. “I do not forget that the blood of a hundred earls flows in my veins! I am not to be frightened by a creature like you. Your melodramatic ravings are more amusing than otherwise. I need say little more. I ignore your commands and wishes alike, because I despise you for an unprincipled adventuress. You must not imagine that I am wholly without friends, and I give you warning that I shall quit the Lodge to-day!”
With a glance of withering contempt, Lady Elaine swept from the room. She hurried to her own apartments, and commanded Nina to begin packing at once.
“I have quarreled with Lady Gaynor,” she said, “and we cannot remain here another hour. Oh, Nina, I am in great trouble, and now I want your help and sympathy. The mistress of this place has insulted me cruelly, and I must seek the advice of Mr. Worboys, our old family lawyer, at the earliest possible moment.”
“And where shall we go to, my lady?” ventured Nina.
“To London—to a hotel. I have five hundred pounds a year, surely they cannot deprive me of that! Then we will find a comfortable little home somewhere, Nina, and you shall stay with me as long as you like—not as a mere servant—but as a friend, the most faithful friend I have ever had.”
Nina’s face flushed with pleasure, and she clapped her hands together joyously.
“Oh, my lady, won’t that be nice! But what a shame for all your fortune to go because of that wretched will.”