“I can trust Aimée,” repeated Mrs. Berrien, trembling lest Aimée should produce the demanded locket, “and I will not attempt to force her confidence. It is not to-day for the first time that her actions have become of importance to me,” she added with much stateliness of manner, “and therefore I do not need to be schooled in my duty toward her. Now we will dismiss the subject. When do you wish to take her away?”
“The sooner the better, I think,” replied the young man with considerable spitefulness of emphasis. “There is, of course, much to be done.”
“But Aimée is too young to do anything with regard to business,” said Mrs. Berrien.
“Her mother is anxious to see her,” said Mr. Joscelyn—a statement which made Mrs. Berrien smile, and produced in Aimée a sense of deepening amazement—“and it is necessary that she should begin at once to prepare for the position she will occupy.”
“What will that be?” asked Mrs. Berrien, a little dryly. “Have you learned the amount of her fortune?”
“Not precisely; but the letters received from Rio speak of it as very large.”
“And so you are transformed into a South American heiress, my dear little Aimée?” said Mrs. Berrien, with a smile, putting her arm caressingly around the girl, who answered, between a laugh and a sob:
“I do not know what to think of myself under such a transformation.”