"Oh, Juliet!" she exclaimed delightedly. "What an age it is since I saw you! Why do you never come our way now? I began to think you wanted to drop my acquaintance since you have become so rich."
"What nonsense, Flossie! Who told you, pray, that I had become rich?"
"Never you mind. It's true, is it not?"
"I am not rich exactly; but it is true that I have inherited my uncle's property, and shall have a comfortable income of my own for the future," said Juliet, not without a sense of increased dignity.
"Oh, you lucky girl! How I envy you! If you knew how I have to beg and pray to get any money out of father. Things are horrid at home now, Juliet. Algernon and father have quarrelled, and Algie has gone off in a tiff. It was all about money, of course. Algie is so extravagant, and father will not pay his bills."
"Then where is your brother now?" asked Juliet.
"I do not know. I have not seen him for weeks. I suppose he is somewhere in London."
"But he was at home when you addressed that letter to me for him," said Juliet.
"I address a letter to you for him!" said Flossie, opening her eyes widely. "I never did such a thing. Do you mean to say that Algernon writes to you?"
"He wrote once; but I have told him he must never do so again," said Juliet, colouring deeply. "It was certainly your writing which I saw on the envelope, Flossie."