She flung herself on her knees beside the girl, and looked up into her eyes with a fierce intensity of gaze that moved the girl strangely.
"No, I will not leave you, since you wish me not to," she said gently; "but indeed, Mrs. Belswin, I don't deserve such love."
Mrs. Belswin covered the hand she held with kisses, and sobbed hysterically; then the strange creature suddenly dried her eyes, and rose to her feet with a smile on her lips. It was the savage nature all over. One moment all fury, the next calm and smiling. She never controlled herself in any way, but let her natural moods and fancies have full play; so the result was bizarre, and rather terrifying to a more civilised nature. By this time, however, Kaituna, perhaps from a secret chord of sympathy inherited from her savage progenitors, was beginning to understand Mrs. Belswin's whirlwinds of passion and sudden transitions from storm to calm; therefore, when the present outburst was over, the two women chatted together quite easily, as if nothing unusual had occurred.
"But of one thing I am certain," said Kaituna, after a pause; "that it is not right for me to marry Archie at present. I am poor, so is he, and I cannot consent to drag him down with me."
"My dear, you are too fine in your ideas," said Mrs. Belswin, with a superior smile. "Archie Maxwell loves you, and if you refused to marry him it would break his heart. Besides, perhaps the Pole Star shares will be worth a lot of money."
"I'm afraid not. It's no use building up hopes on those. Ah, my poor father. He thought to make me an heiress, but he has only made me a pauper. My poor, poor father. Was he not a noble man, Mrs. Belswin?"
"Yes, dear; yes! But you forget I only had a short interview with him."
"I remember, on the night he died--the night that he was murdered. Oh, if I could only discover who killed him. But I can do nothing. I am only a woman, and have no money to employ any one, so he must lie in his grave unavenged. Oh, who will help me?"
The answer came in an unexpected manner from the servant opening the door and announcing--
"Mr. Maxwell!"