"I advise you not to be impertinent, my good girl. You won't find that it pays in this house!" Mrs. Haddington took out her cheque-book from a drawer, and dipped a pen in the silver inkpot. "There is something else I wish to say to you. I understand that you were dining with Mr.. Harte last night, at Armand's?"
"Well?" Beulah shot at her.
The pen travelled slowly across the cheque-form. "I need hardly ask, I suppose, whether Mr.. Harte is aware of your somewhat unusual history?" said Mrs. Haddington bitingly.
The flush had faded from Beulah's cheeks, leaving them very white. "I don't know what business that is of yours!" she said.
"It is very much my business. Mr.. Harte met you under my roof, and I could not reconcile it with my conscience not to drop a word of timely warning in his ear."
Beulah put out a hand to grip the edge of the mantelshelf. "I see the idea, of course!" she said breathlessly. "Recoiling in disgust from me, Timothy is to fall into your daughter's arms! I'm afraid he won't do it: his taste doesn't run to brainless blondes!" She stopped, and added quickly: "I'm sorry! I oughtn't to have said that!"
Mrs. Haddington blotted the cheque, and turned in her chair to survey Beulah from her heels to her head. "So you actually imagine that you're going to entrap that young man into marriage, do you?" she said. "How very amusing! But something tells me that the Hartes don't go to Holloway for their brides. We shall see!"
Beulah released the mantelshelf, and took a hasty step towards her employer. "Whatever you do, he won't marry Cynthia!" she said.
"Miss Cynthia!" corrected Mrs. Haddington blandly.
"Oh, don't be such a fool! My family is a damned sight better-born than yours, for what that's worth! You're trying to make me lose my temper, but, I warn you, you'd better not! I didn't cut your daughter out with Timothy Harte: he never for one moment thought of her seriously! It can't matter to you if I marry him! There are dozens of men only too anxious to marry her: why can't you let me have just one who prefers me? I'm going to marry him, not because he's well-off, and well-born, and heir to a baronetcy, but because I love him! If you think you can stop me, you were never more mistaken in your life! I'm not a dewy innocent any longer, so don't think it! I've put up with your foul tongue all these months because it suited me to stay in this job, but I won't put up with any interference in my private life! There's very little I won't do, if you goad me to it! If I can't have Timothy, I don't care what becomes of me! So now you know!"