The girl’s face changed color. She did not speak and allowed him to go on.
“I believe this woman exerts a bad influence over you, for she is not a lady and could not be made into one, no matter how hard she would try, nor whatever was done for her. I have hired you a good woman to take her place, and have notified Biddy to leave to-night. I allowed you to bring her with you because you were coming into a strange house. Will you be good enough to say something, and not sit there looking at me like that?”
Still the girl was silent, while a mixture of emotions were arising in her breast. This man had taken such a hold upon her, had constituted himself her husband without her consent, and would send away her beloved Biddy, and——
Here her thoughts changed their current, and she thought of the man in the prison cell. Marry George Benson—never. Let Biddy go out of her life, delightful, droll old Biddy, whom she loved? No, she would go, too, then.
Seeing that she was not going to speak, and hoping that she had taken his words as they were meant, the man arose and opened the door which opened into his private office.
“Miss Wallace, will you please come in?”
An angular-looking woman, with an evil eye, and who looked fixedly at Nellie, glided into the room.
“This is your new companion, Nellie,” said Benson genially, “and I know you will like each other. Now you will take her to your suite of rooms, Helen, and show her where she is to sleep.”
It was now time for Nellie to speak. She rose like a young empress and faced her guardian.
“You have gone a little too far,” said she, throwing back her head haughtily; “just a little too far——”