"So, I have found you! I had a good mind to leave you here, you wretched boy! You have wasted your patrimony, you have lost over these abominable gaming-tables the house in which we both were born. I have heard all; not a word of excuse! And yet I am here to give you money enough to reach home with. I heard all about you at Nice."
In spite of my keen chagrin, I found my voice.
"My dear sister, I thank you for your assistance, but I do not need it. I have just this moment broken one of the banks at the Casino." I beckoned the attendant to approach. I lifted back the cover. My sister gasped.
"Merciful heavens! how much is in there?" she asked, overcome at the sight of so much money. The sudden transition from wrath to amazement made me laugh.
"Something like seventy thousand, my dear Nan."
"Pounds?" she cried.
"Dollars!"
"And who is this young woman?"—suddenly, and with not unjust suspicion.
Miss Carruthers flushed. My sister had a way of being extraordinarily insolent upon occasion. But evidently Miss Carruthers came of equally distinguished blood. She lifted her head proudly, and her eyes flashed.
"As I have no desire to enter into your family affairs," she said haughtily to me, "I beg of you to excuse me." She made as though to leave.