"You are certainly very polite, Harriet Vernon," he said. "You are bold, too, for you are defying me, and that is dangerous. You had better reconsider your determination, before it is too late."
"It will never be too late; I can at any time buy you off," she said, contemptuously. "All you want is money."
"We shall see," he hissed, eying her malignantly.
"Margaret," said Mrs. Vernon, when her visitor had been shown out, "never admit that person again; I am always out to him."
"Yes, mum," said the girl. "I wonder who 'twas," she thought, curiously.
CHAPTER XXX. HOW HARTLEY GOT A CLEW.
John Hartley, when a young man, had wooed and won Althea's mother. Julia Belmont was a beautiful and accomplished girl, an heiress in her own right, and might have made her choice among at least a dozen suitors. That she should have accepted the hand of John Hartley, a banker's clerk, reputed "fast," was surprising, but a woman's taste in such a case is often hard to explain or justify. Her sister—now Mrs. Vernon—strenuously objected to the match, and by so doing gained the hatred of her future brother-in-law. Opposition proved ineffectual, and Julia Belmont became Mrs. Hartley. Her fortune amounted to two hundred thousand dollars. The trustee and her sister succeeded in obtaining her consent that half of this sum should be settled on herself, and her issue, should she have any.
This proved to be a wise precaution. John Hartley resigned his position immediately after marriage, and declined to enter upon any business.