“We shall see,” he returned, glaring back at her. “You have already lent the money to the Misses Gates and they have promised it to me. Haven’t you?”
Azalea and Iris, pale with excitement, nodded their heads miserably.
“We’ve given you nearly every cent we have of our own,” Iris admitted, “and we did promise you Doris’s money. We trusted you—and now these dreadful accusations.”
“What can you expect when you bring strangers into the house?”
“But we needed Doris’s help so much, Ronald,” Azalea protested, “and she isn’t the same as a stranger.”
“You are willing to accept her word against mine?”
“Oh, Ronald, please don’t take that attitude,” Iris pleaded. “We want to believe you both, but surely something is wrong.”
Ronald laughed shortly.
“I told you once I’d straighten out everything. Just send these intruders on their way.”
Azalea and Iris exchanged uneasy glances. They did not know what to do. For the sake of John Trent, the man they loved, they felt they could not be disloyal to his son, and yet they were reluctant to ask Doris and Kitty to leave, particularly as they had been given a special invitation to visit their home. The girls had told a very straightforward story, but on the other hand Cora and Henry were old servants.