CHAPTER III
HAPPINESS, AND ANOTHER SCHEME
The next morning Mr. Stuart left his hotel and went into New York with Mr. Le Baron. They left Kingsbridge at eight o’clock, and did not return until six. Half an hour later Mr. Stuart called at Laurel Cottage for Mrs. Thurston in his automobile.
“We will take Miss Barbara with us to the hotel,” he said to her mother, “if you feel it will not injure her ankle. She need do no walking. I should prefer that she be with you when you have an interview with your brother. He is to see you at the hotel to-night. You will dine with me first.”
Barbara’s foot being better, she and her mother asked no questions, but with trembling fingers made ready to go.
“What do you mean,” demanded Ruth and Mollie, “by going off on such a mysterious errand? Why, Mr. Stuart,” asked Ruth, “are Mollie and I not also invited to dinner?”
Mr. Stuart was obdurate. He offered no explanations. When Ruth whispered something in his ear, he answered quietly: “That will keep,” and Ruth said no more.
Mr. and Mrs. Le Baron bowed coldly to Mrs. Thurston and Barbara, when entering the hotel dining room that night, they found the mother and daughter dining with Mr. Stuart. But Gladys Le Baron stopped for a moment at the able to inquire after Bab’s foot. She was not the haughty girl she once had been. Since her return from Newport she had seemed strangely fond of Bab.
Barbara and her mother never knew how they got through their meal. But Mr. Stuart was a tower of strength.
“We will not discuss business matters,” he explained, “until we go upstairs to my sitting room. Mr. Le Baron will join us there at half-past eight.”