“I pray it may come out right,” sighed the mother, earnestly; “but if you would listen to me, and be guided by what I think——”
“Leave this affair to me, mamma,” cried the imperious young beauty. “What better test can I have of his love than to tell him of our loss of fortune—that in a single day we have been swept by the hand of cruel fate from affluence to pover——”
“Do not utter the word, Queenie. I cannot bear it!” cut in her mother, quickly. “It makes me faint!”
Queenie was headstrong, like all beautiful girls are apt to be, and her mother knew that there was little use attempting to reason with her. She would have her own way when once she had made up her mind upon a course of action, let it cost what it might.
“I only hope you may not rue the telling of it, my dear,” she sighed. “My advice is, never to tell your lover anything concerning family affairs which are of a detrimental nature to you or yours; they will find out enough after you marry.
“I thought you were wiser in the ways of the world than most girls, Queenie; but I see you are not when I hear you talking about love-tests, and so on. You can take the plunge, if you cannot be persuaded to hold your silence until after the knot is securely tied; but mind, I, who am for your good, warn you that I do not think it at all wise.”
“I am determined to test, as I have said, the strength and depth of Raymond Challoner’s love for me, mamma,” she declared. “He is so desperately infatuated that I can guarantee that he will sign me over half of his princely fortune on the spot.”
“I wish I could be as sanguine concerning the matter as you are, my dear!” sighed Mrs. Trevalyn. “You have made up your mind, and I suppose I shall have to let it rest at that. I say in conclusion, what a man does not know concerning your finances will not hurt, nor worry him. Think twice before you divulge to Mr. Challoner your father’s mad move, which has plunged us into beggary.”
“I may think twice concerning it, but I shall arrive at the same conclusion, I assure you,” replied Queenie.
For an hour after she sought her own apartment, she stood at the window looking afar over the white stretch of beach lying cold and white in the bright moonlight, to the glittering expanse of water beyond.