"You had as well go back to England and marry your grand lover, for Laurie Meredith is as dead to you as if the grass was indeed growing on his grave. Do you think he did not recognize you? He laughed with me about it, and said that he had half a mind to give Lord Clive a hint of your character. I persuaded him not to do so, telling him it was unfair after the way he had treated you."
"He could say that? Oh, my God! he could menace me like that?" Flower whispered, with a strange gleam in her dilated eyes.
"Yes, he could do so. That is nothing. It is the way of men," Jewel replied, indifferently.
[CHAPTER XLVII.]
She went away at last, having utterly failed in all her efforts to cajole Flower into a solemn promise to marry Lord Clive.
"I could not deceive him so, and I am too proud to confess my bitter secret to him; so, in a short while I shall break my engagement," the girl said, with sorrowful firmness.
Jewel repressed all expression of her hate for her half-sister as much as possible. She wanted to be on good terms with her in order to further her own nefarious designs.
But it was very hard to keep her temper when the poor girl, meekly dismissing her own grievances, asked, eagerly: