Then she fought down her emotion with an iron will and looked straight at her tormentor, saying, coolly:
"I suppose it is so hard for your mother to forget the position she once occupied in my father's house that she would be glad to sink his daughter to the same level."
Alpine crimsoned. She always hated to remember that her mother had been Zaidee Carew's governess, and that it was hinted that her arts had driven the artless child-wife to despair and death.
But it was not her policy to seem offended with Kathleen. To propitiate Ralph Chainey, she must still seem to be the friend of the girl he loved so dearly.
So she looked at her lovely rival with a sad, sweet smile, and said:
"Of course, I knew that you would not come—that way—and I told mamma so. But she made me promise to tell you what she said. You must not be angry with me, dear, for I have a better plan for you."
The young girl looked at her in angry silence, asking herself: "What new insult?"
"You know, of course, that your father, in a fit of anger against you, left me all his money in a will?" asked Alpine.
Kathleen nodded coldly.