She swept, with an aching heart, down the superb hall of her old home, Jones gazing after her in respectful admiration.
"My! what a high-stepping beauty! A regular goddess!" he ejaculated; and breathed a silent prayer that the disinherited daughter might yet oust these heartless people out of her old home and come into her own.
Kathleen, pale with passion, flung back the library curtains with a shaking hand, and stood revealed to the inmates.
Ivan Belmont had read with horror in a distant city the marvelous story of his step-sister's resurrection and return. Trembling with fear, he recalled the night when he had encountered her upon the steps and fled away from her, believing she was a ghost.
He had come home to find out the truth, and was even now listening to the story, as told by his mother and sister, when the curtains parted, flung back by an angry hand, and Kathleen, beautiful and imperious in her righteous wrath, stood revealed to their astonished eyes.
A gasp of astonishment, and Mrs. Carew rose, tall, stately, insolent.
"What is the meaning of this intrusion?" she demanded. "I told Jones that he was not to admit the likes of you to this house!"
Kathleen's lightning glance almost transfixed her, and she flushed with sudden uneasiness.
"I came here for my diamonds. Give them to me, and I will go," the young girl answered, defiantly, and she saw Ivan Belmont whiten to a deadly pallor.
"Diamonds?" echoed Alpine, in surprise.