[CHAPTER LVII.]
MRS. CAREW TRIUMPHS IN HER SWEET REVENGE UPON KATHLEEN.
Revenge is a two-edged sword;
It has neither hilt nor guard.
Wouldst thou wield this sword of the Lord?
Is thy grasp, then, firm and hard?
Charles H. Webb.
"Kathleen, you and Uncle Ben must come to me soon for a visit. It is such a little time now before your marriage, and I can never have you to myself again after that!" exclaimed Helen Fox.
"Uncle Ben is going back to the country to-morrow, but I shall be glad to come," Kathleen answered.
She had been back at Mrs. Stone's for a week, but neither Mrs. Carew nor Alpine had called on her or sent any message—"the heartless wretches!" as Mrs. Stone said, indignantly.
Rumor said that the mother and daughter were making hasty preparations to sail for Europe, to be absent several years. It was rumored also that the disreputable Ivan had crossed the sea before them, flying from justice. The story of Kathleen's lost diamonds was public property now; but there was no chance that she would ever recover the jewels or their value, for Ivan had disappeared, and his mother and sister angrily repudiated the debt.
Uncle Ben himself went to the two proud women, begging them to do his niece justice.
"Think, madame," he said; "you and your daughter have stripped Kathleen of everything. The jewels were all that remained to her, and now that she is to marry a rich man, she would like to have the money for her wedding trousseau. It is very little to you out of your great wealth, but to her it is all. Be just and fair, and make good what she has lost by your son's dishonesty."