“Since you are so willing to earn your own support, I wash my hands of a most unwelcome burden! Go into a tobacco factory as soon as you please, and I hope you may be industrious enough to retain a position there as long as Pansy Laurens did!”
With those words, the offended gentleman stalked out of the presence of Juliette, who comprehended instantly that she had gone too far in her spiteful defiance, and that she must either humiliate herself by apologizing or go to work, as she had threatened, to earn her own living.
It did not take her a minute to decide which of these alternatives to choose, and as soon as the door banged to behind the irate colonel she jerked it open and flew swiftly down the corridor, arresting his quick footsteps by clasping both hands around his arm.
“Oh, uncle, dear uncle, come back and forgive me! I am sorry I wounded your feelings. I did not mean it; but every one had deserted me, and I felt so miserable!” she panted eagerly, as she clung to his arm.
He stopped short and looked suspiciously into her false face.
“Where is Mrs. Wylde?” he asked.
“Come back, and I will tell you. We might be overheard here,” she replied, looking uneasily down the length of the broad hotel corridor, and very unwillingly he accompanied her back to her room. Then she said:
“Mrs. Wylde and Rosalind have gone back to Richmond, and I am here alone with my maid.”
“She promised to chaperon you,” he said, frowning.
“I know,” whimpered Juliette; “but we quarreled dreadfully. They—they actually believed that man Finley’s falsehood about me, although I denied it bitterly. The truth is that they are the ones in fault, for they sent Norman off to London on a false scent, just to break up his love affair; but now they have the meanness to say that they would never have sent him if they had known he was actually married to the girl,” panted Juliette angrily, adding: “So we had a bitter quarrel when they refused to believe my story. And Mrs. Wylde said she hoped you would take me from under her care soon, as she was tired of chaperoning a girl who had brought such trouble on her poor son. I told her I would never speak to her again, so then she and Rosalind packed up and went back, as Judge Wylde had telegraphed for them. She sent me a note, asking if I cared to go back with them, and I declined. But they set every one against me. I am so stared at and snubbed by people since Finley’s lies against me were published that I cannot bear to go outside my room,” concluded Juliette, going into hysterical sobs.