“I don’t believe you,” she said, bluntly. “I believe you’ve tried to spirit Mrs. Laurens away, and I came in here just in time to prevent you!”
“How dare you talk to me so, woman? I have a right to take her away if I choose. She is my step-sister, and I am the guardian of her honor.”
“You’re her tormentor, and you’ve made all this mischief between her and her husband, and if you don’t get out of here pretty quick I’ll put you out by force!” stormed Phebe, losing her temper, in her resentment against the audacious intruder.
“I shall stay here as long as I please, and I dare you to interfere with me!” Louise answered, insolently, but she had miscalculated the will and the strength of Molly’s defender, for the next instant she felt herself lifted off her feet and carried out of the room, along the hall and down the stairs like a whirlwind in the arms of angry Phebe, who never stopped until she opened the front door, pushed her victim out on the steps, and slammed and locked the door in her startled face.
CHAPTER XXVI.
Then Phebe turned to two astonished footmen who stood grinning and wondering in the hall.
“If any of you men ever let that woman into this house again it will cost you both your situations!” she said, sharply, and flew upstairs again to her mistress.
Meanwhile, Louise Barry, chagrined and foiled, and silently vowing revenge, went down the steps to her carriage, and to her dismay encountered Mrs. Laurens the elder, who had also alighted from her carriage, and just at the foot of the steps witnessed with dismay Louise’s summary ejectment from the house.
“My dear Miss Barry, what does this mean?” she ejaculated, without waiting for the preliminaries of a formal greeting.
Louise put on her most injured air.