“What an escape!”
While Isabel retorted:
“Showed her good sense for once! She probably knew she would not be received into a respectable family after what occurred yesterday. You always were a fool when there was a pretty face around.”
“Thank you! But be it known to you both, that if she had so chosen, I should have made Miss Douglas Mrs. Wilbur Coolidge just as soon as the law would have allowed,” was the stern reply.
“Now, if you please,” he added, addressing his mother, “I would like you to write a recommendation for Miss Douglas.”
“A recommendation for what—truth and honesty?” she sneered.
“For her thorough education and superior accomplishments, and her efficiency and success as a governess,” he retorted, firmly.
“I shall do no such thing!” was the indignant reply.
“Then, mother, mark my words, if Miss Douglas goes away from here without a recommendation from you, as a good governess, a refined and cultivated lady, I leave this house also to-day, and utterly refuse to accompany you farther on your tour. Is it not enough,” he continued, excitedly, “that you abuse and insult her, prowling about among her possessions, and appropriating them, without driving her forth from your home with no means of providing for herself in the future?”
“Of course those jewels do not belong to her, Wilbur—why will you persist in such nonsense? I honestly believe the girl is a thief!” said Mrs. Coolidge, impatiently.