Editha hastily returned it to the private drawer, locked it and the safe securely, and then, without a word, left the room.
CHAPTER VI
WHAT WAS IT?
Sumner Dalton was a supremely selfish man.
From his earliest boyhood his chief aim had been to get gold, no matter how, that he might fill his life to the brim with pleasure, and his highest ambition was to walk among the proudest of the land, and mingle in their enjoyments as an equal.
Naught but a golden key would unlock the door leading into these charmed regions, therefore gold became his idol. When everything went smoothly, he was easy and tolerably good-natured; but when opposed or disappointed by any one in his plans or schemes, it was anything but pleasant for those about him, and he did not allow an opportunity to pass to revenge himself of the offense.
He did not believe in grieving his life away for the dead; people must die and be buried; the world was made for the enjoyment of the living, and it was his maxim to improve those pleasures to the utmost while he lived.
His wife died the last of October, Richard Forrester the following April; and in June, when the hot weather came on, he told Editha to prepare for the season at Newport as he intended spending the summer there as usual, with, perhaps, a trip to Saratoga and Long Branch, by way of variety.
Editha, with her heart saddened from her recent bereavement, would have much preferred remaining quietly at home; feeling, too, that there was more of comfort there in its large, airy, and beautiful rooms than in a crowded, fashionable hotel, where, at the most, she could have but two or three apartments, and those comparatively small and close.
Then she had no heart for the glitter and confusion of society; those two dead faces, so cold and fixed, were too fresh in her memory for her to take any pleasure in the gayeties of the world.
She ventured a protest when Mr. Dalton spoke of his intentions, but he peremptorily silenced her by asking her if she supposed she was going to have everything her own way since she had go to be an heiress.