“Dear Mrs. Blunt:—Something has occurred which makes it impossible for me to remain here any longer, and I am going away to take care of myself. You have always been very kind to me, and I thank you very much for it, and shall never forget it. Sometime I hope to see you again, and I trust you will always think kindly of
“Stella Gladstone.”
The good woman sat down and wept bitter tears over this brief note, for she had learned to love the bright, kind-hearted girl who always had a cheery word for her. She knew the house would never seem the same again without her.
Then she went down to tell the news to her master. She met John Mellen in the hall, who had come with the intelligence that Mr. Rosevelt left the lodge early that morning, taking all that belonged to him—“which was not much, yer honor,” he volunteered, and he handed Mr. Richards a note which the old gentleman had left for him.
CHAPTER XXI.
FRUITLESS EFFORTS.
Mr. Richards and his family were thrown into considerable confusion by the double surprise which this morning revealed to them.
He was really a kind man at heart, and had been very much troubled by the way that his wife had conducted herself toward her aged uncle, and also by her unfeeling usage of Star.
Mrs. Richards, however, found it difficult to conceal her satisfaction at the turn events had taken. She kept her own counsel regarding her knowledge of what had transpired during the interview between her husband and the young lord; neither did she consider it necessary to mention the stormy scene which had occurred at the lodge the previous evening, in which she was so prominent an actor.
“Josephine shall have everything her own way now,” she thought, exultantly; “at all events, that girl shall never triumph over my daughter by becoming Lady Carrol.”
Mr. Richards declared that he should go immediately in search of the fugitives. He could not endure the thought that the delicate young girl and feeble old man should go out into the world to earn their own living, for this he supposed they would be obliged to do, since what little money he knew Star to be possessed of could not support them both a great while.