“But I have no legal claim upon you, and you have relatives. I’m afraid it will make trouble——”
“No, it won’t; I’ve taken care of that, I can assure you,” he interrupted. “My will is made, signed, and sealed, and in the hands of one of the best lawyers in the city. You are to have the whole of my fortune, excepting what the law demands for blood. I’ve given a dollar to each of them, just to clear myself and keep them from breaking my will; and they’ll never get another red cent,” he concluded, with more asperity than she had ever seen him betray before.
“I’m afraid you are piling a mountain upon my small shoulders,” Star said, with a little laugh.
“It is a mountain which I shall take care won’t crush you; and, besides, I hope to help you bear it for a good many years to come, if my health keeps on improving as it has done during the last few months; and then, I reckon, it will not be very difficult to find some one else who would be willing to take a share of the burden,” Mr. Rosevelt concluded, slyly.
Star flushed, and then her face grew sad.
She knew that he meant she would find suitors for her hand; but she could not forget her first love, and she knew that she should never meet another who would win the place in her heart which she had given to Archibald Sherbrooke, unworthy as she believed him to be of it.
That evening Miss Meredith and her brother called.
“How fortunate that you came to-night,” Star said to the young lady during their conversation. “You would have missed us if you had waited longer, for to-morrow we go to Newport for a few weeks.”
“Do you? That is delightful, for we have our rooms engaged there also for next week, and intend to remain a month,” Miss Meredith returned, with evident pleasure, while Mr. Ralph Meredith, who was conversing with Mr. Rosevelt, but with one ear open toward the young ladies, felt a sudden heart-throb at the intelligence.
“Newport is very gay this summer, I am told,” Miss Meredith continued. “‘Everybody,’ so to speak, is there, and it is one of the most charming places in the world to visit. Have you ever been there, Miss Gladstone?”