“Nor I, until this moment; but I can account for their appearance here to-night in no other way. If he has done this thing, and that girl gets all his money, it will be a bitter pill to swallow, I can tell you.”
“But she could inherit nothing; she is no blood relation.”
“But he could make a will.”
“And we could break it.”
“Not a bit of it; your Uncle Jacob is keen enough to look out for that, I assure you. But come this way; they are passing out into the hall, and I am going to sift this matter at once.”
She drew her daughter from the upper door of the parlor, just as Star and Mr. Rosevelt passed out at the lower one, intending to waylay them and demand an explanation of their presence.
They turned and came toward those waiting women, walking slowly and chatting pleasantly, and wholly unconscious of the exciting interview in store for them.
CHAPTER XXVII.
DEFEATED.
When they were within a few feet of the upper door, Mrs. Richards stepped toward them and stood directly in their path.
The hall was nearly empty, almost everybody being in the parlors or the dancing-hall, so there was no one by just at that moment to witness what transpired.