“What on earth can have possessed them to come aboard just at this time?” she muttered, with lowering brow. “If they had only waited a month they would have missed him, but now they will be sure to meet.”
She took the paper and went up stairs to her mother’s room, and showed the notice to her.
She was very angry also.
“It seems as if that girl was bound to be the ruination of us. They are continually crossing our path, and I declare it is more than human nature can patiently bear. I wonder what has brought them to England?”
“I suppose Uncle Jacob thinks he must give his charming protegee every advantage possible,” Josephine sneered, bitterly.
“Well, I’m sure we do not need to mind them now,” Mrs. Richards said, with a sigh of satisfaction. “Even if she gets every penny of his money, your position will henceforth be far superior to hers.”
“I don’t know about that,” the girl retorted, with a painful flush. “If Lord Carrol meets her, and they make up their quarrel, I shall still be rather in the background, I imagine.”
“True; I had not thought of that,” her mother replied with a blank look. “I wish you could have managed to entrap him, Jo.”
“Jo” bit her lips until the blood spurted from them, as she remembered how her “trap” had sprung and wounded only herself.
“Lord Carrol is a fool!” she said, passionately.