“Well, we will manage in some way; but,” he added, beginning to get out of patience with her selfishness and heartlessness, “I swear, if you won’t promise to treat her considerately, and she repudiates you as her guardian, I will get her to choose me in your place, and I’ll treat her like a young princess—send her to Vassar, or any other first-class school she may choose, regardless of the cost.”
“George Richards,” cried his wife, with flashing eyes, “if you take up weapons against me in this way, I never will forgive you.”
“Can’t help it,” he retorted, coolly. “I’ll not have that girl made a common drudge of in this house while I am master here. How you could meditate such a thing for a moment is more than I can understand. Where is the gratitude for the life which her mother saved for you so many years ago?”
Mrs. Richards started slightly. She had not intended that her husband should ever know of the debt which she owed Star’s mother.
“I suppose she had to twit you of that in order to gain her point and make you her champion,” she said, sarcastically.
“No, indeed. I asked her what her father meant by his allusion to the service rendered you, and to which he referred in his letter, and she told me of course, though in a very modest way, that her mother once saved you from drowning. Now, I want you to change your tactics. I want you to allow her to be one of the family.”
“I never will do that, Mr. Richards, and it is useless for you to suggest it,” Mrs. Richards interrupted, hotly. “I could never endure the sight of the girl at my table after this, and Josephine, I know, would not consent to it. Any one can see by the course she has pursued to-night with you that she is full of art and intrigue, and would not hesitate to interfere with Josie’s plans and prospects.”
“Oh, ho! you’re afraid she will outshine Jo, are you?” laughed her husband, good-naturedly. “I should think one would set the other off, Star being so light and Jo so dark, and I should really enjoy seeing two pretty girls flitting about the house.”
“I will never put Stella Gladstone on an equal footing with my daughter, so you can cease arguing upon that point,” reiterated Mrs. Richards, with a positiveness that was not to be mistaken.
“If you insist,” she continued, after a minute’s thought, “upon her being allowed to pursue her education, since she makes such a parade of being a bookworm, let her; I will not interfere. But I insist, on the other hand, that she make herself useful. She must work about the house before and after school, and do something in return for her support—more than this I will not concede;” and Mr. Richards, having gained this point, considered that he had won quite a victory for his wife’s pretty ward.