"You are as bad as Jean," said Grace, angrily: "and I have been waiting for that tiresome man to be gone to tell you my plans. What in the world had he to talk about to-day?"
"His business referred more to you than to me," and Margaret, still annoyed and ruffled, spoke very coldly.
Grace was in one of her most provoking moods; she was trying to hide any discomposure she felt by an air of bravado, and she resented Margaret's sharpness as though her sister was injuring her deeply by her tone.
"Did he come to offer me his hand?" she asked, drawing herself up and looking at Margaret with raised eyebrows; "perhaps, middle-aged as he is, he may think as one sister——Oh, forgive me, darling Margaret! I am hateful and detestable! No one but you would have patience with me! I will go and ask Jean's pardon! I will do anything only don't look so!"
She flung herself upon her knees by Margaret, weeping passionately.
"Grace, there are only we two; let us love each other, and not drift into unkindness," whispered Margaret, and Grace checked her weeping and got up.
"Now tell me," she said, "what you mean, darling. In what way did his visit refer to me?"
"Mr. Drayton, it seems, to please me," began Margaret.... "No," she said, "I must put it to you truthfully. When I agreed to marry him I stipulated that out of his wealth he should provide for you in such a way that if I died or he died you should be beyond want."
"And what did he do?" asked Grace, breathlessly, her eyes sparkling with eagerness.
"He left fifteen thousand pounds to you and the life interest to me, Grace."