“A ring,” she replied. “A gold signet ring.”
“So it seems.” Duncan examined it with care. “A man’s ring?” raising gravely questioning eyes to his sister’s.
“And made to fit a girl’s finger.” Janet took it from him, and slipped it on, “but too large for me.”
“Take it off,” commanded Barnard in her ear as the library door opened, but she shook her head violently and turned to the newcomer.
“Look, Marjorie,” she called audaciously, displaying the ring on her finger. “Treasure trove.”
Recognizing the familiar ring, Marjorie’s heart lost a beat, then raced onward, as she said clearly:
“To have and to hold, Janet,” and Barnard’s eyes shifted before the scorn in hers.
CHAPTER VIII
THE ONLY WOMAN
“Almost the amount,” mused Marjorie folding the letter and placing it carefully away in the top drawer of her bureau. “The company will have to take it and wait for the remainder. I can do no more,” and she turned dejectedly in her chair and surveyed her room, the dainty furnishings of which left nothing to be desired in point of taste and comfort. Mrs. Fordyce had given Marjorie the large double room on the second bedroom floor, and adjoining Janet’s, the two girls using the communicating dressing-room.
The past few days had sorely taxed Marjorie’s composure and endurance. Besides her worry over money matters, her awakening to Chichester Barnard’s duplicity had shocked her beyond measure. The disillusion had been complete. Barnard was but a common fortune hunter; Janet his quarry, and her paid chaperon only a plaything to amuse his idle hours. Marjorie burned with shame and indignation at his daring to hold her so cheaply. What had she done that he should have so poor an opinion of her intelligence and integrity as to believe she should tamely submit to being made a cat’s-paw? The thought scorched her like a white-hot iron. She saw Barnard with new eyes; he was undeniably handsome, entirely selfish, plausible—ah, too plausible; it had been his charm of manner and fascinating personality which had held her captive for so long, and quieted her haunting doubts of his sincerity.