"Lady Dudgeon, the wife of one of out Pembridge magnates, has taken her by the hand, and has constituted herself Miss Lloyd's chaperone. Eleanor is to accompany her ladyship to London in the spring, and will then make her début."
"To how many people is Miss Lloyd's true parentage known?"
"Not a soul in the world knows of it except myself--and you."
"Good. And your idea of revenge is to break this news to Miss Lloyd suddenly here--this very morning--and so crush her?"
"It is."
"A man's idea--poor and commonplace. Shall I tell you what mine--a woman's idea of revenge--would be in such a case?"
"You are a clever girl, Olive, and you pique my curiosity."
"Were I in your place, I would keep my discovery a profound secret for some time to come. I would let her for a little while taste all the pleasures that wealth can confer. I would let her go on till a life of ease and self-indulgence should have become as it were a second nature to her I would let her live on in blissful ignorance, of the thunderbolt you have in store for her till she has learned to love--perhaps even till she is engaged to be married."
"Eleanor married to another! I never thought of that," said Kelvin, under his breath.
"Then, when you think the comedy has lasted long enough, you shall go to her some day when she is surrounded by her fine friends--on her wedding morning itself, if it so please you--and, touching her on the shoulder, you shall say to her, 'Eleanor Lloyd, you are a beggar!' Her fall from wealth to poverty will then seem infinitely greater than it would do now, and yours will be a revenge worthy of the name."