"Of course, while you are here, we could not have you in the room you occupied last night. It--it might be needed. I have already told Olstrom, the housekeeper, to take your bag and other things up to the next floor.
Ask one of the maids to show you the room you are to occupy--_while you remain_."
"That"s all right, Belle," returned the Western girl, with great heartiness. "Any old place will do for me. Why! I"ve slept on the ground more nights than you could shake a stick at," and she tramped off after the tottering butler.
"Well!" gasped Hortense when she was out of hearing, "what do you know about _that_?"
"Pa, do you intend to let that dowdy little thing stay here?" cried Belle.
"Ahem!" murmured Mr. Starkweather, running a finger around between his collar and his neck, as though to relieve the pressure there.
"Her clothes came out of the ark!" declared Hortense.
"And that hat!"
"And those boots--or is it because she clumps them so? I expect she is more used to riding than to walking."
"And her language!" rejoined Belle.
"Ahem! What--what can we do, girls?" gasped Mr. Starkweather.
"Put her out!" cried Belle, loudly and angrily.
"She is quite too, too impossible, Pa," agreed Hortense.
"With her coa.r.s.e jokes," said the older sister.
"And her rough way," echoed the other.
"And that ugly dress and hat."
"A pauper relation! Faugh! I didn"t know the Starkweathers owned one."
"Seems to me, _one_ queer person in the house is enough," began Hortense.
Her father and sister looked at her sharply.
"Why, Hortense!" exclaimed Belle.
"Ahem!" observed Mr. Starkweather, warningly.
"Well! we don"t want _that_ freak in the house," grumbled the younger sister.
"There are--ahem!--some things best left unsaid," observed her father, pompously. "But about this girl from the West----"
"Yes, Pa!" cried his daughters in duet.
"I will see what can be done. Of course, she cannot expect me to support her for long. I will have a serious talk with her."
"When, Pa?" cried the two girls again.
"Er--ahem!--soon," declared the gentleman, and beat a hasty retreat.
"It had better be pretty soon," said Belle, bitterly, to her sister. "For I won"t stand that dowdy thing here for long, now I tell you!"
"Good for you, Belle!" rejoined Hortense, warmly. "It"s strange if we can"t--with Flossie"s help--soon make her sick of her visit."
CHAPTER XII
"I MUST LEARN THE TRUTH"
Helen was already very sick of her Uncle Starkweather"s home and family.
But she was too proud to show the depth of her feeling before the old serving man in whose charge she had been momentarily placed.
Lawdor was plainly pleased to wait upon her. He made fresh coffee in his own percolator; there was a cutlet kept warm upon an electric stove, and he insisted upon frying her a rasher of bacon and some eggs.
Despite all that mentally troubled her, her healthy body needed nourishment and Helen ate with an appet.i.te that pleased the old man immensely.
"If--if you go out early, Miss, don"t forget to come here for your coffee," he said. "Or more, if you please. I shall be happy to serve you."
"And I"m happy to have you," returned the girl, heartily.
She could not a.s.sume to him the rude tone and manner which she had displayed to her uncle and cousins. _That_ had been the outcome of an impulse which had risen from the unkind expressions she had heard them use about her.
As soon as she could get away, she had ceased being an eavesdropper. But she had heard enough to a.s.sure her that her relatives were not glad to see her; that they were rude and unkind, and that they were disturbed by her presence among them.
But there was another thing she had drawn from their ill-advised talk, too. She had heard her father mentioned in no kind way. Hints were thrown out that Prince Morrell"s crime--or the crime of which he had been accused--was still remembered in New York.
Back into her soul had come that wave of feeling she experienced after her father"s death. He had been so troubled by the smirch upon his name--the cloud that had blighted his young manhood in the great city.
"I"ll know the truth," she thought again. "I"ll find out who _was_ guilty.
They sha"n"t drive me away until I have accomplished my object in coming East."
This was the only thought she had while she remained under old Lawdor"s eye. She had to bear up, and seem unruffled until the breakfast was disposed of and she could escape upstairs.
She went up the servants" way. She saw the same girl she had noticed in the parlor early in the morning.
"Can you show me my room?" she asked her, timidly.
"Top o" the next flight. Door"s open," replied the girl, shortly.
Already the news had gone abroad among the under servants that this was a poor relation. No tips need be expected. The girl flirted her cloth and turned her back upon Helen as the latter started through the ghost walk and up the other stairway.
She easily found the room. It was quite as good as her own room at the ranch, as far as size and furniture went. Helen would have been amply satisfied with it had the room been given to her in a different spirit.