Page:Arthur Stringer--The House of Intrigue.djvu/343

323 "Would you mind calling him Michael, please!" requested the slightly indignant young heiress confronting me. "No, it was all based on nothing but blind prejudice. And when I saw he was set on keeping us apart, I decided to get even by starving myself. And it wasn't easy!"

"But did it succeed?"

"It didn't seem to. So I threatened to make a will, and leave everything I owned to Michael, and then kill myself. That made Wendy persuade even our old family lawyer to go against me."

"Theobald Scripps?" I asked.

The girl shook her head. The name, apparently, was unknown to her. The owner of the pendulous Adam's-apple was plainly a substitute.

"He did more than that," she continued, as though intent on easing her soul of the injustices which had been rankling within it for so long, "he said he'd put me in a sanitarium. I told him I'd contest his right to be my guardian. He said he hoped I would for he was sick of the job. So I took him at his word, and said he couldn't get me another any too soon. Then he found out father had left two half-brothers I'd never even heard of, who'd jump at the chance. Mother, you see, had never let me have