CHAPTER X.

THE PLOT AGAINST MONA THICKENS.

The next morning Mrs. Montague and her young companion left the Southern Hotel and proceeded directly on board one of the palatial steamers which ply between St. Louis and New Orleans.

Mrs. Montague secured one of the best staterooms for their use, and immediately made herself comfortable for the trip.

The weather was very fine, the season advanced, for the foliage was rapidly developing to perfection, and the sail down the broad tortuous river was delightful.

Mona enjoyed it, in spite of her dread of meeting Louis Hamblin at the end of it, and her anxiety to get back to New York and Ray.

Mrs. Montague had entirely recovered her good nature; indeed, she had never been so kind and gracious toward her seamstress as during this portion of their trip. She appeared to exert herself to make her enjoy it--was more free and companionable, and an observer would have regarded them as relatives and equals.

Mrs. Montague made many acquaintances, as she always did everywhere, and entered most heartily into every plan for amusing and entertaining the party on board the steamer.

The days were mostly spent in delightful intercourse and promenades on deck, where Mona was put forward and made to join in the pleasures; while the evenings were devoted to tableaux, charades, music, and dancing, as the pa.s.sengers desired.

It seemed almost like a return to her old life before her uncle's death, and could she have obliterated all sadness and painful memories, Mona would have enjoyed it thoroughly.

They had barely touched the levee at New Orleans when they espied Louis Hamblin, dressed with great care and in the height of style, awaiting their arrival.

Mrs. Montague signaled to him from the upper deck; and he, with an answering wave of his hand, sprang aboard, and quickly made his way to her side.

He greeted her with evident pleasure, remarking that it seemed an age since he had seen her, and then he turned to Mona, with outstretched hand and smiling eyes.

"How well you are looking, Miss Richards," he remarked; "your trip has done you a great deal of good."

Mona bowed, but without appearing to notice his extended hand, and then she turned away to gather their wraps and satchels, preparatory to going ash.o.r.e.

Mr. Hamblin frowned at her coldness, but a peculiar smile curved his lips as he whispered in Mrs. Montague's ear:

"We'll soon bring your proud beauty to better terms."

"Don't be rash, Louis," she returned; "we must be very wary if we would accomplish our purpose. You say you love the girl, and I have consented to let you have your way, but, since she is not inclined to accept your advances, you will have to play your cards very shrewdly if you expect to win."

"All right; I will be circ.u.mspection personified, if you will only help me to make that girl my wife," the young man said earnestly. "I do love her with all my heart; and, Aunt Margie, I'll quit sowing wild oats, turn over a new leaf, and be a good man if I succeed in this."

Mrs. Montague regarded him somewhat skeptically, as he made this eager avowal, but it was almost immediately followed by a look of anxiety.

"I hope you will--you certainly owe me that much after all that I have done for you," she returned. "Mind you," she added, "I never would have yielded this point if I had not been driven to it."

"Driven to it! How?" inquired her nephew, regarding her searchingly.

"Driven to it, because I have found out that she is Mona Montague, and I'm afraid that she has an eye to her father's property. I believe she is very keen--doubtless she knows that she has a legal claim upon what he left, and means to a.s.sert it, or she never would have so cunningly wormed herself into my family. Of course it will be difficult for her to prove her position, since I have that certificate of marriage; still she may have some other proof that I know nothing about which she is secretly working. Of course I'd rather you would marry her," Mrs. Montague gloomily observed, "and thus make our interests mutual, than run any risk of losing the whole of my money. Still, I did want you to marry Kitty McKenzie: I wanted you to fortify yourself with additional wealth."

"I have suspected that the girl was Mona all along," Louis quietly remarked.

"Oh, have you?" sharply retorted his aunt, as she studied his face with suspicious eyes. "Perhaps you have been plotting to marry her for the sole purpose of getting this fortune wholly under your control."

"Pshaw! Aunt Margie, how foolish you are! Haven't I always worked for your interests? More than that, haven't you always a.s.sured me that the fortune would be mine eventually? Why, then, should I plot for it?" the young man replied, in soothing tones, but coloring beneath her glance. "I tell you," he went on, a note of pa.s.sion in his voice, "I love the girl; I would even be willing to marry her without a dollar in prospect, and then go to work to support her. Now come, do not let us quarrel over imaginary troubles, but unite our forces for our mutual benefit. It will be far safer for you if she becomes my wife, for then you will have nothing to fear, and I shall have won the desire of my heart."

"Well, it will have to be, I suppose," said Mrs. Montague, moodily. "I wonder how I was ever so deceived though, when she looks so like Mona Forester. I can understand now why Ray Palmer was so attentive to her at Hazeldean. Strange it never occurred to me, when I saw him waiting upon her, that she was Mona Montague, and they must have had a quiet laugh by themselves over having so thoroughly hoodwinked us."

"They didn't hoodwink me," Mr. Hamblin affirmed, with a sly smile; "I knew all the time who she was."

"I don't see how you knew it," Mrs. Montague retorted, impatiently.

"I will tell you. I was in Macy's one day when the girl ran across some acquaintances. She bowed and smiled to them, as I suppose she had always been in the habit of doing; but the petted darlings of _le bon ton_ drew themselves up haughtily, stared rudely at her, and pa.s.sed on, while the poor child flushed, then paled, and looked ready to drop. A moment later, the two proud misses shot by me, one of them remarking with curling lips and a toss of her head, 'Do you suppose that Mona Montague expects that we are going to recognize her now?'"

"Why didn't you tell me this before?" Mrs. Montague angrily demanded.

"Because I knew that, if you suspected her ident.i.ty, you would turn her out of the house forthwith, and then I should have hard work getting into her good graces."

"You are a sly one, Louis."

"One must look out for one's own interests in some respects," he coolly responded.

"Does she know that you suspect her ident.i.ty?"

"No, not yet; but I mean she soon shall."

"Ah!" said Mrs. Montague, with sudden thought, "maybe you can use this knowledge to aid your suit--only don't let her know that I am in the secret until you are sure of her."

"That has been my intention all along--for I have meant to marry her, by hook or crook," and the young man smiled complacently.

"Look out, Louis; don't overreach yourself," said his companion, bending forward, and looking warningly into his face. "If you make an enemy of me, I warn you, it will be the worse for you."

"My dear aunt, I have no intention of making an enemy of you--you and I have been chums too long for any ill-will to spring up between us now.

But," he concluded, looking about him, "we must not remain here talking any longer; most of the pa.s.sengers have already left the boat I will go for a carriage and we will drive directly to the St. Charles, where I have rooms engaged for you."

Mrs. Montague turned to call Mona, who was standing at some distance from them, watching the men unload the boat.

"Come," she said, "we must go ash.o.r.e."

Mona followed her from the boat, and into the carriage, utterly ignoring Louis Hamblin's a.s.sistance as she entered. She shrank more and more from him, while a feeling of depression and foreboding suddenly changed her from the bright, care-free girl, which she had seemed ever since leaving St. Louis, into a proud, reticent, and suspicious woman.

Upon reaching the St. Charles Hotel, Mrs. Montague informed Mona that dinner would be served shortly, and she would need to be expeditious in making her toilet.

"I should prefer not to go to the dining-room," Mona began, flushing.

"But I wish you to, for we are going to drive afterward to some of the points of interest in the city," Mrs. Montague returned.

"If you will excuse me--"