"Me!" scornfully, "Why I am Delia Hobart--'Diamond Del,' they call me."
"Yes, but that is not what you mean; that gives you no such right as you
claim. You are Hobart's daughter then?"
"I didn't say so, Mister Captain West. I told you my moniker, that's all.
Jim here brought me up, but he ain't no father to me, and his wife ain't
my mother. It took me a while to find that out, but I got the thing
straight at last. I saw then just what those two were driving at; first I
didn't take no particular interest in the scheme; then I got to thinking
until finally I hated that soft, downy thing; damn her, she'd robbed me,
and I had a right to my share even if I had to steal it."
"What soft, downy thing?"
"Natalie Coolidge! Bah, I went out to see her once. Jim took me and
we hid in the garden; and when I came back I was raving mad. Lord,
why should that little idiot have everything while half the time I
was hungry?"
"You mean you envied her?"
"Envied, hell! Didn't I have a right? Wasn't she my twin sister? Didn't
she have it all, and I nothing?"
He gasped for breath at this sudden revelation. Then he laughed,
convinced it could not be possible.
"Who told you that?"
"Why, don't you believe it? Has she never said a word about it to you?"
"Certainly not. I am sure she possesses no knowledge of ever having had a
sister. Moreover, I do not believe it is true. If you had proof of such
relationship, why didn't you go to her, and openly claim your share?"
"Go to her! me? Do you hear that Jim? Isn't he the cute little fixer?
Why, of course, she knew it; there was nothing doing on the divide.
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