I expect you to be friends." "To be sure," said Beth, nevertheless discomfited at the news.
"We dine at seven," said Aunt Jane.

"I always lunch in my own room, and you may do the same," and with a wave of her thin hand she dismissed the girl, who thoughtfully followed the old housekeeper through the halls.
It was not going to be an easy task to win this old woman's affection.
Already she rebelled at the necessity of undertaking so distasteful a venture and wondered if she had not made a mistake in trying to curb her natural frankness, and to conciliate a creature whose very nature seemed antagonistic to her own.

And this new cousin, Louise Merrick, why was she coming to Elmhurst?
To compete for the prize Beth had already determined to win?
In that case she must consider carefully her line of action, that no rival might deprive her of this great estate.

Beth felt that she could fight savagely for an object she so much desired.

Her very muscles hardened and grew tense at the thought of conflict as she walked down the corridor in the wake of old Misery the housekeeper.