“Why, have you been planning such a trip for me?” she questioned, with a momentary twinge of conscience, lest she had been more unjust toward him than he merited.
“Yes,” he replied, in a tone which he could not make quite steady, for the proposal he was about to make was a very momentous one to him. “You are now through school, and it is but right that you should see something of the world. I have had this in mind for some time, and have been trying to arrange for it. I now have my business in such shape that I can leave it indefinitely, and we will have a long holiday, Allison; we will spare neither time nor money, and you shall go wherever your sweet will inclines.”
The girl shot one quick, startled look at her companion; then a burning flush suffused her neck, cheek and brow, for his tone had grown suspiciously tender and tremulous, and she dreaded inexpressibly what she feared was to come.
“Oh, but I did not once think of—of taking you from your business to go with me,” she hastened to say. “I can have a chaperon, you know; there is Miss Wilber, my teacher in history, who has often attended young ladies abroad during summer vacations. She is out of health, and will not teach the coming year, and I am sure she would be glad to go with me; she would be a delightful companion, too, for she is so well posted in history, and has been about so much she is a perfect encyclopedia of facts, legends and traditions. I should feel perfectly safe, and be very happy with her, also.”
“Ah, yes; no doubt it would be a very good arrangement, both for yourself and the lady,” rejoined John Hubbard, when Allison paused, although a frown swept over his face at her evident eagerness to substitute her own plan for his; “but, my dear child, I could never consent to let you go away to Europe like that; I should never know one moment of peace during your absence. Allison,” with sudden and vehement earnestness, “do you remember what I told you only a few months ago—that I have loved you ever since you were a little girl, and that, during all those years, I have had only one aim in life—that of eventually winning you for my wife? Think of it, Allison! I have lived nearly eleven years with this one hope to feed upon and cheer me. I know that I am somewhat older than you, but my affection is none the less strong and true—indeed, having nursed my hopes so long, my love is far more intense than it could have been at the age when a man usually chooses his wife. My darling, I adore you; my life is bound up in you; I must win you, or the world will henceforth be a blank to me, and during the last six months I have yearned for this moment more than I can express. Allison, you will marry me; you will be my wife, and we will go abroad for our honeymoon. I will live only to make you happy, and you shall go where you like if you will but give me the right to go with you.”
He had spoken so rapidly that Allison could not have interrupted him if she had wished; he had poured out his passionate avowal with such resistless vehemence that she was stricken dumb, and sat with averted face, an almost sickening sense of repugnance, even fear, oppressing her.
As he concluded he leaned forward, laying his hand upon hers, which were tensely clasped upon her lap, and tried to look into her downcast eyes.
His touch broke the spell upon her.
Almost involuntarily she shrank from him, snatching her hands from his, a visible shiver creeping over her, and driving every particle of color from her face.
“Oh,” she gasped, as if oppressed by some terrible weight upon her chest, “why will you say such things to me? No, no; it cannot be!”