“Well,” said the girl, tremulously, “if you have done this simply to be revenged upon me because I rejected your proposal of marriage, you have at least succeeded in giving me a terrible shock; you have, in a sense, robbed me of my birthright; but you can never rob me of the knowledge that Mr. and Mrs. Brewster both loved and cherished me with all the tenderness which an own father and mother could experience for their child. He certainly proved this by every act of his life, and by making me the sole heir to his wealth. The one thing I cannot understand is his making you my guardian and investing you with so much power over me. I rebelled against it at the outset; I am more than ever unreconciled to it to-day, and I will submit to it no longer. I know that I have the right to appeal for a change of guardian, and I intend to avail myself of it,” she concluded, with considerable warmth.
“Please allow me to remind you of what I have already stated—that I am about to resign the honor which Mr. Brewster conferred upon me,” John Hubbard returned, in a tone, and with a look so sinister that Allison felt her flesh creep.
“I am very glad,” she replied, coldly. “It will at least save me considerable trouble and worry.”
“Thank you,” he stiffly rejoined; “but possibly you may not feel quite so elated when I tell you that the revelation which I have just made was but to prepare you for another of a far more serious nature.”
“More trouble! Oh, I can bear no more!” moaned Allison to herself, although she made no visible sign, except to grasp the arms of her chair convulsively and try to brace herself for what was to come.
She began to feel spent from the excitement which she had already undergone, and it seemed as if she could not endure another blow like that which had just fallen upon her.
“Yes, I am afraid there is more trouble for you,” said John Hubbard, with a smile of cruel triumph over her suffering.
Now that he was convinced that he could never win her, he was prepared to ruthlessly crush her, with all possible despatch, and his plans had long been matured to this end.
“But,” he returned, after a slight pause, “I want you to understand that you have brought judgment upon your own head. I would have been glad to shield you from every pang. You need never have learned this secret, or have been shorn of a single luxury. As it is, however, it becomes my duty to tell you that you are no longer the heiress you have supposed yourself to be. The rich Miss Brewster, the belle, the beauty, will be dethroned—hurled from her high position in the world into poverty and obscurity by one blow from the ax of fate.”