“Aha! say you so? You speak with the impulse and inexperience of youth; but, look there, and—be warned,” sneered his companion, as, lifting his foot he made a gesture indicating the mutilated bud.
Then turning abruptly, he left the office, while Gerald, with a ghastly face and trembling hands, stooped to recover the ruined flower.
He tenderly gathered up every discolored leaf and petal, arranging them neatly upon a sheet of blank paper, which he carefully folded and placed within an envelope.
“It shall be my mascot,” he muttered, with a determined gleam in his eyes, as he put it in an inside pocket of his vest, “and as sure as I live, Mr. John Hubbard, you will find me no mean rival. I will yet stand where I can ask for what I want and not be accused of being a fortune-hunter, either.”
Mr. Brewster came in, a few minutes later, and Gerald’s thoughts were turned into other channels, although throughout the day he was never for a moment unconscious of that bruised and discolored bud which lay so near his heart.
Two weeks slipped rapidly by, and the day set for Allison Brewster’s lawn-party dawned clear and beautiful.
Gerald had, meantime, received by mail a formal card of invitation with the words “Come early” delicately penciled in one corner, and he had been looking eagerly forward to the occasion, although he said nothing to any one of his intention to be present.
In his heart he knew that Mr. Brewster, in spite of his own fondness for him, would not approve of the existence of any tender relations between him and his peerless daughter, and he greatly feared, should he intimate that he had been bidden to the approaching festival, that some extra work would be forthcoming to keep him away.
While he would not wilfully betray the confidence of his employer, he, at the same time, believed that he had a perfect right to love Allison, since, morally and intellectually, he was her equal, if not her superior; while he felt sure, so sanguine is youth, that he would eventually work his way up to a position no less enviable than hers—both socially and financially.