“Then I shall look for you every evening; only I hope that Mr. Hubbard will not pop in upon us, and spoil everything.”
“Then every evening I will come,” Gerald replied, as he took a fond farewell of her, and went away with a very happy heart.
The remaining few days passed very swiftly to these young lovers, who spent their evenings together, without exciting the suspicions of John Hubbard, who, however, made some errand to call upon Allison almost every day.
Upon one occasion she questioned him about the box of which Gerald had spoken, asking what it contained.
“It is locked, and, as yet, I have found no key to it,” the man told her evasively, but with a quickly averted glance, which did not escape the fair girl’s watchful eyes. “Indeed, I have been too busy to think much about it,” he added; “but I imagine there is nothing in it but business papers.”
So Allison was none the wiser, as Gerald had prophesied, and on Saturday returned to her school, where, becoming absorbed in her studies, she soon forgot all about it for the time.
Gerald sailed for Europe the following Monday, and John Hubbard, upon learning of the fact, experienced a feeling of intense relief.
“Good riddance to him,” he muttered. “Now I need have no fear, for I shall have a clear field to myself.”
After Allison’s departure, Mr. Hubbard decided that it would be useless expense to keep the Brewster establishment running; consequently, he advertised it for rental, furnished, and it was taken almost immediately by a Philadelphia family, who, bringing their own servants with them, did not require any of the help who had served there so long; and thus, all the servants, with Mrs. Pollard, who had become exceedingly fond of Allison, and who felt that she was being driven from her home, were obliged to find situations elsewhere.
The house at Yonkers was disposed of in the same way; consequently, at the end of six months, when Allison had completed her education, she found herself practically homeless, until she could arrange to go to Newport for the summer, and so was obliged to take up her residence with her guardian, whose family consisted of only himself and his mother, with their servants.