She found Miss Herrick still in her bonnet. She was standing by the dressing-table, and she held the little cabinet in her hand. She took the keys without a word, put them in the drawer, and shut it with a snap. Then she opened her desk, the key of which she always carried on her person, and placed the cabinet inside.
"I should have done this before," she said. "Is there anything else that you have been prying into?"
Elizabeth's tears refused to be suppressed another moment. She covered her face with her hands.
"I never pry!" she cried. "It was only that one room, and I did so want to know about it. I wouldn't have done it if you had only answered more questions. I have such a stupid time. You won't let me go to school, and you won't tell me anything. And I was all alone, and my father doesn't come home, and I want him—I want him so much! Aunt Caroline"—suddenly drying her eyes and fixing them upon her aunt—"don't you really think my father will come home soon?"
"I doubt if he ever comes home."
"Aunt—Caroline!" Then, after a moment's silence: "But I wrote to him and begged him to come. I said if he couldn't afford it, I would pay for him when I got my money. I really did, Aunt Caroline."
Miss Herrick laughed harshly. She was too much disturbed with the discovery about the closed room to be careful of her niece's feelings.
"Quite unnecessary on your part, Elizabeth. Your father has all the money he needs, and much more. That is not the reason he does not come. I will explain to you, since you are so insistent. I have refrained from doing so before, but I see there is nothing else to do now. Your father left home immediately after the death of your mother. He was deeply attached to her. Your mother, you know, died shortly after you were born, and your father simply could not bear the sight of you."
"Could not bear the sight of me?"
"No. In fact, his one desire was to get away from everybody and everything connected with his former life. He has lived abroad ever since, and I doubt if he ever comes home."