"Nobody knows," said the woman; "the gentleman came back in the middle
of the night, and this morning, before light, he had a wagon at the
door, and just put in the trunks and the sick lady, and drove off.
There's been more than one a-knocking besides you, since then. But Mr.
Pudgett, he's got the key, and nobody can get in without goin' to him."

It was too true. Mrs. Spenser was gone, and Katy never saw her again. In
a few days it came out that Mr. Spenser was a very bad man, and had been
making false money--_counterfeiting_, as grown people call it. The
police were searching for him to put him in jail, and that was the
reason he had come back in such a hurry and carried off his poor sick
wife. Aunt Izzie cried with mortification, when she heard this. She said
she thought it was a disgrace that Katy should have been visiting in a
counterfeiter's family. But Dr. Carr only laughed. He told Aunt Izzie
that he didn't think that kind of crime was catching, and as for Mrs.
Spenser, she was much to be pitied. But Aunt Izzie could not get over
her vexation, and every now and then, when she was vexed, she would
refer to the affair, though this all happened so long ago that most
people had forgotten all about it, and Philly and John had stopped
playing at "Putting Mr. Spenser in Jail," which for a long time was one
of their favorite games.

Katy always felt badly when Aunt Izzie spoke unkindly of her poor sick
friend. She had tears in her eyes now, as she walked to the gate, and
looked so very sober, that Imogen Clark, who stood there waiting,
clasped her hands and said:

"Ah, I see! Your aristocratic Aunt refuses."