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diff --git a/old/16662-8.txt b/old/16662-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ead7794 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/16662-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14649 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Bad Hugh, by Mary Jane Holmes + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Bad Hugh + + +Author: Mary Jane Holmes + + + +Release Date: September 5, 2005 [eBook #16662] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BAD HUGH*** + + +E-text prepared by David Garcia, Maria Khomenko, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) from page +images generously made available by Kentuckiana Digital Library +(http://kdl.kyvl.org/) + + + +Note: Images of the original pages are available through the + Electronic Text Collection of Kentuckiana Digital Library. See + http://kdl.kyvl.org/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=kyetexts;cc=kyetexts;xc=1&idno=B92-205-30908797&view=toc + + + + + +BAD HUGH + +by + +MARY J. HOLMES + +Author of "Lena Rivers", "Tempest and Sunshine", "Meadow Brook", +"The English Orphans", etc., etc. + +GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS NEW YORK + +1900 + + + + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER PAGE + + I. Spring Bank 5 + + II. What Rover Found 15 + + III. Hugh's Soliloquy 26 + + IV. Terrace Hill 29 + + V. Anna and John 37 + + VI. Alice Johnson 42 + + VII. Riverside Cottage 50 + + VIII. Mr. Liston and the Doctor 57 + + IX. Matters in Kentucky 60 + + X. Lina's Purchase and Hugh's 71 + + XI. Sam and Adah 77 + + XII. What Followed 81 + + XIII. How Hugh Paid His Debts 84 + + XIV. Mrs. Johnson's Letter 88 + + XV. Saratoga 96 + + XVI. The Columbian 101 + + XVII. Hugh 108 + + XVIII. Meeting of Alice and Hugh 111 + + XIX. Alice and Muggins 116 + + XX. Poor Hugh 118 + + XXI. Alice and Adah 126 + + XXII. Waking to Consciousness 133 + + XXIII. Lina's Letter. 138 + + XXIV. Foreshadowings 145 + + XXV. Talking with Hugh 149 + + XXVI. The Day of the Sale 153 + + XXVII. The Sale 161 + + XXVIII. The Ride 165 + + XXIX. Hugh and Alice 169 + + XXX. Adah's Journey 177 + + XXXI. The Convict 184 + + XXXII. Adah at Terrace Hill 189 + + XXXIII. Anna and Adah 196 + + XXXIV. Rose Markham 204 + + XXXV. The Result 212 + + XXXVI. Excitement 223 + + XXXVII. Matters at Spring Bank 227 + +XXXVIII. The Day of the Wedding 232 + + XXXIX. The Convict's Story 238 + + XL. Poor 'Lina 248 + + XLI. Tidings 255 + + XLII. Irving Stanley 259 + + XLIII. Letters from Hugh and Irving Stanley 268 + + XLIV. The Deserter 272 + + XLV. The Second Battle of Bull Run 286 + + XLVI. How Sam Came There 291 + + XLVII. Finding Hugh 300 + + XLVIII. Going Home 304 + + XLIX. Conclusion 314 + + + + + +BAD HUGH + + + + + +CHAPTER I + +SPRING BANK + + +A large, old-fashioned, weird-looking wooden building, with strangely +shaped bay windows and stranger gables projecting here and there from +the slanting roof, where the green moss clung in patches to the moldy +shingles, or formed a groundwork for the nests the swallows built year +after year beneath the decaying eaves. Long, winding piazzas, turning +sharp, sudden angles, and low, square porches, where the summer sunshine +held many a fantastic dance, and where the winter storm piled up its +drifts of snow, whistling merrily as it worked, and shaking the loosened +casement as it went whirling by. Huge trees of oak and maple, whose +topmost limbs had borne and cast the leaf for nearly a century of years, +tall evergreens, among whose boughs the autumn wind ploughed mournfully, +making sad music for those who cared to listen, and adding to the +loneliness which, during many years, had invested the old place. A wide +spreading grassy lawn, with the carriage road winding through it, over +the running brook, and onward 'neath graceful forest trees, until it +reached the main highway, a distance of nearly half a mile. A spacious +garden in the rear, with bordered walks and fanciful mounds, with +climbing roses and creeping vines showing that somewhere there was a +taste, a ruling hand, which, while neglecting the somber building and +suffering it to decay, lavished due care upon the grounds, and not on +these alone, but also on the well-kept barns, and the whitewashed +dwellings in front, where numerous, happy, well-fed negroes lived and +lounged, for ours is a Kentucky scene, and Spring Bank a Kentucky home. + +As we have described it so it was on a drear December night, when a +fearful storm, for that latitude, was raging, and the snow lay heaped +against the fences, or sweeping-down from the bending trees, drifted +against the doors, and beat against the windows, whence a cheerful light +was gleaming, telling of life and possible happiness within. There were +no flowing curtains before the windows, no drapery sweeping to the +floor, nothing save blinds without and simple shades within, neither of +which were doing service now, for the master of the house would have it +so in spite of his sister's remonstrances. + +Some one might lose their way on that terrible night, he said, and the +blaze of the fire on the hearth, which could be seen from afar, would be +to them a beacon light to guide them on their way. Nobody would look in +upon them, as Adaline, or 'Lina as she chose to be called, and as all +did call her except himself, seemed to think there might, and even if +they did, why need she care? To be sure she was not quite as fixey as +she was on pleasant days when there was a possibility of visitors, and +her cheeks were not quite so red, but she was looking well enough, and +she'd undone all those little tags or braids which disfigured her so +shockingly in the morning, but which, when brushed and carefully +arranged, did give her hair that waving appearance she so much desired. +As for himself, he never meant to do anything of which he was ashamed, +so he did not care how many were watching him through the window, and +stamping his heavy boots upon the rug, for he had just come in from the +storm Hugh Worthington piled fresh fuel upon the fire, and, shaking back +the mass of short brown curls which had fallen upon his forehead, strode +across the room and arranged the shades to his own liking, paying no +heed when his more fastidious sister, with a frown upon her dark, +handsome face, muttered something about the "Stanley taste." + +"There, Kelpie, lie there," he continued, returning to the hearth, and, +addressing a small, white, shaggy dog, which, with a human look in its +round, pink eyes, obeyed the voice it knew and loved, and crouched down +in the corner at a safe distance from the young lady, whom it seemed +instinctively to know as an enemy. + +"Do, pray, Hugh, let the dirty things stay where they are," 'Lina +exclaimed, as she saw her brother walk toward the dining-room, and +guessed his errand. "Nobody wants a pack of dogs under their feet. I +wonder you don't bring in your pet horse, saddle and all." + +"I did want to when I heard how piteously he cried after me as I left +the stable to-night," said Hugh, at the same time opening a door leading +out upon a back piazza, and, uttering a peculiar whistle, which brought +around him at once the pack of dogs which so annoyed his sister. + +"I'd be a savage altogether if I were you!" was the sister's angry +remark, to which Hugh paid no heed. + +It was his house, his fire, and if he chose to have his dogs there, he +should, for all of Ad, but when the pale, gentle-looking woman, knitting +so quietly in her accustomed chair, looked up and said imploringly: + +"Please turn them into the kitchen, they'll surely be comfortable +there," he yielded at once, for that pale, gentle woman, was his mother, +and, to her wishes, Hugh was generally obedient. + +The room was cleared of all its canine occupants, save Kelpie, who Hugh +insisted should remain, the mother resumed her knitting, and Adaline her +book, while Hugh sat down before the blazing fire, and, with his hands +crossed above his head, went on into a reverie, the nature of which his +mother, who was watching him, could not guess; and when at last she +asked of what he was thinking so intently, he made her no reply. He +could hardly have told himself, so varied were the thoughts crowding +upon his brain that wintry night. Now they were of the eccentric old +man, who had been to him a father, and from whom he had received Spring +Bank, together with the many peculiar ideas which made him the strange, +odd creature he was, a puzzle and a mystery to his own sex, and a kind +of terror to the female portion of the neighborhood, who looked upon him +as a woman-hater, and avoided or coveted his not altogether disagreeable +society, just as their fancy dictated. For years the old man and the boy +had lived together alone in that great, lonely house, enjoying vastly +the freedom from all restraint, the liberty of turning the parlors into +kennels if they chose, and converting the upper rooms into a hay-loft, +if they would. No white woman was ever seen upon the premises, unless +she came as a beggar, when some new gown, or surplice, or organ, or +chandelier, was needed for the pretty little church, lifting its modest +spire so unobtrusively among the forest trees, not very far from Spring +Bank. John Stanley didn't believe in churches; nor gowns, nor organs, +nor women, but he was proverbially liberal, and so the fair ones of +Glen's Creek neighborhood ventured into his den, finding it much +pleasanter to do so after the handsome, dark-haired boy came to live +with him; for about that frank, outspoken boy there was then something +very attractive to the little girls, while their mothers pitied him, +wondering why he had been permitted to come there, and watching for the +change in him, which was sure to ensue. + +Not all at once did Hugh conform to the customs of his uncle's +household, and at first there often came over him a longing for +something different, a yearning for the refinements of his early home +among the Northern hills, and a wish to infuse into Chloe, the colored +housekeeper, some of his mother's neatness. But a few attempts at reform +had taught him how futile was the effort, Aunt Chloe always meeting him +with the argument: + +"'Taint no use, Mr. Hugh. A nigger's a nigger; and I spec' ef you're to +talk to me till you was hoarse 'bout your Yankee ways of scrubbin', and +sweepin', and moppin' with a broom, I shouldn't be an atomer +white-folksey than I is now. Besides Mas'r John, wouldn't bar no finery; +he's only happy when the truck is mighty nigh a foot thick, and his +things is lyin' round loose and handy." + +To a certain extent this was true, for John Stanley would have felt +sadly out of place in any spot where, as Chloe said, "his things were +not lying round loose and handy," and as habit is everything, so Hugh +soon grew accustomed to his surroundings, and became as careless of his +external appearance as his uncle could desire. Only once had there come +to him an awakening--a faint conception of the happiness there might +arise from constant association with the pure and refined, such as his +uncle had labored to make him believe did not exist. He was thinking of +that incident now, and as he thought the veins upon his broad, white +forehead stood out round and full, while the hands clasped above the +head worked nervously together, and it was not strange that he did not +heed his mother when she spoke, for Hugh was far away from Spring Bank, +and the wild storm beating against its walls was to him like the sound +of the waves dashing against the vessel's side, just as they did years +ago on that night he remembered so well, shuddering as he heard again +the murderous hiss of the devouring flames, covering the fatal boat with +one sheet of fire, and driving into the water as a safer friend the +shrieking, frightened wretches who but an hour before had been so full +of life and hope, dancing gayly above the red-tongued demon stealthily +creeping upward from the hold below, where it had taken life. What a +fearful scene that was, and the veins grew larger on Hugh's brow while +his broad chest heaved with something like a stifled sob as he recalled +the little childish form to which he had clung so madly until the cruel +timber struck from him all consciousness, and he let that form go +down--down 'neath the treacherous waters of Lake Erie never to come up +again alive, for so his uncle told when, weeks after the occurrence, he +awoke from the delirious fever which ensued and listened to the +sickening detail. + +"Lost, my boy, lost with many others," was what his uncle had said. + +He heard the words as plainly now as when they first were spoken, +remembering how his uncle's voice had faltered, and how the thought had +flashed upon his mind that John Stanley's heart was not as hard toward +womenkind as people had supposed. "Lost"--there was a world of meaning +in that word to Hugh more than any one had ever guessed, and, though it +was but a child he lost, yet in the quiet night, when all else around +Spring Bank was locked in sleep, he often lay thinking of that child and +of what he might perhaps have been had she been spared to him. He was +thinking of her now, and as he thought visions of a sweet, pale face, +shadowed with curls of golden hair, came up before his mind, and he saw +again the look of bewildered surprise and pain which shone in the soft, +blue eyes and illumined every feature when in an unguarded moment he +gave vent to the half infidel principles he had learned from his uncle. +Her creed was different from his, and she explained it to him so +earnestly, so tearfully, that he had said to her at last he did but jest +to hear what she would say, and, though she seemed satisfied, he felt +there was a shadow between them--a shadow which was not swept away, even +after he promised to read the little Bible she gave him and see for +himself whether he or she were right. He had that Bible now hidden away +where no curious eye could find it, and carefully folded between its +leaves was a curl of golden hair. It was faded now, and its luster was +almost gone, but as often as he looked upon it, it brought to mind the +bright head it once adorned, and the fearful hour when he became its +owner. That tress and the Bible which inclosed it had made Hugh +Worthington a better man. He did not often read the Bible, it is true, +and his acquaintances were frequently startled with opinions which had +so pained the little girl on board the _St. Helena_, but this was merely +on the surface, for far below the rough exterior there was a world of +goodness, a mine of gems, kept bright by memories of the angel child +which flitted for so brief a span across his pathway and then was lost +forever. He had tried so hard to save her--had clasped her so fondly to +his bosom when with extended arms she came to him for aid. He could save +her, he said--he could swim to the shore with perfect ease and so +without a moment's hesitation she had leaped with him into the surging +waves, and that was about the last he could remember, save that he +clutched frantically at the long, golden hair streaming above the water, +retaining in his firm grasp the lock which no one at Spring Bank had +ever seen, for this one romance of Hugh's seemingly unromantic life was +a secret with himself. No one save his uncle had witnessed his emotions +when told that she was dead; no one else had seen his bitter tears or +heard the vehement exclamation: "You've tried to teach me there was no +hereafter, no heaven for such as she, but I know better now, and I am +glad there is, for she is safe forever." + +These were not mere idle words, and the belief then expressed became +with Hugh Worthington a firm, fixed principle, which his skeptical uncle +tried in vain to eradicate. "There was a heaven, and she was there," +comprised nearly the whole of Hugh's religious creed, if we except a +vague, misty hope, that he, too, would some day find her, how or by what +means he never seriously inquired; only this he knew, it would be +through her influence, which even now followed him everywhere, producing +its good effects. It had checked him many and many a time when his +fierce temper was in the ascendant, forcing back the harsh words he +would otherwise have spoken, and making him as gentle as a child; and +when the temptations to which young men of his age are exposed were +spread out alluringly before him, a single thought of her was sufficient +to lead him from the forbidden ground. + +Only once had he fallen, and that two years before, when, as if some +demon had possessed him, he shook off all remembrances of the past, and +yielding to the baleful fascinations of one who seemed to sway him at +will, plunged into a tide of dissipation, and lent himself at last to an +act which had since embittered every waking hour. As if all the events +of his life were crowding upon his memory this night, he thought of two +years ago, and the scene which transpired in the suburbs of New York, +whither immediately after his uncle's death he had gone upon a matter of +important business. In the gleaming fire before him there was now +another face than hers, an older, a different, though not less beautiful +face, and Hugh shuddered as he thought how it must have changed ere +this--thought of the anguish which stole into the dark, brown eyes when +first the young girl learned how cruelly she had been betrayed. Why +hadn't he saved her? What had she done to him that he should treat her +so, and where was she now? Possibly she was dead. He almost hoped she +was, for if she were, the two were then together, his golden-haired and +brown, for thus he designated the two. + +Larger and fuller grew the veins upon his forehead, as memory kept thus +faithfully at work, and so absorbed was Hugh in his reverie that until +twice repeated he did not hear his mother's anxious inquiry: + +"What is that noise? It sounds like some one in distress." + +Hugh started at last, and, after listening for a moment he, too, caught +the sound which had so alarmed his mother, and made 'Lina stop her +reading. A moaning cry, as if for help, mingled with an infant's wail, +now here, now there it seemed to be, just as the fierce north wind +shifted its course and drove first at the uncurtained window of the +sitting-room, and then at the ponderous doors of the gloomy hall. + +"It is some one in the storm, though I can't imagine why any one should +be abroad to-night," Hugh said, going to the window and peering out into +the darkness. + +"Lyd's child, most likely. Negro young ones are always squalling, and I +heard her tell Aunt Chloe at supper time that Tommie had the colic," +'Lina remarked opening again the book she was reading, and with a slight +shiver drawing nearer to the fire. + +"Where are you going, my son?" asked Mrs. Worthington, as Hugh arose to +leave the room. + +"Going to Lyd's cabin, for if Tommie is sick enough to make his screams +heard above the storm, she may need some help," was Hugh's reply, and a +moment after he was ploughing his way through the drifts which lay +between the house and the negro quarters. + +"How kind and thoughtful he is," the mother said, softly, more to +herself than to her daughter, who nevertheless quickly rejoined: + +"Yes, kind to niggers, and horses, and dogs, I'll admit, but let me, or +any other white woman come before him as an object of pity, and the +tables are turned at once. I wonder what does make him hate women so." + +"I don't believe he does," Mrs. Worthington replied. "His uncle, you +know, was very unfortunate in his marriage, and had a way of judging +all our sex by his wife. Living with him as long as Hugh did, it's +natural he should imbibe a few of his ideas." + +"A few," 'Lina repeated, "better say all, for John Stanley and Hugh +Worthington are as near alike as an old and young man well could be. +What an old codger he was though, and how like a savage he lived here. I +never shall forget how the house looked the day we came, or how +satisfied Hugh seemed when he met us at the gate, and said, 'everything +was in spendid order,'" and closing her book, the young lady laughed +merrily as she recalled the time when she first crossed her brother's +threshold, stepping, as she affirmed, over half a dozen dogs, and as +many squirming kittens, catching her foot in some fishing tackle, +finding tobacco in the china closet, and segars in the knife box, where +they had been put to get them out of the way. + +"But Hugh really did his best for us," mildly interposed the mother. +"Don't you remember what the servants said about his cleaning one floor +himself because he knew they were tired!" + +"Did it more to save the lazy negroes' steps than from any regard for +our comfort," retorted 'Lina. "At all events he's been mighty careful +since how he gratified my wishes. Sometimes I believe he perfectly hates +me, and wishes I'd never been born," and tears, which arose from anger, +rather than any wounded sisterly feeling, glittered in 'Lina's black +eyes. + +"Hugh does not hate any one," said Mrs. Worthington, "much less his +sister, though you must admit that you try him terribly." + +"How, I'd like to know?" 'Lina asked, and her mother replied: + +"He thinks you proud, and vain, and artificial, and you know he abhors +deceit above all else. Why, he'd cut off his right hand sooner than tell +a lie." + +"Pshaw!" was 'Lina's contemptuous response, then after a moment she +continued: "I wonder how we came to be so different. He must be like his +father, and I like mine--that is, supposing I know who he is. Wouldn't +it be funny if, just to be hateful, he had sent you back the wrong +child?" + +"What made you think of that?" Mrs. Worthington asked, quickly, and +'Lina replied: + +"Oh, nothing, only the last time Hugh had one of his tantrums, and got +so outrageously angry at me, because I made Mr. Bostwick think my hair +was naturally curly, he said he'd give all he owned if it were so, but +I reckon he'll never have his wish. There's too much of old Sam about me +to admit of a doubt," and half spitefully, half playfully she touched +the spot in the center of her forehead known as her birthmark. + +When not excited it could scarcely be discerned at all, but the moment +she was aroused, the delicate network of veins stood out round and full, +forming what seemed to be a tiny hand without the thumb. It showed a +little now in the firelight, and Mrs. Worthington shuddered as she +glanced at what brought so vividly before her the remembrance of other +and wretched days. Adaline observed the shudder and hastened to change +the conversation from herself to Hugh, saying by way of making some +amends for her unkind remarks: "It really is kind in him to give me a +home when I have no particular claim upon him, and I ought to respect +him for that. I am glad, too, that Mr. Stanley made it a condition in +his will that if Hugh ever married, he should forfeit the Spring Bank +property, as that provides against the possibility of an upstart wife +coming here some day and turning us, or at least me, into the street. +Say, mother, are you not glad that Hugh can never marry even if he +wishes to do so, which is not very probable." + +"I am not so sure of that," returned Mrs. Worthington, smoothing, with +her small, fat hands the bright worsted cloud she was knitting, a +feminine employment for which she had a weakness. "I am not so sure of +that. Suppose Hugh should fancy a person whose fortune was much larger +than the one left him by Uncle John, do you think he would let it pass +just for the sake of holding Spring Bank?" + +"Perhaps not," 'Lina replied; "but there's no possible danger of any +one's fancying Hugh." + +"And why not?" quickly interrupted the mother. "He has the kindest heart +in the world, and is certainly fine-looking if he would only dress +decently." + +"I'm much obliged for your compliment, mother," Hugh said, laughingly, +as he stepped suddenly into the room and laid his hand caressingly on +his mother's head, thus showing that even he was not insensible to +flattery. "Have you heard that sound again?" he continued. "It wasn't +Tommie, for I found him asleep, and I've been all around the house, but +could discover nothing. The storm is beginning to abate, I think, and +the moon is trying to break through the clouds," and, going again to the +window, Hugh looked out into the yard, where the shrubbery and trees +were just discernible in the grayish light of the December moon. "That's +a big drift by the lower gate," he continued; "and queer shaped, too. +Come see, mother. Isn't that a shawl, or an apron, or something blowing +in the wind?" + +Mrs. Worthington arose, and, joining her son, looked in the direction +indicated, where a garment of some kind was certainly fluttering in the +gale. + +"It's something from the wash, I guess," she said. "I thought all the +time Hannah had better not hang out the clothes, as some of them were +sure to be lost." + +This explanation was quite satisfactory to Mrs. Worthington, but that +strange drift by the gate troubled Hugh, and the signal above it seemed +to him like a signal of distress. Why should the snow drift there more +than elsewhere? He never knew it do so before. He had half a mind to +turn out the dogs, and see what that would do. + +"Rover," he called, suddenly, as he advanced to the rear room, where, +among his older pets, was a huge Newfoundland, of great sagacity. +"Rover, Rover, I want you." + +In an instant the whole pack were upon him, jumping and fawning, and +licking the hands which had never dealt them aught save kindness. It was +only Rover, however, who was this time wanted, and leading him to the +door, Hugh pointed toward the gate, and bade him see what was there. +Snuffing slightly at the storm, which was not over yet, Rover started +down the walk, while Hugh stood waiting in the door. At first Rover's +steps were slow and uncertain, but as he advanced they increased in +rapidity, until, with a sudden bound and cry, such as dogs are wont to +give when they have caught their destined prey, he sprang upon the +mysterious ridge, and commenced digging it down with his paws. + +"Easy, Rover--be careful," Hugh called from the door, and instantly the +half-savage growl which the wind had brought to his ear was changed into +a piteous cry, as if the faithful creature were answering back that +other help than his was needed there. + +Rover had found something in that pile of snow. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +WHAT ROVER FOUND + + +Unmindful of the sleet beating upon his uncovered head Hugh hastened to +the spot, where the noble brute was licking a face, a baby face, which +he had ferreted out from beneath the shawl trapped so carefully around +it to shield it from the cold, for instead of one there were two in that +rift of snow--a mother and her child! That stiffened form lying there so +still, hugging that sleeping child so closely to its bosom, was no +delusion, and his mother's voice calling to know what he was doing +brought Hugh back at Last to a consciousness that he must act, and that +immediately. + +"Mother," he screamed, "send a servant here, quick! or let Ad come +herself. There's a woman dead, I fear. I can carry her, but the child, +Ad must come for her." + +"The what?" gasped Mrs. Worthington, who, terrified beyond measure at +the mention of a-dead woman, was doubly so at hearing of a child. "A +child," she repeated, "whose child?" + +Hugh, made no reply save an order that the lounge should be brought near +the fire and a pillow from his mother's bed. "From mine, then," he +added, as he saw the anxious look in his mother's face, and guessed that +she shrank from having her own snowy pillow come in contact with the +wet, limp figure he was depositing upon the lounge. It was a slight, +girlish form, and the long brown hair, loosened from its confinement, +fell in rich profusion over the pillow which 'Lina brought half +reluctantly, eying askance the insensible object before her, and +daintily holding back her dress lest it should come in contact with the +child her mother had deposited upon the floor, where it lay crying +lustily. + +The idea of a strange woman being thrust upon them in this way was +highly displeasing to Miss 'Lina, who haughtily drew back from the +little one when it stretched its arms out toward her, while its pretty +lip quivered and the tears dropped over its rounded cheek. + +Meantime Hugh, with all a woman's tenderness, had done for the now +reviving stranger what he could, and as his mother began to collect her +scattered senses and evince some interest in the matter, he withdrew to +call the negroes, judging it prudent to remain away a while, as his +presence might be an intrusion. From the first he had felt sure that the +individual thrown upon his charity was not a low, vulgar person, as his +sister seemed to think. He had not yet seen her face distinctly, for it +lay in the shadow, but the long, flowing hair, the delicate hands, the +pure white neck, of which he had caught a glimpse as his mother +unfastened the stiffened dress, all these had made an impression, and +involuntarily repeating to himself, "Poor girl, poor girl," he strode a +second time across the drifts which lay in his back yard, and was soon +pounding at old Chloe's cabin door, bidding her and Hannah dress at once +and come immediately to the house. + +An indignant growl at being thus aroused from her first sleep was +Chloe's only response, but Hugh knew that his orders were being obeyed. + +The change of atmosphere and restoratives applied had done their work, +and Mrs. Worthington saw that the long eyelashes began to tremble, while +a faint color stole into the hitherto colorless cheeks, and at last the +large, brown eyes unclosed and looked into hers with an expression so +mournful, so beseeching, that a thrill of yearning tenderness for the +desolate young creature shot through her heart, and bending down she +said, "Are you better now?" + +"Yes, thank you. Where is Willie?" was the low response, the tone +thrilling Mrs. Worthington again with emotion. + +Even 'Lina started, it was so musical, and coming near she answered: "If +it's the baby you mean, he is here, playing with Rover." + +There was a look of gratitude in the brown eyes, which closed again +wearily. With her eyes thus closed, 'Lina had a fair opportunity to scan +the beautiful face, with its delicately-chiseled features, and the +wealth of lustrous brown hair, sweeping back from the open forehead, on +which there was perceptible a faint line, which 'Lina stooped down to +examine. + +"Mother, mother," she whispered, drawing back, "look, is not that a mark +just like mine?" + +Thus appealed to, Mrs. Worthington, too, bent down, but, upon a closer +scrutiny, the mark seemed only a small, blue vein. + +"She's pretty," she said. "I wonder why I feel so drawn toward her?" + +'Lina was about to reply, when again the brown eyes looked up, and the +stranger asked hesitatingly: + +"Where am I? And is he here! Is this his house?" + +"Whose house?" Mrs. Worthington asked. + +The girl did not answer at once, and when she did her mind seemed +wandering. + +"I waited so long," she said, "but he never came again, only the letter +which broke my heart. Willie was a baby then, and I almost hated him for +a while, but he wasn't to blame. I wasn't to blame. I'm glad God gave me +Willie now, even if he did take his father from me." + +Mrs. Worthington and her daughter exchanged glances, and the latter +abruptly asked: + +"Where is Willie's father?" + +"I don't know," came in a wailing sob from the depths of the pillow. + +"Where did you come from?" was the next question. The young girl looked +up in some alarm, and answered meekly: + +"From New York. I thought I'd never get here, but everybody was so kind +to me and Willie, and the driver said if 'twan't so late, and he so many +passengers, he'd drive across the fields. He pointed out the way and I +came on alone." + +The color had faded from Mrs. Worthington's face, and very timidly she +asked again: + +"Whom are you looking for? Whom did you hope to find?" + +"Mr. Worthington. Does he live here?" was the frank reply; whereupon +'Lina drew herself up haughtily, exclaiming: + +"I knew it. I've thought so ever since Hugh came home from New York." + +'Lina was about to commence a tirade of abuse, when the mother +interposed, and with an air of greater authority than she generally +assumed toward her imperious daughter, bade her keep silence while she +questioned the stranger, gazing wonderingly from one to the other, as if +uncertain what they meant. + +Mrs. Worthington had no such feelings for the girl as 'Lina entertained. + +"It will be easier to talk with you," she said, leaning forward, "if I +know what to call you." + +"Adah," was the response, and the brown eyes, swimming with tears, +sought the face of the questioner with a wistful eagerness, as if it +read there the unmistakable signs of a friend. + +"Adah, you say. Well, then, Adah, why have you come to my son on such a +night as this, and what is he to you?" + +"Are you his mother?" and Adah started up. "I did not know he had one. +Oh, I'm so glad. And you'll be kind to me, who never had a mother?" + +A person who never had a mother was an anomaly to Mrs. Worthington, +whose powers of comprehension were not the clearest imaginable. + +"Never had a mother!" she repeated. "How can that be?" + +A smile flitted for a moment across Adah's face, and then she answered: + +"I never knew a mother's care, I mean." + +"But your father? What do you know of him?" said Mrs. Worthington, and +instantly a shadow stole into the sweet young face, as Adah replied: + +"Only this, I was left at a boarding school." + +"And Hugh? Where did you meet him? And what is he to you?" + +"The only friend I've got. May I see him, please?" + +"First tell what he is to you and to this child," 'Lina rejoined. Adah +answered calmly: + +"Your brother might not like to be implicated. I must see him first--see +him alone." + +"One thing more," and 'Lina held back her mother, who was starting in +quest of Hugh, "are you a wife?" + +"Don't, 'Lina," Mrs. Worthington whispered, as she saw the look of agony +pass over Adah's face. "Don't worry her so; deal kindly by the fallen." + +"I am not fallen!" came passionately from the quivering lips. "I am as +true a woman as either of you--look!" and she pointed to the golden band +encircling the third finger. + +'Lina was satisfied, and needed no further explanations. To her, it was +plain as daylight. In an unguarded moment, Hugh had set his uncle's will +at naught, and married some poor girl, whose pretty face had pleased his +fancy. How glad 'Lina was to have this hold upon her brother, and how +eagerly she went in quest of him, keeping back old Chloe and Hannah +until she had witnessed his humiliation. + +Somewhat impatient of the long delay, Hugh sat in the dingy kitchen, +when 'Lina appeared, and with an air of injured dignity, bade him follow +her. + +"What's up now that Ad looks so solemn like?" was Hugh's mental comment +as he took his way to the room where, in a half-reclining position sat +Adah, her large, bright eyes fixed eagerly upon the door through which +he entered, and a bright flush upon her cheek called up by the +suspicions to which she had been subjected. + +Perhaps they might be true. Nobody knew but Hugh, and she waited for him +so anxiously, starting when she heard a manly step and knew that he was +coming. For an instant she scanned his face curiously to assure herself +that it was he, then with an imploring cry as if for him to save her +from some dreaded evil, she stretched her little hands toward him and +sobbed: "Mr. Worthington, was it true? Was it as his letter said?" and +shedding back from her white face the wealth of flowing hair, Adah +waited for the answer, which did not come at once. In utter amazement +Hugh gazed upon the stranger, and then exclaimed: + +"Adah, Adah Hastings, why are you here?" + +In the tone of his voice surprise and pity were mingled with +disapprobation, the latter of which Adah detected at once, and as if it +had crushed out the last lingering hope, she covered her face with her +hands and sobbed piteously. + +"Don't you turn against me, or I'll surely die, and I've come so far to +find you." + +By this time Hugh was himself again. His rapid, quick-seeing mind had +come to a decision, and turning to his mother and sister, he said: + +"Leave us alone for a time." + +Rather reluctantly Mrs. Worthington and her daughter left the room. +Deliberately turning the key in the lock, Hugh advanced to her side, +groaning as his eye fell upon the child, which had fallen asleep again. + +"I hoped this might have been spared her," he thought, as, kneeling by +the couch, he said, kindly: "Adah, I am more pained to see you here than +I can express. Why did you come, and where is--" + +The name was lost to 'Lina, and muttering to herself: "It does not sound +much like a man and wife," she rather unwillingly quitted her position, +and Hugh was really alone with Adah. + +Never was Hugh in so awkward a position before, or so uncertain how to +act. The sight of that sobbing, trembling wretched creature, whose heart +he had helped to crush, had perfectly unmanned him, making him almost as +much a woman as herself. + +"Oh, what made you? Why didn't you save me?" she said, looking up to him +with an expression of reproach. + +He had no excuse. He knew how innocent she was, and he held her in his +arms as he would once have held the Golden Haired, had she come to him +with a tale of woe. + +"Let me see that letter again," he said. + +She gave it to him; and he read once more the cruel lines, in which +there was still much of love for the poor thing, to whom they were +addressed. + +"You will surely find friends who will care for you, until the time when +I may come to really make you mine." + +Hugh repeated these words twice, aloud, his heart throbbing with the +noble resolve, that the confidence she had placed in him by coming +there, should not be abused, for he would be true to the trust, and care +for the poor, little, half-crazed Adah, moaning so piteously beside him, +and as he read the last line, saying eagerly: + +"He speaks of coming back. Do you think he ever will? or could I find +him if I should try? I thought of starting once, but it was so far; and +there was Willie. Oh, if he could see Willie! Mr. Worthington, do you +believe he loves me one bit?" + +Hugh said at last, that the letter contained many assurances of +affection. + +"It seems family pride has something to do with it. I wonder where his +people live, or who they are? Did he never tell you?" + +"No," and Adah shook her head mournfully. + +"Would you go to them?" Hugh asked quickly; and Adah answered: + +"Sometimes I've thought I would. I'd brave his proud mother--I'd lay +Willie in her lap. I'd tell her whose he was, and then I'd go away and +die." Then, after a pause, she continued: "Once, Mr. Worthington, I went +down to the river, and said I'd end my wretched life, but God held me +back. He cooled my scorching head--He eased the pain, and on the very +spot where I meant to jump, I kneeled down and said: 'Our Father.' No +other words would come, only these: 'Lead us not into temptation.' +Wasn't it kind in God to save me?" + +There was a radiant expression in the sweet face as Adah said this, but +it quickly passed away and was succeeded by one of deep concern when +Hugh abruptly said: + +"Do you believe in God?" + +"Oh, Mr. Worthington. Don't you? You do, you must, you will," and Adah +shrank away from him as from a monster. + +The action reminded him of the Golden Haired, when on the deck of the +_St. Helena_ he had asked her a similar question, and anxious further to +probe the opinion of the girl beside him, he continued: + +"If, as you think, there is a God who knew and saw when you were about +to drown yourself, why didn't He prevent the cruel wrong to you? Why did +He suffer it?" + +"What He does we know not now, but we shall know hereafter," Adah said, +reverently, adding: "If George had feared God, he would not have left me +so; but he didn't, and perhaps he says there is no God--but you don't, +Mr. Worthington. Your face don't look like it. Tell me you believe," and +in her eagerness Adah grasped his arm beseechingly. + +"Yes, Adah, I believe," Hugh answered, half jestingly, "but it's such as +you that make me believe, and as persons of your creed think everything +is ordered for good, so possibly you were permitted to suffer that you +might come here and benefit me. I think I must keep you, Adah, at least, +until he is found." + +"No, no," and the tears flowed at once, "I cannot be a burden to you. I +have no claim." + +After a moment she grew calm again, and continued: + +"You whispered, you know, that if I was ever in trouble, come to you, +and that's why I remembered you so well, maybe. I wrote down your name, +and where you lived, though why I did not know, and I forgot where I put +it, but as if God really were helping me I found it in my old portfolio, +and something bade me come, for you would know if it was true, and your +words had a meaning of which I did not dream when I was so happy. George +left me money, and sent more, but it's most gone now. I can take care of +myself." + +"What can you do?" Hugh asked, and Adah replied: + +"I don't know, but God will find me something. I never worked much, but +I can learn, and I can already sew neatly, too; besides that, a few days +before I decided to come here, I advertised in the _Herald_ for some +place as governess or ladies' waiting maid. Perhaps I'll hear from +that." + +"It's hardly possible. Such advertisements are thick as blackberries," +Hugh said, and then in a few brief words, he marked out Adah's future +course. + +George Hastings might or might not return to claim her, and whether he +did or didn't, she must live meantime, and where so well as at Spring +Bank, or who, next to Mr. Hastings, was more strongly bound to care for +her than himself?" + +"To be sure, he did not like women much," he said; "their artificial +fooleries disgusted him. There wasn't one woman in ten thousand that was +what she seemed to be. But even men are not all alike," he continued, +with something like a sneer, for when Hugh got upon his favorite hobby, +"women and their weaknesses," he generally grew bitter and sarcastic. +"Now, there's the one of whom you are continually thinking. I dare say +you have contrasted him with me and thought how much more elegant he was +in his appearance. Isn't it so?" and Hugh glanced at Adah, who, in a +grieved tone, replied: + +"No, Mr. Worthington, I have not compared you with him--I have only +thought how good you were." + +Hugh knew Adah was sincere, and said: + +"I told you I did not like women much, and I don't but I'm going to take +care of you until that scoundrel turns up; then, if you say so, I'll +surrender you to his care, or better yet, I'll shoot him and keep you to +myself. Not as a sweetheart, or anything of that kind," he hastened to +add, as he saw the flush on Adah's cheek. "Hugh Worthington has nothing +to do with that species of the animal kingdom, but as my Sister Adah!" +and as Hugh repeated that name, there arose in his great heart an +indefinable wish that the gentle girl beside him had been his sister +instead of the high-tempered Adaline, who never tried to conciliate or +understand him, and whom, try as he might, Hugh could not love as +brothers should love sisters. + +He knew how impatiently she was waiting now to know the result of that +interview, and just how much opposition he should meet when he announced +his intention of keeping Adah. Hugh was master of Spring Bank, but +though its rightful owner, Hugh was far from being rich, and many were +the shifts and self-denials he was obliged to make to meet the increased +expense entailed upon him by his mother and sister. John Stanley had +been accounted very wealthy, and Hugh, who had often seen him counting +out his gold, was not a little surprised when, after his death, no ready +money could be found, or any account of the same--nothing but the Spring +Bank property, consisting of sundry acres of nearly worn-out land, the +old, dilapidated house, and a dozen or more negroes. This to a certain +extent was the secret of his patched boots, his threadbare coat and +coarse pants, with which 'Lina so often taunted him, saying he wore +them just to be stingy and mortify her, she knew he did, when in fact +necessity rather than choice was the cause of his shabby appearance. He +had never told her so, however, never said that the unfashionable coat +so offensive to her fastidious vision was worn that she might be the +better clothed and fed. But Hugh was capable of great self-sacrifices. +He could manage somehow, and Adah should stay. He would say that she was +a friend whom he had known in New York, that her husband had deserted +her, and in her distress she had come to him for aid. + +All this he explained to Adah, who assented tacitly, thinking within +herself that she should not long remain at Spring Bank, a dependent upon +one on whom she had no claim. She was too weak now, however, to oppose +him, and merely nodding to his suggestions laid her head upon the arm of +the lounge with a low cry that she was sick and warm. Stepping to the +door Hugh turned the key, and summoning the group waiting anxiously in +the adjoining room, bade them come at once, as Mrs. Hastings appeared to +be fainting. Great emphasis he laid upon the Mrs. and catching it up at +once 'Lina repeated, "Mrs. Hastings! So am I just as much." + +"Ad," and the eyes which shone so softly on poor Adah flashed with +gleams of fire as Hugh said to his sister, "not another word against +that girl if you wish to remain here longer. She has been unfortunate." + +"I guessed as much," sneeringly interrupted 'Lina. + +"Silence!" and Hugh's foot came down as it sometimes did when chiding a +refractory negro. "She is as true, yes, truer, than you. He who should +have protected her has basely deserted her. There is a reason which I do +not care to explain, why I should care for her and I shall do it. See +that a fire is kindled in the west chamber, and go up yourself when it +is made and see that all is comfortable. Do you understand?" and he +gazed sternly at 'Lina, who was too much astonished to answer, even if +she had been so disposed. + +Quick as thought, 'Lina darted up a back stairway, and when, half an +hour later, Hugh, hearing mysterious sounds above, and suspecting +something wrong, went up to reconnoiter, he found Hannah industriously +pulling the tacks from the carpet, preparatory to taking it up. In +thunder tones, he demanded what she was doing, and with a start, which +made her drop tacks, hammer, saucer and all, Hannah replied: + +"Lor', Mas'r Hugh, how you skeered me! Miss 'Lina done order me to take +up de carpet, 'case it's ole miss's, and she won't have no low-lived +truck tramplin' over it. That's what Miss 'Lina say," and Hannah tossed +her head quite conceitedly. + +"Miss 'Lina be hanged," was Hugh's savage response; "and you, woman, do +you hear?--drive those nails back faster than you took them out." + +"Yes, mas'r," and Hannah hastened down. Whispering to her mistress, +Hannah told what Hugh had said, and instantly there came over Mrs. +Worthington's face a look of concern, as if she, too, objected to having +the stranger occupy a room wherein an ex-governor had slept, but Hugh's +wish was law to her, and she answered that all was ready. A moment +after, Hugh appeared, and taking Adah in his arms, carried her to the +upper chamber, where the fire was burning brightly, casting cheerful +shadows upon the wall, and making Adah smile gratefully, as she looked +up in his face, and murmured: + +"God bless you, Mr. Worthington! Adah will pray for you to-night, when +she is alone. It's all that she can do." + +They laid her upon the bed, Hugh himself arranging her pillows, which no +one else appeared inclined to touch. + +Family opinion was against her, innocent and beautiful as she looked +lying there--so helpless, so still, with her long-fringed lashes shading +her colorless cheek, and her little hands folded upon her bosom, as if +already she were breathing the promised prayer for Hugh. Only in Mrs. +Worthington's heart was there a chord of sympathy. She couldn't help +feeling for the desolate stranger; and when, at her own request, Hannah +placed Willie in her lap, ere laying him by his mother, she gave him an +involuntary hug, and touched her lips to his fat, round cheek. + +"He looks as you did, Hugh, when you were a baby like him," she said, +while Chloe rejoined: + +"De very spawn of Mas'r Hugh, now. I 'tected it de fust minit. Can't +cheat dis chile," and, with a chuckle, which she meant to be very +expressive, the fat old woman waddled from the room. + +Hugh and his mother were alone, and turning to her son, Mrs. Worthington +said, gently: + +"This is sad business, Hugh; worse than you imagine. Do you know how +folks will talk?" + +"Let them talk," Hugh growled. "It cannot be much worse than it is now. +Nobody cares for Hugh Worthington; and why should they, when his own +mother and sister are against him, in actions if not in words?--one +sighing when his name is mentioned, as if he really were the most +provoking son that ever was born, and the other openly berating him as a +monster, a clown, a savage, a scarecrow, and all that. I tell you, +mother, there is but little to encourage me in the kind of life I'm +leading. Neither you nor Ad have tried to make anything of me." + +Choking with tears, Mrs. Worthington said: + +"You wrong me, Hugh; I do try to make something of you. You are a dear +child to me, dearer than the other, but I'm a weak woman, and 'Lina +sways me at will." + +A kind word unmanned Hugh at once, and kneeling by his mother, he put +his arms around her, and asked again her care for Adah. + +"Hugh," and Mrs. Worthington looked him steadily in the face, "is Adah +your wife, or Willie your child?" + +"Great guns, mother!" and Hugh started to his feet as quick as if a bomb +had exploded at his side. "No! Are you sorry, mother, to find me better +than you imagined it possible for a bad boy like me to be?" + +"No, Hugh, not sorry. I was only thinking that I've sometimes fancied +that, as a married man, you might be happier, even if you did lose +Spring Bank; and when this woman came so strangely, and you seemed so +interested, I didn't know, I rather thought--" + +"I know," and Hugh interrupted her. "You thought, maybe, I raised Ned +when I was in New York; and, as a proof of said resurrection, Mrs. Ned +and Ned, Junior, had come with their baggage." + +If the hair was golden instead of brown, and the eyes a different shade, +he shouldn't "make so tremendous a fuss," he thought; and, with a sigh +to the memory of the lost Golden Hair, he turned abruptly to his mother, +and as if she had all the while been cognizant of his thoughts, said: + +"But that's nothing to do with the case in question. Will you be kind to +Adah Hastings, for my sake? And when Ad rides her highest horse, as she +is sure to do, will you smooth her down? Tell her Adah has as good a +right here as she, if I choose to keep her." + +"I never meddle with your affairs," and there was a tone of whining +complaint in Mrs. Worthington's voice; "I never pry and you never tell, +so I don't know how much you are worth, but I can judge somewhat, and I +don't think you are able." + +Mrs. Worthington was much more easily won over to Hugh's opinion than +'Lina. They'd be a county talk, she said; nobody would come near them; +hadn't Hugh enough on his hands already without taking more? + +"If my considerate sister really thinks so, hadn't she better try and +help herself a little?" retorted Hugh in a blaze of anger. + +'Lina began to cry, and Hugh, repenting of his harsh speech as soon as +it was uttered, but far too proud to take it back, strode up and down +the room, chafing like a young lion. + +"Come children, it's after midnight, let us adjourn until to-morrow," +Mrs. Worthington said, by way of ending the painful interview, at the +same time handing a candle to Hugh, who took it silently and withdrew, +banging the door behind him with a force which made 'Lina start and +burst into a fresh flood of tears. + +"I'm a brute, a savage, and want to kick myself," was Hugh's not very +self-complimentary soliloquy, as he went up the stairs. "What did I want +to twit Ad for? Confound my badness!" and having by this time reached +his own door, Hugh sat down to think. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +HUGH'S SOLILOQUY + + +"One, two three--yes, as good as four women and a child," he began, "to +say nothing of the negroes, and that is not the worst of it; the hardest +of all is the having people call me stingy, and the knowing that this +opinion of me is encouraged and kept alive by the remarks and +insinuations of my own sister," and in the red gleam of the firelight +the bearded chin quivered for a moment as Hugh thought how unjust 'Lina +was to him, and how hard was the lot imposed upon him. + +Then shifting the position of his feet, which had hitherto rested upon +the hearth, to a more comfortable and suggestive one upon the mantel, +Hugh tried to find a spot in which he could economize. + +"I needn't have a fire in my room nights," he said, as a coal fell into +the pan and thus reminded him of its existence, "and I won't, either. +It's nonsense for a great hot-blooded clown, like me to be babied with a +fire. I've no tags to braid, no false switches to comb out and hide, no +paint to wash off, only a few buttons to undo, a shake or so, and I'm +all right. So there's one thing, the fire--quite an item, too, at the +rate coal is selling. Then there's coffee. I can do without that, I +suppose, though it will be perfect torment to smell it, and Hannah makes +such splendid coffee, too; but will is everything. Fire, coffee--I'm +getting on famously. What else?" + +"Tobacco," something whispered, but Hugh answered promptly: "No, sir, I +shan't! I'll sell my shirts, the new ones Aunt Eunice made, before I'll +give up my best friend. It's all the comfort I have when I get a fit of +the blues. Oh, you needn't try to come it!" and Hugh shook his head +defiantly at his unseen interlocutor, urging that 'twas a filthy +practice at best, and productive of no good. + +Horses was suggested again. "You have other horses than Bet," and Hugh +was conscious of a pang which wrung from him a groan, for his horses +were his idols. The best-trained in the country, they occupied a large +share of his affections, making up to him for the friendship he rarely +sought in others, and parting with them would be like severing a right +hand. It was too terrible to think about, and Hugh dismissed it as an +alternative which might have to be considered another time. Then hope +made her voice heard above the little blue imps tormenting him so sadly. + +He should get along somehow. Something would turn up. Ad might marry and +go away. What made her so different from his mother? He had loved her, +and he thought of her now as she used to look when in her dainty white +frocks, with the strings of coral he had bought with nuts picked on the +New England hills. + +He used to kiss those chubby arms--kiss the rosy cheeks, and the soft +brown hair. But that hair had changed sadly since the days when its +owner had first lisped his name, and called him "Ugh," for the bands and +braids coiled around 'Lina's haughty head were black as midnight. Not +less changed than 'Lina's tresses was 'Lina herself, and Hugh, strong +man that he was, had often felt like crying for the little baby sister, +so lost and dead to him in her young womanhood. What had changed Ad so? + +There was many a tender spot in Hugh Worthington's heart, and shadow +after shadow flitted across his face as he thought how cheerless was his +life, and how little there was in his surroundings to make him happy. +There was nothing he would not do for people if approached in the right +way, but nobody cared for him, unless it were his mother and Aunt +Eunice. They seemed to like him, and he reckoned they did, but for the +rest, who was there that ever thought of doing him a kindness? Poor +Hugh! It was a dreary picture he drew as he sat alone that night, +brooding over his troubles, and listening to the moan of the wintry +wind--the only sound he heard, except the rattling of the shutters and +the creaking of the timbers, as the old house rocked in the December +gale. + +Suddenly there crept into his mind Adah's words, "I shall pray for you +to-night." He never prayed, and the Bible given by Golden Hair had not +been opened this many a day. Since his dark sin toward Adah he had felt +unworthy to touch it, but now that he was doing what he could to atone, +he surely might look at it, and unlocking the trunk where it was hidden, +he took it from its concealment and opened it reverently, half wondering +what he should read first, and if it would have any reference to his +present position. + +"Inasmuch as ye did it to the least of these ye did it unto Me." + +That was what Hugh read in the dim twilight, that the passage on which +the lock of hair lay, and the Bible dropped from his hands as he +whispered: + +"Golden Hair, are you here? Did you point that out to me? Does it mean +Adah? Is the God you loved on earth pleased that I should care for her?" + +To these queries, there came no answer, save the mournful wailing of the +night wind roaring down the chimney and past the sleet-covered window, +but Hugh was a happier man for reading that, and had there before +existed a doubt as to his duty toward Adah, this would have swept it +away. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +TERRACE HILL + + +The storm which visited Kentucky so wrathfully, and was far milder among +the New England hills, and in the vicinity of Snowdon, whither our story +now tends, was scarcely noticed, save as an ordinary winter's storm. As +yet it had been comparatively warmer in New England than in Kentucky; +and Miss Anna Richards, confirmed invalid though she was, had decided +that inasmuch as Terrace Hill mansion now boasted a furnace in the +cellar, it would hardly be necessary to take her usual trip to the +South, so comfortable was she at home, in her accustomed chair, with her +pretty crimson shawl wrapped gracefully around her. Besides that, they +were expecting her Brother John from Paris, where he had been for the +last eighteen months, pursuing his medical profession, and she must be +there to welcome him. + +Anna was proud of her young, handsome brother, as were the entire +family, for on him and his success in life all their future hopes were +pending. Aside from being proud, Anna was also very fond of John, +because as all were expected to yield to her wishes, she had never been +crossed by him, and because he was nearer to her own age, and had +evidently preferred her to either of his more stately sisters, Miss +Asenath and Miss Eudora, whose birthdays were very far distant from his. + +John had never been very happy at home--never liked Snowdon much, and +hence the efforts they were putting forth to make it attractive to him +after his long absence. He could not help but like home now, the ladies +said to each other, as, a few days before his arrival, they rode from +the village, where they had been shopping, up the winding terraced hill, +admiring the huge stone building embosomed in evergreens, and standing +out so distinctly against the wintry sky. And indeed Terrace Hill +mansion was a very handsome place, exciting the envy and admiration of +the villagers, who, while commenting upon its beauty and its well-kept +grounds, could yet remember a time when it had looked better even than +it did now--when the house was oftener full of city company, of +sportsmen who came up to hunt, and fish, and drink, as it was sometimes +hinted by the servants, of whom there was then a greater number than at +present--when high-born ladies rode up and down in carriages, or dashed +on horseback through the park and off into the leafy woods--when sounds +of festivity were heard in the halls from year's end to year's end, and +the lights in the parlors were rarely extinguished, or the fires on the +hearth put out. All this was during the lifetime of its former owner. +With his death there had come a change to the inhabitants of Terrace +Hill. In short it was whispered rather loudly now that the ladies of +Terrace Hill were restricted in their means, that it was harder to +collect a bill from them than it used to be, that there was less display +of dress and style, fewer fires, and lights, and servants, and +withdrawal from society, and an apparent desire to be left to +themselves. + +This was what the village people whispered, and none knew the truth of +the whisperings better than the ladies in question. They knew they were +growing poorer with each succeeding year, but it was not the less +mortifying to be familiarly accosted by Mrs. Deacon Briggs, or invited +to a sociable by Mrs. Roe. + +How Miss Asenath and Miss Eudora writhed under the infliction, and how +hard they tried to appear composed and ladylike just as they would deem +it incumbent upon them to appear, had they been on their way to the +gallows. How glad, too, they were when their aristocratic doors closed +upon the little, talkative Mrs. Roe, and what a good time they had +wondering how Mrs. Johnson, who really was as refined and cultivated as +themselves, could associate with such folks to the extent she did. She +was always present at the Snowdon sewing circles, they heard, and +frequently at its tea-drinkings, while never was there a sickbed but she +was sure to find it, particularly if the sick one were poor and +destitute. This was very commendable and praiseworthy, they admitted, +but they did not see how she could endure it. Once Miss Asenath had +ventured to ask her, and she had answered that all her best, most useful +lessons, were learned in just such places--that she was better for these +visits, and found her purest enjoyments in them. To Miss Asenath and +Miss Eudora, this was inexplicable, but Anna, disciplined by years of +ill health, had a slight perception of higher, purer motives than any +which actuated the family at Terrace Hill. On the occasion of little +Mrs. Roe's call it was Anna who apologized for her presumption, saying +that Mrs. Roe really had the kindest of hearts; besides, it was quite +natural for the villagers not to stand quite so much in awe of them now +that their fortune was declining, and as they could not make +circumstances conform to them, they must conform to circumstances. +Neither Asenath nor Eudora, nor the lady mother liked this kind of +conformation, but Anna was generally right, and they did not annihilate +Mrs. Roe with a contemptuous frown as they had fully intended doing. +Mrs. Johnson and her daughter Alice had been present, they heard, the +latter actually joining in some of the plays, and the new clergyman, Mr. +Howard, had suffered himself to be caught by Miss Alice, who disfigured +her luxuriant curls with a bandage, and played at blindman's buff. This +proved conclusively to the elder ladies of Terrace Hill that ministers +were no better than other people, and they congratulated themselves +afresh upon their escape from having one of the brotherhood in thir +family. + +In this escape Anna was particularly interested, as it had helped to +make her the delicate creature she was, for since the morning when she +had knelt at her proud father's feet, and begged him to revoke his cruel +decision, and say she might be the bride of a poor missionary, Anna had +greatly changed, and the father, ere he died, had questioned the +propriety of separating the hearts which clung so together. But the +young missionary had married another, and neither the parents nor the +sisters ever forgot the look of anguish which stole into Anna's face, +when she heard the fatal news. She had thought herself prepared, but the +news was just as crushing when it came, accompanied, though it was with +a few last lines from him. Anna kept this letter yet, wondering if the +missionary remembered her yet, and if they would ever meet again. This +was the secret of the missionary papers scattered so profusely through +the rooms at Terrace Hill. Anna was interested in everything pertaining +to the work, though, it must be confessed, that her mind wandered +oftenest to the banks of the Bosphorus, the City of Mosques and +Minarets, where he was laboring. Neither the mother, nor Asenath, nor +Eudora ever spoke to her of him, and so his name was never heard at +Terrace Hill, unless John mentioned it, as he sometimes did, drawing +comical pictures of what Anna would have been by this time had she +married the missionary. + +Anna only laughed at her wild brother's comments, telling him once to +beware, lest he, too, follow her example, and was guilty of loving some +one far beneath him. John Richards had spurned the idea. The wife who +bore his name should be every way worthy of a Richards. This was John's +theory, nursed and encouraged by mother and sisters, the former charging +him to be sure and keep his heart from all save the right one. Had he +done so? + +A peep at the family as on the day of his expected arrival from Paris +they sat waiting for him will enlighten us somewhat. Taken as a whole, +it was a very pleasant family group, which sat there waiting for the +foreign lion, waiting for the whistle of the engine which was to herald +his approach. + +"I wonder if he has changed," said the mother, glancing at the opposite +mirror and arranging the puffs of glossy false hair which shaded her +aristocratic forehead. + +"Of course he has changed somewhat," returned Miss Asenath, rubbing +together her white, bony hands, on one of which a costly diamond was +flashing. "Nearly two years of Paris society must have imparted to him +that _air distingué_ so desirable in a young man who has traveled." + +"He'll hardly fail of making a good match now," Miss Eudora remarked, +caressing the pet spaniel which had climbed into her lap. "I think we +must manage to visit Saratoga or some of those places next summer. Mr. +Gardner found his wife at Newport, and they say she's worth half a +million." + +"But horridly ugly," and Anna looked up from the reverie in which she +had been indulging. "Lottie says she has tow hair and a face like a +fish. John would never be happy with such a wife." + +"Possibly you think he had better have married that sewing girl about +whom he wrote us just before going to Europe," Miss Eudora said +spitefully, pinching the long silken ears of her pet until the animal +yelled with pain. + +There was a faint sigh from the direction of Anna's chair, and all knew +she was thinking of the missionary. The mother continued: + +"I trust he is over that fancy, and ready to thank me for the strong +letter I wrote him." + +"Yes, but the girl," and Anna leaned her white cheek in her whiter hand. +"None of us know the harm his leaving her may have done. Don't you +remember he wrote how much she loved him--how gentle and confiding her +nature was, and how to leave her then might prove her ruin?" + +"Our little Anna is growing very eloquent upon the subject of sewing +girls," Miss Asenath said, rather scornfully, and Anna rejoined: + +"I am not sure she was a sewing girl. He spoke of her as a schoolgirl." + + +"But it is most likely he did that to mislead us," said the mother. "The +only boarding school he knows anything about is the one where Lottie +was. If he were not her uncle by marriage I should not object to Lottie +as a daughter," was the next remark, whereupon there ensued a +conversation touching the merits and demerits of a certain Lottie +Gardner, whose father had taken for a second wife Miss Laura Richards. + +This Laura had died within a year of her marriage, but Lottie had +claimed relationship to the family just the same, grandmaing Mrs. +Richards and aunty-ing the sisters. John, however, was never called +uncle, except in fun. He was too near her age, the young lady frequently +declaring that she had half a mind to throw aside all family ties and +lay siege to the handsome young man, who really was very popular with +the fair sex. During this discussion of Lottie, Anna had sat listlessly +looking up and down the columns of an old _Herald_, which Dick, Eudora's +pet dog, had ferreted out from the table and deposited at her feet. She +evidently was not thinking of Lottie, nor yet of the advertisements, +until one struck her notice as being very singular. Holding it a little +more to the light she said: "Possibly this is the very person I +want--only the child might be an objection. Just listen," and Anna read +as follows: + + "WANTED--By an unfortunate young married woman, with a child a few + months old, a situation in a private family either as governess, + seamstress, or lady's maid. Country preferred. Address--" + +Anna was about to say whom when a violent ringing of the bell announced +an arrival, and the next moment a tall young man, exceedingly +Frenchified in his appearance, entered the room, and was soon in the +arms of his mother. + +John, hastening to where Anna sat, wound his arms around her light +figure, and kissed her white lips and looked into her face with an +expression, which told that, however indifferent he might be to others, +he was not so to Anna. + +"You have not changed for the worse," he said. "You are scarcely thinner +than when I went away." + +"And you are vastly improved," was Anna's answer. + +His mother continued: "I thought, perhaps, you were offended at my plain +letter concerning that girl, and resented it by not coming, but of +course you are glad now, and see that mother was right. What could you +have done with a wife in Paris?" + +"I should not have gone," John answered, moodily, a shadow stealing over +his face. + +It was not good taste for Mrs. Richards thus early to introduce a topic +on which John was really so sore, and for a moment an awkward silence +ensued, broken at last by the mother again, who, feeling that all was +not right, and anxious to know if there was yet aught to fear from a +poor, unknown daughter-in-law, asked, hesitatingly: + +"Have you seen her since your return?" + +"She's dead," was the laconic reply, and then, as if anxious to change +the conversation, the young doctor turned to Anna and said: "Guess who +was my fellow traveler from Liverpool?" + +Anna never could guess anything, and after a little her brother said: + +"The Rev. Charles Millbrook, missionary to Turkey, returning for his +health." + +For an instant Anna trembled as if she saw opening before her the grave +which for fourteen years had held her buried heart. Charlie was +breathing again the air of the same hemisphere with herself. She might, +perhaps, see him once more, and Hattie, was she with him, or was there +another grave made with the Moslem dead by little Anna's aide? She would +not ask, for she felt the cold, critical eyes bent upon her from across +the hearth, and a few commonplace inquiries was all she ventured upon. +Had Mr. Millbrook greatly changed since he went away? Did he look very +sick? And how had her brother liked him? + +"I scarcely spoke to him," was John's reply. "I confess to a most +lamentable ignorance touching the Rev. Mr. Millbrook and his family. He +wore crape on his hat, I remember, but there was a lady with him to whom +he was quite attentive, and who, I think, was called by his name." + +"Tall, with black eyes, like Lottie's?" Anna meekly asked, and John +replied: "Something after the Lottie order, though more like yourself." + +"It's strange I never saw a notice of his expected return," was Anna's +next remark. "Perhaps it was in the last _Missionary Herald_. You have +not found it yet, have you, mother?" + +The ringing of the supper bell prevented Mrs. Richards from answering. +How gracefully he did the honors, and how proud all were of him, as he +repeated little incidents of Parisian life, speaking of the emperor and +Eugenie as if they had been everyday sights to him. In figure and form +the fair empress reminded him of Anna, he said, except that Anna was the +prettier of the two--a compliment which Anna acknowledged with a blush +and a trembling of her long eyelashes. It was a very pleasant family +reunion, for John did his best to be agreeable. + +"Oh, John, please be careful. There's an advertisement I want to save," +Anna exclaimed, as she saw her brother tearing a strip from the _Herald_ +with which to light his cigar, but as she spoke, the flame curled around +the narrow strip, and Dr. Richards had lighted his cigar with the name +and address appended to the advertisement which had so interested Anna. + +How disturbed she was when she found that nought was left save the +simple wants of the young girl. + +"Let's see," and taking the mutilated sheet, Dr. Richards read the +"Wanted, by a young unfortunate married woman." + +"That unfortunate may mean a great deal more than you imagine," he said. + +"Yes, but she distinctly says married. Don't you see, and I had really +some idea of writing to her." + +"I'm sorry I was so careless, but there are a thousand unfortunate women +who would gladly be your maid, little sister. I'll send you out a score, +if you say so," and John laughed. + +"Has anything of importance occurred in this slow old town?" he +inquired, after Anna had become reconciled to her loss. "Are the people +as odd as usual?" + +"Yes, more so," Miss Eudora thought, "and more presuming," whereupon she +rehearsed the annoyances to which they had been subjected from their +changed circumstances, dwelling at length upon Mrs. Roe's tea drinking, +and the insult offered by inviting them, when she knew there would be no +one present with whom they associated. + +"You forget Mrs. Johnson," interposed Anna. "We would be glad to know +her better than we do, she is so refined and cultivated in all her +tastes, while Alice is the sweetest girl I ever knew. By the way, +brother, they have come here since you left, consequently you have a +rare pleasure in store, the forming their acquaintance." + +"Whose, the old or the young lady's?" John asked. + +"Both," was Anna's reply. "The mother is very youthful in her +appearance. Why, she scarcely looks older than I, and I, you know, am +thirty-two." + +As if fearful lest her own age should come next under consideration, +Miss Eudora hastened to say: + +"Yes, Mrs. Johnson does look very young, and Alice seems like a child. +Such beautiful hair as she has. It used to be a bright yellow, or +golden, but now it has a darker, richer shade, while her eyes are the +softest, handsomest blue." + +Alice Johnson was evidently a favorite, and this stamped her somebody, +so John began to ask who the Johnsons were. + +Mrs. Richards seemed disposed to answer, which she did as follows: + +"Mrs. Johnson used to live in Boston, and her husband was grandson of +old Governor Johnson." + +"Ah, yes," and John began to laugh. "I see now what gives Miss Alice's +hair that peculiar shade, and her eyes that heavenly blue; but go on, +mother, and give her figure as soon as may be." + +"What do you mean?" asked Anna. "I should suppose you'd care more for +her face than her form." + +John smiled mischievously, while his mother continued: + +"I fancy that Mrs. Johnson's family met with a reverse of fortune before +her marriage. I do not see her as often as I would like to, for I am +greatly pleased with her, although she has some habits of which I cannot +approve. Why, I hear that Alice had a party the other day +consisting-wholly of ragged urchins." + +"They were her Sabbath school scholars," interposed Anna. + +"I vote that Anna goes on with Alice's history. She gives it best," said +John, and so Anna continued: + +"There is but little more to tell. Mrs. Johnson and her daughter are +both nice ladies, and I am sure you will like them--everybody does; and +rumor has already given Alice to our young clergyman, Mr. Howard." + +"And she is worth fifty thousand dollars, too," rejoined Asenath. + +"I have her figure at last," said John, winking slyly at Anna. + +And, indeed, the fifty thousand dollars did seem to make an impression +on the young man, who grew interested at once, making numerous +inquiries, asking where he would be most likely to see her. + +"At church," was Anna's reply. "She is always there, and their pew joins +ours." + +Dr. Richards was exceedingly vain, and his vanity manifested itself from +the tie of his neckerchief down to the polish of his boots. Once, had +Hugh Worthington known him intimately, he would have admitted that there +was at least one man whose toilet occupied quite as much time as +Adaline's. In Paris the vain doctor had indulged in the luxury of a +valet, carefully keeping it a secret from his mother and sisters, who +were often compelled to deny themselves that the money he asked for so +often might be forthcoming. But that piece of extravagance was over now; +he dared not bring his valet home, though he sadly wished him there as +he meditated upon the appearance he would make in church next Sabbath. +He was glad there was something new and interesting in Snowdon in the +shape of a pretty girl, for he did not care to return at once to New +York, where he had intended practicing his profession. There were too +many sad memories clustering about that city to make it altogether +desirable, but Dr. Richards was not yet a hardened wretch, and thoughts +of another than Alice Johnson, with her glorious hair and still more +glorious figure, crowded upon his mind as on that first evening of his +return, he sat answering questions and asking others of his own. + +It was late ere the family group broke up, and the storm, beating so +furiously upon Spring Bank, was just making its voice heard around +Terrace Hill mansion, when the doctor took the lamp the servant brought, +and bidding his mother and sisters good-night, ascended the stairs +whither Anna had gone before him. She was not, however, in bed, and +called softly to him: + +"John, Brother John, come in a moment, please." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +ANNA AND JOHN + + +He found her in a tasteful gown, its heavy tassels almost sweeping the +floor, while her long, glossy hair, loosened from its confinement of +ribbon and comb, covered her neck and shoulders as she sat before the +fire always kindled in her room. + +"How picturesque you look," he said, gayly. + +"John," and Anna's voice was soft and pleasing, "was Charlie greatly +changed? Tell me, please." + +"I was so young in the days when he came wooing that I hardly remember +how he used to look. I should not have known him, but my impression is +that he looks about as well as men of forty usually look." + +"Not forty, John, only thirty-eight," Anna interposed. + +"Well, thirty-eight, then. You remember his age remarkably well," John +said, laughingly, adding: "Did you once love him very much?" + +"Yes," and Anna's voice faltered a little. + +"Why didn't you marry him, then?" + +John spoke excitedly, and the flush deepened on his cheek when Anna +answered meekly: + +"Why didn't you marry that poor girl?" + +"Why didn't I?" and John started to his feet; then he continued: "Anna, +I tell you there's a heap of wrong for somebody to answer for, but it is +not you, and it is not me--it's--it's mother!" and John whispered the +word, as if fearful lest the proud, overbearing woman should hear. + +"You are mistaken," Anna replied, "for as far as Charlie was concerned +father had more to do with it than mother. I've never seen him since. He +did marry another, but I've never quite believed that he forgot me." + +Anna was talking now more to herself than to John, and Charlie, could he +have seen her, would have said she was not far from the narrow way which +leadeth unto life. To John her white face, irradiated with gleams of the +soft firelight, was as the face of an angel, and for a time he kept +silence before her, then suddenly exclaimed: + +"Anna, you are good, and so was she, so good, so pure, so artless, and +that made it hard to leave her, to give her up. Anna, do you know what +my mother wrote me? Listen, while I tell, then see if she is not to +blame. She cruelly reminded me that by my father's will all of us, save +you, were wholly dependent upon her, and said the moment I threw myself +away upon a low, vulgar, penniless girl, that moment she'd cast me off, +and I might earn my bread and hers as best I could. She said, too, my +sisters, Anna and all, sanctioned what she wrote, and your opinion had +more weight than all the rest." + +"Oh, John, mother could not have so misconstrued my words. Surely my +note explained--I sent one in mother's letter." + +"It never reached me," John said, while Anna sighed at this proof of her +mother's treachery. + +Always conciliatory, however, she soon remarked: + +"You are sole male heir to the Richards name. Mother's heart and pride +are bound up in you. A poor, unknown girl would only add to our +expenses, and not help you in the least. What was her name? I've never +heard." + +John hesitated, then answered: "I called her Lily, she was so fair and +pure." + +Anna was never in the least suspicious, but took all things for granted, +so now she thought within herself, "Lilian, most likely." Then she said: +"You were not engaged to her, were you?" + +John started forward, and gazed into his sister's face with an +expression as if he wished she would question him more closely, but Anna +never dreamed of a secret, and seeing him hesitate, she said: + +"You need not tell me unless you like. I only thought, maybe, you and +Lily were not engaged." + +"We were. Anna, I'm a wretch--a miserable wretch, and have scarcely +known an hour's peace since I left her." + +"Was there a scene?" Anna asked; and John replied: + +"Worse than that. Worse for her. She did not know I was going till I was +gone. I wrote to her from Paris, for I could not meet her face and tell +her how mean I was. I've thought of her so much, and when I landed in +New York I went at once to find her, or at least to inquire, hoping +she'd forgotten me. The beldame who kept the place was not the same with +whom I had left Lily, but she know about her, and told me she died with +cholera last September. She and--oh, Lily, Lily--" and hiding his face +in Anna's lap, John Richards, whom we have only seen as a traveled +dandy, sobbed like a little child. + +"John," she said at last, when the sobbing had ceased, "You say this +Lily was good. Do you mean she was a Christian, like Charlie?" + +"Yes, if there ever was one. Why, she used to make a villain like me +kneel with her every night, and say the Lord's Prayer." + +For an instant, a puzzling thought crossed Anna's brain as to the +circumstances which could have brought her brother every night to Lily's +side, but it passed away immediately as she rejoined: + +"Then she is safe in heaven, and there are no tears there. We'll try to +meet her some day. You could not help her dying. She might have died had +she been your wife, so I'd try to think it happened for the best, and +you'll soon get to believing it did. That's my experience. You are young +yet, and life has much in store for you. You'll find some one to fill +Lily's place; some one whom we shall all think worthy of you, and +_we'll_ be so happy together." + +She did not speak of Alice Johnson, but she thought of her. John, too, +thought of Alice Johnson, wondering how she would look to him who might +have married the daughter of a count. He had not told Anna of this, and +he was about preparing to leave her, when, changing the conversation, +she said: + +"Did we ever write to you--no, we didn't--about that mysterious +stranger, that man who stopped for a day or two at the hotel, nearly two +years ago, and made so many inquiries about us and our place, pretending +he wanted to buy it in exchange for city property, and that some one had +told him it was for sale?" + +"What man? Who was he?" John asked; and Anna replied: + +"He called himself Bronson." + +"Describe him," John said, settling back so that his face was partly +concealed in the shadow. + +"Rather tall, firmly-knit figure, with what I imagine people mean when +they say a bullet-head, that is, a round, hard head, with keen gray +eyes, sandy mustache, and a scar or something on his right temple. Are +you cold?" and she turned quickly to her brother, who had shuddered +involuntarily at her description, for well he knew now who that man was. + +But why had he come there? This John did not know, and as it was +necessary to appear natural, he answered to Anna's inquiry, that he +thought he had taken cold, as the cars were badly warmed. + +"But, go on; tell me more of this Bronson. He heard our house was for +sale. How, pray?" + +"From some one in New York; and the landlord suggested it might have +been you." + +"It's false. I never told him so," and John spoke savagely. + +"Then you did know him? What was he? We were half afraid of him, he +behaved so strangely," Anna said, looking wonderingly at her brother, +whose face alternately flushed and then grew pale. + +Simple little Anna, how John blessed her in his heart for possessing so +little insight into the genuine springs of his character, for when he +answered: + +"Of course I don't know him--I mean that I never told any one that +Terrace Hill was for sale." + +She believed what he said, and very innocently continued: + +"Had there been a trifle more of fun in my nature, I should, have teased +Eudora, by telling her he came here to see her or Asenath. He was very +curious for a sight of all of us." + +"Did he come here--into the house?" John asked; and Anna replied: + +"Why, yes. He was rather coarse-looking, to be sure, with marks of +dissipation, but very gentlemanly and even pleasing in his address." + +Anna went on: "He was exceedingly polite--apologized for troubling me, +and then stated his business. I told him he must have been misinformed, +as we never dreamed of selling. He took his leave, looking back all the +way through the park, and evidently examining minutely the house and +grounds. Mother was so fidgety after it, declaring him a burglar, and +keeping a watch for several nights after his departure." + +"Undoubtedly he was," said John. "A burglar, I dare say, and you were +fortunate, all of you, in not being stolen from your beds as you lay +sleeping." + +"Oh, we keep our doors locked," was Anna's demure reply. + +"Midnight, as I live!" he exclaimed, and was glad of an excuse for +retiring, as he wished now to be alone. + +Anna had not asked him half what she had meant to ask concerning +Charlie, but she would not keep him longer, and with a kiss upon his +handsome brow she sent him away, herself holding the door a little ajar +and listening to see what effect the new carpet would have upon him. It +did not have any at first, so much was he absorbed in that man with the +scar upon his temple. Why had he come there, and why had it not been +told him before? His people were so stupid in their letters, never +telling what was sure to interest him most. But what good could it have +done had he known of the mysterious visit? None whatever--at least +nothing particular had resulted from it, he was sure. + +"It must have been just after one of his sprees, when he is always more +than half befogged," he said to himself. "Possibly he was passing this +way and the insane idea seized him to stop and pretend to buy Terrace +Hill. The rascal!" and having thus satisfactorily settled it in his +mind, the doctor did look at Anna's carpet, admiring its pattern, and +having a kind of pleasant consciousness that everything was in keeping, +from the handsome drapery which shaded the windows to the marble hearth +on which a fire was blazing. + +In Adah Hastings' dream that night there were visions of a little room +far up in a fourth story, where her fair head was pillowed again upon +the manly arm of one who listened while she chided him gently for his +long delay, and then told him of their Willie boy so much like him, as +the young mother thought. + +In Dr. Richards' dreams, when at last he slept, there were visions of a +lonely grave in a secluded part of Greenwood, and he heard again the +startling words: + +"Dead, both she and the child." + +He did not know there was a child, and he staggered in his sleep, just +as he staggered down the creaking stairs, repeating to himself: + +"Lily's child--Lily's child. May Lily's God forgive me." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +ALICE JOHNSON + + +The Sabbath dawned at last. The doctor had not yet made his appearance +in the village, and Saturday had been spent by him in rehearsing to his +sisters and the servants the wonderful things he had seen abroad, and in +lounging listlessly by a window which overlooked the town, and also +commanded a view of the tasteful cottage by the riverside, where they +told him Mrs. Johnson lived. One upper window he watched with peculiar +interest, from the fact that, early in the day, a head had protruded +from it a moment, as if to inhale the wintry air, and then been quickly +withdrawn. + +"Does Miss Johnson wear curls?" he asked, rather indifferently, with his +eye still on the cottage by the river. + +"Yes; a great profusion of them," was Mrs. Richards' reply, and then the +doctor knew he had caught a glimpse of Alice Johnson, for the head he +had seen was covered with curls, he was sure. + +But little good did a view at that distance afford him. He must see her +nearer ere he decided as to her merits to be a belle. He did not believe +her face would at all compare with the one which continually haunted his +dreams, and over which the coffin lid was shut weary months ago, but +fifty thousand dollars had invested Miss Alice with that peculiar charm +which will sometimes make an ugly face beautiful. The doctor was +beginning to feel the need of funds, and now that Lily was dead, the +thought had more than once crossed his mind that to set himself at once +to the task of finding a wealthy wife was a duty he owed himself and his +family. Had poor, deserted Lily lived; had he found her in New York, he +could not tell what he might have done, for the memory of her sweet, +gentle love was the one restraining influence which kept him from much +sin. He never could forget her; never love another as he had once loved +her, but she was dead, and it was better, so he reasoned, for now was he +free to do his mother's will, and take a wife worthy of a Richards. + +Anna was not with the party which at the usual hour entered the family +carriage with Bibles and prayer books in hand. She seldom went out +except on warm, pleasant days; but she stood in the deep bay window +watching the carriage as it wound down the hill, thinking first how +pleasant and homelike the Sabbath bells must sound to Charlie this day, +and secondly, how handsome and stylish her young brother looked with his +Parisian cloak and cap, which he wore so gracefully. Others than Anna +thought so, too; and at the church door there was quite a little stir, +as he gallantly handed out first his mother and then his sisters, and +followed them into the church. + +Dr. Richards had never enjoyed a reputation for being very devotional, +and the interval between his entrance and the commencement of the +service was passed by him in a rather scornful survey of the time-worn +house. With a sneer in his heart, he mentally compared the old-fashioned +pulpit, with its steep flight of steps and faded trimmings, with the +lofty cathedral he had been in the habit of attending in Paris, and a +feeling of disgust and contempt was creeping over him, when a soft +rustling of silk, and a consciousness of a delicate perfume, which he at +once recognized as aristocratic, warned him that somebody was coming; +somebody entirely different from the score of females who had +distributed themselves within range of his vision, their countrified +bonnets, as he termed them, trimmed outside and in without the least +regard to taste, or combination of color. But the little lady, moving so +quietly up the aisle--she was different. She was worthy of respect, and +the Paris beau felt an inclination to rise at once and acknowledge her +superior presence. + +Wholly unconscious of the interest she was exciting, the lady deposited +her muff upon the cushions, and then kneeling reverently upon the +well-worn stool, covered her face with the hands which had so won the +doctor's admiration. What a little creature she was, scarcely larger +than a child twelve summers old, and how gloriously beautiful were the +curls of indescribable hue, falling in such profusion from beneath the +jaunty hat. All this Dr. Richards noted, marveling that she knelt so +long, and wondering what she could be saying. + +Alice's devotion ended at last, and the view so coveted was obtained; +for in adjusting her dress Alice turned toward him, or rather toward his +mother, and the doctor drew a sudden breath as he met the brilliant +flashing of those laughing sunny blue eyes, and caught the radiant +expression of that face, slightly dimpled with a smile. Beautiful, +wondrously beautiful was Alice Johnson, and yet the features were not +wholly regular, for the piquant nose had a slight turn up, and the +forehead was not very high; but for all this, the glossy hair, the +dancing blue eyes, the apple-blossom complexion, and the rosebud mouth +made ample amends; and Dr. Richards saw no fault in that witching face, +flashing its blue eyes for an instant upon him, and then modestly +turning to the service just commencing. So absorbed was Dr. Richards as +not to notice that the strain of music filling the old church did not +come from the screeching melodeon he had so anathematized, but from an +organ as mellow and sweet in its tone as any he had heard across the +sea. He did not notice anything; and when his sister, surprised at his +sitting posture, whispered to him of her surprise, he started quickly, +and next time the congregation arose he was the first upon his feet, +mingling his voice with that of Alice Johnson and even excelling her in +the loudness of his reading! + +As if divining his wishes in the matter, his mother turned to the +eagerly expectant doctor, whom she introduced as "My son, Dr. Richards." + +Alice had heard much of Dr. Richards from the young girls of Snowdon. +She had heard his voice in the Psalter, his responses in the Litany, and +accepted it as a sign of marked improvement. He could not be as +irreverent and thoughtless as he had been represented by those who did +not like him; he must have changed during his absence, and she frankly +offered him her hand, and with a smile which he felt even to his finder +tips, welcomed him home, making some trivial remark touching the +contrast between their quiet town and the cities he had left. + +"But you will help make it pleasanter for us this winter, I am sure," +she continued, and the sweet blue eyes sought his for an answer as to +whether he would desert Snowdon immediately. + +What a weak, vacillating creature is man before a pretty woman like +Alice Johnson. Twenty-four hours ago, and the doctor would have scoffed +at the idea that he should tarry longer than a week or two at the +farthest in that dull by-place, where the people were only half +civilized; but now the tables were turned as by magic. Snowdon was as +pretty a rural village as New England could boast, and he meant to enjoy +it for a while. It would be a relief after the busy life he had led, and +was just the change he needed! So, in answer to Alice's remark, he said +he should probably remain at home some time, that he always found it +rather pleasant at Snowdon, though as a boy he had, he supposed, often +chafed at its dullness; but he saw differently now. Besides, it could +not now be dull, with the acquisition it had received since he was there +before; and he bowed gracefully toward the young lady, who acknowledged +the compliment with a faint blush, and then turned toward the group of +"noisy, ill-bred children," as Dr. Richards thought, who came thronging +about her. + +"My Sabbath school scholars," Alice said, as if in answer to these +mental queries, "Ah, here comes my youngest--my pet," and Alice stooped +to caress a little rosy-cheeked boy, with bright brown eyes and patches +on both coat sleeves. + +The doctor saw the patches, but not the handsome face, and with a +gesture of impatience, turned to go, just as his ear caught another +kiss, and he knew the patched boy received what he would have given much +to have. + +"Hanged if I don't half wish I was one of those ragged urchins," he +said, after handing his mother and sisters to their carriage, and +seating himself at their side. "But does not Miss Johnson display +strange taste? Surely some other one less refined might be found to look +after those brats, if they must be looked after, which I greatly doubt. +Better leave them, as you find them; can't elevate them if you try. It's +trouble thrown away." + +Just before turning from the main road into the park which led to +Terrace Hill, they met a stylish little covered sleigh. The colored +driver politely touched big hat to the ladies, who leaned out a moment +to look after him. + +"That's Mrs. Johnson's turnout," said Eudora. "In the winter Martin +always takes Alice to church and then returns for her." + +"And folks say," interposed Asenath, "that if the walking is bad or the +weather cold, both Alice and her mother go two miles out of their way to +carry home some old woman or little child, who lives at a distance. I've +seen Alice myself with half a dozen or more of these children, and she +looked as proud and happy as a queen. Queer taste, isn't it?" + +John thought it was, though he himself said: "It is like what Lily would +have done, had she possessed the power and means." + +"Well, brother, what of Miss Alice? Was she at church?" Anna asked +softly. "I need not ask though, for of course she was. I should almost +as soon think of hearing that Mr. Howard himself was absent as Alice." + +"That reminds me," said John, "of what you said concerning Mr. Howard +and Alice. There can't be any truth in it. She surely does not fancy +him." + +"Not as a lover," Anna replied. "She respects him greatly, however, +because he is a clergyman." + +"Is she then a very strong church woman?" John asked. + +"Yes, but not a bit of a blue," Anna replied. "If all Christians were +like Alice, religion would be divested of much of its supposed gloom. +She shows it everywhere, and so does not have to wear it on set +occasions to prove that she possesses it. How were you pleased with Miss +Johnson?" + +"How was I pleased with her? I felt like kissing the hem of her blue +silk, of course! But I tell you, Anna, those ragged, dirty urchins who +came trooping into that damask-cushioned pew, marred the picture +terribly. What possible pleasure can she take in teaching them?" + +Anna had an idea of the pleasure it might be to feel that one was doing +good, but she could not explain lucidly, so she did not attempt it. She +only said Miss Alice was very benevolent and received her reward in the +love bestowed upon her so freely by those whom she befriended. + +"And to win her good graces, must one pretend to be interested in those +ragamuffins?" John asked, a little spitefully. + +"Why, no, not unless they were. Alice could not wish you to be +deceitful," was Anna's reply, after which a long silence ensued, and +Anna dropped away to sleep, while her brother sat watching the fire +blazing in the grate, and trying to decide as to his future course. + +Should he return to New York, accept the offer of an old friend of his +father's, an experienced practitioner, and thus earn his own bread +honorably; or, should he remain a while at Snowdon and cultivate Alice +Johnson? He had never yet failed when he chose to exert himself, and +though he might, for a time, be compelled to adopt a different code of +morality from that which he at present acknowledged, he would do it for +once. He could be interested in those ragged children; he could +encourage Sunday schools; he could attend church as regularly as Alice +herself; and, better yet, he could doctor the poor for nothing, as that +was sure to tell, and he would do it, too, if necessary. This was the +finale which he reached at last by a series of arguments pro and con, +and when it was reached, he was anxious to commence the task at once. He +presumed he could love Alice Johnson; she was so pretty; but even if he +didn't, he would only be doing what thousands had done before him. He +should be very proud of her, and would certainly try to make her happy. +One long, almost sobbing sigh to the memory of poor Lily, who had loved +so much and been so cruelly betrayed, one faint struggle with +conscience, which said that Alice Johnson was too pure a gem for him to +trifle with, and then, the past, with its sad memories, was buried. + +"Not going to church twice in one day!" Mrs. Richards exclaimed as the +doctor threw aside the book he had been reading, and started for his +cloak. + +"Why, yes," he answered. "I liked that parson so much better than I +expected, that I think I'll go again," and hurrying out, he was soon on +his way to St. Paul's. + +"Gone on foot, too, when it's so cold!" and the mother, who had risen +and stood watching him from the window, spoke anxiously. + +The service was commencing, but the doctor was in no hurry to take his +seat. He would as soon be seen as not, and, vain fop that he was, he +rather enjoyed the stirring of heads he felt would ensue when he moved +up the aisle. At last he would wait no longer, and with a most +deferential manner, as if asking pardon for disturbing the congregation, +he walked to his pew door, and depositing his hat and cloak, sat down +just where he meant to sit, next the little figure, at which he did not +glance, knowing, of course, that it was Alice. + +How then was he astonished and confounded when at the reading of the +Psalter, another voice than hers greeted his ear!--a strange, sharp +voice, whose tones were not as indicative of refinement as Alice's had +been, and whose pronunciation, distinctly heard, savored somewhat of the +so-called down East. He looked at her now, moving off a foot or more, +and found her a little, odd, old woman, shriveled and withered, with +velvet hat, not of the latest style, its well-kept strings of black +vastly different from the glossy blue he had so much admired at an +earlier period of the day. Was ever man more disappointed? Who was she, +the old witch, for so he mentally termed the inoffensive woman devoutly +conning her prayer book, unconscious of the wrath her presence was +exciting in the bosom of the young man beside her! How he wished he had +stayed at home, and were it not that he sat so far distant from the +door, he would certainly have left in disgust. What a drawling tone was +Mr. Howard's. + +Such were the doctor's thoughts. But hark! Whose voice was that? The +congregation seemed to hold their breath as the glorious singer warbled +forth the bird-like strain, "Thou that takest away the sins of the +world." She sang those words as if she felt them every one, and Dr. +Richards' heart thrilled with an indefinable emotion us he listened. +"Thou that sittest on the right hand of God the Father;" how rich and +full her voice as she sang that alone; and when the final Amen was +reached, and the grand old chant was ended, Dr. Richards sat like one +entranced, straining his ear to catch the last faint echo of the +sweetest music he had ever heard. + +Could Alice sing like that, and who was this nightingale? How he wished +he knew; and when next the people arose, obedient to the organ's call, +he was of their number, and turning full about, looked up into the +gallery, starting as he looked, and half uttering an exclamation of +surprise. There was no mistaking the Russian sable fur, the wide blue +ribbons thrown so gracefully back, the wealth of sunny hair, or the +lustrous eyes, which swept for an instant over the congregation below, +taking in him with the rest, and then were dropped upon the keys, where +the snowy, ungloved hands were straying. The organist was Alice Johnson! +There were no more regrets now that he had come to church, no more +longings to be away, no more maledictions against Mr. Howard's drawling +manner, no more invectives against the poor old woman, listening like +himself with rapt attention, and wondering if the music of heaven could +be sweeter than that her bonny Alice made. The doctor, too, felt better +for such music, and he never remembered having been more attentive to a +sermon in his life than to the one, which followed the evening service. + +When it was ended, and the people dismissed, she came tripping down the +stairs, flooding the dingy vestibule with a world of sunshine. + +"Here, Aunt Densie, here I am. Martin is waiting for us," the doctor +heard her say to the old lady, who was elbowing her way through the +crowd, and who at last came to a standstill, apparently looking for +something she could not find. "What is it, auntie?" Alice said again. +"Lost something, have you? I'll be with you in a minute." + +Two hours ago, and Dr. Richards would not have cared if fifty old women +had lost their entire wardrobe. As an attache of some kind to Alice +Johnson, Densie was an object of importance, and stepping forward, just +as Alice had made her way to the distressed old lady's side, he very +politely offered to assist in the search. + +"Ah, Dr. Richards, thank you," Alice said, as the black kid was found, +and passed to its anxious owner. + +The doctor never dreamed of an introduction, for his practiced eye saw +at once that however Alice might auntie her, the woman was still a +servant. How then was he surprised when Alice said: + +"Miss Densmore, this is Dr. Richards, from Terrace Hill," adding, in an +aside to him: "My old nurse, who took care of both mother and myself +when we were children." + +They were standing in the door now, and the covered sleigh was drawn up +just in front. + +"Auntie first," she said, as they reached the carriage steps, and so the +doctor was fain to help auntie in, whispering gallantly in an aside: + +"Age before beauty always!" + +"Thank you," and Alice's ringing laugh cut the winter air as she +followed Densie Densmore, the doctor carefully wrapping her cloak about +her, and asking if her fur was pulled up sufficiently around her neck. + +"It's very cold," he said, glancing up at the glittering stars, scarcely +brighter than the blue eyes flashing on him. "At least I found it so on +my walk to church," and with a slight shiver the scheming doctor was +bowing himself away, when Alice exclaimed: + +"Did you walk this wintry night? Pray, gratify me then by accepting a +seat in our sleigh. There's plenty of room without crowding auntie." + +Happy Dr. Richards! How he exerted himself to be agreeable, talking +about the singing, asking if she often honored the people as she had +to-night. + +"I take Miss Fisher's place when she is absent," Alice replied, +whereupon, the doctor said he must have her up at Terrace Hill some day, +to try Anna's long-neglected instrument. "It was once a most superb +affair, but I believe it is sadly out of tune. Anna is very fond of you, +Miss Johnson, and your visits would benefit her greatly. I assure you +there's a duty of charity to be discharged at Terrace Hill as well as +elsewhere. Anna suffers from too close confinement indoors, but, with a +little skill, I think we can manage to get her out once more. Shall we +try?" + +Selfish Dr. Richards! It was all the same to him whether Anna went out +once a day or once a year, but Alice did not suspect him and she +answered frankly that she should have visited Terrace Hill more +frequently, had she supposed his mothers and sisters cared particularly +for society, but she had always fancied they preferred being alone. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +RIVERSIDE COTTAGE + + +Mrs. Johnson did not like Dr. Richards, and yet he became an almost +daily visitor at Riverside Cottage, where one face at least grew +brighter when he came, and one pair of eyes beamed on him a welcome. His +new code of morality worked admirably. Mr. Howard himself was not more +regular at church, or Alice more devout, than Dr. Richards. The +children, whom he had denominated "ragged brats," were no longer spurned +with contempt, but fed with peanuts and molasses candy. He was popular +with the children, but the parents, clear-sighted, treated him most +shabbily at his back, accusing him of caring only for Miss Alice's good +opinion. + +This was what the poor said, and what many others thought. Even Anna, +who took everything for what it seemed, roused herself and more than +once remonstrated with her brother upon the course he was pursuing, if +he were not in earnest, as something he once said to her made her half +suspect. + +She had become very intimate with Alice latterly, and as her health +improved with the coming of spring, almost every fine day found her at +Riverside Cottage, where once she and Mrs. Johnson stumbled upon a +confidential chat, having for its subject John and Alice, Anna said +nothing against her brother. She merely spoke of him as kind and +affectionate, but the quick-seeing mother detected more than the words +implied, and after that the elegant doctor was less welcome to her +fireside than, he had been before. + +As the winter passed away and spring advanced, he showed no intentions +of leaving Snowdon, but on the contrary opened an office in the village, +greatly to the surprise of the inhabitants, who remembered his former +contempt for any one who could settle down in that dull town, and +greatly to the dismay of old Dr. Rogers, who for years had blistered and +bled the good people without a fear of rivalry. + +"Does Dr. Richards intend locating permanently in Snowdon?" Mrs. Johnson +asked of her daughter as they sat alone one pleasant spring evening. + +"His sign would indicate as much," was Alice's reply. + +"Mother," she said gently, "you look pale and worried. You have looked +so for some time past. What is it, mother? Are you very sick, or are you +troubled about me?" + +"Is there any reason why I should be troubled about my darling?" asked +the mother. + +Alice never had any secrets from her mother, and she answered frankly: +"I don't know, unless--unless--mother, why don't you like Dr. Richards?" + +The ice was fairly broken now, and very briefly but candidly Mrs. +Johnson told why she did not like him. He was handsome, refined, +educated, and agreeable, she admitted, but still there was something +lacking. The mask he was wearing had not deceived her, and she would +have liked him far better without it. This she said to Alice, adding +gently: "He may be all he seems, but I doubt it. I distrust him greatly. +I think he fancies you and loves your money." + +"Oh, mother," and in Alice's voice there was a sound of tears, "you do +him injustice, and he has been so kind to us, while Snowdon is so much +pleasanter since he came." + +"Are you engaged to him?" was Mrs. Johnson's next question. + +"No," and Alice looked up wonderingly. "I do not believe I like him +well enough for that." + +Alice Johnson was wholly ingenuous and would not for the world have +concealed a thing from her mother, and very frankly she continued: + +"I like Dr. Richards better than any gentleman I have ever met. I should +have told you, mother." + +"God bless my darling, and keep her as innocent as now," Mrs. Johnson +murmured. "I am glad there is no engagement. Will you promise there +shall not be for one year at least?" + +"Yes, I will, I do," Alice said at last. + +A second "God bless my darling," came from the mother's lips, and +drawing her treasure nearer to her, she continued: "You have made me +very happy, and by and by you'll be so glad. You may leave me now, for I +am tired and sick." + +It was long ere Alice forgot the expression of her mother's face or the +sound of her voice, so full of love and tenderness, as she bade her +good-night on that last evening they ever spent together alone. The +indisposition of which Mrs. Johnson had been complaining for several +days, proved to be no light matter, and when next morning Dr. Rogers was +summoned to her bedside, he decided it to be a fever which was then +prevailing to some extent in the neighboring towns. + +That afternoon it was told at Terrace Hill that Mrs. Johnson was very +sick, and half an hour later the Richards carriage, containing the +doctor and his Sister Anna, wound down the hill, and passing through the +park, turned in the direction of the cottage, where they found Mrs. +Johnson even worse than they had anticipated. The sight of distress +aroused Anna at once, and forgetting her own feebleness she kindly +offered to stay until night if she could be of any service. Mrs. Johnson +was fond of Anna, and she expressed her pleasure so eagerly that Anna +decided to remain, and went with Alice to remove her wrappings. + +"Oh, I forgot!" she exclaimed, as a sudden thought seemed to strike her. +"I don't know as I can stay after all, though I might write it here, I +suppose as well as at home; and as John is going to New York to-night he +will take it along." + +"What is it?" Alice asked; and Anna replied: + +"You'll think me very foolish, no doubt, but I want to know if you too +think so. I'm so dependent on other's opinions," and, in a low tone, +Anna told of the advertisement seen early last winter, how queerly it +was expressed, and how careless John had been in tearing off the name +and address, with which to light his cigar. "It seems to me," she +continued, "that 'unfortunate married woman' is the very one I want." + +"Yes; but how will you find her? I understand that the address was +burned," Alice rejoined quickly, feeling herself that Anna was hardly +sane in her calculations. + +"Oh, I've used that in the wording," Anna answered. "I do not know as it +will ever reach her, it's been so long, but if it does, she'll be sure +to know I mean her, or somebody like her." + +"I dislike writing very much," she said, as she saw the array of +materials, "and I write so illegibly too. Please do it for me, that's a +dear, good girl," and she gave the pen to Alice, who wrote the first +word, "Wanted," and then waited for Anna to dictate. + + "WANTED--By an invalid lady, whose home is in the country, a young + woman, who will be both useful and agreeable, either as a companion + or waiting maid. No objection will be raised if the woman is + married, and unfortunate, or has a child a few months old. Address, + + "A.E.R., Snowdon, Hampden Co., Mass." + +Alice thought it the queerest advertisement she had ever seen, but Anna +was privileged to do queer things, and folding the paper, she went out +into the hall, where the doctor sat waiting for her. + +John's mustached lip curled a little scornfully as he read it. + +"Why, puss, that girl or woman is in Georgia by this time, and as the +result of this, Terrace Hill will be thronged with unfortunate women and +children, desiring situations. Better let me burn this, as I did the +other, and not be foolish. She will never see it," and John made a +gesture as if he would put it in the stove, but Anna caught his hand, +saying imploringly: "Please humor me this once. She may see it, and I'm +so interested." + +Anna was always humored, and the doctor placed in his memorandum book +the note, then turning to Alice he addressed her in so low a tone that +Anna readily took the hint and left them together. Dr. Richards was not +intending to be gone long, he said, though the time would seem a little +eternity, so much was his heart now bound up in Snowdon. + +Afraid lest he might say something more of the same nature, Alice +hastened to ask if he had seen her mother, and what he thought of her. + +"I stepped in for a moment while you were in the library," he replied. +"She seemed to have a high fever, and I fancied it increased while I +stood by her. I am sorry to leave while she is so sick, but remember +that if anything happens you will be dearer to me than ever," and the +doctor pressed the little hand which he took in his to say good-by, for +now he must really go. + +As the day and night wore on Mrs. Johnson grew worse so rapidly, that at +her request a telegram was forwarded to Mr. Liston, who had charge of +her moneyed affairs, and who came at once, for the kind old man was +deeply interested in the widow and her lovely daughter. As Mrs. Johnson, +could bear it, they talked alone together until he perfectly understood +what her wishes were with regard to Alice, and how to deal with Dr. +Richards, whom he had not yet seen. Then promising to return again in +case the worst should happen, he took his leave, while Mrs. Johnson, now +that a weight was lifted from her mind, seemed to rally, and the +physician pronounced her better. But with that strange foreknowledge, as +it were, which sometimes comes to people whose days are nearly numbered, +she felt that she would die, and that in mercy this interval of rest and +freedom from pain was granted her, in which she might talk with Alice +concerning the arrangements for the future. + +"Alice, darling," she said, when they were alone, "come sit by me here +on the bed and listen to what I say." + +Alice obeyed, and taking her mother's hot hands in hers she waited for +what was to come. + +"You have learned to trust God in prosperity, and He will be a +thousandfold nearer to you in adversity. You'll miss me, I know, and be +very lonely without me, but you are young, and life has many charms for +you, besides God will never forget or forsake His covenant children." + +Gradually as she talked the wild sobbing ceased, and when the white face +lifted itself from its hiding place there was a look upon it as if the +needed strength had been sought and to some extent imparted. + +"My will was made some time ago," Mrs. Johnson continued, "and I need +not tell you that with a few exceptions, such as legacies to Densie +Densmore, and some charitable institutions, you are my sole heir. Mr. +Liston is to be your guardian, and will look after your interests until +you are of age, or longer if you choose. You know that as both your +father and myself were the only children you have no near relatives on +either side--none to whom you can look for protection. + +"You will remember having heard me speak occasionally of some friends +now living in Kentucky, a Mrs. Worthington, whose husband was a distant +relative of ours. Ralph Worthington and your father were schoolboys +together, and afterward college companions. Only once did anything come +between them, and that was a young girl, a very young girl, whom both +desired, and whom only one could have." + +Alice was interested now, and forgetting in a measure her grief, she +asked quickly: "Did my father love some one else than you?" + +"I never knew he did," and a tear rolled down the faded cheek of the +sick woman. "Ralph Worthington was true as steel, and when he found +another preferred to himself, he generously yielded the contest." + +"Oh, I shall like Mr. Worthington," Alice exclaimed, a desire rising in +her heart to see the man who had loved and lost her mother. + +"He was, at his own request, groomsman at our wedding, and the +bridesmaid became his wife in little less than a year." + +"Did he love her?" Alice asked, in some astonishment, and her mother +replied evasively: + +"He was kind and affectionate, while she loved him with all a woman's +devotion. I was but sixteen when I became a bride, and several years +elapsed ere God blessed me with a child. Your father was consumptive, +and the chances were that I should early be left a widow. This it was +which led to the agreement made by the two friends that if either died +the living one should care for the widow and fatherless. To see the two +you would not have guessed that the athletic Ralph would be the first to +go, yet so it was. He died ere you were born." + +"Then he is dead? Oh, I'm so sorry," Alice exclaimed. + +"Yes, he's dead; and, as far as possible, your father fulfilled his +promise to the widow and her child--a little boy, five years old, of +whom Mrs. Worthington herself was appointed guardian. I never knew what +spirit of evil possessed Eliza, but in less than a year after her +husband's death, she made a second and most unfortunate marriage. Mr. +Murdoch proved a greater scoundrel than we supposed, and when their +little girl was nearly two years old, we heard of a divorce. Mr. +Johnson's health was failing fast, and we were about to make the tour of +Europe. Just before we sailed we visited poor Eliza, whom we found +heartbroken, for the brutal wretch had managed to steal her daughter, +and carried it no one knew whither. I never shall forgot the distress of +the brother. Clasping my dress, he sobbed: 'Oh, lady, please bring back +my baby sister, or Hugh will surely die.' I've often thought of him +since, and wondered what he had grown to be. We comforted Eliza as best +we could, and left money to be used for her in case she needed it. Then +we embarked with you and Densie for Europe. You know how long we stayed +there, how for a while, your father seemed to regain his strength, how +he at last grew worse and hastened home to die. In the sorrow and +excitement which followed, it is not strange that Eliza was for a time +forgotten, and when I remembered and inquired for her again, I heard +that Hugh had been adopted by some relation in Kentucky, that the stolen +child had been mysteriously returned, and was living with its mother in +Elmwood. + +"At first Eliza appeared a little cool, but this soon wore off. She did +not talk much of Hugh. Neither did she say much of Adaline, who was then +away at school. Still my visit was a sadly satisfactory one, as we +recalled old times when we were girls together, weeping over our great +loss when our husbands were laid to rest. Then we spoke of their +friendship, and lastly of the contract. + +"'It sounds preposterous, in me, I know,' Mrs. Worthington said, when we +parted, 'you are so rich, and I so poor, but if ever your Alice should +want a mother's care, I will gladly give it to her.' + +"This was nearly eight years ago. In my anxiety about you, I failed to +write her for a long, long time, while she was long in answering, and +then the correspondence ceased till just before her removal to Kentucky, +when she apprised me of the change. You have now the history of Mrs. +Worthington, the only person who comes to mind as one to whose care I +can intrust you." + +"But, mother, I may not be wanted there," and Alice's lip quivered +painfully. + +"You will not go empty-handed, nor be a burden to them. They are poor, +and money will not come amiss. I said that Mr. Liston would attend to +all pecuniary matters, paying your allowance quarterly; and I am sure +you will not object when I tell you that I think it right to leave +Adaline the sum of one thousand dollars. It will not materially lessen +your inheritance, and it will do her a world of good. Mr. Liston will +arrange it for you. You will remain here until you hear from Mrs. +Worthington, and then abide by her arrangements. Will you go, my +daughter--go cheerfully and do as I desire?" + +"Yes, mother, I'll go," came gaspingly from Alice's lips. "I'll go; but, +mother, oh, mother," and Alice's cry ended as it always did, "you will +not, you must not die!" + +But neither tears, nor prayers could avail to keep the mother longer. +Her work on earth was done, and after this conversation with her +daughter, she grew worse so rapidly that hope died out of Alice's heart, +and she knew that soon she would be motherless. There were days and +nights of pain and delirium in which the sick woman recognized none of +those around her save Alice, whom she continually blessed as her +darling, praying that God, too, would bless and keep His covenant child. +At last there came a change, and one lovely Sabbath morning, ere the +bell from St. Paul's tower sent forth its summons to the house of God, +there rang from its belfry a solemn toll, and the villagers listening to +it, said, as they counted forty-four, that Mrs. Johnson was dead. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +MR. LISTON AND THE DOCTOR + + +Among Snowdon's poor that day, as well as among the wealthier class, +there was many an aching heart, and many a prayer was breathed for the +stricken Alice, not less beloved than the mother had been. At Terrace +Hill mansion too, much sorrow was expressed. On the whole it was very +unfortunate that Mrs. Johnson should have died so unexpectedly, and they +did wish John was there to comfort the young girl who, they heard, +refused to see any one except the clergyman and Mr. Liston. + +"Suppose we telegraph for John," Eudora said, and in less than two hours +thereafter, Dr. Richards in New York read that Alice was an orphan. + +There was a pang as he thought of her distress, a wish that he were with +her, and then in his selfish heart the thought arose, "What if she does +not prove as wealthy as I have supposed? Will that make any +difference?" + +"I must do something," he soliloquized, "or how can I ever pay those +debts in New York, of which mother knows nothing? I wish that widow--" + +He did not finish his wishes, for a turn in the path brought him +suddenly face to face with Mr. Liston, whom he had seen at a distance, +and whom he recognized at once. + +"I'll quiz the old codger," he thought. "He don't, of course, know me, +and will never suspect my object." + +Mistaken, doctor! The old codger was fully prepared. He did know Dr. +Richards by sight, and was rather glad than otherwise when the elegant +dandy, taking a seat upon the gnarled roots of the tree under which he +was sitting, made some trivial remark about the weather, which was very +propitious for the crowd who were sure to attend Mrs. Johnson's funeral. + +Yes, Mr. Liston presumed there would be a crowd. It was very natural +there should be, particularly as the deceased was greatly beloved and +was also reputed wealthy, "It beats all what a difference it makes, even +after death, whether one is supposed to be rich or poor," and the codger +worked away industriously at the pine stick he was whittling. + +"But in this case the supposition of riches must be correct, though I +know people are oftener overvalued than otherwise," and with his +gold-headed cane the doctor thrust at a dandelion growing near. + +"Nothing truer than that," returned the whittler, brushing the litter +from his lap. "Now I've no doubt that prig of a doctor, who they say is +shining up to Alice, will be disappointed when he finds just how much +she's worth. Let me see. What is his name? Lives up there," and with his +jackknife Mr. Liston pointed toward Terrace Hill. + +"The Richards family live there, sir. You mean their son, I presume." + +"Ted, the chap that has traveled and come home so changed. They do say +he's actually taken to visiting all the rheumatic old women in town, +applying sticking-plasters to their backs and administering squills to +their children, all free gratis." + +Poor doctor! How he fidgeted, moving so often that his tormentor +demurely asked him if he were sitting on a thistle or what! + +"Does Miss Johnson remain here?" the doctor asked at last, and Mr. +Liston replied by telling what he knew of the arrangements. + +At the mention of Worthington the doctor looked up quickly. Whom had he +known by that name, or where had he heard it before? "Mrs. Worthington, +Mrs. Worthington," he repeated, unpleasant memories of something, he +knew not what, rising to his mind. "Is he living in this vicinity?" + +"In Elmwood. It's a widow and her daughter," Mr. Liston answered, wisely +resolving to say nothing of a young man, lest the doctor should feel +anxious. + +"A widow and her daughter! I must be mistaken in thinking I ever knew +any one by that name, though it seems strangely familiar," said the +doctor, and as by this time he had heard all he wished to hear, he +arose, and bidding Mr. Liston good-morning walked away in no enviable +frame of mind. + +Looking at his watch the doctor found that it lacked several hours yet +ere the express from Boston was due. But this did not discourage him. He +would stay in the fields or anywhere, and turning backward he followed +the course of the river winding under the hill until he reached the +friendly woods which shielded him from observation. How he hated himself +hiding there among the trees, and how he longed for the downward train, +which came at last, and when the village bell tolled out its summons to +the house of mourning, he sat in a corner of the car returning to New +York even faster than he had come. + +Gradually the Riverside cottage filled with people assembling to pay the +last tribute of respect to the deceased, who during her short stay among +them had endeared herself to many hearts. + +Slowly, sadly, they bore her to the grave. Reverently they laid her down +to rest, and from the carriage window Alice's white face looked +wistfully out as "earth to earth, ashes to ashes," broke the solemn +stillness. Oh, how she longed to lay there, too, beside her mother! How +the sunshine, flecking the bright June grass with gleams of gold, seemed +to mock her misery as the gravelly earth rattled heavily down upon the +coffin lid, and she knew they were covering up her mother. "If I, too, +could die!" she murmured, sinking back in the carriage corner and +covering her face with her veil. But not so easily could life be shaken +off by her, the young and strong. She must live yet longer. She had a +work to do--a work whose import she knew not; and the mother's death, +for which she then could see no reason, though she knew well that one +existed, was the entrance to that work. She must live and she must +listen while Mr. Liston talked to her that night on business, arranging +about the letter, which was forwarded immediately to Kentucky, and +advising her what to do until an answer was received, when he would come +up again and do whatever was necessary. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +MATTERS IN KENTUCKY + + +Backward now with our reader we turn, and take up the broken thread of +our story at the point where we left Adah Hastings. + +It was a bitter morning in which to face the fierce north wind, and plow +one's way to the Derby cornfield, where, in a small, dilapidated +building, Aunt Eunice Reynolds, widowed sister of John Stanley, had +lived for many years, first as a pensioner upon her brother's bounty, +and next as Hugh's incumbent. At the time of her brother's death Aunt +Eunice had intended removing to Spring Bank, but when Hugh's mother +wrote, asking for a home, she at once abandoned the plan, and for two +seasons more lived alone, watching from her lonely door the tasseled +corn ripening in the August sun. Of all places in the world Hugh liked +the cottage best, particularly in summer. Few would object to it then +with its garden of gayly colored flowers, its barricades of tasseled +corn and the bubbling music of the brook, gushing from the willow spring +a few rods from the door. But in the winter people from the highway, as +they caught from across the field the gleam of Aunt Eunice's light, +pitied the lonely woman sitting there so solitary beside her wintry +fire. But Aunt Eunice asked no pity. If Hugh came once a week to spend +the night, and once a day to see her, it was all that she desired, for +Hugh was her darling, her idol, the object which kept her old heart warm +and young with human love. For him she would endure any want or +encounter any difficulty, and so it is not strange that in his dilemma +regarding Adah Hastings, he intuitively turned to her, as the one of all +others who would lend a helping hand. He had not been to see her in two +whole days, and when the gray December morning broke, and he looked out +upon the deep, untrodden snow, and then glanced across the fields to +where a wreath of smoke, even at that early hour, was rising slowly from +her chimney, he frowned impatiently, as he thought how bad the path +must be between Spring Bank and the cornfield, whither he intended +going, as he would be the first to tell what had occurred. 'Lina's +fierce opposition to and his mother's apparent shrinking from Adah had +convinced him how hopeless was the idea that she could stay at Spring +Bank with any degree of comfort to herself or quiet to him. Aunt +Eunice's house was the only refuge for Adah, and there she would be +comparatively safe from censorious remarks. + +"Inasmuch as ye did it to the least of these ye did it unto Me," kept +ringing in Hugh's ears, as he hastily dressed himself, striking his +benumbed fingers together, and trying hard to keep his teeth from +chattering, for Hugh was beginning his work of economy, and when at +daylight Claib came as usual to build his master's fire, he had sent him +back, saying he did not need one, and bidding him go, instead, to Mrs. +Hastings' chamber. + +"Make a hot one there," he said. "Pile the coals on high, so as to heat +up quick." + +As Hugh passed through the hall on his way downstairs, he could not +refrain from pausing a moment at the door of Adah's room. The fire was +burning, he knew, for he heard the kindling coals sputtering in the +flames, and that was all he heard. He would look in an instant, he said, +to see if all were well, and carefully turning the knob he entered the +chamber where the desolate Adah lay sleeping, her glossy brown hair +falling like a veil about her sweet pale face, on which the tear stains +still were visible. + +As she lay with the firelight falling full upon her forehead, Hugh, too, +caught sight of the mark which had attracted 'Lina's curiosity, and +starting forward, bent down for a nearer view. + +"Strange that she should have that mark. Oh Heaven!" and Hugh staggered +against the bedpost as a sudden thought flashed upon him. "Was that +polished villain who had led him into sin anything to Adaline, anything +to his mother? Poor girl, I am sorry if you, too, have been +contaminated, however slight the contamination may be," he said, softly, +glancing again at Adah, about whose lips a faint smile was playing, and +who, as he looked, murmured faintly: + +"Kiss me, George, just as you used to do." + +"Rascally villain!" Hugh muttered, clinching his fist involuntarily. +"You don't deserve that such as she should dream of you. I'd kiss her +myself if I was used to the business, but I should only make a bungle, +as I do with everything, and might kiss you, little shaver," and Hugh +bent over Willie. + +There was something in Hugh which won his confidence at once, and +stretching-out his dimpled arms, he expressed his willingness to be +taken up. Hugh could not resist Willie's appeal, and lifting him gently +in his arms, he bore him off in triumph, the little fellow patting his +cheek, and rubbing his own against it. + +"I don't know what I'll do with you, my little man," he said, as he +reached the lower hall; then suddenly turning in the direction of his +mother's room, he walked deliberately to the bedside, and ere the +half-awakened 'Lina was aware of his intention, deposited his burden +between her and his mother. + +"Here, Ad, here's something that will raise you quicker than yeast," he +said, beating a hasty retreat, while the indignant young lady verified +his words by leaping half-way across the floor, her angry tones mingling +with Willie's crowing laugh, as the child took the whole for fun, meant +expressly for his benefit. + +Hugh knew that Willie was safe with his mother, and hurried out to the +kitchen, where only a few of his negroes were yet stirring. + +"Ho, Claib!" he called, "saddle Rocket quick and bring him to the door. +I'm going to the cornfield." + +"Lor' bless you, mas'r, it's done snow higher than Rocket's head. He +never'll stand it nohow." + +"Do as I bid you," was Hugh's reply, and indolent Claib went shivering +to the stable where Hugh's best horses were kept. + +A whinnying sound of welcome greeted him as he entered, but was soon +succeeded by a spirited snort as he attempted to lead out a most +beautiful dapple gray, Hugh's favorite steed, his pet of pets, and the +horse most admired and coveted in all the country. + +"None of yer ars," Claib said, coaxingly, as the animal threw up its +graceful neck defiantly. "You've got to git along, 'case Mas'r Hugh say +so. You knows Mas'r Hugh." + +"What is it?" Hugh asked, coming out upon the stoop, and comprehending +the trouble at a glance. "Rocket, Rocket," he cried, "easy, my boy," and +in an instant Rocket's defiant attitude changed to one of perfect +obedience. + +"There, my beauty," he said, as the animal continued to prance around +him, now snuffing at the snow, which he evidently did not fancy, and +then pawing at it with his forefeet. "There, my beauty, you've showed +off enough. Come, now, I've work for you to do." + +Docile as a lamb when Hugh commanded, he stood quietly while Claib +equipped him for his morning's task. + +"Tell mother I shan't be back to breakfast," Hugh said, as he sprang +into the saddle, and giving loose rein to Rocket went galloping through +the snow. + +Under ordinary circumstances that early ride would have been vastly +exhilarating to Hugh, who enjoyed the bracing air, but there was too +much now upon his mind to admit of his enjoying anything. Thoughts of +Adah, and the increased expense her presence would necessarily bring, +flitted across his mind, while Barney's bill, put over once, and due +again ere long, sat like a nightmare on him, for he saw no way in which +to meet it. No way save one, and Rocket surely must have felt the +throbbing of Hugh's heart as that one way flashed upon him, for he gave +a kind of coaxing whine, and dashed on over the billowy drifts faster +than before. + +"No, Rocket, no," and Hugh patted his glossy neck. He'd never part with +Rocket, never. He'd sell Spring Bank first with all its incumbrances. + +It was now three days since Hugh had gladdened Aunt Eunice's cottage +with the sunshine of his presence, and when she awoke that morning, and +saw how high the snow was piled around her door, she said to herself, +"The boy'll be here directly to know if I'm alive," and this accounted +for the round deal table drawn so cozily before the blazing fire, and +looking so inviting with its two plates and cups, one a fancy china +affair, sacredly kept for Hugh, whose coffee always tasted better when +sipped from its gilded side, the lightest of egg bread was steaming on +the hearth, the tenderest of steak was broiling on the griddle, while +the odor of the coffee boiling on the coals came tantalizingly to Hugh's +olfactories as Aunt Eunice opened the door, saying pleasantly: + +"I told 'em so. I felt it in my bones, and the breakfast is all but +ready. Put Rocket up directly, and come in to the fire." + +Fastening Rocket in his accustomed place in the outer shed, Hugh stamped +the snow from his heavy boots, and then went in to Aunt Eunice's +cheerful kitchen-parlor, as she called it, where the tempting breakfast +stood upon the table. + +"No coffee! What new freak is that?" and Aunt Eunice gazed at him in +astonishment as he declined the cup she had prepared with so much care, +dropping in the whitest lumps of sugar, and stirring in the thickest +cream. + +It cost Hugh a terrible struggle to refuse that cup of coffee, but if he +would retrench, he must begin at once, and determining to meet it +unflinchingly he replied that "he had concluded to drink water for a +while, and see what that would do; much was said nowadays about coffee +being injurious, and he presumed it was." + +"There's something on your mind," she said, observing his abstraction. +"Have you had another dunning letter, or what?" + +Aunt Eunice had made a commencement, and in his usual impulsive way Hugh +began by asking if "she ever knew him tell a lie?" + +No, Aunt Eunice never did. Nobody ever did, bad as some folks thought +him. + +"Do they think me very bad?" and Hugh spoke so mournfully that Aunt +Eunice tried to apologize. + +"She didn't mean anything, only folks sometimes said he was cross and +rough, and--and--" + +"Stingy," he suggested, supplying the word she hated to say. + +Yes, that was what Ellen Tiffton said, because he refused to go to the +Ladies' Fair, where he was sure to have his pockets picked. But, law, +she wasn't worth minding, if she was Colonel Tiffton's girl, and going +to have a big party one week from the next Monday. Had Hugh heard of it? + +Hugh believed Ad said something about it yesterday, but he paid no +attention, for, of course, he should not go even if he were invited, as +he had nothing fit to wear. + +"But why did you ask if I ever knew you tell a lie?" Aunt Eunice said, +and then in a low tone, as if afraid the walls might hear, Hugh told the +whole story of Adah. + +"'Twas a mighty mean trick, I know," he said, as he saw Aunt Eunice's +look of horror when he confessed the part he had had in wronging the +poor girl, "but, Aunt Eunice, that villain coaxed me into drinking wine, +which you know I never use, and I think now he must have drugged it, for +I remember a strange feeling in my head, a feeling not like drunkenness, +for I knew perfectly well what was transpiring around me, and only felt +a don't-care-a-tive-ness which kept me silent when I should have spoken. +She has come to me at last. She believes God sent her, and if He did +He'll help me take care of her. I shall not turn her off." + +"But, Hugh," and Aunt Eunice spoke earnestly, "you cannot afford the +expense. Think twice before you commit yourself." + +"I have thought twice, the last time just as I did the first. Adah shall +stay, and I want you to take her. You need some one these winter nights. +There's the room you call mine. Give her that. Will you, Aunt Eunice?" +and Hugh wound his arm around Aunt Eunice's ample waist, while he +pleaded for Adah Hastings. + +Aunt Eunice was soon won over, as Hugh knew she would be, and it was +settled that she should come that very day, if possible. + +"Look, the sky is clearing," and he pointed to the sunshine streaming +through the window. + +"We'll have her room fixed before I go," and with his own hands Hugh +split and prepared the wood which was to kindle Adah's fire, then with +Aunt Eunice's help sundry changes were made in the arrangement of the +rather meager furniture, which never seemed so meager to Hugh as when he +looked at it with Adah's eyes and wondered how she'd like it. + +"Oh, I wish I were rich," he sighed mentally, and taking out his +well-worn purse he carefully counted its contents. + +Aunt Eunice, who had stepped out for a moment, reappeared, bringing a +counterpane and towel, one of which was spread upon the bed, while the +other covered the old pine stand, marred and stained with ink and +tallow, the result of Hugh's own carelessness. + +"What a heap of difference that table cloth and pocket handkerchief do +make," was Hugh's man-like remark, his face brightening with the +improved appearance of things, and his big heart grew warm with the +thought that he might keep his twenty-five dollars and Adah be +comfortable still. + +"Ad may pick Adah's eyes out before I get home," was his laughing remark +as he vaulted into his saddle and dashed off across the fields, where, +beneath the warm Kentucky sun, the snow was already beginning to soften. + +Breakfast had been rather late at Spring Bank that morning, for the +strangers had required some care, and Miss 'Lina was sipping her coffee +rather ill-naturedly when a note was handed her, and instantly her mood +was changed. + +"Splendid, mother!" she exclaimed, glancing at the tiny, three-cornered +thing; "an invitation to Ellen Tiffton's party. I was half afraid she +would leave me out after Hugh's refusal to attend the Ladies' Fair, or +buy a ticket for her lottery. It was only ten dollars either, and Mr. +Harney spent all of forty, I'm sure, in the course of the evening. I +think Harney is splendid." + +"Hugh had no ten dollars to spare," Mrs. Worthington said, +apologetically, "though, of course, he might have been more civil than +to tell Ellen it was a regular swindle, and the getters-up ought to be +indicted. I almost wonder at her inviting him, as she said she'd never +speak to him again." + +"Invited him! Who said she had? It's only one card for me," and with a +most satisfied expression 'Lina presented the rote to her mother, whose +pale face flushed at the insult thus offered her son--an insult which +even 'Lina felt, but would not acknowledge, lest it should interfere +with her going. + +"You won't go, of course," Mrs. Worthington said, quietly. "You'll +resent her slighting Hugh." + +"Indeed I shan't," the young lady retorted. "I hardly think it fair in +Ellen, but I shall accept, of course, and I must go to town to-day to +see about having my pink silk fixed. I think I'll have some black lace +festooned around the skirt. How I wish I could have a new one. Do you +suppose Hugh has any money?" + +"None for new dresses or lace flounces, either," Mrs. Worthington +replied, "I fancy he begins to look old and worn with this perpetual +call for money from us. We must economize." + +"Never mind, when I get Bob Harney I'll pay off old scores," 'Lina said, +laughingly, as she arose from the table, and went to look over her +wardrobe. + +Meanwhile Hugh had returned, meeting in the kitchen with Lulu. + +"Well, Lu, what is it? What's happened?" Hugh asked, as he saw she was +full of some important matter. + +In an instant the impetuous Lulu told him of the party to which he was +not invited, together with the reason why, and the word she had sent +back. + +"I'll give 'em a piece of my mind!" she said, as she saw Hugh change +color. "She may have old Harney. His man John told Claib how his a +master said he meant to get me and Rocket, too, some day; me for her +waiting maid, I reckon. You won't sell me, Master High, will you?" and +Lulu's soft black eyes looked pleadingly up to Hugh. + +"Never!" and Hugh's riding whip came down upon the table with a force +which made Lulu start. + +Satisfied that she was safe from Ellen Tiffton's whims, Lulu darted +away, singing as she went, while Hugh entered the sitting-room, where +'Lina sat, surrounded by her party finery, and prepared to do the +amiable to the utmost. + +"That really is a handsome little boy upstairs," she said, as if she +supposed it were her mother who came in; then with an affected start she +added, "Oh, it's you! I thought 'twas mother. Don't you think, Ellen has +not invited you. Mean, isn't it?" + +"Ellen can do as she likes," Hugh replied, adding, as he guessed the +meaning of all that finery, "you surely are not going?" + +"Why not?" and 'Lina's black eyes flashed full upon him. + +"I thought perhaps you would decline for my sake," he replied. + +An angry retort trembled on 'Lina's lip, but she had an object to +attain, so she restrained herself and answered that "she had thought of +it, but such a course would do no good, and she wanted to go so much, +the Tifftons were so exclusive and aristocratic." + +Hugh whistled a little contemptuously, but 'Lina kept her temper, and +continued, coaxingly: + +"Everybody is to be there, and after what has been said about--about--your +being rather--close, you'd like to have your sister look decent, I know; +and really, Hugh, I can't unless you give me a little money. Do, Hugh, +be good for once." + +"Ad, I can't," and Hugh spoke sorrowfully, for a kind word from 'Lina +always touched his weaker side. "I would if I could, but honestly I've +only twenty-five dollars in the world, and I've thought of a new coat. I +don't like to look so shabby. It hurts me worse than it does you," and +Hugh's voice trembled as he spoke. + +Any but a heart of stone would have yielded at once, but 'Lina was too +supremely selfish. Hugh had twenty-five dollars. He might give her half, +or even ten. She'd be satisfied with ten. He could soon make that up. +The negro hire came due ere long. He must have forgotten that. + +No, he had not; but with the negro hire came debts, thoughts of which +gave him the old worn look his mother had observed. Only ten dollars! It +did seem hard to refuse, and if 'Lina went Hugh wished her to look well, +for underneath his apparent harshness lurked a kind of pride in his +dark sister, whose beauty was of the bold, dashing style. + +"Take them," he said at last, counting out the ten with a half-regretful +sigh. "Make them go as far as you can, and, Ad, remember, don't get into +debt." + +"I won't," and with a civil "Thank you," 'Lina rolled up her bills, +while Hugh sought his mother, and sitting down beside her said, +abruptly: + +"Mother, are you sure that man is dead?--Ad's father I mean?" + +There was a nervous start, a sudden paling of Mrs. Worthington's cheek, +and then she answered, sadly: + +"I suppose so, of course. I received a paper containing a marked +announcement of his death, giving accurately his name and age. There +could be no mistake. Why do you ask that question?" + +"Nothing, only I've been thinking of him this morning. There's a mark on +Adah's temple similar to Ad's, only not so plain, and I did not know but +she might possibly be related. Have you noticed it?" + +"'Lina pointed it out last night, but to me it seemed a spreading vein, +nothing more. Hugh!" and Mrs. Worthington grasped his arm with a +vehemence unusual to her accustomed quiet manner, "you seem to know +Adah's later history. Do you know her earlier? Who is she? Where did she +come from?" + +"I'm going to her now; will you come, too?" she said, and accordingly +both together ascended to the chamber where Adah sat before the fire +with Willie on her lap, her glossy hair, which Lulu's skillful fingers +had arranged, combed smoothly down upon her forehead, so as to hide the +mysterious mark, if mark there were, on that fair skin. + +Something in the expression of her face as she turned toward Mrs. +Worthington made that lady start, while her heart throbbed with an +indefinable emotion. Who was Adah Hastings, and why was she so drawn +toward her? + +Addressing to her some indifferent remark, she gradually led the +conversation backward to the subject of her early home, asking again +what she could remember, but Adah was scarcely more satisfactory than on +the previous night. Memories she had of a gentle lady, who must have +been her mother, of a lad who called her sister, and kissed her +sometimes, of a cottage with grass and flowers, and bees buzzing beneath +the trees. + +"Are you faint?" Hugh asked, quickly, as his mother turned white as +ashes, and leaned against the mantel. + +She did not seem to hear him, but continued questioning Adah. + +"Did you say bees? Were there many?" + +"Oh, yes, so many, I remember, because they stung me once," and Adah +gazed dreamily into the fire, as if listening again to the musical hum +heard in that New England home, wherever it might have been. + +"Go on, what more can you recall?" Mrs. Worthington said, and Adah +replied: + +"Nothing but the waterfall in the river. I remember that near our door." + +During this conversation, Hugh had been standing by the table, where lay +a few articles which he supposed belonged to Adah. One of these was a +small double locket, attached to a slender chain. + +"The rascal's, I presume," he said to himself, and taking it in his +hand, he touched the spring, starting quickly as the features of a +young-girl met his view. How radiantly beautiful the original of that +picture must have been, and Hugh gazed long and earnestly upon the sweet +young face, and its soft, silken curls, some shading the open brow, and +others falling low upon the uncovered neck. Adah, lifting up her head, +saw what he was doing, and said: + +"Don't you think her beautiful?" + +"Who is she?" Hugh asked, coming to her side, and passing her the +locket. + +"I don't know," Adah replied. "She came to me one day when Willie was +only two weeks old and my heart was so heavy with pain. She had heard I +did plain sewing and wanted some for herself. She seemed to me like an +angel, and I've sometimes thought she was, for she never came again. In +stooping over me the chain must have been unclasped. I tried to find her +when I got well, but my efforts were all in vain, and so I've kept it +ever since. It was not stealing, was it?" + +"Of course not," Hugh said, while Adah, opening the other side, showed +him a lock of dark brown hair, tied with a tiny ribbon, in which was +written, "_In memoriam_, Aug. 18." + +As Hugh read the date his heart gave one great throb, for that was the +summer, that the month when he lost the Golden Haired. Something, too, +reminded him of the warm moonlight night, when the little snowy fingers, +over which the fierce waters were soon to beat, had strayed through his +heavy locks, which the girl had said were too long to be becoming, +playfully severing them at random, and saying "she means to keep the +fleece to fill a cushion with." + +"I wonder whose it is?" Adah said; "I've thought it might have been her +mother's." + +"Her lover's more likely," suggested Hugh, glancing once more at the +picture, which certainly had in it a resemblance to the Golden Haired, +save that the curls were darker, and the eyes a deeper blue. + +"Will mas'r have de carriage? He say something 'bout it," Cæsar said, +just then thrusting his woolly head in at the door, and thus reminding +Hugh that Adah had yet to hear of Aunt Eunice and his plan of taking her +thither. + +With a burst of tears, Adah listened to him, and then insisted upon +going away, as she had done the previous night. She had no claim on him, +and she could not be a burden. + +"You, madam, think it best, I'm sure," she said, appealing to Mrs. +Worthington, whose heart yearned strangely toward the unprotected +stranger, and who answered, promptly: + +"I do not, I am willing you should remain until your friends are found." + +Adah offered no further remonstrance, but turning to Hugh, said, +hesitatingly: + +"I may hear from my advertisement. Do you take the _Herald_?" + +"Yes, though I can't say I think much of it," Hugh replied, and Adah +continued: + +"Then if you ever find anything for me, you'll tell me, and I can go +away. I said, 'Direct to Adah Hastings.' Somebody will be sure to see +it. Maybe George, and then he'll know of Willie," and the white face +brightened with eager anticipation as Adah thought of George reading +that advertisement, a part of which had lighted Dr. Richards' cigar. + +With a muttered invective against the "villain," Hugh left the room to +see that the carriage was ready, while his mother, following him into +the hall, offered to go herself with Adah if he liked. Glad to be +relieved, as he had business that afternoon in Versailles, and was +anxious to set off as soon as possible, Hugh accepted at once, and half +an hour later, the Spring Bank carriage drove slowly from the door, +'Lina calling after her mother to send Cæsar back immediately. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +'LINA'S PURCHASE AND HUGH'S + + +There were piles of handsome dress goods upon the counter at Harney's +that afternoon, and Harney was anxious to sell. It was not always that +he favored a customer with his own personal services, and 'Lina felt +proportionably flattered when he came forward and asked what he could +show her. Of course, a dress for the party--he had sold at least a dozen +that day, but fortunately he still had the most elegant pattern of all, +and he knew it would exactly suit her complexion and style. + +Deluded 'Lina! Richard Harney, the wealthy bachelor merchant, did not +mean one word he said. He had tried to sell that dress a dozen times, +and been as often refused, no one caring just then to pay fifty dollars +for a dress which could only be worn on great occasions. But 'Lina was +easily flattered, while the silk was beautiful. But ten dollars was all +she had, and turning away from the tempting silk she answered faintly, +that "it was superb, but she could not afford it, besides, she had not +the money to-day." + +"Not the slightest consequence," was Harney's quick rejoinder. "Not the +slightest consequence. Your brother's credit is good--none better in the +country, and I'm sure he'll be proud to see you in it. I should, were I +your brother." + +'Lina blushed, while the wish to possess the silk grew every moment +stronger. + +"If it were only fifty dollars, it would not seem so bad," she thought. +Hugh could manage it some way, and Mr. Harney was so good natured; he +could wait a year, she knew. But the making would cost ten dollars more, +for that was the price Miss Allis charged, to say nothing of the +trimmings. "No, I can't," she said, quite decidedly, at last, asking for +the lace with which she at first intended renovating her old pink silk, +"She must see Miss Allis first to know how much she wanted," and +promising to return, she tripped over to Frankfort's fashionable +dressmaker, whom she found surrounded with dresses for the party. + +As some time would elapse ere Miss Allis could attend to her, she went +back to Harney's just for one more look at the lovely fabric. It was, if +possible, more beautiful than before, and Harney was more polite, while +the result of the whole was that, when 'Lina at four o'clock that +afternoon entered her carriage to go home, the despised pink silk, still +unpaid on Haney's books, was thrown down anywhere, while in her hands +she carefully held the bundle Harney brought himself, complimenting her +upon the sensation she was sure to create, and inviting her to dance the +first set with him. Then with a smiling bow he closed the door upon her, +and returning to his books wrote down Hugh Worthington his debtor to +fifty dollars more. + +"That makes three hundred and fifty," he said to himself. "I know he +can't raise that amount of ready money, and as he is too infernal proud +to be sued, I'm sure of Rocket or Lulu, it matters but little which," +and with a look upon his face which made it positively hideous, the +scheming Harney closed his books, and sat down to calculate the best +means of managing the rather unmanageable Hugh! + +It was dark when 'Lina reached home, but the silk looked well by +firelight, better even than in the light of day, and 'Lina would have +been quite happy but for her mother's reproaches and an occasional +twinge as she wondered what Hugh would say. He had not yet returned, and +numerous were Mrs. Worthington's surmises as to what was keeping him so +late. A glance backward for an hour or so will let us into the secret. + +It was the day when a number of negroes were to be sold in the +courthouse. There was no trouble in disposing of them all, save one, a +white-haired old man, whom they called Uncle Sam. + +With tottering steps the old man took his place, while his dim eyes +wandered wistfully over the faces around him congregated, as if seeking +for their owner. But none was found who cared for Uncle Sam. + +"Won't nobody bid for Sam? I fetched a thousan' dollars onct," and the +feeble voice trembled as it asked this question. + +"What will become of him if he is not sold?" Hugh asked of a bystander, +who replied, "Go back to the old place to be kicked and cuffed by the +minions of the new proprietor, Harney. You know Harney, of Frankfort?" + +Yes, Hugh did know Harney as one who was constantly adding to his +already large possessions houses and lands and negroes without limit, +caring little that they came to him laden with the widow's curse and the +orphan's tears. This was Harney, and Hugh always felt exasperated +whenever he thought of him. Advancing a step or two he came nearer to +the negro, who took comfort at once from the expression of his face, and +stretching out his shaking hand he said, beseechingly: + +"You, mas'r, you buy old Sam, 'case it 'ill be lonesome and cold in de +cabin at home when they all is gone. Please, mas'r." + +"What can you do?" was Hugh's query, to which the truthful negro +answered: + +"Nothin' much, 'cept to set in the chimbly corner eatin' corn bread and +bacon--or, yes," and an expression of reverence and awe stole over the +wrinkled face, as in a low tone he added, "I can pray for young mas'r, +and I will, only buy me, please." + +Hugh had not much faith in praying negroes, but something in old Sam +struck him as sincere. His prayers might do good, and be needed +somebody's, sadly. But what should he offer, when fifteen dollars was +all he had in the world, and was it his duty to encumber himself with a +piece of useless property? Visions of the Golden Haired and Adah both +arose up before him. They would say it was right. They would tell him to +buy old Sam, and that settled the point with him. + +"Five dollars," he called out, and Sam's "God bless you," was sounding +in his ears, when a voice from another part of the building doubled the +bid, and with a moan Uncle Sam turned imploringly toward Hugh. + +"A leetle more, mas'r, an' you fotches 'em; a leetle more," he +whispered, coaxingly, and Hugh faltered out "Twelve." + +"Thirteen," came again from the corner, and Hugh caught sight of the +bidder, a sour-grained fellow, whose wife had ten young children, and so +could find use for Sam. + +"Thirteen and a half," cried Hugh. + +"Fourteen," responded his opponent. + +"Leetle more, mas'r, berry leetle," whispered Uncle Sam. + +"Fourteen and a quarter," said Hugh, the perspiration starting out about +his lips, as he thought how fast his pile was diminishing, and that he +could not go beyond it. + +"Fourteen and a half," from the corner. + +"Leetle more, mas'r," from Uncle Sam. + +"Fourteen, seventy-five," from Hugh. + +"Fifteen," from the man in the corner, and Hugh groaned aloud. + +"That's every dime I've got." + +Quick as thought an acquaintance beside him slipped a bill into his +hand, whispering as he did so: + +"It's a V. I'll double it if necessary. I'm sorry for the darky." + +It was very exciting now, each bidder raising a quarter each time, while +Sam's "a leetle more, mas'r," and the vociferous cheers of the crowd, +whenever Hugh's voice was heard, showed him to be the popular party. + +"Nineteen, seventy-five," from the corner, and Hugh felt his courage +giving way as he faintly called out: + +"Twenty." + +Only an instant did the auctioneer wait, and then his decision, "Gone!" +made Hugh the owner of Uncle Sam, who, crouching down before him, +blessed him with tears and prayers. + +"I knows you're good," he said; "I knows it by yer face; and mebby, when +the rheumatics gits out of my ole legs I kin work for mas'r a heap. Does +you live fur from here?" + +"Look here, Sam," and Hugh laughed heartily at the negro's forlorn +appearance, as, regaining his feet, he assumed a most deprecating +attitude, asking pardon for tumbling down, and charging it all to his +shaky knees. "Look here, there's no other way, except for you to ride, +and me to walk. Rocket won't carry double," and ere Sam could +remonstrate, Hugh had dismounted and placed him in the saddle. + +Rocket did not fancy the exchange, as was manifest by an indignant +snort, and an attempt to shake Sam off, but a word from Hugh quieted +him, and the latter offered the reins to Sam, who was never a skillful +horseman, and felt a mortal terror of the high-mettled steed beneath +him. With a most frightened expression upon his face, he grasped the +saddle pommel with both hands, and bending nearly double, gasped out: + +"Sam ain't much use't to gemman's horses. Kind of bold me on, mas'r, +till I gits de hang of de critter. He hists me around mightily." + +So, leading Rocket with one hand, and steadying Sam with the other, Hugh +got on but slowly, and 'Lina had looked for him many times ere she spied +him from the window as he came up the lawn. + +"Who is he, and what did you get him for?" Mrs. Worthington asked, as +Hugh led Sam into the dining-room. + +Briefly Hugh explained to her why he had bought the negro. + +"It was foolish, I suppose, but I'm not sorry yet," he added, glancing +toward the corner where the poor old man was sitting, warming his +shriveled hands by the cheerful fire, and muttering to himself blessings +on "young mas'r." + +But for the remembrance of her dress, 'Lina would have stormed, but as +it was, she held her peace, and even asked Sam some trivial question +concerning his former owners. Supper had been delayed for Hugh, and as +he took his seat at the table, he inquired after Adah. + +"Pretty well when I left," said his mother, adding that Lulu had been +there since, and reported her as looking pale and worn, while Aunt +Eunice seemed worried with Willie, who was inclined to be fretful. + +"They need some one," Hugh said, refusing the coffee his mother passed +him on the plea that he did not feel like drinking it to-night. "They +need one of the servants. Can't you spare Lulu?" + +Mrs. Worthington did not know, but 'Lina, to whom Lulu was a kind of +waiting maid, took the matter up alone, and said: + +"Indeed they couldn't. There was no one at Spring Bank more useful, and +it was preposterous for Hugh to think of giving their best servant to +Adah Hastings. Let her take care of her baby herself. She guessed it +wouldn't hurt her. Anyway, they couldn't afford to keep a servant for +her." + +With a long-drawn sigh, Hugh finished his supper, and was about lighting +his cigar when he felt some one touching him, and turning around he saw +that Sam had grasped his coat. The negro had heard the conversation, and +drawn correct conclusions. His new master was not rich. He could not +afford to buy him, and having bought him could not afford to keep him. +There was a sigh in the old man's heart, as he thought how useless he +was, but when he heard about the baby, his spirits arose at once. In all +the world there was nothing so precious to Sam as a child, a little +white child, with waxen hands to pat his old black face, and his work +was found. + +"Mas'r," he whispered, "Sam kin take keer that baby. He knows how, and +the little children in Georgy, whar I comed from, used to be mighty fond +of Sam. I'll tend to the young lady, too. Is she yourn, mas'r?" + +'Lina laughed aloud, while Hugh replied: + +"She's mine while I take care of her." + +Then, turning to his sister, he asked if she procured what she wanted. + +With a threatening frown at Lulu, who had seen and gone into ecstasies +over the rose silk, 'Lina answered that she was fortunate enough to get +just what she wanted, adding quickly: + +"It's to be a much gayer affair than I supposed. They are invited from +Louisville, and even from Cincinnati, so Mr. Harney says." + +"Harney, did you trade there?" Hugh asked. + +"Why, yes. It's the largest and best store in town. Why shouldn't I?" +'Lina replied, while Sam, catching at the name, put in: + +"Hartley's the man what foreclosed the mortgage. You orto hear ole mas'r +cuss him oncet. Sharp chap, dat Harney; mighty hard on de blacks, folks +say," and glad to have escaped from his clutches, Sam turned again to +his dozing reverie, which was broken at last by Hugh's calling Claib, +and bidding him show Sam where he was to sleep. + +How long Hugh did sit up that night, and 'Lina, who wanted so much to +see once more just how her rose silk looked by lamplight, thought he +never would take her broad hints and leave. He dreaded to go--dreaded to +exchange that warm, pleasant room for the cold, cheerless chamber above, +where he knew no fire would greet him, for he had told Claib not to make +one, and that was why he lingered as long below. But the ordeal must be +met, and just as the clock was striking eleven, he bade his mother and +sister good-night, whistling as he bounded up the stairs, by way of +keeping up his spirits. How dreary and dark it looked in his room, as +with a feeling akin to homesickness Hugh set his candle down and glanced +at the empty hearth. + +"After all, what does it matter?" he said. "I only have to hurry and get +in bed the sooner," and tossing one boot here and another there, he was +about to finish undressing when suddenly he remembered the little Bible, +and the passage read last night. Would there be one for him to-night? He +meant to look and see, and all cold and shivery as he was, Hugh lifted +the lid of the trunk which held his treasure, and taking it out, opened +to the place where the silken curl was lying. There was a great throb at +his heart when he saw that the last coil of the tress lay just over the +words, "Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a +cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, verily, I say unto you, he +shall in no wise lose his reward." + +"It does seem as if this was meant to encourage me," Hugh said, reading +the passage twice. "I don't much believe, though, I bought old Sam in +the name of a disciple, though I do think his telling me he prayed had a +little to do with it. It's rather pleasant to think there's two to pray +for me now, Adah and Sam. I wonder if it makes any difference with God +that one prayer is white and the other black? Golden Hair said it didn't +when we talked about the negroes," and shutting the Bible, Hugh was +about to put it up when something whispered of his resolution to +commence reading it through. + +"It's too confounded cold. I'll freeze to death, I tell you," he said, +as if arguing the point with some unseen presence. "Get into bed and +read it then, hey? It's growing late and my candle is most burned out. +The first chapter of Genesis is short, is it? Won't take one over three +minutes? Stick like a chestnut burr, don't you," and as if the matter +were decided, Hugh sprang into bed, shivering as if about to take a cold +plunge bath. How then was he disappointed to find the sheets as nice and +warm as Aunt Chloe's warming pan of red-hot coals could make them. + +And so he fell away to sleep, dreaming that Golden Hair had come back, +and that he held her in his arms, just as he held the Bible he had +unconsciously taken from the pillow beneath his head. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +SAM AND ADAH + + +It was Saturday night again, and Adah, with heavy eyes and throbbing +head, sat bending over the dazzling silk, which 'Lina had coaxed her to +make. + +'Lina could be very gracious when she chose, and as she saw a way by +which Adah might be useful to her, she chose to be so now, and treated +the unsuspecting girl so kindly, that Adah promised to undertake the +task, which proved a harder one than she had anticipated. Anxious to +gratify 'Lina, and keep what she was doing a secret from Hugh, who came +to the cottage often, she was obliged to work early and late, bending +over the dress by the dim candlelight until her head seemed bursting +with pain, and rings of fire danced before her eyes. She never would +have succeeded but for Uncle Sam, who proved a most efficient member of +the household, fitting in every niche and corner, until Aunt Eunice, +with all her New England aversion to negroes, wondered how she had ever +lived without him. Particularly did he attach himself to Willie, +relieving Adah from all care, and thus enabling her to devote every +spare moment to the party dress. + +"You'se workin' yourself to death," he said to her, as late on Saturday +night she sat bending to the tallow candle, her hair brushed back from +her forehead and a purplish glow upon her cheek. + +"I know I'm working too hard," she said. "I'm very tired, but Monday is +the party. Oh, I am so hot and feverish," and, as if even the slender +chain of gold about her neck were a burden, she undid the clasp, and +laid upon the stand the locket which had so interested Hugh. + +Naturally inquisitive Sam took it in his hand, and touching the spring +held it to the light, uttering an exclamation of surprise. + +"Dat's de bery one, and no mistake," he said, his old withered face +lighting up with eager joy. + +"Who is she, Sam?" Adah asked, forgetting her work in her new interest. + +"Miss Ellis. I done forgot de other name. Ellis they call her way down +thar whar Sam was sold, when dat man with the big splot on his forerd +like that is on your'n steal me away and sell me in Virginny. Miss, ever +hearn tell o' dat? We thinks he's takin' a bee line for Canada, when +fust we knows we's in ole Virginny, and de villain not freein' us at +all. He sell us. Me he most give away, 'case I was so old, and the mas'r +who buy some like Mas'r Hugh, he pity, he sorry for ole shaky nigger. +Sam tell him on his knees how he comed from Kaintuck, but Mas'r Sullivan +say he bought 'em far, and that the right mas'r sell 'em sneakin' like +to save rasin' a furse, and he show a bill of sale. They believe him +spite of dis chile, and so Sam 'long to anodder mas'r." + +"Yes; but the lady, Miss Ellis. Where did you find her?" Adah asked, and +Sam replied: + +"I'se comin' to her d'rectly. Mas'r Fitzhugh live on big plantation--big +house, too, with plenty company; and one day she comed, with great +trunk, a visitin' you know. She'd been to school with Miss Mabel, Mas'r +Fitzhugh's daughter." + +"Are you sure it's the same?" Adah asked. + +"Yes, miss, Sam sure, he 'members them curls--got a heap of 'em; and +that neck--oh, wear that neck berry low, so low, so white, it make even +ole Sam feel kinder, kinder, yes, Sam feel very much that way." + +Adah could not repress a smile, but she was too much interested to +interrupt him, and he went on: + +"They all think heap of Miss Ellis, and I hear de blacks tellin' how she +berry rich, and comed from way off thar wher white niggers +live--Masser-something." + +"Massachusetts?" suggested Adah. + +"Yes; that's the very mas'r, I 'member dat." + +"Was Ellis her first or last name?" Adah asked, and Sam replied: + +"It was neider, 'twas her Christian name. I'se got mizzable memory, and +I disremembers her last name. The folks call her Ellis, and the blacks +Miss Ellis." + +"A queer name for a first one," Adah thought, while Sam continued: + +"She jest like bright angel, in her white gownds and dem long curls, and +Sam like her so much. She promise to write to Mas'r Browne and tell him +whar I is. I didn't cry loud then--heart too full. I cry whimperin' +like, and she cry, too. Then she tell me about God, and Sam listen, oh, +listen so much, for that's what he want to hear so long. Miss Nancy, in +Kuntuck, be one of them that reads her pra'rs o' Sundays, and ole mas'r +one that hollers 'em. Sam liked that way best, seemed like gettin' along +and make de Lord hear, but it don't show Sam the way, and when the +ministers come in, he listen, but they that reads and them that hollers +only talk about High and Low--Jack and the Game, or something, Sam +disremembers so bad; got mizzable memory. He only knows he not find the +way, 'till Miss Ellis tells him of Jesus, once a man and always God. +It's very queer, but Sam believe it, and then she sing, 'Come unto me.' +You ever hear it?" + +Adah nodded, and Sam went on. + +"But you never hear Miss Ellis sing it. Oh, so fine, the very rafters +hold their breff, and Sam find the way at last." + +"Where is Miss Ellis now?" Adah asked, and Sam replied: + +"Gone to Masser--what you say once. She gived me five dollars and then +ask what else. I look at her and say, 'Sam wants a spear or two of yer +shinin' hair,' and Miss Mabel takes shears and cut a little curl. I'se +got 'em now. I never spend the money," and from an old leathern wallet +Sam drew a bill and a soft silken curl, which he laid across Adah's +hand. + +"Yes, that is like her hair," Adah said, gazing fondly upon the tiny +lock which was Sam's greatest earthly treasure; then, returning it to +him, she asked: "And where is that Sullivan?" a chill creeping over her +as she remembered how about four years ago the man she called her +guardian was absent for some time, and came back to her with colored +hair and whiskers. + +"Oh, he gone long before, nobody know whar. Sam b'lieves, though, he +hear they tryin' to cotch him, but disremembers, got such mizzable +memory." + +"You say he had a mark like mine?" Adah continued. + +"Yes, berry much, but more so. Show plainer when he cussin' mad, just as +yours show more when you tired. Whar you git dat?" and Sam bent down to +inspect more closely Adah's birthmark. + +"I don't know. I was born with it," and Adah half groaned aloud at the +sad memories which Sam's story had awakened within her. + +She could scarcely doubt that Sullivan, the negro-stealer, and Monroe, +her guardian, were the same, but where was he now, and why had he +treated her so treacherously, when he had always seemed so kind? + +"Miss Adah prays," the old man answered. "Won't she say 'Our Father' +with Sam?" + +Surely Hugh's sleep was sweeter that night for the prayer breathed by +the lowly negro, and even the wild tumult in Adah's heart was hushed by +Sam's simple, childlike faith that God would bring all right at last. + +Early on Monday afternoon 'Lina, taking advantage of Hugh's absence, +came over for her dress, finding much fault, and requiring some of the +work to be done twice ere it suited her. Without a murmur Adah obeyed, +but when the last stitch was taken and the party dress was gone, her +overtaxed frame gave way, and Sam himself helped her to her bed, where +she lay moaning, with the blinding pain in her head, which increased so +fast that she scarcely saw the tempting little supper which Aunt Eunice +brought, asking her to eat. Of one thing, however, she was conscious, +and that of the dark form bending over her pillow and whispering +soothingly the passage which had once brought Heaven to him, "Come unto +me, come unto me, and I will give you rest." + +The night had closed in dark and stormy, and the wintry rain beat +fiercely against the windows; but for this Sam did not hesitate a moment +when at midnight Aunt Eunice, alarmed at Adah's rapidly increasing +fever, asked if he could find his way to Spring Bank. + +"In course," he could, and in a few moments the old, shriveled form was +out in the darkness, groping its way over fences, and through the +pitfalls, stumbling often, and losing his hat past recovery, so that the +snowy hair was dripping wet when at last Spring Bank was reached and he +stood upon the porch. + +In much alarm Hugh dressed himself and hastened to the cottage. But Adah +did not know him and only talked of dresses and parties, and George, +whom she begged to come back and restore her good name. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +WHAT FOLLOWED + + +There was a bright light in the sitting-room, and through the +half-closed shutters Hugh caught glimpses of a blazing fire. 'Lina had +evidently come home, and half wishing she had stayed a little longer, +Hugh entered the room. + +Poor 'Lina! The party had proved a most unsatisfactory affair. She had +not made the sensation she expected to make. Harney had scarcely noticed +her at all, having neither eyes nor ears for any one save Ellen Tiffton, +who surely must have told that Hugh was not invited, for, in no other +way could 'Lina account for the remark she overheard touching her want +of heart in failing to resent a brother's insult. In the most unenviable +of moods, 'Lina left at a comparatively early hour. She bade Cæsar drive +carefully, as it was very dark, and the rain was almost blinding, so +rapidly it fell. + +"Ye-es, mis-s, Cæs--he--done been to party fore now. Git 'long dar, +Sorrel," hiccoughed the negro, who, in Colonel Tiffton's kitchen had +indulged rather too freely to insure the safety of his mistress. + +Still the horses knew the road, and kept it until they left the main +highway and turned into the fields. Even then they would probably have +made their way in safety, had not their drunken driver persisted in +turning them into a road which led directly through the deepest part of +the creek, swollen now by the melted snow and the vast amount of rain +which had fallen since the sunsetting. Not knowing they were wrong, +'Lina did not dream of danger until she heard Cæsar's cry of "Who'a dar, +Sorrel. Git up, Henry. Dat's nothin' but de creek," while a violent +lurch of the carriage sent her to the opposite side from where she had +been sitting. + +A few mad plunges, another wrench, which pitched 'Lina headlong against +the window, and the steep, shelving bank was reached, but in endeavoring +to climb it the carriage was upset, and 'Lina found herself in pitchy +darkness. Perfectly sobered now, Cæsar extricated her as soon as +possible. The carriage was broken and there was no alternative save for +'Lina to walk the remaining distance home. It was not far, for the scene +of the disaster was within sight of Spring Bank, but to 'Lina, +bedraggled with mud and wet to the skin, it seemed an interminable +distance, and her strength was giving out just as she reached the +friendly piazza, and called on her mother for help, sobbing hysterically +as she repeated her story, but dwelling most upon her ruined dress. + +"What will Hugh say? It was not paid for, either. Oh, dear, oh, dear, I +most wish I was dead!" she moaned, as her mother removed one by one the +saturated garments. + +The sight of Hugh called forth her grief afresh, and forgetful of her +dishabille, she staggered toward him, and impulsively winding her arms +around his neck, sobbed out: + +"Oh, Hugh, Hugh! I've had such a doleful time. I've been in the creek, +the carriage is broken, the horses are lamed, Cæsar is drunk, +and--and--oh, Hugh, I've spoiled my dress!" + +Laughing merrily Hugh held her off at a little distance, likening her to +a mermaid fresh from the sea, and succeeding at last in quieting her +down until she could give a more concise account of the catastrophe. + +"Never mind the dress," he said, good-humoredly, as she kept recurring +to that. "It isn't as if it were new. An old thing is never so +valuable." + +Alas, that 'Lina did not then confess the truth. Had she done so he +would have forgiven her freely, but she let the golden opportunity pass, +and so paved the way for much bitterness of feeling in the future. + +During the gloomy weeks which followed, Hugh's heart and hands were +full, inclination tempting him to stay by the moaning Adah, who knew the +moment he was gone, and stern duty, bidding him keep with delirious +'Lina, who, strange to say, was always more quiet when he was near, +taking readily from him the medicine refused when offered by her mother. +Day after day, week after week, Hugh watched alternately at the +bedsides, and those who came to offer help felt their hearts glow with +admiration for the worn, haggard man, whose character they had so +mistaken, never dreaming what depths of patient, all-enduring tenderness +were hidden beneath his rough exterior. Even Ellen Tiffton was softened, +and forgetting the Ladies' Fair, rode daily over to Spring Bank, +ostensibly to inquire after 'Lina, but really to speak a kindly word to +Hugh, to whom she felt she had done a wrong. How long those fevers ran, +and Hugh began to fear that 'Lina's never would abate, sorrowing much +for the harsh words which passed between them, wishing they had been +unsaid, for he would rather that none but pleasant memories should be +left to him of this, his only sister. But 'Lina did not die, and as her +disease had from the first assumed a far more violent form than Adah's, +so it was the first to yield, and February found her convalescent. With +Adah it was different. But there came a change at last, a morning when +she awoke from a death-like stupor which had clouded her faculties so +long, as the attending physician said to Hugh that his services would be +needed but a little longer. Physicians' bills, together with that of +Harney's yet unpaid, for Harney, villain though he was, would not +present it when Hugh was full of trouble; but the hour was coming when +it must be settled, and Hugh at last received a note, couched in +courteous terms, but urging immediate payment. + +"I'll see him to-day. I'll know the worst at once," he said, and +mounting Rocket, who never looked more beautiful than he did that +afternoon, he dashed down the Frankfort turnpike, and was soon closeted +with Harney. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +HOW HUGH PAID HIS DEBTS + + +The perspiration was standing in great drops about Hugh's quivering +lips, and his face was white as ashes, as, near the close of that +interview, he hoarsely asked: + +"Do I understand you, sir, that Rocket will cancel this debt and leave +you my debtor for one hundred dollars?" + +"Yes, that was my offer, and a most generous one, too, considering how +little horses are bringing," and Harney smiled villainously as he +thought within himself: "Easier to manage than I supposed. I believe my +soul I offered too much. I should have made it an even thing." + +Hugh knew how long this plan had been premeditated, and his blood boiled +madly when he heard it suggested, as if that moment had given it birth. +Still he restrained himself, and asked the question we have recorded, +adding, after Harney's reply: + +"And suppose I do not care to part with Rocket?" + +Harney winced a little, but answered carelessly: + +"Money, of course, is just as good. You know how long I've waited. Few +would have done as well." + +Yes, Hugh knew that, but Rocket was as dear to him as his right eye, and +he would almost as soon have plucked out the one as sold the other. + +"I have not the money," he said, frankly, "and I cannot part with +Rocket. Is there nothing else? I'll give a mortgage on Spring Bank." + +Harney did not care for a mortgage, but there was something else, and +the rascally face brightened, as, stepping back, while he made the +proposition, he faintly suggested "Lulu." He would give a thousand +dollars for her, and Hugh could keep his horse. For a moment the two +young men regarded each other intently, Hugh's eyes flashing gleams of +fire, and his whole face expressive of the contempt he felt for the +wretch who cowed at last beneath the look, and turned away muttering +that "he saw nothing so very heinous in wishing to purchase a nigger +wench." + +Then, changing his tone to one of defiance, he added: + +"Since you are not inclined to part with either of your pets, you'll +oblige me with the money, and before to-morrow night. You understand me, +I presume?" + +"I do," and bowing haughtily, Hugh passed through the open door. + +In a kind of desperation he mounted Rocket, and dashed out of town at a +speed which made more than one look after him, wondering what cause +there was for his headlong haste. A few miles from the city he slacked +his speed, and dismounting by a running brook, sat down to think. The +price offered for Lulu would set him free from every pressing debt, and +leave a large surplus, but not for a moment did he hesitate. + +"I'd lead her out and shoot her through the heart, before I'd do that +thing," he said. + +Then turning to the noble animal cropping the grass beside him, he wound +his arms around his neck, and tried to imagine how it would seem to know +the stall at home was empty, and his beautiful Rocket gone. + +"If I could pawn him," he thought, just as the sound of wheels was +heard, and he saw old Colonel Tiffton driving down the turnpike. + +Between the colonel and his daughter Ellen there had been a conversation +that very day touching the young man Hugh, in whom Ellen now felt a +growing interest. Seated in their handsome parlor, with her little hands +folded listlessly one above the other, Ellen was listening, while her +father told her mother. + +"He didn't see how that chap was ever to pay his debts. One doctor twice +a day for three months was enough to ruin anybody, let alone having +two," and the sometimes far-seeing old colonel shook his head +doubtfully. + +"Father," and Ellen stole softly to his side, "if Mr. Worthington wants +money so badly, you'll lend it to him, won't you?" + +Again a doubtful shake as the prudent colonel replied: "And lose every +red I lend, hey? That's the way a woman would do, I s'pose, but I am too +old for that. Now, if he could give good security, I wouldn't mind, but +what's he got, pray, that we want?" + +Ellen's gray eyes scanned his face curiously a moment, and then Ellen's +rather pretty lips whispered in his ear: "He's got Rocket, pa." + +"Yes, yes, so he has; but no power on earth could make him part with +that nag. I've always liked that boy, always liked old John, but the +plague knows what he did with his money." + +"You'll help Hugh?" and Ellen returned to the attack. + +"Well," said the old man, "we'll see about this Hugh matter," and the +colonel left the house, and entered the buggy which had been waiting to +take him to Frankfort. + +"That's funny that I should run a-foul of him," he thought, stopping +suddenly as he caught sight of Hugh, and calling out cheerily: "How +d'ye, young man? That's a fine nag of yours. My Nell is nigh about crazy +for me to buy him. What'll you take?" + +"What'll you give?" was Hugh's Yankee-like response, while the colonel, +struck by Hugh's peculiar manner, settled himself back in his buggy and +announced himself ready to trade. + +Hugh knew he could trust the colonel, and after a moment's hesitation +told of his embarrassments, and asked the loan of five hundred dollars, +offering Rocket as security, with the privilege of redeeming him in a +year. + +"You ask a steep sum," he said, "but I take it you are in a tight spot +and don't know what else to do. That girl in the snow bank--I'll be +hanged if that was ever made quite clear to me." + +"It is to me, and that is sufficient," Hugh answered, while the old +colonel replied: + +"Good grit, Hugh. I like you for that. In short, I like you for +everything, and that's why I was sorry about that New York lady. You +see, it may stand in the way of your getting a wife by and by, that's +all." + +"I shall never marry," Hugh answered, thinking of the Golden Haired. + +"No?" the colonel replied. "Well, there ain't many good enough for you, +that's a fact, and so I tell 'em when they get to--get to--" + +Hugh looked up inquiringly, his face flashing as he guessed at what they +got. + +"Bless me, there's ain't many girls good for anybody. I never saw but +one, except my Nell, that was worth a picayune, and that was Alice +Johnson." + +"Who? Who did you say?" And Hugh grew white as marble. + +The colonel replied: "I said Alice Johnson, twentieth cousin of +mine--blast that fly!--lives in Massachusetts; splendid girl--hang it +all can't I hit him?--there, I've killed him." And the colonel put up +his whip, never dreaming of the effect that name had produced on Hugh, +whose heart gave one great throb of hope, and then grew heavy and sad as +he thought how impossible it was that the Alice Johnson the colonel +knew could be the Golden Haired. + +"There are fifty by that name, no doubt," he said, "and if there were +not, she is dead." + +Hugh dared not question the colonel further, and was only too glad when +the latter said: "If I understand you, I can have Rocket for five +hundred dollars, provided I let you redeem him within a year. Now that's +equivalent to my lending you five hundred dollars out and out. I see, +but seeing it's you, I reckon I'll have to do it. As luck will have it, +I was going down to Frankfort this very day to put some money in the +bank, and if you say so, we'll clinch the bargain at once," and the +colonel began to count the amount. + +Alice Johnson was forgotten in that moment when Hugh felt as if his very +life was dying out. Then chiding himself as weak, he lifted up his head +and said: "Rocket is yours." + +The words were like a sob; and the generous old man hesitated. But Hugh +was in earnest. His debts must be paid, and that five hundred dollars +would do it. + +"I'll bring him around to-morrow. Will that be time enough?" he asked, +as he rolled up the bills. + +"Yes, oh, yes," the colonel replied, while Hugh continued: "And, +colonel, you'll--you'll be kind to Rocket. He's never been struck a blow +since he was broken to the saddle. He wouldn't know what it meant." + +"Oh, yes, I see--Rarey's method. Now I never could make that work. Have +to lick 'em sometimes, but I'll remember Rocket. Good-day," and +gathering up his reins Colonel Tiffton rode slowly away. + +Hugh rode back to Frankfort and dismounted at Harney's door. + +In silence Harney received the money, gave his receipt, and then watched +Hugh as he rode again from town, muttering: "I shall remember that he +knocked me down, and some time I'll repay it." + +It was dark when Hugh reached home, his flashing eyes indicating the +storm which burst forth the moment he entered the room where 'Lina was +sitting. In tones which made even her tremble he accused her of her +treachery, pouring forth such a torrent of wrath that his mother urged +him to stop, for her sake if no other. She could always quiet Hugh, and +he calmed down at once, hurling but one more missile at his sister, and +that in the shape of Rocket, who, he said, was sold for her +extravagance. + +'Lina was proud of Rocket, and the knowledge that he was sold touched +her far more than all Hugh's angry words. But her tear a were of no +avail; the deed was done, and on the morrow Hugh, with an unflinching +hand, led his idol from the stable and rode rapidly across the fields, +leading another horse which was to bring him home. + +The next morning Lulu came running up the stairs, exclaiming: + +"He's done come home, Rocket has. He's at the kitchen door." + +It was even as Lulu, said, for the homesick brute, suspecting something +wrong, had broken from his fastenings, and bursting the stable door had +come back to Spring Bank, his halter dangling about his neck, and +himself looking very defiant, as if he were not again to be coaxed away. +At sight of Hugh he uttered a sound of joy, and bounding forward planted +both feet within the door ere Hugh had time to reach it. + +"Thar's the old colonel now," whispered Claib, just as the colonel +himself appeared to claim his runaway. + +"I'll take him home myself," he said to the old colonel, emerging from +his hiding place behind the leach, and bidding Claib follow with another +horse Hugh went a second time to Colonel Tiffton's farm. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +MRS. JOHNSON'S LETTER + + +The spring had passed away, and the warm June sun was shining over +Spring Bank, whose mistress and servants were very lonely now, for Hugh +was absent, and with him the light of the house had departed. Business +of his late uncle's had taken him to New Orleans, where he might +possibly remain all the summer. 'Lina was glad, for since the fatal +dress affair there had been but little harmony between herself and her +brother. The tenderness awakened by her long illness seemed to have been +forgotten, and Hugh's manner toward her was cold and irritating to the +last degree, so that the young lady rejoiced to be freed from his +presence. + +"I do hope he'll stay all summer," she said one morning, when speaking +of him to her mother. "I think it's a heap nicer without him, though +dull enough at the best. I wish we could go somewhere, some watering +place I mean. There's the Tifftons, just returned from New York, and I +don't much believe they can afford it more than we, for I heard their +place was mortgaged, or something. Oh, bother, to be so poor," and the +young lady gave a little angry jerk at the tags she was unbraiding. + +"Whar's ole miss's?" asked Claib, who had just returned from Versailles. +"Thar's a letter for you," and depositing it upon the bureau, he left +the room. + +"Whose writing is that?" 'Lina said, catching it up and examining the +postmark. "Shall I open it?" she called, and ere her mother could reply, +she had broken the seal, and held in her hand the draft which made her +the heiress of one thousand dollars. + +Had the fabled godmother of Cinderella appeared to her suddenly, she +would scarcely have been more bewildered. + +"Mother," she screamed again, reading aloud the "'Pay to the order of +Adaline Worthington,' etc. Who is Alice Johnson? What does she say? 'My +dear Eliza, feeling that I have not long to live--' What--dead, hey? +Well, I'm sorry for that, but, I must say, she did a very sensible thing +at the last, sending me a thousand dollars. We'll go somewhere now, +won't we?" and clutching fast the draft, the heartless girl yielded the +letter to her mother, who, burying her face in her hands, sobbed +bitterly as the past came back to her, when the Alice, now at rest and +herself were girls together. + +'Lina took up the letter her mother had dropped and read it through. +"Wants you to take her daughter, Alice. Is the woman crazy? And her +nurse, Densie, Densie Densmore. Where have I heard that name before? +Say, mother, let's talk the matter over. Shall you let Alice come? Ten +dollars a week, they'll pay. Let me see. Five hundred and twenty dollars +a year. Whew! We are rich as Jews. Our ship is really coming in," and +'Lina rang the bell and ordered Lulu to bring "a lemonade with ice cut +fine and a heap of sugar in it." + +By this time Mrs. Worthington was able to talk of a matter which had +apparently so delighted 'Lina. Her first remark, however, was not very +pleasant to the young lady: + +"I would willingly give Alice a home, but it's not for me to say. Hugh +alone can decide it." + +"You know he'll refuse," was 'Lina'a angry reply. "He hates young +ladies. So you may as well save your postage to New Orleans, and write +at once to Miss Johnson that she cannot come on account of a boorish +clown." + +"'Lina," feebly interposed Mrs. Worthington, "'Lina, we must write to +Hugh." + +"Mother, you shall not," and 'Lina spoke determinedly. "I'll send an +answer to this letter myself, this very day. I will not suffer the +chance to be thrown away. Hugh may swear a little at first, but he'll +get over it." + +"Hugh never swears," and Mrs. Worthington spoke up at once. + +"He don't hey? Maybe you've forgotten when he came home from Frankfort, +that time he heard about my dress!" + +"I know he swore then; but he never has since, I'm sure, and I think he +is better, gentler, more refined than he used to be, since--since--Adah +came." + +A contemptuous "Pshaw!" came from 'Lina's lips. "Say," she continued, +"wouldn't you rather Adah were your child than me? Then you'd be granny, +you know." And a laugh came from 'Lina's lips. + +Mrs. Worthington did not reply; and 'Lina proceeded to speak of Alice +Johnson, asking for her family. Were they aristocratic? Were they the +F.F.V.'s of Boston? and so forth. + +"Now let us talk a little about the thousand dollars. What shall I do +with it?" 'Lina said, for already the money was beginning to burn in her +hands. + +"Redeem Rocket with half of it," Mrs. Worthington said, "and that will +reconcile Hugh to Alice Johnson." + +"Do you think I've taken leave of my senses?" 'Lina asked, with +unaffected surprise. "Buy Rocket for five hundred dollars! Indeed, I +shall do no such thing. If Hugh had not sworn so awfully, I might; but I +remember what he said too well to part with half of my inheritance for +him. I'm going to Saratoga, and you are going, too. We'll have heaps of +dresses, and--oh, mother, won't it be grand! We'll take Lu for a waiting +maid. That will be sure to make a sensation at the North. I can imagine +just how old Deacon Tripp of Elwood, would open his eyes when he heard +'Mrs. Square Worthington and darter' had come back with a 'nigger.' It +would furnish him with material for half a dozen monthly concerts, and +I'm not sure but he'd try to run her off, if he had a chance. But Lu +likes Hugh too well ever to be coaxed away; so we're safe on that +score. 'Mrs. Worthington, daughter, and colored servant, Spring Bank, +Kentucky.' I can almost see that on the clerk's books at the United +States. Then I can manage to let it be known that I'm an heiress, as I +am. We needn't tell that it's only a thousand dollars, most of which I +have on my back, and maybe I'll come home Adaline somebody else. There +are always splendid matches at Saratoga. We'll go North the middle of +July, just three weeks from now." + +'Lina had talked so fast that Mrs. Worthington had been unable to put in +a word; but it did not matter. 'Lina was invulnerable to all she could +say, and it was in vain that she pleaded for Rocket, or reminded the +ungrateful girl of the many long, weary nights, when Hugh had sat by her +bedside, holding her feverish hands and bathing her aching head. This +was very kind and brotherly, 'Lina admitted; but she steeled her heart +against the still, small voice, which whispered to her: "Redeem Rocket, +and let Hugh find him here when he gets home." + +'Lina wrote to Alice Johnson herself that morning, went to Frankfort +that afternoon, to Versailles and Lexington the next day, and on the +morning of the third day after the receipt of Mrs. Johnson's letter, +Spring Bank presented the appearance of one vast show-room, so full it +was of silks and muslins and tissues and flowers and ribbons and laces, +while amid it all, in a maze of perplexity as to what was required of +her, or where first to commence, Adah Hastings sat, a flush on her fair +cheeks, and a tear half dimming the luster of her eyes as thoughts of +Willie crying for mamma at home, and refusing to be comforted even by +old Sam came to her. + +When 'Lina first made known her request to Adah, to act as her +dressmaker, Aunt Eunice had objected, on the ground of Adah's illness +having been induced by overwork, but 'Lina insisted so strenuously, +promising not to task her too much, and offering with an air of extreme +generosity to pay three shillings a day, that Adah had consented, for +pretty baby Willie wanted many little things which Hugh would never +dream of, and for which she could not ask him. Three shillings a day for +twelve days or more seemed like a fortune to Adah, and so she tore +herself away from Willie's clinging arms and went willingly to labor for +the capricious 'Lina, ten times more impatient and capricious since she +"had come into possession of property." + +Womanlike, the sight of 'Lina's dresses awoke in Adah a thrill of +delight, and she entered heartily into the matter without a single +feeling of envy. + +"I's goin', too. Did you know that?" Lulu said to her as she sat bending +over a cloud of lace and soft blue silk. + +"Do you want to go?" Adah asked, and Lulu replied: + +"Not much. Miss 'Lina will be so lofty. Jes' you listen and hear her +call me oncet. 'Ho Loo-loo, come quick,' jes' as if she done nothin' all +her life but order a nigger 'round. I knows better. I knows how she done +made her own bed, combed her own ha'r, and like enough washed her own +rags afore she comed here. Yes, 'Loo-loo is coming,'" and the saucy +wench darted off to 'Lina screaming loudly for her. + +"Miss Worthington," Adah said, timidly, as 'Lina came near, "Lulu tells +me she is going North with you. Why not take me instead of her?" + +"You!" and 'Lina's black eyes flashed scornfully. "What in the world +could I do with you and that child, and what would people think? Why, +I'd rather have Lulu forty times. A negro gives an _éclat_ to one's +position which a white servant cannot. By the way, here is Miss +Tiffton's square-necked bertha. She's just got home from New York, and +says they are all the fashion. You are to cut me a pattern. There's a +paper, the Louisville _Journal_, I guess, but nobody reads it, now Hugh +is gone," and with a few more general directions, 'Lina hurried away +leaving Adah so hot, so disappointed, that the hot tears fell upon the +paper she took in her hand, the paper containing Anna Richards' +advertisement, intended solely for the poor girl sitting so lonely and +sad at Spring Bank that summer morning. + +In spite of the doctor's predictions and consignment of that girl to +Georgia, or some warmer place, it had reached her at last. She did not +see it at first, so fast her tears fell, but just as her scissors were +raised to cut the pattern her eyes fell on the spot headed, "A Curious +Advertisement," and suspending her operations for a moment, she read it +through, a feeling rising in her heart that it was surely an answer to +her own advertisement, sent forth months ago, with tearful prayers that +it might be successful. + +At the table she heard 'Lina say that Claib was going to town that +afternoon, and thinking within herself. "If a letter were only ready, he +could take it with him," she asked permission to write a few lines. It +would not take her long, she said, and she could work the later to make +it up. + +'Lina did not refuse, and in a few moments Adah penned a note to A.E.R. + +"It's an answer to an advertisement for a governess or waiting maid," +she said, as 'Lina glanced carelessly at the superscription. + +"It will do no harm, or good either, I imagine," was 'Lina'a reply, and +placing the letter in her pocket, she was about returning to her mother, +when she spied Ellen Tiffton dismounting at the gate. + +Ellen was delighted to see 'Lina, and 'Lina was delighted to see Ellen, +leading her at once into the work-room, where Adah sat by the window, +busy on the bertha, and looking up quietly when Ellen entered, as if +half expecting an introduction. But 'Lina did not deign to notice her, +save in an aside to Ellen, to whom she whispered softly: + +"That girl, Adah, you know." + +Reared in a country where the menials all were black, Ellen knew no such +marked distinction among the whites, and walked directly up to Adah, +whose face seemed to puzzle her. It was the first time they had met, and +Adah turned crimson beneath the close scrutiny to which she was +subjected. Noticing her embarrassment, and wishing to relieve it, Ellen +addressed to her some trivial remark concerning her work, complimenting +her skill, asking some questions about Willie, whom she had seen, and +then leaving her for a girlish conversation with 'Lina, to whom she +related many particulars of her visit to New York. Particularly was she +pleased with a certain Dr. Richards, who was described as the most +elegant young man at the hotel. + +"There was something queer about him too," she said, in a lower tone, +and drawing nearer to 'Lina. "He seemed so absent-like, as if there were +something on his mind--some heart trouble, you know; but that only made +him more interesting; and such an adventure as I had, too. Send her out +of the room, please," and nodding toward Adah, Ellen spoke beneath her +breath. + +'Lina comprehended her meaning, and turning to Adah said rather +haughtily: + +"It's cool on the west end of the piazza. You may go and sit there a +while." + +With a heightened color at being thus addressed before a stranger, Adah +withdrew, and Ellen continued: + +"It's so strange. I found in the hall, near my door, a tiny ambrotype of +a young girl, who must have been very beautiful--such splendid hair, +soft brown eyes, and cheeks like carnation pinks. I wondered much whose +it was, for I knew the owner must be sorry to lose it. Father suggested +that we put a written notice in the business office, and that very +afternoon Dr. Richards knocked at our door, saying the ambrotype was +his. 'I would not lose it for the world,' he said, 'as the original is +dead,' and he looked so sad that I pitied him so much; but I have the +strangest part yet to tell. You are sure she cannot hear?" and walking +to the open window, Ellen glanced down the long piazza to where Adah's +dress was visible. + +"I looked at the face so much that I never can forget it, particularly +the way the hair was worn, combed almost as low upon the forehead as you +wears yours, and just as that Mrs. Hastings wears hers. I noticed it the +moment I came in; and, 'Lina, Mrs. Hastings is the original of that +ambrotype, I'm sure, only the picture was younger, fresher-looking, than +she. But they are the same, I'm positive, and that's why I started so +when I first saw this Adah. Funny, isn't it?" + +'Lina knew just how positive Ellen was with regard to any opinion she +espoused, and presumed in her own mind that in this point, as in many +others, she was mistaken. Still she answered that it was queer, though +she could not understand what Adah could possibly be to Dr. Richards. + +"Call her in for something and I'll manage to question her. I'm so +curious and so sure," Ellen said, while 'Lina called: "Adah, Miss +Tiffton wishes to see how my new blue muslin fits. Come help me try it +on." + +Obedient to the call Adah came, and was growing very red in the face +with trying to hook 'Lina's dress, when Ellen casually remarked: + +"You lived in New York, I think?" + +"Yes, ma'am," was the reply, and Ellen continued: + +"Maybe I saw some of your acquaintances. I was there a long time." + +Oh, how eagerly Adah turned toward her now, the glad thought flashing +upon her that possibly she meant George. Maybe he'd come home. + +"Whom did you see?" she asked, her eyes fixed wistfully on Ellen, who +replied: + +"Oh, a great many. There was Mr. Reed, and Mr. Benedict, and Mr. Ward, +and--well, I saw the most of Dr. Richards, perhaps. Do you know either +of them?" + +"No, I never heard of them before," was the reply, so frankly spoken +that Ellen was confounded, for she felt sure that Dr. Richards was a +name entirely new to Adah. + +"I thought you were mistaken," 'Lina said, when the dress was taken off +and Adah gone. "A man such as you describe the doctor would not care for +a poor girl like Adah. Is his home at New York, and are you sure he'll +be at Saratoga?" + +"He said so; and I think he told me his mother and sisters were in some +such place as Snow-down, or Snow-something." + +"Snowdon," suggested 'Lina. "That's where Alice Johnson lives. I must +tell you of her." + +"Alice Johnson," Ellen repeated; "why, that's the girl father says so +much about. Of course I fell in the scale, for there was nothing like +Alice, Alice--so beautiful, so religious." + +"Religious!" and 'Lina laughed scornfully. "Adah pretends to be +religious, too, and so does Sam, while Alice will make three. Pleasant +prospects ahead. I wonder if she's the blue kind--thinks dancing wicked, +and all that." + +Ellen could not tell. She thought it queer that Mrs. Johnson should send +her to a stranger, as it were, when they would have been so glad to +receive her. "Pa won't like it a bit, and she'd be so much more +comfortable with us," and Ellen glanced contemptuously around at the +neat but plainly-furnished room. + +It was not the first time Ellen had offended by a similar remark, and +'Lina flared up at once. Mrs. Johnson knew her mother well, and knew to +whom she was committing her daughter. + +"Did she know Hugh, too?" hot-tempered Ellen asked, sneeringly, +whereupon there ensued a contest of words touching Hugh, in which +Rocket, the Ladies' Fair, and divers other matters figured +conspicuously, and when, ten minutes later, Ellen left the house, she +carried with her the square-necked bertha, together with sundry other +little articles of dress, which she had lent for patterns, and the two +were, on the whole, as angry as a sandy-haired and black-eyed girl could +be. + +"What a stupid I was to say such hateful things of Hugh, when I really +do like him," was Ellen's comment as she galloped away, while 'Lina +muttered: "I stood up for Hugh once, anyhow. To think of her twitting me +about our house, when everybody says the colonel is likely to fail any +day," and 'Lina ran off upstairs to indulge in a fit of crying over what +she called Nell Tiffton's meanness. + +One week later and there came a letter from Alice herself, saying that +at present she was stopping in Boston with her guardian, Mr. Liston, who +had rented the cottage in Snowdon, but that she would meet Mrs. +Worthington and daughter at Saratoga. Of course she did not now feel +like mingling in gay society and should consequently go to the +Columbian, where she could be comparatively quiet; but this need not in +the least interfere with their arrangements, as the United States was +very near, and they could see each other often. + +The same day also brought a letter from Hugh, making many kind inquiries +after them all, saying his business was turning out better than he +expected, and inclosing forty dollars, fifteen of which, he said, was +for Adah, and the rest for Ad, as a peace offering for the harsh things +he had said to her. Forty dollars was just the price of a superb pearl +bracelet in Lexington, and if Hugh had only sent it all to her instead +of a part to Adah! The letter was torn in shreds, and 'Lina went to +Lexington next day in quest of the bracelet, which was pronounced +beautiful by the unsuspecting Adah, who never dreamed that her money had +helped to pay for it. Truly 'Lina was heaping up against herself a dark +catalogue of sin to be avenged some day, but the time was not yet. + +Thus far everything went swimmingly. The dresses fitted admirably, and +nothing could exceed the care with which they had been packed. Her +mother no longer bothered her about Hugh. Lulu was quite well posted +with regard to her duty. + +Thus it was in the best of humors, that 'Lina tripped from Spring Bank +door one pleasant July morning, and was driven with her mother and Lulu +to Lexington, where they intended taking the evening train for +Cincinnati. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +SARATOGA + + +"Mrs. Worthington, daughter, and colored servant, Spring Bank, +Kentucky." + +"Dr. John Richards and mother, New York City." + +"Irving Stanley, Esq., Baltimore." + +These were the last entries the flaxen-haired clerk at Union Hall had +made, feeling sure, as he made them, that each one had been first to +the United States, and failing to find accommodations there, had come +down to Union Hall. + +The Union was so crowded that for the newcomers no rooms were found +except the small, uncomfortable ones far up in the fourth story of the +Ainsworth block, and thither, in not the most amiable mood, 'Lina +followed her trunks, and was followed in turn by her mother and Lulu, +the crowd whom they passed deciphering the name upon the trunks and +whispering to each other: "From Spring Bank, Kentucky. Haughty-looking +girl, wasn't she?" + +From his little twelve by ten apartment, where the summer sun was +pouring in a perfect blaze of heat, Dr. Richards saw them pass, and +after wondering who they were, and hoping they would be comfortable in +their pen, gave them no further thought, but sat jamming his penknife +into the old worm-eaten table, and thinking savage thoughts against that +capricious lady, Fortune, who had compelled him to come to Saratoga, +where rich wives were supposed to be had for the asking. In Dr. +Richard's vest pocket there lay at this very moment a delicate little +note, the meaning of which was that Alice Johnson declined the honor of +becoming his wife. Now he was ready for the first chance that offered, +provided that chance possessed a certain style, and was tolerably +good-looking. + +This, then, was Dr. Richards' errand to Saratoga, and one cause of his +disgust at being banished from the United States, where heiresses were +usually to be found in such abundance. + +From his pleasanter, airier apartment, on the other side of the narrow +hall, Irving Stanley looked out through his golden glasses, pitying the +poor ladies condemned to that slow roast. + +How hot, and dusty, and cross 'Lina was, and what a look of dismay she +cast around the room, with its two bedsteads, its bureau, its table, its +washstand, and its dozen pegs for her two dozen dresses, to say nothing +of her mother's. + +How tired and faint poor Mrs. Worthington was, sinking down upon the +high-post bed! How she wished she had stayed at home, like a sensible +woman, instead of coming here to be made so uncomfortable in this hot +room. But it could not now be helped, 'Lina said; they must do the best +they could; and with a forlorn glance at the luxuriant patch of weeds, +the most prominent view from the window, 'Lina opened one of her trunks, +and spreading a part of its contents upon the bed, began to dress for +dinner. The dinner bell had long since ceased ringing, and the tread of +feet ceased in the halls below ere she descended to the deserted parlor, +followed by her mother, nervous and frightened at the prospect of this, +her first appearance at Saratoga. + +"Pray, rouse yourself," 'Lina whispered, "and not let them guess you +were never at a watering place before," and 'Lina thoughtfully smoothed +her mother's cap by way of reassuring her. + +But even 'Lina herself quailed when she reached the door and caught a +glimpse of the busy life within, the terrible ordeal she must pass. + +"Oh, for a pair of pantaloons to walk beside one, even if Hugh were in +them," she thought, as her own and her mother's lonely condition arose +before her. + +"Courage, mother," she whispered again, and then advanced into the room, +growing bolder at every step, for with one rapid glance she had swept +the hall, and felt that amid that bevy of beauty and fashion there were +few more showy than 'Lina Worthington in her rustling dress of green, +with Ellen Tiffton's bracelet on one arm and the one bought with Adah's +money on the other. + +Not having been an heiress long enough to know just what was expected of +her, and fancying it quite in character to domineer over every colored +person just as she did over Lulu, 'Lina issued her commands with a +dignity worthy of the firm of Mrs. Worthington & Daughter. Bowing +deferentially, the polite attendant quickly drew back her chair, while +she spread out her flowing skirts to an extent which threatened to +envelop her mother, sinking meekly into her seat, not confused and +flurried. But alas for 'Lina. The servant did not calculate the distance +aright, and my lady, who had meant to do the thing so gracefully, who +had intended showing the people that she had been to Saratoga before, +suddenly found herself prostrate upon the floor, the chair some way +behind her, and the plate, which, in her descent, she had grasped +unconsciously, flying off diagonally past her mother's head, and +fortunately past the head of her mother's left-hand neighbor. + +Poor 'Lina! How she wished she might never get up again. + +At first, 'Lina thought nothing could keep her tears back, they gathered +so fast in her eyes, and her voice trembled so that she could not answer +the servant's question: + +"Soup, madam, soup?" + +But he of the white hand did it for her. + +"Of course she'll take soup," then in an aside, he said to her gently: +"Never mind, you are not the first lady who has been served in that way. +It's quite a common occurrence." + +There was something reassuring in his voice, and turning toward him for +the first time, 'Lina caught the gleam of the golden glasses, and knew +that her _vis-à-vis_ upstairs was also her right-hand neighbor. Who was +he, and whom did he so strikingly resemble? Suddenly it came to her. +Saving the glasses, he was very much like Hugh. No handsomer, not a +whit, but more accustomed to society, easier in his manners and more +gallant to ladies. Could it be Irving Stanley? she asked herself, +remembering now to have heard that he did resemble Hugh, and also that +he wore glasses. Yes, she was sure, and the red which the doctor had +pronounced "well put on," deepened on her cheeks, until her whole face +was crimson with mortification, that such should have been her first +introduction to the aristocratic Irving. + +Kind and gentle as a woman, Irving Stanley was sometimes laughed at by +his own sex, as too gentle, too feminine in disposition; but those who +knew him best loved him most, and loved him, too, just because he was +not so stern, so harsh, so overbearing as lords of creation are wont to +be. + +Such was Irving Stanley, and 'Lina might well be thankful that her lot +was cast so near him. He did not talk to her at the table further than a +few commonplace remarks, but when, after dinner was over, and his Havana +smoked, he found her sitting with her mother out in the grove, apart +from everybody, and knew instantly that they were there alone, he went +to them at once, and ere many minutes had elapsed discovered to his +surprise that they were his so-called cousins from Kentucky. Nothing +could exceed 'Lina's delight. He was there unfettered by mother or +sister or sweetheart, and of course would attach himself exclusively to +her. 'Lina was very happy, and more than once her loud laugh rang out so +loud that Irving, with all his charity, had a faint suspicion that +around his Kentucky cousin, brilliant though she was, there might linger +a species of coarseness, not altogether agreeable to one of his +refinement. Still he sat chatting with her until the knowing dowagers, +who year after year watch such things at Saratoga, whispered behind +their fans of a flirtation between the elegant Mr. Stanley and that +dark, haughty-looking girl from Kentucky. + +"I never saw him so familiar with a stranger upon so short an +acquaintance," said fat Mrs. Buford. + +"Is that Irving Stanley, whom Lottie Gardner talks so much about?" And +Mrs. Richards leveled her glass again, for Irving Stanley was not +unknown to her by reputation. "She must be somebody, John, or he would +not notice her," and she spoke in an aside, adding in a louder tone: "I +wonder who she is? There's their servant. I mean to question her," and +as Lulu came near, she said: "Girl, who do you belong to?" + +"'Longs to them," answered Lulu, jerking her head toward 'Lina and Mrs. +Worthington. + +"Where do you live?" was the next query, and Lulu replied: + +"Spring Bank, Kentucky. Missus live in big house, 'most as big as this;" +then anxious to have the ordeal passed, and fearful that she might not +acquit herself satisfactorily to 'Lina, who, without seeming to notice +her, had drawn near enough to hear, she added: "Miss 'Lina is an airey, +a very large airey, and has a heap of--of--" Lulu hardly knew what, but +finally in desperation added: "a heap of a'rs," and then fled away ere +another question could be asked her. + +"What did she say she was?" Mrs. Richards asked, and the doctor replied: + +"She said an airey. She meant an heiress." + +Money, or the reputation of possessing money, is an all-powerful charm, +and in few places does it show its power more plainly than at Saratoga, +where it was soon known that the lady from Spring Bank, with pearls in +her hair, and pearl bracelets on her arms, was heiress to immense wealth +in Kentucky, how immense nobody knew, and various were the estimates put +upon it. Among Mrs. Bufort's clique it was twenty thousand, farther away +in another hall it was fifty, while Mrs. Richards, ere the supper hour +arrived, had heard that it was at least a hundred thousand dollars. How +or where she heard it she hardly knew, but she indorsed the statement as +current, and at the tea table that night was exceedingly gracious to +'Lina and her mother, offering to divide a little private dish which she +had ordered for herself, and into which poor Mrs. Worthington +inadvertently dipped, never dreaming that it was not common property. + +"It was not of the slightest consequence, Mrs. Richards was delighted to +share it with her," and that was the way the conversation commenced. + +'Lina knew now that the proud man whose lip had curled so scornfully at +dinner was Ellen's Dr. Richards, and Dr. Richards knew that the girl who +sat on the floor was 'Lina Worthington, from Spring Bank, where Alice +Johnson was going. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE COLUMBIAN + + +It was very quiet at the Columbian, and the few gentlemen seated upon +the piazza seemed to be of a different stamp from those at the more +fashionable houses, as there were none of them smoking, nor did they +stare impertinently at the gayly-dressed lady coming-up the steps, and +inquiring of the clerk if Miss Alice Johnson were there. + +Yes, she was, and her room was No. ----. Should he send the lady's card? +Miss Johnson had mostly kept her room. + +'Lina had brought no card, but she gave her name, and passed on into the +parlor, which afforded a striking contrast to the beehive downtown. In a +corner two or three were sitting; another group occupied a window; while +at the piano were two more, an old and a young lady; the latter of whom +was seated upon the stool, and with her foot upon the soft pedal, was +alternately striking a few sweet, musical chords, and talking to her +companion, who seemed to be a little deaf. + +"This is Miss Johnson," and the waiter bowed toward the musician, who, +quick as thought, seized upon the truth, and springing to Mrs. +Worthington's side, exclaimed: + +"It's Mrs. Worthington, I know, my mother's early friend. Why did you +sit here so long without speaking to me? I am Alice Johnson," and +overcome with the emotions awakened by the sight of her mother's early +friend, Alice hid her face with childlike confidence in Mrs. +Worthington's bosom, and sobbed for a moment bitterly. + +Then growing calm, she lifted up her head and smiling through her tears +said: + +"Forgive me for this introduction. It is not often I give way, for I +know and am sure it was best and right that mother should die. I am not +rebellious now, but the sight of you brought it back so vividly. You'll +be my mother, won't you?" and kissing the fat white hands involuntarily +smoothing her bright hair, the impulsive girl nestled closer to Mrs. +Worthington, looking up into her face with a confiding affection which +won a place for her at once in Mrs. Worthington's heart. + +"My darling," she said, winding her arm around her waist, "as far as I +can I will be to you a mother, and 'Lina shall be your sister. This is +'Lina, dear," and she turned to 'Lina, who, piqued at having been so +long unnoticed, was frowning gloomily. + +But 'Lina never met a glance purer or more free from guile than that +which Alice gave her, and it disarmed her at once of all jealousy, +making her return the orphan's kisses with as much apparent cordiality +as they had been given. During this scene the woman of the snowy hair +and jet black eyes had stood silently by, regarding 'Lina with that same +curious expression which had so annoyed the young lady, and from which +she now intuitively shrank. + +"My nurse, Densie Densmore," Alice said at last, adding in an aside: +"She is somewhat deaf and may not hear distinctly, unless you speak +quite loud. Poor old Densie," she continued, as the latter bowed to her +new acquaintances, and then seated herself at a respectful distance. +"She has been in our family for a long time." Then changing the +conversation, Alice made many inquiries concerning Kentucky, startling +them with the announcement that she had that day received a letter from +Colonel Tiffton, who she believed was a friend of theirs, urging her to +spend a few weeks with him. "They heard from you what were mother's +plans for my future, and also that I was to meet you here. They must be +very thoughtful people, for they seem to know that I cannot be very +happy here." + +For a moment 'Lina and her mother looked aghast, and neither knew what +to say. 'Lina, as usual, was the first to rally and calculate results. + +They were very intimate at Colonel Tiffton's. She and Ellen were fast +friends. It was very pleasant there, more so than at Spring Bank; and +all the objection she could see to Alice's going was the fear lest she +should become so much attached to Mosside, the colonel's residence, as +to be homesick at Spring Bank. + +"If she's going, I hope she'll go before Dr. Richards sees her, though +perhaps he knows her already--his mother lives in Snowdon," 'Lina +thought, and rather abruptly she asked if Alice knew Dr. Richards, who +was staying at the Union. + +Alice blushed crimson as she replied: + +"Yes, I know him very well and his family, too. Are either of his +sisters with him?" + +"His mother is here," 'Lina replied, "and I like her so much. She is +very familiar and friendly; don't you think so?" + +Alice would not tell a lie, and she answered frankly: + +"She does not bear that name in Snowdon. They consider her very haughty +there. I think you must be a favorite." + +"Are they very aristocratic and wealthy?" 'Lina asked, and Alice +answered: + +"Aristocratic, not wealthy. They were very kind to me, and the doctor's +sister, Anna, is one of the sweetest ladies I ever knew. She may +possibly be here during the summer. She is an invalid, and has been for +years." + +Suddenly Ellen Tiffton's story of the ambrotype flashed into 'Lina's +mind. Alice might know something of it, and after a little she asked if +the doctor had not at one time been engaged. + +Alice did not know. It was very possible. Why did Miss Worthington ask +the question? + +'Lina did not stop to consider the propriety or impropriety of making so +free with a stranger, and unhesitatingly repeated what Ellen Tiffton had +told her of the ambrotype. This, of course, compelled her to speak of +Adah, who, she said, came to them under very suspicious circumstances, +and was cared for by her eccentric brother, Hugh. + +In spite of the look of entreaty visible on Mrs. Worthington's face, +'Lina said: + +"To be candid with you, Miss Johnson, I'm afraid you won't like Hugh. He +has many good traits, but I am sorry to say we have never succeeded in +cultivating him one particle, so that he is very rough and boorish in +his manner, and will undoubtedly strike you unfavorably. I may as well +tell you this, as you will probably hear it from Ellen Tiffton, and must +know it when you see him. He is not popular with the ladies; he hates +them all, he says. Mother, Loo-loo, come," and breaking off from her +very sisterly remarks concerning Hugh, 'Lina sprang up in terror as a +large beetle, attracted by the light, fastened itself upon her hair. + +Mrs. Worthington was the first to the rescue, while Lulu, who had +listened with flashing eye when Hugh was the subject of remark, came +laggardly, whispering slyly to Alice: + +"That's a lie she done tell you about Mas'r Hugh. He ain't rough, nor +bad, and we blacks would die for him any day." + +Alice was confounded at this flat contradiction between mistress and +servant, while a faint glimmer of the truth began to dawn upon her. The +"horn-bug" being disposed of, 'Lina became quiet, and might, perhaps, +have taken up Hugh again, but for a timely interruption in the shape of +Irving Stanley, who had walked up to the Columbian, and seeing 'Lina and +her mother through the window, sauntered leisurely into the parlor. + +"Ah, Mr. Stanley," and 'Lina half arose from her chair, thus intimating +that he was to join them. "Miss Johnson, Mr. Stanley," and 'Lina watched +them closely. + +"You have positively been smitten by Miss Johnson's pretty face," said +'Lina, laughing a little spitefully, as they parted at the piazza, +Irving to go after his accustomed glasses of water, and 'Lina to seek +out Dr. Richards in the parlor. "Yes, I know you are smitten, and +inasmuch as we are cousins, I shall expect to see you at Spring Bank +some day not far in the future." + +"It is quite probable you will," was Irving's reply, as he walked away, +his head and heart full of Alice Johnson. + +Meantime "Mrs. Worthington, daughter and servant," had entered the still +crowded parlors, where Mrs. Richards sat fanning herself industriously, +and watching her John with motherly interest as he sauntered from one +group of ladies to another, wondering what made Saratoga so dull, and +where Miss Worthington had gone. It is not to be supposed that Dr. +Richards cared a fig for Miss Worthington as Miss Worthington. It was +simply her immense figure he admired, and as, during the evening he had +heard on good authority that said figure was made up mostly of cotton +growing on some Southern field, the exact locality of which his +informant did not know, he had decided that, of course, Miss 'Lina's +fortune was over-estimated. Such things always were, but still she must +be wealthy. He had no doubt of that, and he might as well devote himself +to her as to wait for some one else. Accordingly the moment he spied her +in the crowd he joined her, asking if they should not take a little turn +up and down the piazza." + +"Wait till I ask mamma's permission to stay up a little longer. She +always insists upon my keeping such early hours," was 'Lina's very +filial and childlike reply, as she walked up to mamma, not to ask +permission, but to whisper rather peremptorily, "Dr. Richards wishes me +to walk with him, and as you are tired, you may as well go to bed!" + +Meantime the doctor and 'Lina were walking up and down the long piazza, +chatting gayly, and attracting much attention from 'Lina's loud manner +of talking and laughing. + +"By the way, I've called on Miss Johnson, at the Columbian," she said. +"Beautiful, isn't she?" + +"Ra-ather pretty, some would think," and the doctor had an uncomfortable +consciousness of the refusal in his vest pocket. + +If Alice had told. But no, he knew her better than that. He could trust +her on that score, and so the dastardly coward affected to sneer at what +he called her primness, charging 'Lina to be careful what she did, if +she did not want a lecture, and asking if there were any ragged children +in Kentucky, as she would not be happy unless she was running a Sunday +school! + +"She can teach the negroes! Capital!" and 'Lina laughed so loudly that +Mrs. Richards joined them, laughing, too, at what she did not know, +only--Miss Worthington had such spirits; it did one good; and she wished +Anna was there to be enlivened. + +"Write to her, John, won't you?" + +John mentally thought it doubtful. Anna and 'Lina would never +assimilate, and he would rather not have his pet sister's opinion to +combat until his own was fully made up. + +"Anna--oh, yes!" 'Lina exclaimed. "Miss Johnson spoke of her as the +sweetest lady she ever saw. I wish she would come. I'm so anxious to see +her. An invalid, I believe?" + +Yes, dear Anna was a sad invalid, and cared but little to go from home, +though if she could find a waiting maid, such as she had been in quest +of for the last six months she might perhaps be persuaded. + +"A waiting maid," 'Lina repeated to herself, remembering the forgotten +letter in her dress pocket, wondering if it could be Anna Richards, +whose advertisement Adah had answered, and if it were, congratulating +herself upon her thoughtlessness in forgetting it, as she would not for +the world have Adah Hastings, with her exact knowledge of Spring Bank, +in Mrs. Richards' family. It passed her mind that the very dress had +been given to Adah, who might find the letter yet. She only reflected +that the letter never was sent, and felt glad accordingly. Very adroitly +she set herself at work to ascertain if Anna Richards and "A.E.R." were +one and the same individual. + +If Anna wished for a waiting maid, she could certainly find one, she +should suppose. She might advertise. + +"She has," and the doctor began to laugh. "The most ridiculous thing. I +hardly remember the wording, but it has been copied and recopied, for +its wording, annoying Anna greatly, and bringing to our doors so many +unfortunate women in search of places, that my poor little sister +trembles now every time the bell rings, thinking it some fresh answer to +her advertisement." + +"I've seen it," and 'Lina very unconsciously laid her hand on his arm. +"It was copied and commented upon by Prentice, and my sewing woman +actually thought of answering it, thinking the place would suit her. I +told her it was preposterous that 'A.E.R.' should want her with a +child." + +"The very one to suit Anna," and the doctor laughed again. "That was one +of the requirements, or something. How was it, mother? I think we must +manage to get your sewing woman. What is her name?" + +'Lina had trodden nearer dangerous ground than she meant to do, and she +veered off at once, replying to the doctor: + +"Oh, she would not suit at all. She's too--I hardly know what, unless I +say, lifeless, or insipid. And then, I could not spare my seamstress. +She cuts nearly all my dresses." + +"She must be a treasure. I have noticed how admirably they fitted," and +old Mrs. Richards glanced again at the blue silk, half wishing that Anna +had just such a waiting maid, they could all find her so useful. "If +John succeeds, maybe Miss Worthington will bring her North," was her +mental conclusion, and then, as it was growing rather late, she very +thoughtfully excused herself, saying, "It was time old people retired; +young ones, of course, could act at their own discretion. She would not +hurry them," and hoping to see more of Miss Worthington to-morrow, she +bowed good-night, and left the doctor alone with 'Lina. + +"In the name of the people, what are you sitting up for?" was 'Lina's +first remark when she went upstairs, followed by a glowing account of +what Dr. Richards had said, and the delightful time she'd had. "Only +play our cards well, and I'm sure to go home the doctor's _fiancée_. +Won't Ellen Tiffton stare when I tell her, mother?" and 'Lina spoke in a +low tone. "The doctor thinks I'm very rich. So do all the people here. +Lulu has told that I'm an heiress; now don't you upset it all with your +squeamishness about the truth. Nobody will ask you how much I'm worth, +so you won't be compelled to a lie direct. Just keep your tongue between +your teeth, and leave the rest to me. Will you?" + +There was, as usual, a feeble remonstrance, and then the weak woman +yielded so far as promising to keep silent was concerned. + +Meantime the doctor sat in his own room nearby, thinking of 'Lina +Worthington, and wishing she were a little more refined. + +"Where does she get that coarseness?" he thought. "Not from her mother, +certainly. She seems very gentle and ladylike. It must be from the +Worthingtons," and the doctor wondered where he had heard that name +before, and why it affected him rather unpleasantly, bringing with it +memories of Lily. "Poor Lily," he sighed mentally. "Your love would have +made me a better man if I had not cast it from me. Dear Lily, the mother +of my child," and a tear half trembled in his eyelashes, as he tried to +fancy that child; tried to hear the patter of the little feet running to +welcome him home, as they might have done had he been true to Lily; +tried to hear the baby voice calling him "papa;" to feel the baby hands +upon his face--his bearded face where the great tears were standing now. +"I did love Lily," he murmured; "and had I known of the child I never +could have left her. Oh, Lily, my lost Lily, come back to me, come!" and +his arms were stretched out into empty space, as if he fain would +encircle again the girlish form he had so often held in his embrace. + +It was very late ere Dr. Richards slept that night, and the morning +found him pale, haggard and nearly desperate. Thoughts of Lily were +gone, and in their place was a fixed determination to follow on in the +course he had marked out, to find him a rich wife, to cast remorse to +the winds, and be as happy as he could. + +How anxious the doctor was to have Alice go; how fearful lest she should +not; and how relieved when asked by 'Lina one night to go with her the +next morning and see Miss Johnson off. There were Mrs. Worthington and +'Lina, Dr. Richards and Irving Stanley, and a dozen more admirers, who, +dazzled with Alice's beauty, were dancing attendance upon her to the +latest moment, but none looked so sorry as Irving Stanley, or said +good-by so unwillingly, and 'Lina, as she saw the wistful gaze he sent +after the receding train, playfully asked him if he did not feel some +like the half of a pair of scissors. + +The remark jarred painfully on Irving's finer feelings, while the +doctor, affecting to laugh and ejaculate "pretty good," wished so much +that his black-eyed lady were different in some things. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +HUGH + + +An unexpected turn in Hugh's affairs made it no longer necessary for him +to remain in the sultry climate of New Orleans, and just one week from +his mother's departure from Spring Bank he reached it, expressing +unbounded surprise when he heard from Aunt Eunice where his mother had +gone, and how she had gone. + +"Fool and his money soon parted," Hugh said. "I can fancy just the dash +Ad is making. But who sent the money?" + +"A Mrs. Johnson, an old friend of your mother's," Aunt Eunice replied, +while Hugh looked up quickly, wondering why the Johnsons should be so +continually thrust upon him, when the only Johnson for whom he cared was +dead years ago. + +"And the young lady--what about her?" he asked, while Aunt Eunice told +him the little she knew, which was that Mrs. Johnson wished her daughter +to come to Spring Bank, but she did not know what they had concluded +upon. + +"That she should not come, of course," Hugh said. "They had no right to +give her a home without my consent, and I've plenty of young ladies at +Spring Bank now. Oh, it was such a relief when I was gone to know that +in all New Orleans there was not a single hoop annoyed on my account. I +had a glorious time doing as I pleased." + +"And yet you've improved, seems to me," Aunt Eunice said. + +"Oh, I'll turn out a polished dandy by and by, who knows?" Hugh +answered, laughingly; then helping his aunt to mount the horse which had +brought her to Spring Bank, he returned to the house, which seemed +rather lonely, notwithstanding that he had so often wished he could once +more be alone, just as he was before his mother came. + +On the whole, however, he enjoyed his freedom from restraint, and very +rapidly fell back into his old loose way of living, bringing his dogs +even into the parlor, and making it a repository for both his hunting +and fishing apparatus. + +"It's splendid to do as I'm mind to," he said, one hot August morning, +nearly three weeks after his mother's departure. + +"Hello, Mug, what do you want?" he asked, as a very bright-looking +little mulatto girl appeared in the door. + +"Claib done buyed you this yer," and the child handed him the letter +from his mother. + +The first of it was full of affection for her boy, and Hugh felt his +heart growing very tender as he read, but when he reached the point +where poor, timid Mrs. Worthington tried to explain about Alice, making +a wretched bungle, and showing plainly how much she was swayed by 'Lina, +it began to harden at once. + +"What the plague!" he exclaimed as he read on. "Suppose I remember +having heard her speak of her old school friend, Alice Morton? I don't +remember any such thing. Her daughter's name's Alice--Alice Johnson," +and Hugh for an instant turned white, so powerfully that name always +affected him. + +"She is going to Colonel Tiffton's first, though they've all got the +typhoid fever, I hear, and that's no place for her. That fever is +terrible on Northerners--terrible on anybody. I'm afraid of it myself, +and I wish this horrid throbbing I've felt for a few days would leave my +head. It has a fever feel that I don't like," and the young man pressed +his hand against his temples, trying to beat back the pain which so much +annoyed him. + +Just then Collonel Tiffton was announced, his face wearing an anxious +look, and his voice trembling as he told how sick his Nell was, how sick +they all were, and then spoke of Alice Johnson. + +"She's the same girl I told you about the day I bought Rocket; some +little kin to me, and that makes it queer why her mother should leave +her to you. I knew she would not be happy at Saratoga, and so we wrote +for her to visit us. She is on the road now, will be here day after +to-morrow, and something must be done. She can't come to us without +great inconvenience to ourselves and serious danger to her. Hugh, my +boy, there's no other way--she must come to Spring Bank," and the old +colonel laid his hand on that of Hugh, who looked at him aghast, but +made no immediate reply. + +"A pretty state of things, and a pretty place to bring a lady," he +muttered, glancing ruefully around the room and enumerating the +different articles he knew were out of place. "Fish worms, fishhooks, +fishlines, bootjack, boot-blacking, and rifle, to say nothing of the +dogs--and me!" + +The last was said in a tone as if the "me" were the most objectionable +part of the whole, as, indeed, Hugh thought it was. + +"I wonder how I do look to persons wholly unprejudiced!" Hugh said, and +turning to Muggins he asked what she thought of him. + +"I thinks you berry nice. I likes you berry much," the child replied, +and Hugh continued: + +"Yes; but how do I look, I mean? What do I look like, a dandy or a +scarecrow?" + +Muggins regarded him for a moment curiously, and then replied: + +"I'se dunno what kind of thing that dandy is, but I 'members dat yer +scarecrow what Claib make out of mas'r's trouse's and coat, an' put up +in de cherry tree. I thinks da look like Mas'r Hugh--yes, very much +like!" + +Hugh laughed long and loud, pinching Mug's dusky cheek, and bidding her +run away. + +"Pretty good," he exclaimed, when he was left alone, "That's Mug's +opinion. Look like a scarecrow. I mean to see for myself," and going +into the sitting-room, where the largest mirror was hung, he scanned +curiously the figure which met his view, even taking a smaller glass, +and holding it so as to get a sight of his back. "Tall, +broad-shouldered, straight, well-built. My form is well enough," he +said. "It's the clothes that bother. I mean to get some new ones. Then, +as to my face," and Hugh turned himself around, "I never thought of it +before; but my features are certainly regular, teeth can't be beaten, +good brown skin, such as a man should have, eyes to match, and a heap of +curly hair. I'll be hanged if I don't think I'm rather good-looking!" +and with his spirits proportionately raised, Hugh whistled merrily as he +went in quest of Aunt Chloe, to whom he imparted the startling +information that on the next day but one, a young lady was coming to +Spring Bank, and that, in the meantime, the house must be cleaned from +garret to cellar, and everything put in order for the expected guest. + +With growing years, Aunt Chloe had become rather cross and less inclined +to work than formerly, frequently sighing for the days when "Mas'r John +didn't want no clarin' up, but kep' things lyin' handy." With her hands +on her fat hips she stood, coolly regarding Hugh, who was evidently too +much in earnest to be opposed. Alice was coming, and the house must be +put in order. + +The cleaning and arranging was finished at last, and everything within +the house was as neat and orderly as Aunt Eunice and Adah could make +it, even Aunt Chloe acknowledging that "things was tiptop," but said, +"it was no use settin' 'em to rights when Mas'r Hugh done onsot 'em so +quick;" but Hugh promised to do better. He would turn over a new leaf, +so by way of commencement, on the morning of Alice's expected arrival he +deliberately rolled up his towel and placed it under his pillow instead +of his nightshirt, which he hung conspicuously over the washstand. His +boots were put behind the fire-board, his every day hat jammed into the +bandbox where 'Lina kept her winter bonnet, and then, satisfied that so +far as his room was concerned, everything was in order, he descended the +stairs and went into the garden to gather fresh flowers with which still +further to adorn Alice's room. Hugh was fond of flowers, and two most +beautiful bouquets were soon arranged and placed in the vases brought +from the parlor mantel, while Muggins, who trotted beside him, watching +his movements and sometimes making suggestions, was told to see that +they were freshly watered, and not allowed to stand where the sun could +shine on them, as they might fade before Miss Johnson came. + +During the excitement of preparing for Alice, the pain in his head had +in a measure been forgotten, but it had come back this morning with +redoubled force, and the veins upon his forehead looked almost like +bursting with their pressure of feverish blood. Hugh had never been sick +in his life, and he did not think it possible for him to be so now, so +he tried hard to forget the giddy, half blinding pain warning him of +danger, and after forcing himself to sip a little coffee in which he +would indulge this morning, he ordered Claib to bring out the covered +buggy, as he was going up to Lexington. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +MEETING OF ALICE AND HUGH + + +Could 'Lina have seen Hugh that morning as he emerged from a fashionable +tailor's shop, she would scarcely have recognized him. The hour passed +rapidly away, and its close found Hugh waiting at the terminus of the +Lexington and Cincinnati Railroad. He did not have to wait there long +ere a wreath of smoke in the distance heralded the approach of the +train, and in a moment the broad platform was swarming with passengers, +conspicuous among whom were an old lady and a young, both entire +strangers, as was evinced by their anxiety to know where to go. + +"There are ours," the young lady said, pointing to a huge pile of +trunks, distinctly marked "A.J.," as she held out her checks in her +ungloved hand. + +Hugh noticed the hand, saw that it was very small and white and fat, but +the face he could not see, and he looked in vain for the magnificent +hair about which even his mother had waxed eloquent, and which was now +put plainly back, so that not a vestige of it was visible. Still Hugh +felt sure that this was Alice Johnson, so sure that when he had +ascertained the hotel where she would wait for the Frankfort train, he +followed on, and entering the back parlor, the door of which was partly +closed, sat down as if he, too, were a traveler, waiting for the train. + +Meantime, in the room adjoining, Alice, for it was she, divested herself +of her dusty wrappings, and taking out her combs and brushes, began to +arrange her hair, talking the while to Densie, reclining on the sofa. + +It would seem that Alice's own luxuriant tresses suggested her first +remark, for she said to Densie: "That Miss Worthington has beautiful +hair, so black, so glossy, and so wavy, too. I wonder she never curls +it. It looks as if she might." + +Densie did not know. It had struck her as singular taste, unless it were +done to conceal a scar, or something of that kind. + +"I did not like that girl," she said, "and still she interested me more +than any person I ever met. I never went near her without experiencing a +strange sensation, neither could I keep from watching her continually, +although I knew as well as you that it annoyed her, Alice," and Densie +lowered her voice almost to a whisper, "I cannot account for it, but I +had queer fancies about that girl. Try now and bring her distinctly to +your mind. Did you ever see any one whom she resembled; any other eyes +like hers?" and Densie's own fierce, wild orbs flashed inquiringly upon +Alice, who could not remember a face like 'Lina Worthington's. + +"I did not like her eyes much," she said; "they were too intensely +black, too much like coals of fire, when they flashed angrily on that +poor Lulu, who evidently was not well posted in the duties of a waiting +maid, auntie," and Alice's voice was lowered, too. "If mother had not so +decided, I should shrink from being an inmate of Mrs. Washington's +family. I like her very much, but 'Lina--I am afraid I shall not get on +with her:" + +"I know you won't. I honor your judgment," was Hugh's mental comment, +while Alice went on: + +"And what she told me of her brother was not calculated to impress me +favorably." + +Nervously Hugh's hands grasped each other, and he could distinctly hear +the beating of his heart as he leaned forward so as not to lose a single +word. + +"She seemed trying to prepare me for him by telling how rough he was; +how little he cared for etiquette; and how constantly he mortified her +with his uncouth manners." + +Alice did not hear the sigh of pain or see the mournful look which stole +over Hugh's face. She did not even suspect his presence, and she went on +to speak of Spring Bank, wondering if Hugh would be there before his +mother returned, half hoping he would not, as she rather dreaded meeting +him, although she meant to like him if she could. + +Alice's long, bright hair, was arranged at last, and the soft curls fell +about her face, giving to it the same look it had worn in childhood--the +look which was graven on Hugh's heart, as with a pencil of fire; the +look he never had forgotten through all the years which had come and +gone since first it shone on him; the look he had never hoped to see +again, so sure was he that it had long been quenched by the waters of +Lake Erie. Alice's face was turned fully toward him. Through the open +window at her back the August sunlight streamed, falling on her chestnut +hair, and tinging it with the yellow gleam which Hugh remembered so +well. For an instant the long lashes shaded the fair round cheek, and +then were uplifted, disclosing the eyes of lustrous blue, which, seen +but once, could never be mistaken, and Hugh was not mistaken. One look +of piercing scrutiny at the face unconsciously confronting him, one +mighty throb, which seemed to bear away his very life, one rapid passage +of his hand before his eyes to sweep away the mist, if mist there were, +and then Hugh knew the grave had given up its dead, mourned for so long +as only he could mourn. She was not lost. Some friendly hand had saved +her; some arm had borne her to the shore. + +Golden Hair had come back to him, but, alas, prejudiced against him. She +hoped he might be gone. She would be happier if he never crossed her +path. "And I never, never will," Hugh thought, as with one farewell +glance at her dazzling beauty, he staggered noiselessly from the room, +and sought a small outer court, whose locality he knew, and where he +could be alone to think. + +"Oh, Adaline," he murmured, "what made you so cruel to me? I would not +have served you so." + +There was a roll of wheels before the door, and Hugh knew by the sound +that it was the carriage for the cars. She was going. They would never +meet again, Hugh said, and she would never know that the youth who saved +her life was the same for whose coming they would wait and watch in vain +at Spring Bank--the Hugh for whom his mother would weep a while; and for +whose dark fate even Ad might feel a little sorry. She was not wholly +depraved--she had some sisterly feeling, and his loss would waken it to +life. They would appreciate him after he was gone, and the poor heart +which had known so little love throbbed joyfully, as Hugh thought of +being loved at last even by the selfish 'Lina. + +Meantime Alice and Densie proceeded on their way to the Big Spring +station, where Colonel Tiffton was waiting for them, according to his +promise. There was a shadow in the colonel's good-humored face, and a +shadow in his heart. His idol, Nellie, was very, very sick, while added +to this was the terrible certainty that he and he alone must pay that +$10,000 note on which he had foolishly put his name, because Harney had +preferred it. He was talking with Harney when the cars came up, and the +villain, while expressing regret that the colonel should be compelled to +pay so much for what he never received, had said, with a relentless +smile: "But it's not my fault, you know. I can't afford to lose it." + +From that moment the colonel felt he was a ruined man, but he would not +allow himself to appear at all discomposed. + +"Wait a while," he said; "do nothing till my Nell lives or dies," and +with a sigh as he thought how much dearer to him was his youngest +daughter than all the farms in Woodford, he went forward to meet Alice, +just appearing upon the platform. + +The colonel explained to Alice why she must go to Spring Bank, adding, +by way of consolation, that she would not be quite as lonely now Hugh +was at home. + +"Hugh at home!" and Alice shrank back in dismay, feeling for a moment +that she could not go there. + +But there was no alternative, and after a few tears, which, she could +not repress, she said, timidly: + +"What is this Hugh? What kind of a man, I mean?" + +She could not expect the colonel to say anything bad of him, but she was +not prepared for his frank response. + +"The likeliest chap in Kentucky. Nothing dandified about him, to be +sure. Wears his trouser legs in his boots as often as any way, and don't +stand about the very latest cut of his coat, but he's got a heart bigger +than an ox--yes, big as ten oxen! I'd trust him with my life, and know +it was just as safe as his own. You'll like Hugh--Nell does." + +The colonel never dreamed of the comfort his words gave Alice, or how +they changed her feelings with regard to one whom she had so dreaded to +meet. + +"There 'tis; we're almost there," the colonel said at last, as they +turned off from the highway, and leaning forward Alice caught sight of +the roofs and dilapidated chimneys of Spring Bank. "'Taint quite as +fixey as Yankee houses, that's a fact, but we that own niggers never do +have things so smarted up," the colonel said, guessing how the contrast +must affect Alice, who felt so desolate and homesick as she drew up in +front of what, for a time at least, was to be her home. + +"Where is Hugh?" Alice asked. + +Aunt Eunice would not say he had gone to Lexington for the sake, +perhaps, of seeing her, so she replied: + +"He went to town this morning, but he'll be back pretty soon. He has +done his best to make it pleasant for you, and I do believe he doted on +your coming after he got a little used to thinking about it. You'll like +Hugh when you get accustomed to him. There, try to go to sleep," and +kind Aunt Eunice bustled from the room just as poor Densie, who had been +entirely overlooked, entered it, together with Aunt Chloe. The old +negress was evidently playing the hostess to Densie, for she was talking +quite loud, and all about "Mas'r Hugh." "Pity he wasn't thar, 'twould +seem so different; 'tain't de same house without him. You'll like Mas'r +Hugh," and she, too, glided from the room. + +Was this the password at Spring Bank, "You'll like Mas'r Hugh?" It would +seem so, for when at last Hannah brought up the waffles and tea, which +Aunt Eunice had prepared, she set down her tray, and after a few +inquiries concerning Alice's head, which was now aching sadly, she, too, +launched forth into a panegyric on Mas'r Hugh, ending, as the rest had +done, "You'll like Mas'r Hugh." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +ALICE AND MUGGINS + + +Had an angel appeared suddenly to the blacks at Spring Bank they would +not have been more surprised or delighted than they were with Alice when +she came down to breakfast, looking so beautiful in her muslin wrapper, +with a simple white blossom and geranium leaf twined among her flowing +curls, and an expression of content upon her childish face, which said +that she had resolved to make the best of the place to which Providence +had so clearly led her for some wise purpose of his own. She had arisen +early and explored the premises in quest of the spots of sunshine which +she knew were there as well as elsewhere, and she had found them, too, +in the grand old elms and maples which shaded the wooden building, in +the clean, grassy lawn and the running brook, in the well-kept garden of +flowers, and in the few choice volumes arranged in the old bookcase at +one end of the hall. Who reads those books, her favorites, every one of +them? Not 'Lina, most assuredly, for Alice's reminiscences of her were +not of the literary kind; nor yet Mrs. Worthington, kind, gentle +creature as she seemed to be. Who then but Hugh could have pored over +those pages? And Alice felt a thrill of joy as she felt there was at +least one bond of sympathy between them. There was no Bible upon the +shelves, no religious book of any kind, if we except a work of infidel +Tom Paine, at sight of which Alice recoiled as from a viper. Could Hugh +believe in Tom Paine? She hoped not, and with a sigh she was turning +from the corner, when the patter of little naked feet was heard upon the +stairs, and a bright mulatto child, apparently seven or eight years old, +appeared, her face expressive of the admiration with which she regarded +Alice, who asked her name. + +Curtseying very low, the child replied: + +"I dunno, missus; I 'spec's I done lost 'em, 'case heap of a while ago, +'fore you're born, I reckon, they call me Leshie, but Mas'r Hugh done +nickname me Muggins, and every folks do that now. You know Mas'r Hugh? +He done rared when he read you's comin'; do this way with his boot, 'By +George, Ad will sell the old hut yet without 'sultin' me,'" and the +little darky's fist came down upon the window sill in apt imitation of +her master. + +A crimson flush overspread Alice's face as she wondered if it were +possible that the arrangements concerning her coming there had been made +without reference to Hugh's wishes. + +"It may be, he was away," she sighed; then feeling an intense desire to +know more, and being only a woman and mortal, she said to Muggins +walking around her in circles, with her fat arms folded upon her bosom. +"Your master did not know I was coming till he returned from New Orleans +and found his mother's letter?" + +"Who tole you dat ar?" and Muggins' face was perfectly comical in its +bewilderment at what she deemed Alice's foreknowledge. "But dat's so, +dat is. I hear Aunt Chloe say so, and how't was right mean in Miss +'Lina. I hate Miss 'Lina! Phew-ew!" and Muggins' face screwed itself +into a look of such perfect disgust that Alice could not forbear +laughing outright. + +"You should not hate any one, my child," she said, while Muggins +rejoined: + +"I can't help it--none of us can; she's so--mean--and so--so--you +mustn't never tell, 'case Aunt Chloe get my rags if you do--but she's so +low-flung, Claib say. She hain't any bizzens orderin' us around nuther, +and I will hate her!" + +"But, Muggins, the Bible teaches us to love those who treat us badly, +who are mean, as you say." + +"Who's he?" and Muggins looked up quickly. "I never hearn tell of him +afore, or, yes I has. Thar's an old wared-out book in Mas'r Hugh's +chest, what he reads in every night, and oncet when I axes him what was +it, he say, 'It's a Bible, Mug.' Dat's what he calls me for short; Mug!" + +"Well," Alice said, "be a good girl, Muggins. God will love you if you +do. Do you ever pray?" + +"More times I do, and more times when I'se sleepy I don't," was Muggins' +reply. + +Here was a spot where Alice might do good; this half-heathen, but +sprightly, African child needed her, and she began already to get an +inkling of her mission to Kentucky. She was pleased with Muggins, and +suffered the little dusky hands to caress her curls as long as they +pleased, while she questioned her of the bookcase and its contents, +whose was it, 'Lina's or Hugh's? + +"Mas'r Hugh's, in course. Miss 'Lina can't read!" was Muggins' reply, +which Alice fully understood. + +'Lina was no reader, while Hugh was, it might be, and she continued to +speak of him. Did he read much, ever evenings to his mother, or did +'Lina play often to them?" + +"More'n we wants, a heap!" and Muggins spoke scornfully. "We can't bar +them rang-tang-em-er-digs she thumps out. Now, we likes Mas'r Hugh's the +best--got good voice, sing Dixie, oh, splendid! Mas'r Hugh loves +flowers, too. Tend all them in the garden." + +"Did he?" and Alice spoke with great animation, for she had supposed +that 'Lina's, or at least Mrs. Worthington's hands had been there. + +But it was Hugh, all Hugh, and in spite of what Muggins had said +concerning his aversion to her coming there, she felt a great desire to +see him. She could understand in part why he should be angry at not +having been consulted, but he was over that, she was sure from what Aunt +Eunice said, and if he were not, it behooved her to try her best to +remove any wrong impression he might have formed of her. "He shall like +me," she thought; "not as he must like that golden-haired maiden whose +existence this sprite of a negro has discovered, but as a friend, or +sister," and a softer light shone in Alice's blue eyes, as she foresaw +in fancy Hugh gradually coming to like her, to be glad that she was +there, and to miss her when she was gone. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +POOR HUGH + + +Could Hugh have known the feelings with which Alice Johnson already +regarded him, and the opinion she had expressed to Muggins, it would +perhaps have stilled the fierce throbbings of his heart, which sent the +hot blood so swiftly through his veins, and made him from the first +delirious. They had found him in the quiet court, just after the +sunsetting, and his uncovered head was already wet with the falling dew, +and with the profuse perspiration induced by his long, heavy sleep. They +could not arouse him to a distinct consciousness as to where he was or +what had happened. He only talked of Ad and the Golden Haired, asking +that they would take him anywhere, where neither could ever see him +again. He was well known at the hotel, and measures were immediately +taken for apprising his family of the sudden illness, and for removing +him to Spring Bank as soon as possible. + +Breakfast was not yet over at Spring Bank, and Aunt Eunice was just +wondering what could have become of Hugh, when from her position near +the window she discovered a horseman riding across the lawn at a rate +which betokened some important errand. Alice spied him, too, and the +same thought flashed over both herself and Aunt Eunice. "Something had +befallen Hugh." + +Alice was the first upon the piazza, where she stood waiting till the +rider came up, his horse covered with foam, and himself flurried and +excited. + +"Are you Miss Worthington?" he asked, doffing his soft hat, and feeling +a thrill of wonder at sight of her marvelous beauty. + +"Miss Worthington is not at home," she said, going down the steps and +advancing closer to him, "but I can take your message. Is anything the +matter with Mr. Worthington?" + +Aunt Eunice had now joined her, and listened breathlessly while the +young man told of Hugh's illness, which threatened to be the prevailing +fever. + +"They were bringing him home," he said--"were now on the way, and he had +ridden in advance to prepare them for his coming." + +Aunt Eunice seemed literally stunned and wholly incapable of action, +while the negroes howled dismally for Mas'r Hugh, who, Chloe said, was +sure to die. + +"She'd felt it all along. She knew dem dogs hadn't howled for nothing, +nor them deathwatches ticked in the wall. Mas'r Hugh was gwine to die, +and all the blacks would be sold--down the river, most likely, if Harney +didn't get 'em," and crouching by the kitchen fire old Chloe bewailed +the calamity she knew was about to befall them. + +Alice alone was calm and capable of action. A room must be prepared, and +somebody must direct, but to find the somebody was a most difficult +matter. Chloe couldn't, Hannah couldn't, Aunt Eunice couldn't, and +consequently it all devolved upon herself. + +They carried Hugh to the room designated by Densie, and into which he +went very unwillingly. + +It was not his den, he said, drawing back with a bewildered look; his +was hot, and close, and dingy, while this was nice and cool--a room such +as women had--there must be a mistake, and he begged of them to take him +away. + +"No, no, my poor boy. This is right; Miss Johnson said you must come +here just because it is cool and nice. You'll get well so much faster," +and Aunt Eunice's tears dropped on Hugh's flushed face. + +"Miss Johnson!" and the wild eyes looked up eagerly at her. "Who is she? +Oh, yes, I know, I know," and a moan came from his lips as he whispered: +"Does she know I've come? Does it make her hate me worse to see me in +such a plight? Ho, Aunt Eunice, put your ear down close while I tell you +something. Ad said--you know Ad--she said I was--I was--I can't tell you +what she said for this buzzing in my head. Am I very sick, Aunt Eunice?" +and about the chin there was a quivering motion, which betokened a ray +of consciousness, as the brown eyes scanned the kind, motherly face +bending over him. + +"Yes, Hugh, you are very sick," and Aunt Eunice's tears dropped upon the +face of her boy, so fearfully changed since yesterday. + +He wiped them away himself, and looked inquiringly at her. + +"Am I so sick that it makes you cry? Is it the fever I've got?" + +"Yes, Hugh, the fever," and Aunt Eunice bowed her face upon his burning +hands. + +For a moment he lay unconscious, then raising himself up, he fixed his +eyes piercingly upon her, and whispered, hoarsely: + +"Aunt Eunice, I shall die! I have never been sick in my life; and the +fever goes hard with such. I shall surely die. It's been days in coming +on, and I thought to fight it off; I don't want to die. I'm not +prepared." + +He was growing terribly excited now, and Aunt Eunice hailed the coming +of the doctor with delight. Hugh knew him, offering his pulse and +putting out his tongue of his own accord. The doctor counted the rapid +pulse, numbering even then 130 per minute, noted the rolling eyeballs +and the dilation of the pupils, felt the fierce throbbing of the swollen +veins upon the temple, and then gravely shook his head. Half conscious, +half delirious, Hugh watched him nervously, until the great fear at his +heart found utterance in words. + +"Must I die?" + +"We hope not. We'll do what we can to save you. Don't think of dying, my +boy," was the physician's reply, as he turned to Aunt Eunice, and gave +out the medicine, which must be most carefully administered. + +Too much agitated to know just what he said, Aunt Eunice listened, as +one who heard not, noticing which, the doctor said: + +"You are not the right one to take these directions. Is there nobody +here less nervous than yourself? Who was that young lady standing by the +door when I came in? The one in white, I mean, with such a quantity of +curls?" + +"Miss Johnson--our visitor. She can't do anything," Aunt Eunice replied, +trying to compose herself enough to know what she was doing. + +But the doctor thought differently. Something of a physiognomist, he had +been struck with the expression of Alice's face, and felt sure that she +would be more efficient aid than Aunt Eunice herself. "I'll speak to +her," he said, stepping to the hall. But Alice was gone. She had stood +by the sickroom door long enough to hear Hugh's impassioned words +concerning his probable death--long enough to hear him ask that she +might pray for him; and then she stole away to where no ear, save that +of God, could hear the earnest prayer that Hugh Worthington might +live--or that dying, there might be given him a space in which to grasp +the faith, without which the grave is dark indeed. + +Meantime, the Hugh for whom the prayer was made had fallen into a heavy +sleep, and Aunt Eunice noiselessly left the room, meeting in the hall +with Alice, who asked permission to go in and sit by him at least until +he awoke. Aunt Eunice consented, and with noiseless footsteps Alice +advanced into the darkened room, and after standing still for a moment +to assure herself that Hugh was really sleeping, stole softly to his +bedside and bent down to look at him, starting quickly at the strong +resemblance to somebody seen before. Who was it? Where was it? she asked +herself, her brain a labyrinth of bewilderment as she tried in vain to +recall the time or place where a face like this reposing upon the pillow +before her had met her view. Suddenly she remembered Irving Stanley, and +that between him and Hugh there was a relationship, and then she knew it +was the likeness to Irving Stanley, which she so plainly traced. Alice +hardly cared to acknowledge it, but as she looked at Hugh she felt that +his was really the handsomer, the more attractive face of the two. It +certainly was, as he lay there asleep, his long eyelashes resting upon +his flushed cheek, his dark hair curling in soft rings about his high, +white brow, his rich, brown beard glistening with perspiration, and his +lips slightly apart, showing a row of even teeth. + +There were others than Alice praying for Hugh that summer afternoon, +for Muggins had gone from the brook to the cornfield, startling Adah +with the story of Hugh's sickness, and then launching out into a glowing +description of the new miss, "with her white gown and curls as long as +Rocket's tail." + +"She talked with God, too," she said, "like what you does, Miss Adah. +She axes Him to make Mas'r Hugh well, and He will, won't He?" + +"I trust so," Adah answered, her own heart going silently up to the +Giver of life and health, asking, if it were possible, that her noble +friend might be spared. + +Old Sam, too, with streaming eyes, stole out to his bethel by the +spring, and prayed for the dear "Massah Hugh" lying so still at Spring +Bank, and insensible to all the prayers going up in his behalf. + +How terrible that deathlike stupor was, and the physician, when later in +the afternoon he came again, shook his head sadly. + +"I'd rather see him rave till it took ten men to hold him," he said, +feeling the wiry pulse, which was now beyond his count. + +"Is there nothing that will arouse him?" Alice asked, "no name of one he +loves more than another?" + +The doctor answered "no; love for womankind, save as he feels it for his +mother or his sister, is unknown to Hugh Worthington." + +Alice said softly, lest she should be heard: + +"Hugh, shall I call Golden Haired?" + +"Yes, yes, oh, yes," and the heavy lids unclosed at once, while the +eyes, in which there was no ray of consciousness, looked wistfully into +the lustrous blue orbs above him. + +"Are you the Golden Haired?" and he laid his hand caressingly over the +shining tresses just within his reach. + +Alice was about to reply, when an exclamation from those near the +window, and the heavy tramp of horse's feet, arrested her attention, and +drew her also to the window, just as a most beautiful gray, saddled but +riderless, came dashing over the gate, and tearing across the yard, +until he stood panting at the door. Rocket had come home for the first +time since his master had led him away! + +Hearing of Hugh's illness, the old colonel had ridden over to inquire +how he was, and fearing lest it might be difficult to get Rocket away if +once he stood in the familiar yard, he had dismounted in the woods, and +fastening him to a tree, walked the remaining distance. But Rocket was +not thus to be cheated. Ever since turning into the well-remembered lane +he had seemed like a new creature, pricking up his ears, and, dancing +and curvetting daintily along, as he had been wont to do on public +occasions when Hugh was his rider instead of the fat colonel. In this +state of feeling it was quite natural that he should resent being tied +to a tree, and as if divining why it was done, he broke his halter the +moment the colonel was out of sight, and went galloping through the +woods like lightning, never for an instant slackening his speed until he +stood at Spring Bank door, calling, as well as he could call, for Hugh, +who heard and recognized that call. + +Throwing his arms wildly over his head, he raised himself in bed, and +exclaimed joyfully: + +"That's he! that's Rocket! I knew he'd come. I've only been waiting for +him to start on that long journey. Ho! Aunt Eunice! Pack my clothes. I'm +going away, where I shan't mortify Ad any more. Hurry up. Rocket is +growing impatient. Don't you hear him pawing the turf? I'm coming, my +boy, I'm coming!" and he attempted to leap upon the floor, but the +doctor's strong arm held him down, while Alice, whose voice alone he +heeded, strove to quiet him. + +"I wouldn't go away to-day," she said soothingly. "Some other time will +do as well, and Rocket can wait." + +"Will you stay with me?" Hugh asked. + +"Yes, I'll stay," was Alice's reply. + +"I'm glad he's roused up," the doctor said, "though I don't like the way +his fever increases," and Alice knew by the expression of his face that +there was but little hope, determining not to leave him during the +night. + +Densie or Aunt Eunice might sleep on the lounge, she said, but the care, +the responsibility shall be hers. To this the doctor willingly acceded, +thinking that Hugh was safer with her than any one else. Exchanging the +white wrapper she had worn through the day for one more suitable, Alice, +after an hour's rest in her own room, returned to Hugh, who had missed +her sadly, and who knew the moment she came back to him, even though his +eyes were closed, and he seemed to be half asleep. + +"Mas'r Hugh won't die," and Muuggins' faith came to the rescue, throwing +a ray of hope into the darkness. "Miss Alice axed God to spar' him, and +so did I; now He will, won't He, miss?" and she turned to Adah, who, +with Sam, had just come up to Spring Bank, and hearing voices in the +kitchen had entered there first. "Say, Miss Adah, won't God cure Mas'r +Hugh--'ca'se I axed Him oncet?" + +"You must pray more than once, child; pray many, many times," was Adah's +reply; whereupon Mug looked aghast, for the idea of praying a second +time had never entered her brain. + +Still, if she must, why, she must, and she stole quietly from the +kitchen. But it was now too dark to go down in the woods by the running +brook, and remembering Alice had said that God was everywhere, she first +cast around her a timid glance, as if fearful she should see Him, and +then kneeling in the grass, wet with the heavy night dew, the little +negro girl prayed again for Master Hugh, starting as she prayed at the +sound which met her ear, and which came from the spot where Rocket still +was standing by the block, waiting for his master. + +Claib had offered him food and offered him drink, but both had been +refused, and opening the stable door so that he could go in whenever he +chose, Claib had left him there alone, solitary watcher of the night, +waiting for poor Hugh. + +Returning to the house, Mug stole upstairs to the door of the sickroom, +where Alice was now alone with Hugh. + +He was awake, and for an instant seemed to know her, for he attempted to +speak, but the rational words died on his lips, and he only moaned, as +if in distress. + +"What is it?" Alice said, bending over him. + +"Are you the Golden Haired?" he asked again, as her curls swept his +face. + +"Who is Golden Hair?" Alice asked, and instantly the great tears +gathered in Hugh's dark eyes as he replied: + +"Don't say who is she, but who was she. I've never told a living being +before. Golden Hair was a bright angel who crossed my path one day, and +then disappeared forever, leaving behind the sweetest memory a mortal +man ever possessed. She's dead, Chestnut Locks," and he twined one of +Alice's curls around his finger. "It's weak for men to cry, but I have +cried many a night for her, when the clouds were crying, too, and I +heard against my window the rain which I knew was falling upon her +little grave." + +He was growing rather excited, and thinking he had talked too much, +Alice was trying to quiet him, when the door opened softly and Adah +herself came in. Bowing politely to Alice she advanced to Hugh's +bedside, and bending over him spoke his name. He knew her, and turning +to Alice said: "This is Adah; you will like each other; you are much +alike." + +For an instant the two young girls gazed at each other as if trying to +account for the familiar look each saw in the other's face. Adah was the +first to remember, and when at last Hugh was asleep she unclasped from +her neck the slender chain she had worn so long, and passing the locket +to Alice, asked if she ever saw it before. + +"Yes, oh, yes, it's I, it's mine, though not a very natural one. I never +knew where I lost it. Where did you find it?" and opening the other side +Alice looked to see if the lock of hair was safe. + +Adah explained how it came into her possession, asking if Alice +remembered the circumstances. + +"Yes, and I thought of you so often, never dreaming that we should meet +here as we have. You were so sick then, and I pitied you so much. Your +husband was gone, you said. Was it long ere he came back?" + +"He never came back," and the great brown eyes filled with tears. + +"Never came? Do you think him dead?" + +"No, no! oh, no! He's--Oh, Miss Johnson, I'll tell you some time. Nobody +here knows but Hugh how I was deceived, but I'll tell you. I can trust +you," and Adah involuntarily laid her head in Alice's lap, sobbing +bitterly. + +In the hall without there was a shuffling step which Adah knew was +Sam's, and remembering the conversation once held with him concerning +that golden locket, whose original Sam was positive he had seen, Alice +waited curious for his entrance. With hobbling steps the old man came +in, scarcely noticing either of them, so intent was he upon the figure +lying so still and helpless before him. + +"Massah Hugh, my poor, dear Massah Hugh," he cried, bending over his +young master. "I wish 'twas Sam had all de pain an' all de aches you +feels. I'd b'ar it willingly, massah, I would. Dear massah, kin you hear +Sam talkin' to you?" + +Sam had turned away from Hugh, and with his usual politeness was about +making his obeisance to Alice, when the words, "Your servant, miss," +were changed into a howl of joy, and falling upon his knees, he clutched +at Alice's dress, exclaiming: + +"Now de Lord be praised, I'se found her again. I'se found Miss Ellis, I +has, an' I feels like singin' 'Glory Hallelujah.' Does ye know me, lady? +Does you 'member shaky ole darky, way down in Virginny? You teached him +de way, an' he's tried to walk dar ever sence. Say, does you know ole +Sam?" and the dim eyes looked eagerly into Alice's face. + +She did remember him, and for a moment seemed speechless with surprise, +then, stooping beside him, she took his shriveled hand and pressed it +between her own, asking how he came there, and if Hugh had always been +his master. + +"You 'splain, Miss Adah. You speaks de dictionary better than Sam," the +old man said, and thus appealed to, Adah told what she knew of Sam's +coming into Hugh's possession. + +"He buy me just for kindness, nothing else, for Sam ain't wo'th a dime, +but Massah Hugh so good. I prays for him every night, and I asks God to +bring you and him together. Miss Ellis will like Massah Hugh much, so +much, and Massah Hugh like Miss Ellis. Oh, I'se happy chile to-night. I +prays wid a big heart, 'case I sees Miss Ellis again," and in his great +joy Sam kissed the hem of Alice's dress, crouching at her feet and +regarding her with a look almost idolatrous. + +They watched together that night, attending Hugh so carefully that when +the morning broke and the physician came, he pronounced the symptoms so +much better that there was much hope, he said, if the faithful nursing +were continued. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +ALICE AND ADAH + + +At Alice's request, Adah and Sam stayed altogether at Spring Bank, but +Alice was the ruling power--Alice, the one whom Chloe and Claib +consulted; one concerning the farm, and the other concerning the +kitchen--Alice, to whom Aunt Eunice looked for counsel, and Densie for +comfort--Alice, who remembered all the doctor's directions, taking the +entire charge of Hugh's medicines herself--and Alice, who wrote to Mrs. +Worthington, apprising her of Hugh's serious illness. They hoped he was +not dangerous, she said, but he was very sick, and Mrs. Worthington +would do well to come at once. She did not mention 'Lina, but the idea +never crossed her mind that a sister could stay away from choice when a +brother was so ill; and it was with unfeigned surprise that she one +morning saw Mrs. Worthington and Lulu alighting at the gate, but no +'Lina with them. + +"She was so happy at Saratoga," Mrs. Worthington said, when a little +over the first flurry of her arrival. "So happy, too, with Mrs. Richards +that she could not tear herself away, unless her mother should find Hugh +positively dangerous, in which case she should, of course, come at +once." + +This was the mother's charitable explanation, made with a bitter sigh as +she recalled 'Lina's heartless anger when the letter was received, as if +Hugh were to blame, as, indeed, 'Lina seemed to think he was. + +Meantime Alice, in her own room, was reading 'Lina's note, containing a +most glowing description of the delightful time she was having at +Saratoga, and how hard it would be to leave. + +"I know dear Hugh is in good hands," she wrote, "and it is so pleasant +here that I really do want to stay a little longer. Pray write to me +just how Hugh is, and if I must come home. What a delightful lady that +Mrs. Richards is--not one bit stiff as I can see. I don't know what +people mean to call her proud. She has promised, if mamma will leave me +here, to be my chaperon, and it's possible we may visit New York +together, so as to be there when the prince arrives. Won't that be +grand? She talks so much of you that sometimes I'm really jealous. +Perhaps I may go to Terrace Hill before I return, but rather hope not, +it makes me fidgety to think of meeting the Misses Richards, though, of +course, I know I shall like them, particularly Anna. Oh, I most forgot! +Irving is here yet, and has a sister, Mrs. Ellsworth, with him now. She +is very elegant, and very much admired. Tell Adah I heard Mrs. Ellsworth +say she wished she could find some young person as governess for her +little girl, and kind of companion for her. I did not speak of Adah, but +I thought of her, knowing she desired some such situation. She might +write to Mrs. Ellsworth here, but I'd rather she should not refer to me +as having known her. You see Mrs. Ellsworth would directly inquire about +her antecedents, and to a stranger it would not sound well that she came +to us one stormy night with that child, whose father we know nothing +about, and if I told the truth, as I always try to do, I should have to +tell this. So it will be better for Adah not to know us, even if she +should come to Mrs. Ellsworth. You will understand me, I am sure, and +believe that I am actuated by the kindest of motives. She can direct to +Mrs. Julia Ellsworth, Union Hall, Saratoga Springs. By the way, tell +mother not to forget that dress. She'll know what you mean. + +"Mr. Stanley seemed quite blue after you went away. I should not be +surprised to hear of his being at Spring Bank some day. Isn't it funny +that you had to go right there? Perhaps it's as well for you that Hugh +is sick. You will got a better impression. _Au revoir_." + +Not a word was there in this letter of the doctor, but Alice understood +it all the same. He was the attraction which kept the selfish girl from +her brother's side. "May she be happy with him, if, indeed, he has a +right to win her," was Alice's mental comment, shuddering as she +recalled the time when she was pleased with the handsome doctor, and +silently thanking God, who had saved her from much sorrow. Hearing Mrs. +Worthington in the hall, and remembering what 'Lina said concerning the +dress, she stepped to the door and delivered the message, wondering that +Mrs. Worthington should seem so confounded, and stammer so, as she +turned to Adah, just coming up the stairs, and said: + +"Have you ever done anything with that old muslin 'Lina gave you?" + +"Never till to-day," Adah replied; "when it occurred to me that if this +hot weather lasted, I might find it comfortable, provided I could fix +it, so I sent Mug for it, and she is ripping the waist." + +Mrs. Worthington was not a good dissembler, and her next question was: + +"Did you find anything in the pocket?" + +"Yes, my letter, written weeks ago. Your daughter must have forgotten +it. I intrusted it to her care the day Miss Tiffton called." + +Adah was just thinking of speaking freely to Alice Johnson concerning +her future course, when Mrs. Worthington met her in the upper hall. + +"I'll go to her now," she said, as Mrs. Worthington left her, and +knocking timidly at Alice's door, she asked permission to enter. + +"Oh, certainly, I have something to tell you," Alice said, motioning her +to a chair, and sitting down beside her. "Miss Worthington sent me a +note in which she speaks of you." + +"Of me?" and Adah colored slightly. "I did not know she ever thought of +me. Why did she not come with her mother?" + +"She is enjoying herself so much is the reason she gives, though I fancy +there is another more powerful one. Perhaps the note will enlighten +you," and Alice passed it to Adah, not so much to show her how heartless +'Lina was, as to see if in what she had said of the Richards family +there was not something which Adah would recognize. + +That look in Willie's face had almost grown to a certainty with Alice, +who saw Anna, or Asenath, or Eudora, and sometimes John himself in every +move of the little fellow. Silently Adah read the note, her paled cheeks +turning scarlet at what 'Lina had said of herself and Mrs. Ellsworth. +The Richards family were nothing to her. She only seized upon and +treasured up the words "with a child about whose father we know +nothing." Slowly the tears gathered in her eyes and finally fell in +torrents as Alice asked: + +"What made her cry?" + +"Oh, Miss Johnson," and Adah hid her face in Alice's lap, "I'm thinking +of George--of Willie's father. Will he never come back, or the world +know that I thought I was a lawful wife? Yes, and I sometimes believe so +now, or I should surely go wild, Miss Johnson," and Adah lifted up her +head, disclosing a face which Alice scarcely recognized, for the strange +expression there. "Miss Johnson, if I knew that George deliberately +planned my ruin under the guise of a mock marriage, and then when it +suited him deserted me as a toy of which he was tired, I should hate +him!--hate him!" + +"I frighten you, Miss Johnson," she said, as she saw how Alice shrank +away from the dark eyes in which there was a fierce, resentful gleam, +unlike sweet Adah Hastings. "I used to frighten myself when I saw in my +eyes the demon which whispered suicide." + +"Oh, Adah," said Alice, "you could not have dreamed that!" + +"I did," and Adah spoke sadly now. "It was kind in God to save me, and +I've tried to love Him better since; but there's something savage in my +nature, something I must have inherited from one of my parents, and +sometimes my heart, which at first was full of love for George, goes out +against him for his base treachery." + +"And yet you love him still?" Alice said, as she smoothed the beautiful +brown hair. + +"I suppose I do. A kind word from him would bring me back, but will it +ever be spoken? Shall we ever meet again?" + +"Where did he go?" Alice asked. + +"He went to Europe, so he said." + +There was a voluntary shudder as Alice recalled the time when Dr. +Richards came home from Europe, and she had been flattered with his +attentions. + +"I may be unjust to him," she thought, then to Adah she said: "As you +have told me your story in part, will you tell me the whole?" + +There was no vindictiveness now in Adah's face, nothing save a calm, +gentle expression such as it was used to wear, and the soft brown eyes +drooped mournfully beneath the heavy lashes as she told the story of her +wrongs. + +"And Hugh?" Alice said. "Why did you come to him? Had you known him +before?" + +"Hugh was the other witness, bribed by my guardian to lend himself a +party to the deception! I never saw him till that night; neither, I +think, did George. My guardian planned the whole." + +"Hugh Worthington is not the man I took him for," and Alice spoke +bitterly. + +"You mistake him," she cried eagerly. "My guardian, Mr. Monroe, was +pleased with the young Kentuckian, and led him easily. He coaxed him to +drink a glass of wine, which Hugh says must have been drugged, for it +took away his power to act as he would otherwise have done, and when in +this condition he consented to whatever Mr. Monroe proposed, keeping +silent while the horrid farce went on. But he has repented so bitterly, +and been so kind to me and Willie." + +"And your guardian," interrupted Alice, "is it not strange that he +should have acted so cruel a part?" + +"Yes, that's the strangest part of all, and he was so kind to me. I +cannot understand it, or where he is, though I've sometimes imagined he +must be dead; or in prison," and Adah thought of what Sam had said +concerning Sullivan, the negro-stealer. + +"What do you mean; why should he be in prison?" Alice asked, and Adah +replied by telling her what Sam had said, and the reason she had for +thinking Sullivan and her guardian, Monroe, one and the same. + +"I too am marked," and with a quick, nervous motion, she touched the +spot where the blue lines were faintly visible. "I know not how I came +by it, but it annoys me terribly. Mr. Monroe knew how I felt about it, +and the day before that marriage he said to me: 'It will disappear with +your children. They will not be marked,' and Willie isn't." + +Just then Willie's voice was heard in the hall, and Alice admitted him +into the room. She kissed his rosy cheek, and said to Adah: "Do you know +I think he looks like Hugh." + +"Yes," and Adah spoke sadly. "I know he does, and I am sorry for Hugh's +sake, as it must annoy him. Neither can I account for it, for I am +certainly nothing to Hugh. But there's another look in Willie's face, +his father's. Oh, Miss Johnson, George was handsome." + +"Can you describe him, or will it be too painful?" Alice asked, and Adah +told how George Hastings looked, while Alice's handy worked nervously +together, for Adah was describing Dr. Richards. + +"And you've never seen him since, nor guessed where his proud mother +lived?" + +"Never, and when only the wrong is remembered, I think I never care to +see or hear from him again. But the noble, self-denying Hugh! I would +almost die for him; I ask God every day to bring him some good fortune +at last. He will, I know He will, and Hugh shall yet--" + +She stopped short, struck with an idea which had never before entered +her mind. Hugh and Alice! Oh, if that could be. + +"Why do you look at me?" Alice asked, as Adah sat drinking in the +dazzling beauty which she wished might one day shine for Hugh. + +"I am thinking how beautiful you are, and wondering if you ever loved +any one; did you?" + +"Not like you," Alice answered frankly. "When a little girl of thirteen +I owed my life to a youth with many characteristics like Hugh +Worthington. I liked him, and wanted so much to find him, but could not. +Then I grew to womanhood, and another crossed my path, well skilled in +finding every avenue to a maiden's heart. I did not love him. I am glad +that I did not, for he was unworthy of my love; but I fancied him a +while, and my heart did ache a little when mother on her deathbed talked +to me against him. It was my money he wanted most, and when he thought I +had none, he left me, saying as I heard, that I 'was a nice-ish kind of +girl, rather good-looking, but too blue for him.'" + +"And the other, the boy like Hugh, have you met him again?" Adah asked, +feeling a little disappointed, when Alice replied: + +"Once, I am very sure." + +Alice heard the faint sigh, and hope died out for Hugh. Poor Hugh! Alice +was thinking of him, too, and said at last: "Was Rocket sold to Colonel +Tiffton for debt?" + +"Yes, for 'Lina's debts, contracted at Harney's. I've heard of his +boasting that Hugh should yet be compelled to see him galloping down the +pike upon his idol." + +"He never shall!" and Alice spoke under her breath, asking further +questions concerning the sale of Colonel Tiffton's house, and now much +Mosside was worth. + +Adah did not know. She was only posted with regard to Rocket, who was +pawned for five hundred dollars. "Once I insanely hoped that I might +help redeem him--that God would find a work for me to do--and my heart +was so happy for a moment." + +"What did you think of doing?" Alice asked, glancing at the delicate +young girl, who looked so unaccustomed to toil of any kind. + +"I thought to be a governess or waiting maid," and Adah's lip began to +quiver. Then she told how her letter had been carelessly forgotten. + +"Do you remember the address?" and Alice waited curiously for the +answer. + +"Yes, 'A.E.R. Snowdon.' You came from Snowdon Miss Johnson, and I've +wanted so much to ask if you knew 'A.E.R.,' but have never dared talk +freely with you till to-day." + +Alice was confounded. Surely the leadings of Providence were too plainly +evident to be unnoticed. There was a reason why Adah Hastings must go to +Anna Richards, and Alice hastened to reply: "'A.E.R.' is no less a +person than Anna Richards whose mother and brother are now at Saratoga." + +"Oh, I can't go there. They are too proud. They would hate me for +Willie, and ask me for his father." + +Very gently Alice talked to her of Snowdon and Anna Richards, whom Adah +was sure to like. + +"I'm so glad for your sake that it has come around at last," she said. +"Will you write to her to-day, or shall I for you? Perhaps I had +better!" + +"Oh, no, I would rather go unannounced--rather Miss Anna should like me +for my self, if I go," and Adah's voice trembled, for she shrank +nervously from the thought of meeting the Richards family. + +If 'Lina liked the old lady, she certainly could not, and the very +thought of these elder sisters, in all their primness, dismayed and +disheartened her. + +While this was passing through her mind, she sat twining Willie's silken +curls around her finger, and apparently listening to what Alice was now +saying of Dr. Richards; but Alice might as well have talked to the winds +for any impression she made. Adah was looking far into the future, +wondering what it had in store for her, as if in Anna Richards she would +indeed find the sympathizing friend which Alice said she would. +Gradually, as she thought of Anna, her heart went out strangely toward +her. + +"I will go to Miss Richards," she said at last; "but I cannot go till +Hugh is better, till he knows and approves. I must take his blessing +with me. Do you think it will be long before he regains his reason?" + +Alice could not tell. + +"Do you correspond with Miss Richards?" Adah suddenly asked. + +"No. I will send a note of introduction by you, though." + +"Please don't," and Adah spoke pleadingly. "I should have to give it if +you did, and I'd rather go by myself. I know it would be better to have +your influence, but it is a fancy of mine not to say that I ever knew +you or any one at Spring Bank." + +Now it was settled that Adah should go, she felt a restless, impatient +desire to be gone, questioning the doctor closely with regard to Hugh, +who, it seemed to her, would never awaken from the state of +unconsciousness into which he had fallen, and from which he only rallied +for an instant, just long enough to recognize his mother, but never +Alice or herself, both of whom watched over him day and night. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +WAKING TO CONSCIOUSNESS + + +The sultry August glided by, and in the warm, still days of late +September Hugh awoke from the sleep which had so long hung over him. +Raising himself upon his elbow, he glanced around the room. There were +the table, the stand, the mirror, the curtains, the vases, and the +flowers, but what--did he see aright, or did his eyes deceive him? and +the perspiration stood thickly about his mouth, as in the bouquet, that +morning arranged, he recognized the gay flowers of autumn, not such as +he had gathered for Alice, delicate summer flowers, but rich and +gorgeous with a later bloom. + +"I must have been sick," he whispered, and pressing his hand to his +still throbbing head, he tried to reveal and form into some definite +shape the events which had seemed, and which seemed to him still, like +so many phantoms of the brain. + +Was it a dream--his mother's tears upon his face, his mother's voice +calling him her Hughey boy, his mother's sobs beside him? Was it, could +it be all a dream that she, the Golden Haired, had been with him +constantly? No that was not a dream. She did not hate him, else she had +not prayed, and words of thanksgiving were going up to Golden Hair's +God, when a footstep in the hall announced the approach of some one. +Alice, perhaps, and Hugh lay very still, with half-shut eyes, until +Muggins, instead of Alice, appeared. + +He was asleep, she said, as, standing on tiptoe, she scanned his face. +He was asleep, and in her own dialect Muggins talked to herself about +him as he lay there so still. + +"Nice Mas'r Hugh--pretty Mas'r Hugh!" and Mug's little black hand was +laid caressingly on the face she admired so much. "I mean to ask God +about him, just like I see Miss Alice do," she continued, and stealing +to the opposite side of the room, Muggins kneeled down, and with her +face turned toward Hugh, she said: "If God is hearin' me, will He please +do all dat Miss Alice ax him 'bout curin' Mas'r Hugh." + +This was too much for Hugh. The sight of that ignorant negro child, +kneeling by the window unmanned him entirely, and hiding his head +beneath the sheets, he sobbed aloud. With a nervous start, Mug arose +from her knees, and stood for an instant gazing in terror at the +trembling of the bedclothes. + +"I'll bet he's in a fit. I mean to screech for Miss Alice," and Muggins +was about darting away, when Hugh's long arm caught and held her fast. +"Oh, de gracious, Mas'r Hugh," she cried, "you skeers me so. Does you +know me, Mas'r Hugh?" and she took a step toward him. + +"Yes, I know you, and I want to talk a little. Where am I, Mug? What +room, I mean?" + +"Why, Miss Alice's, in course. She 'sisted, and 'sisted, till 'em brung +you in here, 'case she say it cool and nice. Oh, Miss Alice so fine." + +"In Miss Johnson's room," and Hugh looked perfectly bewildered. In the +room he had taken so much pains to have in order; it could not be; and +he passed his hand up and down the comfortable mattress, striking it +once with his fist, to see if it would sink in, and then, in a perplexed +whisper, he asked: "This is her room, you say; but, Mug, where are the +two feather beds?" + +In a most aggrieved tone, Mug explained how Miss Adah and Aunt Eunice +had spoiled their handiwork, but could not talk long of anything without +bringing in Miss Alice. + +"Where does Miss Alice pray for me?" he asked, and Muggins replied: + +"Oh here, when she bese alone, and downstairs, and everywhere. You wants +to hear her?" + +Yes, Hugh did. + +"Mug," he said. "I am going to be crazy as a loon. I have not been +rational a bit, and you must not say I have. You must not say anything. +Do you understand?" + +Mug didn't at first, but after a little it came to her that "Mas'r Hugh +was goin' to play 'possum. That Miss Alice and all dem would think him +ravin' and only she would know the truth." It would be rare sport for +Mug, and after giving her promise, she waited anxiously for some one to +come. At last another footstep sounded in the hall. + +"That's her'n," Muggins whispered. "Is you crazy, Mas'r Hugh?" + +"Hush-sh!" came warningly from Hugh, who, the next moment had turned his +head away from the fading light, and with eyes closed, pretended to be +asleep. + +Softly, on tiptoe as it were, Alice approached the bedside, bending so +low to see if he were sleeping that he felt her fragrant breath, and a +most delicious thrill ran through his frame, when a little, soft, warm +hand was laid upon his brow, where the veins were throbbing wildly--so +wildly that the unsuspecting maiden wet the linen napkin used for such a +purpose, and bathed the feverish skin, pushing back, with a +half-caressing motion, the rings of damp, brown hair, and still the +wicked Hugh never moved, nor winked, nor gave the slightest token of the +ecstatic bliss he was enjoying. + +"What a consummate hypocrite I am, to lie here and let her do what +money could not tempt her to do, if she knew that I was conscious, but +hanged if I don't like it," was Hugh's mental comment, while Alice's +was: "Poor Hugh, the doctor said he would probably be better when he +waked from this sleep, better or worse. Oh, what if he should die, and +leave no sign of repentance," and by the rustling movement, Hugh knew +that Alice Johnson was kneeling at his side, and with his hot hands in +hers was praying for him, that he might not die. + +"Spare him for his mother, he is her only boy," he heard her say, and on +the pillow, where his face was lying, the great tear drops fell, as he +thought how unworthy he was that she should pray for him. + +He knew the pillow was wet, and shuddered when Alice attempted to fix +his head, turning it more to the light. She saw the tear stains, and +murmured to herself: "I did not think it was so warm." Then, sitting +down beside him, she fanned him gently, occasionally feeling for his +pulse to see if it were as rapid as ever. Once, as she touched his +wrist, his fingers closed involuntarily around her little hand and held +it a prisoner. He could not help it; the temptation was too strong to be +resisted, and then he reflected that a crazy man was not responsible for +his actions! As rational Hugh, he could never hope to touch that little +soft hand trembling in his like a frightened bird, so he would as crazy +Hugh improve his opportunity; and he did, holding fast the hand, and +when she attempted to draw it away, pressing it tighter and muttering: + +"No, no; mother, no." + +"He thinks I am you," Alice whispered, as Mrs. Worthington came in, and +Hugh's heart gave one great throb of filial love when his mother stooped +over him, and 'mid a shower of tears kissed his forehead and lips, +murmuring: + +"Darling boy, he'll never know how much his poor mother loved him, or +how her heart will break with missing him if he dies." + +It was with the utmost difficulty that Hugh could restrain himself then, +from assuring his mother that the crisis was passed and he was out of +danger. + +"I've gone too far now, the hypocrite that I am," he thought. "Alice +Johnson never would forgive me. I can't retract now, not yet; I'm in a +pretty fix." + +As the twilight gathered in the room he lay, listening while his mother +and Alice talked together, some times of him, sometimes of Colonel +Tiffton, whose embarrassments were now generally known, and again of +'Lina, who, he heard, had chosen to remain at Saratoga, where she was +enjoying herself so much with dear Mrs. Richards. + +It was Alice who sat up that night, and Hugh, as he lay watching her +with half-closed eyes, as in her loose plain wrapper, with her luxuriant +curls, coiled in a large square knot at the back of her head, she moved +noiselessly around the room, felt a pang of remorse at his own +duplicity, one moment resolving to give up the part he was playing and +bid her leave him alone, and seek the rest she needed. But the +temptation to keep her there was strong. He would be very quiet, he said +to himself, and he kept his word, remaining so still and apparently +sleeping so soundly, that Alice lay down upon the lounge on the opposite +side of the room, where she had lain many a night, but never as now, +with Hugh's eyes upon her, watching her so eagerly as she fell away to +sleep, her soft, regular, childlike breathing awaking a thrill in Hugh's +heart, and sending the blood in little, tingling throbs through every +vein. + +The drops and powders on the table remained undisturbed that night, for +the patient was too quiet, and the watcher was so tired, that the latter +never woke until the daylight was breaking, and Adah came to relieve +her. With a frightened start she arose, astonished to find it was +morning. + +"I wonder if he had suffered from my neglect?" she said, stealing up to +Hugh, who had schooled himself to meet her gaze with wide, open eyes, +which certainly had in them no delirium, and which puzzled Alice +somewhat, making her blush and turn away. + +The old doctor, too, was puzzled, when, later in the morning, he came +in, feeling his patient's pulse, examining his tongue, and pronouncing +him decidedly out of danger. The fever had left him, he said--the crisis +was past--Hugh was a heap better, and for his part he could not +understand why the mind should not also come clear, or what it was which +made his hitherto talkative subject so silent. He never had such a +case--he didn't believe his books had one on record; and the befogged +old man hurried home to see if, in all his musty volumes, unopened for +many a year, there was a parallel case to Hugh Worthington's. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +'LINA'S LETTER + + +Wicked Hugh! How he did enjoy it, for days seeing the family come in and +out, talking as freely of him as if he were a log of wood, and how +perfectly happy he was when, one morning Alice came in and sat by him, +placing her tiny gold thimble upon her delicate finger, and bending over +her bit of dainty embroidery, humming occasionally a sweet, mournful +air, which showed that her thoughts were wandering back to the cottage +by the river, where her mother lived and died. While she was sitting +there Mrs. Worthington joined her, and a moment after a letter was +brought in from 'Lina, containing on the corner, "In haste." + +Mrs. Worthington's eyesight had always been poor, and latterly it was +greatly impaired, making glasses indispensable. Unfortunately, she had +that very morning broken one of the eyes, and consequently could not use +them at all. + +"What is that?" she asked, pointing out the words, "In haste," to Alice, +who explained what it was, while Mrs. Worthington, fearing lest +something had befallen her daughter, could scarcely tear open the +envelope. Then, when it was open, she could not read it, for 'Lina's +writing was never very plain, and passing it to Alice, she said, +entreatingly: + +"Please read it for me. There is no secret, I presume." + +Glancing at Hugh, who had purposely turned his face to the wall, Alice +commenced as follows: + + "FIFTH AVENUE HOTEL, NEW YORK, + OCTOBER, 1860." + + "DEAR MOTHER: What a little eternity it is since I heard from you, + and how am I to know that you are not all dead and buried. Were it + not that no news is good news, I should sometimes fancy that Hugh + was worse, and feel terribly for not having gone home when you did. + + "Now, then, to business, and firstly, as Parson Brown, of Elm wood, + used to say, I want Hugh to send me some money, or all is lost. Tell + him he must either beg, borrow, pawn or steal, for the rhino I must + have. Let me explain. + + "Here I am at Fifth Avenue Hotel, as good as any lady, if my purse + is almost empty. Plague on it, why didn't that Mrs. Johnson send + me two thousand instead of one? It would not hurt her, and them I + should get through nicely." + +"Oh, I ought not to read this--I cannot," and Alice threw the letter +from her, and hurried from the room. + +"The way of the transgressor is hard," groaned Hugh, and the groan +caught the ear of his mother. + +"What is it, Hugh?" she asked, coming quickly to his side. "Are you +worse? Do you want anything?" + +"No, I'm better, I reckon--the cobwebs are gone. I am myself again. What +have you here?" and Hugh grasped the closely written sheet. + +In her delight at having her son restored to his reason so suddenly, so +unexpectedly, as the poor, deluded woman believed, Mrs. Worthington +forgot for a moment the pain, and clasped her arms about him, sobbing +like a child. + +"Oh, my boy, I am so glad, so glad!" and her tears dropped fast, as like +a weary child, which wanted to be soothed, she laid her head upon his +bosom, crying quietly. + +And Hugh, stronger now than she, held the poor, tired head there, and +kissed the white forehead, where there were more wrinkles now than when +he last observed it. His mother was growing old with care rather than +with years, and Hugh shuddered, as, for the first time in his life, he +thought how dreadful it would be to have no mother. Folding his weak +arms about her, mother and son wept together in that moment of perfect +understanding and union with each other. Hugh was the first to rally. It +seemed so pleasant to lean on him, to know that he cared so much for +her, that Mrs. Worthington would gladly have rested on his bosom longer, +but Hugh was anxious to know the worst, and brought her back to +something of the old, sad life, by asking if the letter were from 'Lina. + +"Yes; I can't make it out, for one of my glasses is broken, and you know +she writes so blind." + +"It never troubles me," and taking the letter from her unresisting hand, +Hugh asked that another pillow should be placed beneath his head, while +he read it aloud. + + "You see that thousand is almost gone, and as board is two and a + half dollars per day, I can't stay long and shop in Broadway with + old Mrs. Richards, as I am expected to do in my capacity of + heiress. I tell you, Spring Bank, Kentucky--crazy old rat trap as + it is, has done wonders for me in the way of getting me noticed. If + I had any soul, big enough to find with a microscope, I believe I + should hate the North for cringing so to anything from Dixie. Let + the veriest vagabond in all the South, so ignorant that he can + scarcely spell baker correctly, to say nothing of biscuit, let him, + I say, come to any one of the New York hotels, and with something + of a swell write himself from Charleston, or any other Southern + city, and bless me, what deference is paid to my lord! + + "You see I am a pure Southern woman here; nobody but Mrs. Richards + knows that I was born, mercy knows where. But for you, she never + need have known it either, but you must tell that we had not always + lived in Kentucky. + + "But to do Mrs. Richards justice, she never alludes to my birth. + She takes it for granted that I moved, like Douglas, when I was + very young, and you ought to hear her introduce me to some of her + aristocratic friends. 'Mrs. So and So, Miss Worthington, from + Spring Bank, Kentucky,' then in an aside, which I am not supposed + to hear, she adds, 'A great heiress, of a very respectable family. + You may have heard of them.' Somehow, this always makes me + uncomfortable, as it brings up certain cogitations touching that + scamp you were silly enough to marry, thereby giving me to the + world, which my delectable brother no doubt thinks would have been + better off without me. How is Hugh? And how is that Hastings woman? + Are you both as much in love with her as ever? Well, so be it. I do + not know as she ever harmed me, and she did fit my dresses + beautifully. Even Mrs. Richards, who is a judge of such things, + says they display so much taste, attributing it, of course, to my + own directions. I am so glad now that I forgot to send her letter, + as I would not for the world have Adah in the Richards' family. It + would ruin my prospects for becoming Mrs. Dr. Richards sure, and + allow me to say they are not inconsiderable." + +"What does she mean? What letter? Who is Dr. Richards?" Hugh asked, his +face a purplish red, and contrasting strikingly with the one of ashen +hue still resting on his shoulder. + +Mrs. Worthington explained as well as she could, and Hugh went on: + + "Old Mrs. Richards would, of course, question Adah, and as Adah has + some foolish scruples about the truth, she would be very apt to let + the cat out of the bag. + + "We left Saratoga a week ago--old lady Richards wanted to go to + Terrace Hill a while and show me to Anna, who, it seems, is a kind + of family oracle. After counting the little gold eagles in my + purse, I said perhaps I'd go for a few days, though I dreaded it + terribly, for the doctor had not yet bound himself fast, and I did + not know what the result of those three old maid sisters, sitting + on me, would be. Old lady was quite happy in prospect of going + home, when one day a letter came from Anna. I happened to have a + headache, and was lying on madam's bed, when the dinner bell + happened to ring. I just peeped into the letter, feeling like + stealing sheep, but being amply rewarded by the insight I obtained + into the family secrets. + + "They are poorer than I supposed, but that does not matter, + position is what I want, and that they can give me. Anna, it seems, + has an income of her own, and, generous soul that she is, gives it + out to her mother. She sent fifty dollars in the letter, and in + referring to it, said, 'Much as I might enjoy it, dear mother, I + cannot afford to come where you are, I can pay your bills for some + time longer, if you really think the water a benefit, but my + presence would just double the expense. Then, if brother does + marry, I wish to surprise him with a handsome set of pearls for his + bride, and I am economizing to do so.'" (Note by 'Lina)--"Isn't she + a clever old soul? Don't she deserve a better sister-in-law than I + shall make, and won't I find the way to her purse often?" + +Hugh groaned aloud, and the letter dropped from his hand. + +"Mother," he gasped, "it must not be. 'Lina shall not thrust herself +upon them. This Anna shall not be so cruelly deceived. I don't care a +picayune for the doctor or the old lady. They are much like 'Lina, I +reckon, but this Anna awakens my sympathy. I mean to warn her." + +Hugh read on, feeling as if he, too, were guilty, thus to know what +sweet Anna Richards had intended only for her mother's eye. + + "'From some words you have dropped, I fancy you are not quite + satisfied with brother's choice--that Miss Worthington does not + suit you in all respects, and you wish me to see her. Dear mother, + John marries for himself, not for us. I have got so I can drive + myself out in the little pony phaeton which Miss Johnson was so + kind as to leave for my benefit. Darling Alice, how much I miss + her. She always did me good in more ways than one. She found the + germ of faith which I did not know I possessed. She encouraged me + to go on. She told me of Him who will not break the bruised reed. + She left me, as I trust, a better woman than she found me. Precious + Alice! how I loved her. Oh, if she could have fancied John, as at + one time I hoped she would.' + + (Second note by 'Lina.) "How that made me gnash my teeth, for I had + suspected that I was only playing second fiddle for Alice Johnson, + 'darling, precious Alice,' as Anna calls her." + +"Oh, I am so glad Alice didn't read this letter," Mrs. Worthington +cried, while something which sounded much like a bit of an oath dropped +from Hugh's white lips, and then he continued: + + "'When will you come? Asenath has sent the curtains in the north + chamber to the laundress, but will go no farther until we hear for + certain that Miss Worthington is to be our guest. Write + immediately. + + "'Yours affectionately, + + "'ANNA. + + "'Remember me to John and Miss W----. + + "'P.S.--I still continue to be annoyed with women answering that + advertisement. Sometimes I'm half sorry I put it in the paper, + though if the right one ever comes, I shall think there was a + Providence in it.' + + "Mother, I am resolved now to win Dr. Richards at all hazards. Only + let me keep up the appearance of wealth, and the thing is easily + accomplished; but I can't go to Terrace Hill yet, cannot meet this + Anna, for, kindly as she spoke of me, I dread her decision more + than all the rest, inasmuch as I know it would have more weight + with the doctor. + + "But to come back to the madam, showing her point-lace cap at + dinner, and telling Mrs. ex-Governor Somebody how Miss Worthington + had a severe headache. I was fast asleep when she returned. Had not + read Anna's letter, nor anything! You should have seen her face + when I told her I had changed my mind, that I could not go to + Terrace Hill, that mamma (that's you!) did not think it would be + proper, inasmuch as I had no claim upon them. You see, I made her + believe I had written to you on the subject, receiving a reply that + you disapproved of my going, and Brother Hugh, too, I quote him a + heap, making madam laugh till she cried with repeating his odd + speeches, she does so want to see that eccentric Hugh, she says." + +Another groan from Mrs. Worthington, another something like an oath from +that eccentric Hugh, and he went on: + + "I said, brother was afraid it was improper under the circumstances + for me to go, afraid lest people should talk; that I preferred + going at once to New York. So it was finally decided, to the + doctor's relief, I fancied, that we come here, and here we + are--hotel just like a beehive, and my room is in the fifth story. + + "John had come on the day before to secure rooms, so madam and I + were alone, occupying two whole seats, madam and myself on one, + madam's feet, two satchels, two silk umbrellas, one fan, one + bouquet, and a book in the other. Several tired-looking folks + glanced wistfully in that direction, but madam frowned so + majestically that they passed on into another car, leaving us to + our extra seat. At Rhinebeck, however, she found her match in a + very fine-looking man, apparently forty or thereabouts, with a weed + on his hat and a certain air, which savored strongly of psalms and + hymns and extempore praying. In short, I guessed at once that he + was a Presbyterian minister, old school at that. Now, madam, you + know, is true blue--apostolically descended, and cannot tolerate + anything like a dissenter. But I do not give her credit for having + sufficient sagacity to detect the heretic in this handsome, + pleasant-faced stranger, who stood looking this way and that for a + seat. Madam, I saw, grew very red in the face, and finally threw + down her veil, but not till the minister saw it, and half started + forward as if about to speak. The movement showed him one extra + seat, and very politely he laid his hand upon it, saying: + + "'Pardon me, ladies, this, I believe, is unoccupied, and I can find + no other.' + + "Madam's feet came down with a jerk, ditto madam's portion of the + traps, although the stranger insisted that they did not trouble + him, while again his mild but expressive eyes scanned the brown + veil as if he would know whose face was under it. When we reached + New York, he bowed to us again, as if to offer us assistance, but + the doctor himself appeared, so that his services were unnecessary. + + "'Did you see him?' madam whispered to John, who answered: + + "'See who?' + + "'Millbrook! He sat right there!' + + "'What, the parson? Where is he going?' + + "'I don't know. I'm so glad Anna was not here.' + + "All this was in an aside, but I heard it, and here are the + conclusions. Parson Millbrook has been and wants to be again a + lover of Anna Richards, but madam has shut up her bowels of + compassion against him for some reason to this deponent unknown. + Poor Anna, I am sorry for her, and as her sister, may perhaps help + her; but shall I ever be her sister? Ay, there's the rub, and now, + honor bright, I reach the point at last. + + "I am determined to bring the doctor to terms, and so rid you and + Hugh of myself. To do this I must at some rate keep up the + appearance of wealth. Perhaps Hugh never knew that Nell Tiffton + lent me that elegant pearl bracelet, bought by her father at Ball & + Black's. Night before last the doctor took me to hear Charlotte + Cushman as _Meg Merrilies_. I wore all the jewelery for which I + could find a place, Nell's bracelet with the rest. The doctor and + madam have both admired it very much, never dreaming that it was + borrowed. In the jam coming out it must have unclasped and dropped + off, for it's not to be found high nor low, and you can fancy the + muss I am in. Down at Ball & Black's there fortunately is another + exactly like Nell's, and this I must buy at any rate. I can perhaps + pay my board bills four or five weeks longer, but Hugh must send me + fifty dollars with which to replace the bracelet. It must be done. + + "Don't for mercy's sake, let Alice Johnson get a sight of this + letter. I wonder if Dr. Richards did fancy her. Send the money, + send the money. + + "Your distracted + + "'LINA. + + "P.S.--One day later. Rejoice, oh, rejoice! and give ear. The + doctor has actually asked the question, and I blushingly referred + him to mamma, but he seemed to think this unnecessary, took alarm + at once, and pressed the matter until I said yea. Aren't you glad? + But one thing is sure--Hugh must sell a nigger to get me a handsome + outfit. There's Mug, always under foot, doing no one any good. + She'll bring six hundred any day, she's so bright and healthy. Lulu + he must give out and out for a waiting maid. Madam expects it. And + now one word more; if Adah Hastings has not got over her idea of + going to Terrace Hill, she must get over it. Coax, advise, plead + with, threaten, or even throttle her, if necessary--anything to + keep her back. + + "Yours, in ecstatic distress, + + "'LINA" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +FORESHADOWINGS + + +So absorbed were Hugh and his mother in that letter as not to hear the +howl of fear echoing through the hall, as Mug fled in terror from the +dreaded new owner to whom Master Hugh was to sell her. Neither did they +hear the catlike tread with which Lulu glided past the door, taking the +same direction Mug had gone, namely, to Alice Johnson's room. + +Lulu had been sitting by the open window at the end of the hall, and had +heard every word of this letter, while Mug had reached the threshold in +time to hear all that was said about selling her. Instinctively both +turned for protection to Alice, but Mug was the first to reach her. +Throwing herself upon her knees, she sobbed frantically. + +"You buys me, Miss Alice. You give Mar's Hugh six hundred dollars for +me, so't he can get Miss 'Lina's weddin' finery. I'll be good, I will. +I'll learn do Lord's Prar, an' de Possums Creed, ebery word on't; will +you, Miss Alice, say?" + +Alice tried to wrest her muslin dress from the child's grasp, asking +what she meant. + +"I know, I'll tell," and Lulu, scarcely less excited, but far more +capable of restraining herself, advanced into the room, and ere the +bewildered Alice could well understand what it all meant, or make more +than a feeble attempt to stop her, she had repeated rapidly the entire +contents of 'Lina's letter. + +Too much amazed at first to speak, Alice sat motionless, then she said +to Lulu. + +"I am sorry that you told me this. It was wrong in you to listen, and +you must not repeat it to any one else. Will you promise?" + +Lulu gave the required promise, then with terror in every lineament of +her face she said: + +"But, Miss Alice, must I be Miss 'Lina's waiting maid? Will Master Hugh +permit it?" + +Alice did not know Hugh as well as we do, and in her heart there was a +fear lest for the sake of peace he might be overruled, so she replied +evasively. It was no easy task to sooth Muggins, and only Alice's direct +avowal, that if possible she would herself become her purchaser, checked +her cries at all, but the moment this was said her sobbing ceased, and +Alice was able to question Lulu as to whether Hugh had read the letter. + +"He must be rational," she said, "but it is so sudden," and a painful +uneasiness crept over her as she recalled the look which several times +had puzzled her so much. + +"You can go now," Alice said, sitting down to reflect as to her next +best course. + +Adah must go to Terrace Hill at once, and Alice's must be the purse +which defrayed all the expense of fitting her up. If ever Alice felt +thankful to God for having made her rich in this world's goods, it was +that morning. Only the previous night she had heard from Colonel Tiffton +that the day was fixed for the sale of his house and that Nell had +nearly cried herself into a second fever at the thoughts of leaving +Mosside. "Then there's Rocket," the colonel had said, "Hugh cannot buy +him back, and he's so bound up in him too, poor Hugh, poor all of us," +and the colonel had wrung Alice's hand, hurrying off ere she had time to +suggest what all along had been in her mind. + +"It does not matter," she thought. "A surprise will be quite as +pleasant, and then Mr. Liston may object to it as a silly girl's fancy." + +This was the previous night, and now this morning another demand had +come in the shape of Muggins weeping in her lap, of Lulu begging to be +saved from 'Lina Worthington, and from 'Lina herself asking Hugh for the +money Alice knew he had not got. + +"But I have," she whispered, "and I will send it too." + +Just then Adah came up the stairs, and Alice called her in, asking if +she still wished to go to Terrace Hill. + +"Yes, more than ever," Adah replied. "Hugh is rational, I hear, so I can +talk to him about it before long. You must be present, as I'm sure he +will oppose it." + +Meantime in the sickroom there was an anxious consultation between +mother and son touching the fifty dollars which must be raised for +Nellie Tiffton's sake. + +"Were it not that I feel bound by honor to pay that debt, 'Lina might +die before I'd send her a cent," said Hugh, his eyes blazing with anger +as he recalled the contents of 'Lina's letter. + +But how should they raise the fifty? Alice's bills had been paid +regularly thus far, paid so delicately too, so as a matter of right, +that Mrs. Worthington, who knew how sadly it was needed in their present +distress, had accepted it unhesitatingly, but Hugh's face flushed with a +glow of shame when he heard from his mother's lips that Alice was really +paying them her board. + +"It makes me hate myself," he said, groaning aloud, "that I should +suffer a girl like her to pay for the bread she eats. Oh, poverty, +poverty! It is a bitter drug to swallow." Then like a brave man who saw +the evil and was willing to face it, Hugh came back to the original +point, "Where should they get the money?" + +"He might borrow it of Alice, as 'Lina suggested," Mrs. Worthington +said, timidly, while Hugh almost leaped upon the floor. + +"Never, mother, never! Miss Johnson shall not be made to pay our debts. +There's Uncle John's gold watch, left as a kind of heirloom, and very +dear on that account. I've carried it long, but now it must go. There's +a pawnbroker's office opened in Frankfort--take it there this very +afternoon, and get for it what you can. I never shall redeem it. There's +no hope. It was in my vest pocket when I was taken sick." + +"No, Hugh, not that. I know how much you prize it, and it's all the +valuable thing you have. I'll take in washing first," Mrs. Worthington +said. + +But Hugh was in earnest, and his mother brought the watch from the nail +over the mantel, where, all through his sickness it had ticked away the +weary hours, just as it ticked the night its first owner died, with only +Hugh sitting near, and listening as it told the fleeting moments. + +"If I could only ask Alice what it was worth," she thought--and why +couldn't she? Yes, she would ask Alice, and with the old hope strong at +her heart, she went to Alice, whom she found alone. + +"Did you wish to tell me anything? Hugh is better, I hear," Alice said, +observing Mrs. Worthington's agitation, and then the whole came out. + +"'Lina must have fifty dollars. The necessity was imperative, and they +had not fifty to send unless Hugh sold his uncle's watch, but she did +not know what it was worth--could Alice tell her?" + +"Worth more than you will get," Alice said, and then, as delicately as +possible she offered the money from her own purse, advancing so many +reasons why they should take it, that poor Mrs. Worthington began to +feel that in accepting it, she would do Alice a favor. + +"She was willing," she stammered, "but there was Hugh--what could they +do with him?" + +"I'll manage that," Alice said, laughingly. "I'll engage that he eats +neither of us up. Suppose you write to 'Lina now, saying that Hugh is +better, and inclosing the money. I have some New York money still," and +she counted out, not fifty, but seventy-five dollars, thinking within +herself, "she may need it more than I do." + +Easily swayed, Mrs. Worthington took the pen which Alice offered, but +quickly put it from her, saying, with a little rational indignation, as +she remembered 'Lina's heartlessness: + +"I won't write her a word. She don't deserve it. Inclose the amount, and +direct it, please." + +Placing the money in an envelope, Alice directed it as she was bidden, +without one word of Hugh, and without the slightest congratulation +concerning the engagement; nothing but the money, which was to replace +Ellen Tiffton's bracelet. + +Claib was deputed as messenger to take it to the office, together with a +hastily-written note to Mr. Liston, and then Alice sat down to consider +the best means of breaking it to Hugh. Would he prove as gentle as when +delirium was upon him; or would he be greatly changed? And what would he +think of her? Alice would not have confessed it, but this really was the +most important query of all. + +Alice was not well pleased with her looks that morning. She was too +pale, too languid, and the black dress she wore only increased the +difficulty by adding to the marble hue of her complexion. Even her hair +did not curl as well as usual, though Mug, who had dried her tears and +come back to Alice's room, admired her so much, likening her to the +apple blossoms which grew in the lower orchard. + +"Is you gwine to Mas'r Hugh?" she asked, as Alice passed out into the +hall. "I'se jest been dar. He's peart as a new dollar--knows everybody. +How long sense, you 'spec'?" and Mug looked very wise, as she thus +skirted around what she was forbidden to divulge on pain of Hugh's +displeasure. + +But Alice had no suspicions, and bidding Mug go down, she entered Hugh's +presence with a feeling that it was to all intents and purposes their +first meeting with each other. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +TALKING WITH HUGH + + +"This is Miss Johnson," Mrs. Worthington said, as Alice drew near, her +pallor giving place to a bright flush. + +"I fancy I am to a certain degree indebted to Miss Johnson for my life," +Hugh said. "I was not wholly unconscious of your presence," he +continued, still holding her hand. "There were moments when I had a +vague idea of somebody different from those I have always known bending +over me, and I fancied, too, that this somebody was sent to save me from +some great evil. I am glad you were here, Miss Johnson; I shall not +forget your kindness." + +He dropped her hand then, while Alice attempted to stammer out some +reply. + +"Adah, too, had been kind," she said, "quite as kind as herself." + +"Yes, Hugh knew that Adah was a dear, good girl. He was glad they liked +each other." + +Alice thought of Terrace Hill, but this was hardly the time to worry +Hugh with that, so she sat silent a while, until Mrs. Worthington, +growing very fidgety and very anxious to have the money matter adjusted, +said abruptly: + +"You must not be angry, Hugh. I asked Alice what that watch was worth, +and somehow the story of the lost bracelet came out, and--and--she--Alice +would not let me sell the watch. Don't look so black, Hugh, don't--oh, +Miss Johnson, you must pacify him," and in terror poor Mrs. Worthington +fled from the room, leaving Alice and Hugh alone. + +"My mother told you of our difficulties! Has she no discretion, no +sense?" and Hugh's face grew dark with the wrath he dared not manifest +with Alice's eyes upon him. + +"Mr. Worthington," she said, "you have thanked me for caring for you +when you were sick. You have expressed a wish to return in some way +what you were pleased to call a kindness. There is a way, a favor you +can grant me, a favor we women prize so highly; will you grant it? Will +you let me do as I please? that's the favor." + +She looked a very queen born to be obeyed as she talked thus to Hugh. +She did not make him feel small or mean, only submissive, while her +kindness touched a tender chord, which could not vibrate unseen. Hugh +was very weak, very nervous, too, and turning his head away so that she +could not see his face, he let the hot tears drop upon his pillow; +slowly at first they came, but gradually as everything--his embarrassed +condition, Rocket's loss, 'Lina's selfishness, and Alice's generosity, +came rushing over him--they fell in perfect torrents, and Alice felt a +keen pang of pity, as sob after sob smote upon her ear, and she knew the +shame it must be to him thus to give away before her. + +"I did not mean to distress you so. I am sorry if I have done a wrong," +she said to him softly, a sound of tears in her own voice. + +He turned his white, suffering face toward her, and answered with +quivering lip: + +"It is not so much that. It is everything combined. I am weak, I'm sick, +I'm discouraged," and Hugh could not restrain the tears. Soon rallying, +however, he continued: + +"You think me a snivelling coward, no doubt, but believe me, Miss +Johnson, it is not my nature thus to give way. Tears and Hugh +Worthington are usually strangers to each other. I am a man, and I will +prove it to you, when I get well, but now I am not myself, and I grant +the favor you ask, simply because I can't help it. You meant it in +kindness. I take it as such. I thank you, but it must not be repeated. +You have come to be my friend, my sister, you say. God bless you for +that. I need a sister's love so much, and Adah has given it to me. You +like Adah?" and he fixed his eyes inquiringly on Alice, who answered: + +"Yes, very much." + +Now that the money matter was settled Hugh did not care to talk longer +of that or of himself, and eagerly seized upon Adah as a topic +interesting to both, and which would be likely to keep Alice with him +for a while at least, so, after a moment's silence, during which Alice +was revolving the expediency of leaving him lest he should become too +weary, he continued: + +"Miss Johnson, you don't know how much I love Adah Hastings; not as men +generally love," he hastily added, as he caught an expression of +surprise on Alice's face, "not as that villain professed to love her, +but, as it seems to me, a brother might love an only sister. I mean no +disrespect to 'Lina," and his chin quivered a little, "but I have +dreamed of a different, brotherly love from what I feel toward her, and +my heart has beaten so fast when I built castles of what might have been +had we both been different, I, more forbearing, more even tempered, more +like the world in general, and she, more--more"--he knew not what, for +he would not speak against her, so he finally added, "had she known, +just how to take me--just how to make allowances for my rough, uncouth +ways, which, of course, annoy her." + +Poor Hugh! he was trying now to smooth over what 'Lina had told Alice of +himself--trying to apologize for them both, and he did it so skillfully, +that Alice felt an increased respect for the man whose real character +she had so misunderstood. She, knew, however, that it could not be +pleasant for him to speak of 'Lina, and so she led him back to Adah by +saying: + +"I had thought to talk with you of a plan which Mrs. Hastings has in +view, but think, perhaps, I had better wait till you are stronger." + +"I am strong enough now--stronger than you think. Tell me of the plan," +and Hugh urged the request until Alice told him of Terrace Hill and +Adah's wish to go there. + +"I have heard something of this plan before," he said at last. "Ad spoke +of it in her letter. Miss Johnson, you know Dr. Richards, I believe. Do +you like him? Is he a man to be trusted?" + +"Yes, I know Dr. Richards. He is said to be fine looking. I suspect +there is a liking between him and your sister. Suppose for your benefit +I describe him," and without waiting for permission, Alice portrayed the +doctor, feature by feature, watching Hugh narrowly the while, to see if +aught she said harmonized with any likeness he might have in his mind. + +But Hugh was not thinking of that night which ruined Adah, and Alice's +description awakened no suspicion. She saw it did not, and thought once +to tell him frankly all she feared, but was deterred from doing so by a +feeling that possibly she might be wrong in her conjectures. Adah's +presence at Terrace Hill would set that matter right, and she asked if +Hugh did not think it best for her to go. + +Hugh could only talk in a straightforward manner, and after a moment he +answered: + +"Yes, best on some accounts. Her going may do good and prevent a wrong. +Yes, Adah may go." + +He continued: "she surely cannot go alone. Would Sam do? I hear her now. +Call her while I talk with her." + +Adah came at once, and heard from Hugh that he was willing she should +go, provided Spring Bank were still considered her home, the spot to +which she could always turn for shelter as to a brother's house. + +"You seem so like a sister," he said, smoothing her soft brown hair, +"that I shall be sorry to lose you, and shall miss you so much, but Miss +Johnson thinks it right for you to go. Will you take Sam as an escort?" + +"Oh, no, no; I don't want anybody," Adah cried, "Keep Sam with you, and +if in time I should earn enough to buy him, to free him. Oh, will you +sell him to me,--not to keep," she added, quickly, as she saw the +quizzical expression of Hugh's face,--"not to keep. I would not own a +slave--but to free, to tell him he's his own master. Will you, Hugh?" + +He answered with a smile: + +"I thought once as you do, that I would not own my brother, but we get +hardened to these things. I've never sold one yet." + +"But you will. You'll sell me Sam," and Adah, in her eagerness, grasped +his hand. + +"I'll give him to you," Hugh said. "Call him, Miss Johnson." + +Alice obeyed, and Sam came hobbling in, listening in amazement to Hugh's +question. + +"Would you like to be free, my boy?" + +There was a sudden flush on the old man's cheek, and then he answered, +meekly: + +"Thanky', Mas'r Hugh. It comed a'most too late. Years ago, when Sam was +young and peart, de berry smell of freedom make de sap bump through de +veins like trip-hammer. Den, world all before, now world all behind. +Nothing but t'other side of Jordan before. 'Bleeged to you, berry much, +but when mas'r bought ole Sam for pity, ole Sam feel in his bones that +some time he pay Mas'r Hugh; he don't know how, but it be's comin'. Sam +knows it. I'm best off here." + +"But suppose I died, when I was so sick, what then?" Hugh asked, and Sam +replied: + +"I thinks that all over on dem days mas'r so rarin'. I prays many times +that God would spar' young mas'r, and He hears ole Sam. He gives us back +our mas'r." + +There were tears in Hugh's eyes, but he again urged upon him his +freedom, offering to give him either to Adah or Alice, just which he +preferred. + +"I likes 'em both," Sam said, "but I likes Mas'r Hugh de best, 'case, +scuse me, mas'r, he ain't in de way, I feared, and Sam hope to help him +find it. Sam long's to Mas'r Hugh till dat day comes he sees ahead, when +he pays off de debt." + +With another blessing on Mas'r Hugh Sam left the room. + +"What can he mean about a coming day when he can pay his debt?" Hugh +asked, but Alice could not enlighten him. + +Adah, however, after hesitating a moment, replied: + +"During your illness you have lost the newspaper gossip to the effect +that if Lincoln is elected to the presidential chair, civil war is sure +to be the result. Now, what Sam means is this, that in case of a +rebellion or insurrection, which he fully expects, he will in some way +save your life, he don't know how, but he is sure." + +To Alice the word rebellion or insurrection had a dreadful sound, and +her cheek paled with fear, but the feeling quickly passed away, as, like +many other deluded ones she thought how impossible it was that our fair +republic should be compelled to lay her dishonored head low in the dust. + +It was settled finally that Adah should go as soon as the necessary +additions could be made to her own and Willie's wardrobe, and then Alice +adroitly led the conversation to Colonel Tiffton and his embarrassments. +What did Hugh think Mosside worth, and who would probably be most +anxious to secure it? There were livid spots on Hugh's face now, and a +strange gleam in his dark eyes as he answered between his teeth, +"Harney," groaning aloud as he remembered Rocket, and saw him in fancy +the property of his enemy. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE DAY OF THE SALE + + +It was strange Hugh did not improve faster, the old doctor thought. +There was something weighing on his mind, he said, something which kept +him awake, and the kind man set himself to divine the cause. Thinking at +last he had done so, he said to him one day, the last before the sale: + +"My boy, you don't get on for worrying about something. I don't pretend +to second sight, but I b'lieve I've got on the right track. It's my +pesky bill. I know it's big, for I've been here every day this going on +three months, but I'll cut it down to the last cent, see if I don't; and +if it's an object, I'll wait ten years, so chirk up a bit," and wringing +his hand, the well-meaning doctor hurried off, leaving Hugh alone with +his sad thoughts. + +It was not so much the bill which troubled him--it was Rocket, and the +feeling sure that he should never own him again. Heretofore there had at +intervals been a faint hope in his heart that by some means he might +redeem him, but that was over now. The sale of Colonel Tiffton's effects +occurred upon the morrow, and money stood waiting for Rocket, while +Harney, with a fiendish, revengeful disposition, which was determined to +gain its point at last, had been heard to say that "rather than lose the +horse or let it pass back to its former owner, he believed he would give +a thousand dollars." + +That settled it, Hugh had no thousand dollars; he had not even ten, and +with a moan of pain, he tried to shut out Rocket from his mind. And this +it was which kept him so nervous and restless, dreading yet longing for +the eventful day, and feeling glad when at last he could say-- + +"To-morrow is the sale." + +The next morning was cold and chilly, making Hugh shiver as he waited +for the footstep which he had learned to know so well. She had not come +to see him the previous night, and he waited for her anxiously now, +feeling sure that on this day of all others she would stay with him. +How, then, was he disappointed when at last she came to him, cloaked and +hooded as for a ride. + +"Are you going out to-day again?" he asked, his tone that of a pleading +child. + +"It does not seem right to leave you alone, I know," she said, "but poor +Ellen needs me sadly, and I promised to be there." + +"At Mosside, with all those rough men, oh, Alice, don't go!" and Hugh +grasped the little hand. + +"It may appear unladylike, I know, but I think it right to stay by +Ellen. By the way," and Alice spoke rapidly now, "the doctor says +you'll never get well so long as you keep so closely in the house. You +are able to ride, and I promised to coax you out to-morrow, if the day +is fine. I shall not take a refusal," she continued, as he shook his +head. "I am getting quite vain of my horsemanship. I shall feel quite +proud of your escort, even if I have to tease for it; so, remember, you +are mine for a part of to-morrow." + +She drew her hand from his, and with another of her radiant smiles, +swept from the room, leaving him in a maze of blissful bewilderment. +Never till this morning had a hope entered Hugh's heart that Alice +Johnson might be won. Except her, there was not a girl in all the world +who had ever awakened the slightest emotion within his heart, and Alice +had seemed so far removed from him that to dream of her was worse than +useless. She would never esteem him save as a friend, and until this +morning Hugh had fancied he could be satisfied with that, but there was +something in the way her little fingers twined themselves around his, +something in her manner, which prompted the wild hope that in an +unguarded moment she had betrayed herself, had permitted him a glimpse +of what was in her mind, only a glimpse, but enough to make the poor +deluded man giddy with happiness. She, the Golden Haired, could be won, +and should be won. + +"My wife, my Alice, my Golden Hair," he kept repeating to himself, +until, in his weak state, the perspiration dropped from every pore, and +his mother, when she came to him, asked in much alarm what was the +matter. + +He could not tell her of his newly-born joy, so he answered evasively: + +"Rocket is sold to-day. Is not that matter enough?" + +"Poor Hugh, I wish so much that I was rich!" the mother sighed, as she +wiped the sweat drops from his brow, arranged his pillows more +comfortably, and then, sitting down beside him, said, hesitatingly--"I +have another letter from 'Lina. Can you hear it now, or will you read it +for yourself?" + +It was strange how the mention of 'Lina embittered at once Hugh's cup of +bliss, making him answer pettishly: + +"She has waited long enough, I think. Give it to me, please," and taking +the letter that morning received, he read first that 'Lina was much +obliged for the seventy-five dollars, and thought they must be growing +generous, as she only asked for fifty. + +"What seventy-five dollars? What does she mean?" Hugh exclaimed, but +his mother could not tell, unless it were that Alice, unknown to them, +had sent more than 'Lina asked for. + +This seemed probable, and as it was the only solution of the mystery, he +accepted it as the real one, and returned to the letter, learning that +the bracelet was purchased, that it could not be told from the lost one, +that she was sporting it on Broadway every day, that she did not go to +the prince's ball just for the doctor's meanness in not procuring a +ticket when he had one offered to him for eighty dollars! + + * * * * * + +"I don't really suppose he could afford it," she wrote, "but it made me +mad just the same, and I pouted all day. I saw the ladies, though, after +they were dressed, and that did me some good, particularly as the Queen +of the South, Madam Le Vert, asked my opinion of her chaste, beautiful +toilet, just as if she had faith in my judgment. + +"Well, after the fortunate ones were gone, I went to my room to pout, +and directly Mother Richards sent Johnny up to coax me, whereupon there +ensued a bit of a quarrel, I twitting him about that ambrotype of a +young girl, which Nell Tiffton found at the St. Nicholas, and which the +doctor claimed, seeming greatly agitated, and saying it was very dear to +him, because the original was dead. Well, I told him of it, and said if +he loved that girl better than me, he was welcome to have her. 'Lina +Worthington had too may eligible offers to play second fiddle to any +one. + +"''Lina,' he said, 'I will not deceive you, though I meant to do so. I +did love another before ever I heard of you, a fair young girl, as pure, +as innocent as the angels. She is an angel now, for she is dead. Do not +ask further of her. Let it suffice that I loved her, that I lost her. I +shall never tell you more of her sad story. Let her never be named to me +again. It was long ago. I have met you since, have asked and wish you to +be my wife,'--and so we made it up, and I promised not to speak of my +rival. Pleasant predicament, I am in, but I'll worm it out of him yet. +I'll haunt him with her dead body." + + * * * * * + +"Oh, mother," and Hugh gasped for breath. "Is Ad--can she be anything to +us? Is my blood in her veins?" + +"Yes, Hugh, she's your half-sister. Forgive me that I made her so," and +the poor mother wept over the heartless girl. "But go on," she +whispered. "See where 'Lina is now," and Hugh read on, learning that old +Mother Richards had returned home, that Anna had written a sweet, +sisterly note, welcoming her as John's bride to their love, that she had +answered her in the same gracious strain, heightening the effect by +dropping a few drops of water here and there, to answer for tears wrung +out by Anna's sympathy, that Mrs. Ellsworth and her brother, Irving +Stanley, came to the hotel, that Irving had a ticket to the ball offered +him, but declined, just because he did not believe in balls, that having +a little 'axe to grind,' she had done her best to cultivate Mrs. +Ellsworth, presuming a great deal on their courtship, and making herself +so agreeable to her child, a most ugly piece of deformity, that cousin +Carrie, who had hired a furnished house for the winter, had invited her +to spend the season with her, and she was now snugly ensconced in most +delightful quarters on Twenty-second Street, between Fifth and Sixth +Avenues. + + * * * * * + +"Sometimes," she wrote, "I half suspect Mrs. Ellsworth did not think I +would jump at her invitation so quick, but I don't care. The doctor, for +some reason or other, has deferred our marriage until spring, and dear +knows I am not coming back to horrid Spring Bank any sooner than I can +help. + +"By the way, I'm somewhat haunted with the dread that, after all, Adah +may take it into her willful head to go to Terrace Hill, and I would not +have her for the world. How does Alice get on with Hugh? I conclude he +must be well by this time. Does he wear his pants inside his cowhides +yet, or have Alice's blue eyes had a refining effect upon his +pantaloons? Tell him not to set his heart upon her, for, to my certain +knowledge, Irving Stanley, Esq., has an interest in that quarter, while +she is not indifferent. + +"He has his young sister Augusta here now. She has come on to do her +shopping in New York, and is stopping with Mrs. Ellsworth. A fine little +creature, quite stylish, but very puritanical. Through Augusta I have +got acquainted with Lottie Gardner, a kind of stepniece to the doctor, +and excessively aristocratic. You ought to have seen how coolly her big, +proud, black eyes inspected one. I rather like her, though. She and +Augusta Stanley were together at Madam ----'s school in the city. + +"Didn't Adah say she went there once? Again I charge you, don't let her +go to Terrace Hill on any account. + +"And one other thing. I shall buy my bridal trousseau under Mrs. +Ellsworth's supervision. She has exquisite taste, and Hugh must send +the money. As I told him before, he can sell Mug. Harney will buy her. +He likes pretty darkies." + + * * * * * + +"Oh, horror! can Ad be a woman, with womanly feelings?" Hugh exclaimed, +feeling as if he hated his sister. + +But after a moment he was able to listen while his mother asked if it +would not be better to persuade Adah not to go to Terrace Hill. + +"It may interfere with 'Lina's plans," she said, "and now it's gone so +far, it seems a pity to have it broken up. It's--it's very pleasant with +'Lina gone," and with a choking sob, Mrs. Worthington laid her face upon +the pillow, ashamed and sorry that the real sentiments of her heart were +thus laid bare. + +It was terrible for a mother to feel that her home would be happier for +the absence of a child, and that child an only daughter, but she did +feel so, and it made her half willing that Dr. Richards should be +deceived. But Hugh shrank from the dishonorable proceeding. + +Mrs. Worthington always yielded to Hugh, and she did so now, mentally +resolving, however, to say a few words to Adah, relative to her not +divulging anything which could possibly harm 'Lina, such as telling how +poor they were, or anything like that. This done, Mrs. Worthington felt +easier, and as Hugh looked tired and worried, she left him for a time, +having first called Muggins to gather up the fragments of 'Lina's letter +which Hugh had thrown upon the carpet. + +"Yes, burn every trace of it," Hugh said, watching the child as she +picked up piece by piece, and threw them into the grate. + +"I means to save dat ar. I'll play I has a letter for Miss Alice," Mug +thought, as she came upon a bit larger than the others, and unwittingly +she hid in her bosom that portion of the letter referring to herself and +Harney! This done, she too left the room, and Hugh was at last alone. + +He had little hope now that he would ever win Alice, so jealously sure +was he that Irving was preferred before him, and he whispered sadly to +himself: + +"I can live on just the same, I suppose. Life will be no more dreary +than it was before I knew her. No, nor half so dreary, for 'it is better +to have loved and lost than not to have loved at all.' That is what Adah +said once when I asked what she would give never to have met that +villain." + +As it frequently happens that when an individual is talked or thought +about, that individual appears, so Adah now came in, asking how Hugh +was, and if she should not sit a while with him. + +Hugh's face brightened at once, for next to Alice he liked best to have +Adah with him. With 'Lina's letter still fresh in his mind it was very +natural for him to think of what was said of Augusta Stanley, and after +Adah had sat a moment, he asked if she remembered such a person at Madam +Dupont's school, or Lottie Gardner either. + +"Yes, I remember them both," and Adah looked up quickly. "Lottie was +proud and haughty, though quite popular with most of the girls, I +believe; but Augusta--oh, I liked her so much. Do you know her?" + +"No; but Ad, it seems, has ingratiated herself into the good graces of +Mrs. Ellsworth, this Augusta's sister. There's a brother, too'--" + +"Yes, I remember. He came one day with Augusta, and all the girls were +so delighted. I hardly noticed him myself, for my head was full of +George. It was there I met him first, you know." + +There was a shadow now on Adah's face, and she sat silent for some time, +thinking of the past, while Hugh watched the changes of her beautiful +face, wondering what was the mystery which seemed to have shrouded the +whole of her young life. + +"You have done me a great deal of good," he said; "and sometimes I think +it's wrong in me to let you go away, when, if I kept you, you might +teach me how to be a good man--a Christian man, I mean." + +"Oh, if you only would be one," and the light which shone in Adah's eyes +seemed born of Heaven. "I am going, it is true, but there is One who +will stay with you--One who loves you so much." + +He thought she meant Alice, and he grasped her hand, and exclaimed: + +"Loves me, Adah, does she? Say it again! Does Alice Johnson love me, me? +Hugh? Did she tell you so? Adah," and Hugh spoke vehemently, "I have +admitted to you what an hour ago I fancied nothing could wring from me, +but I trust to your discretion not to betray it; certainly not to her, +not to Alice, for, of course, there is no hope. You do not think there +is? You know her better than I," and he looked wistfully at Adah, who +felt constrained to answer: + +"There might have been, I'm sure, if she had seen no one else." + +"Then she has--she does love another?" and Hugh's face was white as +ashes. + +"I do not know that she loves him; she did not say so," Adah replied, +thinking it better for Hugh that he should know the whole. "There was a +boy or youth, who saved her life at the peril of his own, and she +remembered him so long, praying for him daily that God would bring him +to her again, so she could thank him for his kindness." + +Poor Hugh. He saw clearly now how it all was. He had suffered his uncle, +who affected a dislike for "Hugh," to call him "Irving." He had also, +for no reason at all, suffered Alice to think he was a Stanley, and this +was the result. + +"I can live on just as I did before," was again the mental cry of his +wrung heart. + +How changed were all things now, for the certainty that Alice never +would be his had cast a pall over everything, and even the autumnal +sunshine streaming through the window seemed hateful to him. +Involuntarily his mind wandered to the sale and to Rocket, perhaps at +that very moment upon the block. + +"If I could have kept him, it would have been some consolation," he +sighed, just as the sound of hoofs dashing up to the door met his ear. + +It was Claib, and just as Hugh was wondering at his headlong haste, he +burst into the room, exclaiming: + +"Oh, Mas'r Hugh, 'tain't no use now. He'd done sold, Rocket is. I hearn +him knocked down, and then I comed to tell you, an' he looked so +handsome, too,--caperin' like a kitten. They done made me show him off, +for he wouldn't come for nobody else, but the minit he fotched a sight +of dis chile, he flung 'em right and left. I fairly cried to see how he +went on." + +There was no color now in Hugh's face, and his voice trembled as he +asked: + +"Who bought him?" + +"Harney, in course, bought him for five-fifty. I tells you they runs him +up, somebody did, and once, when he stood at four hundred and fifty, and +I thought the auction was going to say 'Gone,' I bids myself." + +"You!" and Hugh stared blankly at him. + +"I know it wan't manners, but it came out 'fore I thought, and Harney, +he hits me a cuff, and tells me to hush my jaw. He got paid, though, for +jes' then a voice I hadn't hearn afore, a wee voice like a girl's, calls +out five hundred, and ole Harney turn black as tar. 'Who's that?' he +said, pushin' inter the crowd, and like a mad dog yelled out five-fifty, +and then he set to cussin' who 'twas biddin' ag'in him. I hearn them +'round me say, 'That fetches it. Rocket's a goner,' when I flung the +halter in Harney's ugly face, and came off home to tell you. Poor Mas'r, +you is gwine to faint," and the well-meaning, but rather impudent Claib, +sprang forward in time to catch and hold his young master, who otherwise +might have fallen to the floor. + +Hugh had borne much that day. The sudden hope that Alice might be won, +followed so soon by the certainty that she could not, had shaken his +nerves and tried his strength cruelly, while the story Claib had told +unmanned him entirely, and this it was which made him grow so cold and +faint, reeling in his chair, and leaning gladly for support against the +sturdy Claib, who led him to the bed, and then went in quest of Adah. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE SALE + + +There was a crowd of people out that day to attend the sale of Colonel +Tiffton's household effects. Even fair ladies, too, came in their +carriages, holding high their aristocratic skirts as they threaded their +way through the rooms where piles of carpeting and furniture of various +kinds lay awaiting the shrill voice and hammer of the auctioneer, a +portly little man, who felt more for the family than his appearance +would indicate. + +There had been a long talk that morning between himself and a young +lady, a stranger to him, whose wondrous beauty had thrilled his heart +just as it did every heart beating beneath a male's attire. The lady had +seemed a little worried, as she talked, casting anxious glances up the +Lexington turnpike, and asking several times when the Lexington cars +were due. + +"It shan't make no difference. I'll take your word," the auctioneer had +said in reply to some doubts expressed by her. "I'd trust your face for +a million," and with a profound bow by way of emphasizing his +compliment, the well-meaning Skinner went out to the group assembled +near Rocket while the lady returned to the upper chamber where Mrs. +Tiffton and Ellen were assembled. + +Once Harney's voice, pitched in its blandest tone, was heard talking to +the ladies, and then Ellen stopped her ears, exclaiming passionately: + +"I hate that man, I hate him. I almost wish that I could kill him." + +"Hush, Ellen; remember! 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the +Lord,'" Alice whispered to the excited girl who answered hastily: + +"Don't preach to me now. I'm too wretched. Wait till you lose everything +by one man's villainy, then see if you won't curse him." + +There was an increased confusion in the yard below, and Alice knew the +sale was about to commence. The white-haired colonel kept watch while +one after another of his household goods were sold. Inferior articles +they were at first, and the crowd were not much disposed to bid, but all +were dear to the old man, who groaned each time an article was knocked +off, and so passed effectually from his possession. + +The crowd grew weary at last--they must have brisker sport than that, if +they would keep warm in that chilly November wind, and cries for the +"horses" were heard. + +"Your crack ones, too. I'm tired of this," growled Harney, and Ellen's +riding pony was led out. The colonel saw the playful animal, and +tottered to Ellen's chamber, saying: + +"They're going to sell Beauty, Nell. Poor Nellie, don't cry," and the +old man laid his hand on his weeping daughter's head. + +"Colonel Tiffton, this way please," and Alice spoke in a whisper. "I +want Beauty. Couldn't you bid for me, bid all you would be willing to +give if you were bidding for Ellen?" + +The colonel looked at her in a kind of dazed, bewildered way, as if not +fully comprehending her, till she repeated her request; then +mechanically he went back to his post on the balcony, and just as +Harney's last bid was about to receive the final "gone," he raised it +twenty dollars, and ere Harney had time to recover his astonishment, +Beauty was disposed of, and the colonel's servant Ham led her in triumph +back to the stable. + +With a fierce scowl of defiance Harney called for Rocket. Suspecting +something wrong the animal refused to come out, and planting his fore +feet firmly upon the floor of the stable, kept them all at bay. With a +fierce oath, the brutal Harney gave him a stinging blow, which made the +tender flesh quiver with pain, but the fiery gleam in the noble animal's +eye warned him not to repeat it. Suddenly among the excited group of +dusky faces he spied that of Claib, and bade him lead out the horse. + +"I can't. Oh, mas'r, for the dear--" Claib began, but Harney's riding +whip silenced him at once, and he went submissively in to Rocket, who +became as gentle beneath his touch as a lamb. + +Did the sagacious creature think then of Hugh, and fancy Claib had come +to lead him home? We cannot tell. We only know how proudly he arched his +graceful neck, as with dancing, mincing steps, he gamboled around Claib, +rubbing his nose against the honest black face, where the tears were +standing, and trying to lick the hands which had fed him so often at +Spring Bank. + +Loud were the cries of admiration which hailed his appearance. + +The bids were very rapid, for Rocket was popular, but Harney bided his +time, standing-silently by, with a look on his face of cool contempt for +those who presumed to think they could be the fortunate ones. He was +prepared to give more than any one else. Nobody would go above his +figure, he had set it so high--higher even than Rocket was really worth. +Five hundred and fifty, if necessary. No one would rise above that, +Harney was sure, and quietly waited until the bids were far between, and +the auctioneer still dwelling upon the last, seemed waiting expectantly +for something. + +"I believe my soul the fellow knows I mean to have that horse," thought +Harney, and with an air which said, "that settles it," he called out in +loud, clear tones, "Four hundred," thus adding fifty at one bid. + +There was a slight movement then in the upper balcony, an opening of the +glass door, and a suppressed whisper ran through the crowd, as Alice +came out and stood by the colonel's aide. + +The bidding went on briskly now, each bidder raising a few dollars, till +four hundred and fifty was reached, and then there came a pause, broken +only by the voice of the excited Claib, who, as he confessed to Hugh, +had ventured to speak for himself, and was rewarded for his temerity by +a blow from Harney. With that blow still tingling about his ears and +confusing his senses, Claib could not well tell whence or from whom came +that silvery, half-tremulous voice, which passed so like an electric +shock through the eager crowd, and rousing Harney to a perfect fury. + +"Five hundred." + +There was no mistaking the words, and with a muttered curse at the fair +bidder shrinking behind the colonel, and blushing, as if in shame, +Harney yelled out his big price, all he had meant to give. He was mad +with rage, for he knew well for whom that fair Northern girl was +interested. He had heard much of Alice Johnson--had seen her +occasionally in the Spring Bank carriage as she stopped in Frankfort; +and once she had stopped before his store, asking, with such a pretty +grace, that the piece of goods she wished to look at might be brought to +her for inspection, that he had determined to take it himself, but +remembered his dignity as half millionaire, and sent his head clerk +instead. + +Beneath Harney's coarse nature there was a strange susceptibility to +female beauty, and neither the lustrous blue of Alice's large eyes, nor +yet the singular sweetness of her voice, as she thanked the clerk for +his trouble, had been forgotten. He had heard that she was rich--how +rich he did not know--but fancied she might possibly be worth a few +paltry thousands, not more, and so, of course, she was not prepared to +compete with him, who counted his gold by hundreds of thousands. Five +hundred was all she would give for Rocket. How, then was he surprised +and chagrined when, with a coolness equal to his own, she kept steadily +on, scarcely allowing the auctioneer to repeat his bid before she +increased it, and once, womanlike, raising on her own. + +"Fie, Harney! Shame to go against a girl! Better give it up, for don't +you see she's resolved to have him? She's worth half Massachusetts, too, +they say." + +These and like expressions met Harney on every side, until at last, as +he paused to answer some of them, growing heated in the altercation, and +for the instant forgetting Rocket, the auctioneer brought the hammer +down with a click which made Harney leap from the ground, for by that +sound he knew that Rocket was sold to Alice Johnson for six hundred +dollars! + +Meantime Alice had sought the friendly shelter of Ellen's room, where +the tension of nerve endured so long gave way, and sinking upon the sofa +she fainted, just as down the Lexington turnpike came the man looked for +so long in the earlier part of the day. She could not err, in Mr. +Liston's estimation, and Alice grew calm again, and in a hurried +consultation explained to him more definitely than her letter had done, +what her wishes were--Colonel Tiffton must not be homeless in his old +age. There were ten thousand dollars lying in the ---- Bank in +Massachusetts, so she would have Mosside purchased in her name for +Colonel Tiffton, not as a gift, for he would not accept it, but as a +loan, to be paid at his convenience. This was Alice's plan, and Mr. +Liston acted upon it at once. Taking his place in the motley assemblage, +he bid quietly, steadily, until at last Mosside, with its appurtenances, +belonged ostensibly to him, and the half-glad, half-disappointed people +wondered greatly who Mr. Jacob Liston could be, or from what quarter of +the globe he had suddenly dropped into their midst. + +Colonel Tiffton knew that nearly everything had been purchased by him, +and felt glad that a stranger rather than a neighbor was to occupy what +had been so dear to him, and that his servants would not be separated. +With Ellen it was different. A neighbor might allow them to remain there +a time, she said, while a stranger would not, and she was weeping +bitterly, when, as the sound of voices and the tread of feet gradually +died away from the yard below, Alice came to her side, and bending over +her, said softly, "Could you bear some good news now--bear to know who +is to inhabit Mosside?" + +"Good news?" and Ellen looked up wonderingly. + +"Yes, good news, I think you will call it," and then as deliberately as +possible Alice told what had been done, and that the colonel was still +to occupy his old home, "As my tenant, if you like," she said to him, +when he began to demur. + +When at last it was clear to the old man, he laid his hand upon the head +of the young girl and whispered huskily, "I cannot thank you as I would, +or tell you what's in my heart, God bless you, Alice Johnson." + +Alice longed to say a word to him of the God to whom he had thus paid +tribute, but she felt the time was hardly then, and after a few more +assurances to Ellen started for Spring Bank, where Mrs. Worthington and +Adah were waiting for her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +THE RIDE + + +They had kept it all from Hugh, telling him only that a stranger had +purchased Mosside. He had not asked for Rocket, or even mentioned him, +though his pet was really uppermost in his mind, and when he awoke next +morning from his feverish sleep and remembered Alice's proposal to ride, +he said to himself, "I cannot go, much as I might enjoy it. No other +horse would carry me as gently as Rocket. Oh! Rocket!" + +It was a bright, balmy morning, and Hugh, as he walked slowly to the +window and inhaled the fragrant air, felt that it would do him good, +"But I shan't go," he said, and when, after breakfast was over, Alice +came, reminding him of the ride, he began an excuse, but his resolution +quickly gave way before her sprightly arguments, and he finally +assented, saying, however: "You must not expect a gay cavalier, for I am +still too weak, and I have no horse fit to ride with you, at least." + +"Yes, I know," and Alice ran gayly to her room and donned her riding +dress, wondering what Hugh would say and how Rocket would act. + +He was out in the back yard now, pawing and curvetting, and rubbing his +nose against all who came near him, while Claib was holding him by his +new bridle and talking to him of Mas'r Hugh. + +Even an ugly woman is improved by a riding costume, and Alice, beautiful +though she was, looked still more beautiful in her closely-fitting +habit. + +"There, I'm ready," she said, running down to Hugh. + +At sight of her his face flushed, while a half sigh escaped him as he +thought how proud he would once have been to ride with her; but that was +in the days of Rocket, when rider and horse were called the best in the +county. + +"Where's Jim?" Hugh asked, glancing around in quest of the huge animal +he expected to mount, and which he had frequently likened to a stone +wall. + +"Claib has your horse. He's coming," and with great apparent unconcern +Alice worked industriously at one of her fairy gantlets. + +Suddenly Adah flew to Hugh's side, and said, eagerly: + +"Hugh, please whistle once, just as you used to do for Rocket--just +once, and let Miss Johnson hear you." + +Hugh felt as if she were mocking him, but he yielded, while like a gleam +of lightning the shadow of a suspicion flitted across his mind. It was a +loud, shrill whistle, penetrating even to the woods, and the instant the +old familiar sound fell on Rocket's ear he went tearing around the +house, answering that call with the neigh he had been wont to give when +summoned by his master. Utterly speechless, Hugh stood gazing at him as +he came up, his neck arched proudly, and his silken mane flowing as +gracefully as on the day when he was led away to Colonel Tiffton's +stall. + +"Won't somebody tell me what it means?" Hugh gasped, stretching out his +hands toward Rocket, who even attempted to lick them. + +At this point Alice stepped forward, and taking Rocket's bridle, laid it +across Hugh's lap, saying, softly: + +"It means that Rocket is yours, purchased by a friend, saved from +Harney, for you. Mount him, and see if he rides as easily as ever. I am +impatient to be off." + +But had Hugh's life depended upon it, he could not have mounted Rocket +then. He knew the friend was Alice, and the magnitude of the act +overpowered him. + +"Oh, Miss Johnson," he cried, "what made you do it? It must not be. I +cannot suffer it." + +"Not to please me?" and Alice's face wore its most winning look. "It's +been my fixed determination ever since I heard of Rocket, and knew how +much you loved him. I was never so happy doing an act in my life, and +now you must not spoil it all by refusing." + +"As a loan, then, not as a gift," Hugh whispered. "It shall not be a +gift." + +"It need not," Alice rejoined, as a sudden plan for carrying out another +project crossed her mind. "You shall pay for Rocket if you like, and +I'll tell you how on our ride. Shall we go?" + +Once out upon the highway, where there were no mud holes to shun, no +gates to open and shut, Hugh broached the subject of Rocket again, when +Alice told him unhesitatingly how he could, if he would, pay for him and +leave her greatly his debtor. The scrap of paper, which Muggins had +saved from the letter thrown by Hugh upon the carpet, had been placed by +the queer little child in an old envelope, which she called her letter +to Miss Alice. Handing it to her that morning with the utmost gravity, +she had asked her to read "Mug's letter," and Alice had read the brief +lines written by 'Lina: "Hugh must send the money, as I told him before. +He can sell Mug; Harney likes pretty darkies." There was a cold, sick +feeling at Alice's heart, a shrinking with horror from 'Lina +Worthington, and then she came to a decision. Mug should be hers, and +so, as skillfully as she could she brought it around, that having taken +a great fancy both to Lulu and Muggins, she wished to buy them both, +giving whatever Hugh honestly thought they were worth. Rocket, if he +pleased, should be taken as part or whole payment for Mug, and so cease +to be a gift. + +"I have no mercenary motives in the matter," she said, "With me they +will be free, and this, I am sure, will be an inducement for you to +consent to my proposal." + +A slave master can love his bond servant, and Hugh loved the little Mug +so much that the idea of parting with her as he surely must at some +future time if he assented to Alice's plan, made him hesitate. But he +decided at last, influenced not so much by need of money as by knowing +how much real good the exchange of ownership would be to the two young +girls. In return for Rocket, Alice should have Muggins, while for Lulu +she might give what she liked. + +"Heaven knows," he added, "it is not my nature to hold any one in +bondage, and I shall gladly hail the day which sees the negro free. But +our slaves are our property. Take them from us and we are ruined wholly. +Miss Johnson, do you honestly believe that one in forty of those +Northern abolitionists would deliberately give up ten--twenty--fifty +thousand dollars, just because the thing valued at that was man and not +beast? No, indeed. Southern people, born and brought up in the midst of +slavery, can't see it as the North does, and there's where the mischief +lies." + +He had wandered from Lulu and Muggins to the subject which then, far +more than the North believed, was agitating the Southern mind. Then they +talked of 'Lina, Hugh telling Alice of her intention to pass the winter +with Mrs. Ellsworth, and speaking also of Irving Stanley. + +"By the way, Ad writes that Irving was interested in you, and you in +him," Hugh said, rather abruptly, stealing a glance at Alice, who +answered frankly: + +"I can hardly say that I know much of him, though once, long ago--" + +She paused here, and Hugh waited anxiously for what she would say next. +But Alice, changing her mind, only added: + +"I esteem Mr. Stanley very highly. He is a gentleman, a scholar and a +Christian." + +"You like him better for that, I suppose--better for being a Christian, +I mean," Hugh replied, a little bitterly. + +"Oh, yes, so much better," and reining her horse closer to Hugh, Alice +rode very slowly, while in earnest tones she urged on Hugh the one great +thing he needed. "You are not offended?" she asked, as he continued +silent. + +"No, oh, no. I never had any religious teaching, only once; an angel +flitted across my path, leaving a track of glorious sunshine, but the +clouds have been there since, and the sunshine is most all gone." + +Alice knew he referred to the maiden of whose existence Mug had told +her, and she longed to ask him of her. Who was she, and where was she +now? Alas, that she should have been so deceived, or that Hugh, when she +finally did ask, "Who was the angel that crossed his path?" should +answer evasively. + +Just before turning into the Spring Bank fields, a horseman came dashing +down the pike, checking his steed a moment as he drew near, and then, +with a savage frown, spurring on his foam-covered horse, muttering +between his teeth a curse on Hugh Worthington. + +"That was Harney?" Alice said, stopping a moment outside the gate to +look after him as he went tearing down the pike. + +"Yes, that was Harney," Hugh replied. "There's a political meeting of +some kind in Versailles to-day, and I suppose he is going there to raise +his voice with those who are denouncing the Republicans so bitterly, and +threatening vengeance if they succeed." + +"The South will hardly be foolish enough to secede. Why, the North would +crush them at once," returned Alice, still looking after Harney, as if +she knew she were gazing after one destined to figure conspicuously in +the fast approaching rebellion, his very name a terror and dread to the +loyal, peace-loving citizens of Kentucky. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +HUGH AND ALICE + + +Three weeks had passed away since that memorable ride. Mr. Liston, after +paying to the proper recipients the money due for Mosside, had returned +to Boston, leaving the neighborhood to gossip of Alice's generosity, +and to wonder how much she was worth. It was a secret yet that Lulu and +Muggins were hers, but the story of Rocket was known, and numerous were +the surmises as to what would be the result of her daily, familiar +intercourse with Hugh. Already was the effect of her presence visible in +his improved appearance, his gentleness of manner, his care to observe +all the little points of etiquette never practiced by him before, and +his attention to his own personal appearance. His trousers were no +longer worn inside his boots, or his soft hat jammed into every +conceivable shape, while Ellen Tiffton, who came often to Spring Bank, +and was supposed to be good authority, pronounced him almost as stylish +looking as any man in Woodford. + +To Hugh, Alice was everything, and he did not know himself how much he +loved her, save when he thought of Irving Stanley, and then the keen, +sharp pang of jealous pain which wrung his heart told him how strong was +the love he bore her. And Alice, in her infatuation concerning the +mysterious Golden Hair, did much to feed the flame. He was to her like a +beloved brother; indeed, she had one day playfully entered into a +compact with him that she should be his sister, and never dreaming of +the mischief she was doing, she treated him with all the familiarity of +a pure, loving sister. It was Alice who rode with him almost daily. It +was Alice who sang his favorite songs. It was Alice who brought his +armchair in the evening when his day's work was over; Alice who worked +his slippers; Alice who brushed his coat when he was going to town; +Alice who sometimes tied his cravat, standing on tiptoe, with her fair +face so fearfully near to his that all his powers of self-denial were +needed to keep from touching his lips to the smooth brow gleaming so +white and fair before his eyes. + +Sometimes the wild thought crossed his mind that possibly he might win +her for himself, but it was repudiated as soon as formed, and so, +between hope and a kind of blissful despair, blissful so long as Alice +stayed with him as she was now, Hugh lived on, until at last the evening +came when Adah was to leave Spring Bank on the morrow. She had intended +going immediately after the sale at Mosside, but Willie had been ailing +ever since, and that had detained her. Everything which Alice could do +for her had been done. Old Sam, at thoughts of parting with his little +charge, had cried his dim eyes dimmer yet. Mrs. Worthington, too, had +wept herself nearly sick, for now that the parting drew near she began +to feel how dear to her was the young girl who had come to them so +strangely. + +"More like a daughter you seem to me," she had said to Adah, in speaking +of her going; "and once I had a wild--" here she stopped, leaving the +sentence unfinished, for she did not care to tell Adah of the shock it +had given her when Hugh first pointed out to her the faint mark on +Adah's forehead. + +It was fainter now even than then, for with increasing color and health +it seemed to disappear, and Mrs. Worthington could scarcely see it, when +with a caressing movement of her hand she put the silken hair back from +Adah's brow and kissed the bluish veins. + +"There is none there. It was all a fancy," she murmured to herself, and +then thinking of 'Lina, she said to Adah what she had all along meant to +say, that if the Richards' family should question her of 'Lina, she was +to divulge nothing to her disparagement, whether she were rich or poor, +high or low. "You must not, of course, tell any untruths. I do not ask +that, but I--oh, I sometimes wish they need not know that you came from +here, as that would save all trouble, and 'Lina is so--so--" + +Mrs. Worthington did not finish the sentence, for Adah instantly +silenced her by answering frankly: + +"I do not intend they shall know, not at present certainly." + +Adah retired early, as did both Mrs. Worthington and Densie, for all +were unusually tired; only Hugh, as he supposed, was up, and he sat by +the parlor fire where they had passed the evening. He was very sorry +Adah was going, but it was not so much of her he was thinking as of +Alice. Had she dreamed of his real feelings, she never would have done +what she did, but she was wholly unconscious of it, and so, when, late +that night, she returned to the parlor in quest of something she had +left, and found him sitting there alone, she paused a moment on the +threshold, wondering if she had better join him or go away. His back was +toward her, and he did not hear her light step, so intently was he +gazing into the burning grate, and trying to frame the words he should +say if ever he dared tell Alice Johnson of his love. + +There was much girlish playfulness in Alice's nature, and sliding across +the carpet, she clasped both her hands before his eyes, and exclaimed: + +"A penny for your thoughts." + +Hugh started as suddenly as if some apparition had appeared before him, +and blushing guiltily, clasped and held upon his face the little soft, +warm hands which did not tremble, but lay still beneath his own. It was +Providence which sent her there, he thought; Providence indicating that +he might speak, and he would. + +"I am glad you have come. I wish to talk with you," he said, drawing her +down into a chair beside him, and placing his arm lightly across its +back. "What sent you here, Alice? I supposed you had retired," he +continued, bending upon her a look which made her slightly +uncomfortable. + +But she soon recovered, and answered laughingly: + +"I, too, supposed you had retired. I came for my scissors, and finding +you here alone, thought I would startle you, but you have not told me +yet of what you were thinking." + +"Of the present, past and future," he replied; then, letting his hand +drop from the back of the chair upon her shoulder, he continued: "May I +talk freely with you? May I tell you of myself, what I was, what I am, +what I hope to be?" + +Her cheeks burned dreadfully, and her voice was not quite steady, as, +rising from her seat, she said: + +"I like a stool better than this chair. I'll bring it and sit at your +feet. There, now I am ready," and seating herself at a safe distance +from him, Alice waited for him to commence. + +She grew tired of waiting, and turning her lustrous eyes upon him, said +gently: + +"You seem unhappy about something. Is it because Adah leaves to-morrow? +I am sorry, too; sorry for me, sorry for you; but, Hugh, I will do what +I can to fill her place. I will be the sister you need so much. Don't +look so wretched; it makes me feel badly to see you." + +Alice's sympathy was getting the better of her again, and she moved her +stool a little nearer to Hugh, while she involuntarily laid her hand +upon his knee. That decided him; and while his heart throbbed almost to +bursting, he began by saying: + +"I am in rather a gloomy mood to-night, I'll admit. I do feel Adah's +leaving us very much; but that is not all. I have wished to talk with +you a long time--wished to tell you how I feel. May I, Alice?--may I +open to you my whole heart, and show you what is there?" + +For a moment Alice felt a thrill of fear--a dread of what the opening +of his heart to her might disclose. Then she remembered Golden Hair, +whose name she had never heard him breathe, save as it passed his +delirious lips. It was of her he would talk; he would tell her of that +hidden love whose existence she felt sure was not known at Spring Bank. +Alice would rather not have had this confidence, for the deep love-life +of such as Hugh Worthington seemed to her a sacred thing; but he looked +so white, so careworn, so much as if it would be a relief, that Alice +answered at last: + +"Yes, Hugh, you may tell, and I will listen." + +He began by telling Alice first of his early boyhood, uncheered by a +single word of sympathy save as it came from dear Aunt Eunice, who alone +understood the wayward boy whom people thought so bad. + +"Even she did not quite understand me," he said; "she did not dream of +that hidden recess in my heart which yearned so terribly for a human +love--for something or somebody to check the evil passions so rapidly +gaining the ascendant. Neither did she know how often, in the silent +night, the boy they thought so flinty, so averse to womankind, wept for +the love he had no hope of gaining. + +"Then mother and Ad came to Spring Bank, and that opened to me a new +era. In my odd way, I loved my mother so much--so much; but Ad--say, +Alice, is it wicked in me if I can't love Ad?" + +"She is your sister," was Alice's reply; and Hugh rejoined: + +"Yes--my sister. I'm sorry for it, even, if it's wicked to be sorry. She +gave me back only scorn and bitter words, until my heart closed up +against her, and I harshly judged all others by her--all but one!" and +Hugh's voice grew very low and tender in its tone, while Alice felt that +now he was nearing the Golden Hair. + +"Away off in New England, among the Yankee hills, there was a pure, +white blossom growing; a blossom so pure, so fair, that few, very few, +were worthy even so much as to look upon it, as day by day it unfolded +some new beauty. There was nothing to support this flower but a single +frail parent stalk, which snapped asunder one day, and Blossom was left +alone. It was a strange idea, transplanting it to another soil; for the +atmosphere of Spring Bank was not suited to such as she. But she came, +and, as by magic, the whole atmosphere was changed--changed at least to +one--the bad, wayward Hugh, who dared to love this fair young girl with +a love stronger than his life. For her he would do anything, and +beneath her influence he did improve rapidly. He was conscious of it +himself--conscious of a greater degree of self-respect--a desire to be +what she would like to have him. + +"She was very, very beautiful; more so than anything Hugh had ever +looked upon. Her face was like an angel's face, and her hair--much like +yours, Alice;" and he laid his hand on the bright head, now bent down, +so that he could not see that face so like an angel's. + +The little hand, too, had slid from his knee, and, fastlocked within the +other, was buried in Alice's lap, as she listened with throbbing heart +to the story Hugh was telling. + +"In all the world there was nothing so dear to Hugh as this young girl. +He thought of her by day and dreamed of her by night, seeing always in +the darkness her face, with its eyes of blue bending over him--hearing +the music of her voice, like the falling of distant water, and even +feeling the soft touch of her hands as he fancied them laid upon his +brow. She was good, too, as beautiful; and it was this very goodness +which won on Hugh so fast, making him pray often that he might be worthy +of her--for, Alice, he came at last to dream that he could win her; she +was so kind to him--she spoke to him so softly, and, by a thousand +little acts, endearing herself to him more and more. + +"Heaven forgive her if she misled him all this while; but she did not. +It were worse than death to think she did--to know I've told you this in +vain--have offered you my heart only to have it thrust back upon me as +something you do not want. Speak, Alice! in mercy, speak! Can it be that +I'm mistaken?" + +Alice saw how she had unwittingly led him on, and her white lips +quivered with pain. Lifting up her head at last, she exclaimed: + +"You don't mean me, Hugh! Oh, you don't mean me?" + +"Yes, darling," and he clasped in his own the hand raised imploringly +toward him. "Yes, darling, I mean you. Will you be my wife?" + +Alice had never before heard a voice so earnest, so full of meaning, as +the one now pleading with her to be what she could not be. She must do +something, and sliding from her stool she sank upon her knees--her +proper attitude--upon her knees before Hugh, whom she had wronged so +terribly, and burying her face in Hugh's own hands, she sobbed: + +"Oh, Hugh, Hugh! you don't know what you ask. I love you dearly, but +only as my brother--believe me, Hugh, only as a brother. I wanted one so +much--one of my own, I mean; but God denied that wish, and gave me you +instead. I'm sorry I ever came here, but I cannot go away. I've learned +to love my Kentucky home. Let me stay just the same. Let me really be +what I thought I was, your sister. You will not send me away?" + +She looked up at him now, but quickly turned away, for the expression of +his white, haggard face was more than she could bear, and she knew there +was a pang, keener even than any she had felt, a pang which must be +terrible, to crush a strong man as Hugh was crushed. + +"Forgive me, Hugh," she said, as he did not speak, but sat gazing at her +in a kind of stunned bewilderment. "You would not have me for your wife, +if I did not love you?" + +"Never, Alice, never!" he answered. "But it is not any easier to bear. I +don't know why I asked you, why I dared hope that you could think of me. +I might have known you could not. Nobody does. I cannot win their love. +I don't know how." + +Alice neither looked up nor moved, only sobbed piteously, and this more +than aught else helped Hugh to choke down his own sorrow for the sake of +comforting her. The sight of her distress moved him greatly, for he knew +it was grief that she had so cruelly misled him. + +"Alice, darling," he said again, this time as a mother would soothe her +child. "Alice, darling, it hurts me more to see you thus than your +refusal did. I am not wholly selfish in my love. I'd rather you should +be happy than to be happy myself. I would not for the world take to my +bosom an unwilling wife. I should be jealous even of my own caresses, +jealous lest the very act disgusted her more and more. You did not mean +to deceive me. It was I that deceived myself. I forgive you fully, and +ask you to forget that to-night has ever been. It cut me sorely at +first, Alice, to hear you tell me so, but I shall get over it; the wound +will heal." + +"Oh, Hugh, don't; you break my heart. I'd rather you should scorn, or +even hate me, for the sorrow I have brought. Such unselfish kindness +will kill me," Alice sobbed, for never had she been so touched as by +this insight into the real character of the man she had refused. + +He would not hold her long in his arms, though it were bliss to do so, +and putting her gently in the chair, he leaned his own poor sick head +upon the mantel, while Alice watched him with streaming eyes and an +aching heart, which even then half longed to give itself into his +keeping. At last it was her turn to speak, hers the task to comfort. The +prayer she had inwardly breathed for guidance to act aright had not been +unheard, and with a strange calmness she arose, and laying her hand on +Hugh's arm, bade him be seated, while she told him what she had to say. +He obeyed her, sinking into the offered chair, and then standing before +him, she began: + +"You do not wish me to go away, you say. I have no desire to go, except +it should be better for you. Even though I may not be your wife, I can, +perhaps, minister to your happiness; and, Hugh, we will forget to-night, +forget what has occurred, and be to each other what we were before, +brother and sister. There must be no particular perceptible change of +manner, lest others should suspect what has passed between us. Do you +agree to this?" + +He bowed his head, and Alice drew a step nearer to him, hesitating a +moment ere she continued: + +"You speak of a rival. I do not know that you have one. Sure it is I am +bound to no one by any pledge, or promise, or tie, unless it be a tie of +gratitude." + +Hugh glanced up quickly now, and the words, "You are mistaken; it was +not Irving Stanley," trembled on his lips, but his strong will fought +them back, and Alice went on. + +"I will be frank with you, and say that I have seen one who pleased me, +both for the noble qualities he possessed, and because I had thought so +much of meeting him, of expressing to him my thanks for a great favor +done when I was only a child. There's a look in your face like his; you +remind me of him often; and, Hugh--" the little hand pressed more +closely on Hugh's shoulder, while Alice's breath came heavily, "And, +Hugh, it may be, that in time I can conscientiously give you a different +answer from what I did to-night. I may love as your wife should love +you; and--and, Hugh, if I do, I'll tell you so at the proper time." + +There was a gleam of sunshine now to illumine the thick darkness, and, +in the first moments of his joy Hugh wound his arm around the slight +form, and tried to bring it nearer to him. But Alice stepped back and +answered: + +"No, Hugh, that would be wrong. It may be I shall never come to love +you save as I love you now, but I'll try--I will try," and unmindful of +her charge to him, Alice parted the damp curls clustering around his +forehead, and looked into his face with an expression which made his +heart bound and throb with the sudden hope that even now she loved him +better than she supposed. + +It was growing very late, and the clock in the adjoining room struck one +ere Alice bade Hugh good-night, saying to him: + +"No one must know of this. We'll be just the same to each other as we +have been." + +"Yes, just the same, if that can be," Hugh answered, and so they parted. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +ADAH'S JOURNEY + + +The night express from Rochester to Albany was crowded. Every car was +full, or seemed to be, and the clamorous bell rang out its first summons +for all to get on board, just as a pale, frightened-looking woman, +bearing in her slender arms a sleeping boy, whose little face showed +signs of suffering, stepped upon the platform of the rear carriage, and +looked wistfully in at the long, dark line of passengers filling every +seat. Wearily, anxiously, she had passed through every car, beginning at +the first, her tired eyes scanning each occupant, as if mutely begging +some one to have pity on her ere exhausted nature failed entirely, and +she sank fainting to the floor. None had heeded that silent appeal, +though many had marked the pallor of her girlish face, and the extreme +beauty of the baby features nestling in her bosom. She could not hold +out much longer, and when she reached the last car and saw that, too, +was full, the delicate chin quivered perceptibly, and a tear glistened +in the long eyelashes, sweeping the colorless cheek. + +Slowly she passed up the aisle until she came to where there was indeed +a vacant seat, only a gentleman's shawl was piled upon it, and he, the +gentleman, looking so unconcernedly from the window, and apparently +oblivious of her close proximity to him, would not surely object to her +sitting there. How the tired woman did wish he would turn toward her, +would give some token that she was welcome, would remove his heavy +plaid, and say to her courteously, "Sit here, madam." But no, his eyes +were only intent on the darkness without; he had no care for her, Adah, +though he knew she was there. + +The oil lamp was burning dimly, and the girl's white face was lost in +the shadow, when the young man first glanced at her, so he had no +suspicion of the truth, though a most indefinable sensation crept over +him as he heard the timid footfall, and the rustling of female garments +as Adah Hastings drew near with her boy in her arms. He knew she stopped +before him; he knew, too, why she stopped, and for a brief instant his +better nature bade him be a man and offer her what he knew she wanted. +But only for an instant, and then his selfishness prevailed. "He would +not seem to see her, he would not be bothered by a woman with a brat. If +there was anything he hated it was a woman traveling with a young one, a +squalling young one. They would never catch his wife, when he had one, +doing a thing so unladylike. A car was no place for children. He hated +the whole of them." + +Adah passed on, her weary sigh falling distinctly on his ear, but +falling to awaken a feeling of remorse for his unmanly conduct. + +"I'm glad she's gone. I can't be bothered," was his mental comment as he +settled himself more comfortably, feeling a glow of satisfaction when +the train began to move, and he knew no more women with their babies +would be likely to trouble him. + +With that first heavy strain of the machinery Adah lost her balance, and +would have fallen headlong but for the friendly hand put forth to save +the fall. + +"Take my seat, miss. It is not very convenient, but it is better than +none. I can find another." + +It was the friendliest voice imaginable which said these words to Adah, +and the kind tone in which they were uttered wrung the hot tears at once +from her eyes. She did not look up at him. She only knew that some one, +a gentleman, had arisen and was bending over her; that a hand, large, +white and warm, was laid upon her shoulder, putting her gently into the +narrow seat next the saloon; that the same hand took from her and hung +above her head the little satchel which was so much in her way, and that +the manly voice, so sympathetic in its tone, asked if she would be too +warm so near the fire. + +She did not know there was a fire. She only knew that she had found a +friend, and with the delicious feeling of safety which the knowledge +brought, the tension of her nerves gave way, and burying her head on +Willie's face she wept for a moment silently. Then, lifting it up, she +tried to thank her benefactor, looking now at him for the first time, +and feeling half overawed to find him so tall, so stylish, so +exceedingly refined and aristocratic in every look and action. + +Irving Stanley was a passenger on that train, bound for Albany. Like Dr. +Richards, he had hoped to enjoy a whole seat, even though it were not a +very comfortable one, but when he saw how pale and tired Adah was, he +arose at once to offer his seat. He heard her sweet, low voice as she +tried to thank him. He saw, too, the little, soft, white hands, holding +so fast to Willie. Was he her brother or her son? She was young to be +his mother. Perhaps she was his sister; but, no, there was no mistaking +the mother-love shining out from the brown eyes turned so quickly upon +the boy when he moaned, as if in pain, and seemed about to waken. + +"He's been sick most all the way," she said. "There's something the +matter with his ear, I think, as he complains of that. Do children ever +die with the earache?" + +Irving Stanley hardly thought they did. At all events, he never heard of +such a case, and then, after suggesting a remedy, should the pain +return, he left his new acquaintance. + +"A part of your seat, sir, if you please," and Irving's voice was rather +authoritative than otherwise, as he claimed the half of what the doctor +was monopolizing. + +It was of no use for Dr. Richards to pretend he was asleep, for Irving +spoke so like a man who knew what he was doing, that the doctor was +compelled to yield, and turning about, recognized his Saratoga +acquaintance. The recognition was mutual, and after a few natural +remarks, Irving explained how he had given his seat to a lady, who +seemed ready to drop with fatigue and anxiety concerning her little +child, who was suffering from the earache. + +"By the way, doctor," he added, "you ought to know the remedy for such +ailments. Suppose you prescribe in case it returns. I do pity that young +woman." + +Dr. Richards stared at him in astonishment. + +"I know but little about babies or their aches," he answered at last, +just as a scream of pain reached his ear, accompanied by a suppressed +effort on the mother's part to soothe her suffering child. + +The pain must have been intolerable, for the little fellow, in his +agony, writhed from Adah's lap and sank upon the floor, his waxen hand +pressed convulsively to his ear, and his whole form quivering with +anguish as he cried, "Oh, ma! ma! ma! ma!" + +The hardest heart could scarce withstand that scene, and many now +gathered near, offering advice and help, while even Dr. Richards turned +toward the group gathering by the door, experiencing a most +unaccountable sensation as that baby cry smote on his ear. Foremost +among those who offered aid was Irving Stanley. His was the voice which +breathed comfort to the weeping Adah, his the hand extended to take up +little Willie, his the arms which held and soothed the struggling boy, +his the mind which thought of everything available that could possibly +bring ease. + +"Who'll give me a cigar? I do not use them myself. Ask him," he said, +pointing to the doctor, who mechanically took a fine Havana from the +case and half-grudgingly handed it to the lady, who hurried back with it +to Irving Stanley. + +To break it up and place it in Willie's ear was the work of a moment, +and ere long the fierce outcries ceased as Willie grew easier and lay +quietly in Irving Stanley's arms. + +"I'll take him now," and Adah put out her hands; but Willie refused to +go, and clung closer to Mr. Stanley, who said, laughingly: "You see that +I am preferred. He is too heavy for you to hold. Please trust him to me, +while you get the rest you need." + +And Adah yielded to that voice as if it were one which had a right to +say what she must do, and leaning back against the window, rested her +tired head upon her hand, while Irving carried Willie to his seat beside +the doctor! There was a slight sneer on the doctor's face as he saw the +little boy. + +"You don't like children, I reckon," Irving said, as the doctor drew +back from the little feet which unconsciously touched his lap. + +"No, I hate them," was the answer, spoken half-savagely, for at that +moment a tiny hand was deliberately laid on his, as Willie showed a +disposition to be friendly. "I hate them," and the little hand was +pushed rudely off. + +Wonderingly the soft, large eyes of the child looked up to his. +Something in their expression riveted the doctor's gaze as by a spell. +There were tears in the baby's eyes, and the pretty lip began to quiver +at the harsh indignity. The doctor's finer feelings, if he had any, were +touched, and muttering to himself, "I'm a brute," he slouched his riding +cap still lower down upon his forehead, and turning away to the window, +relapsed into a gloomy reverie. + +As they drew near to Albany, another piercing shriek from Willie arose +even above the noise of the train. The paroxysms of pain had returned +with such severity that the poor infant's face became a livid purple, +while Adah's tears dropped upon it like rain. Again the sympathetic +women gathered around, again Dr. Richards, aroused from his uneasy +sleep, muttered invectives against children in general and this one in +particular, while again Irving Stanley hastened to the rescue, his the +ruling mind which overmastered the others, planning what should be done, +and seeing that his plans were executed. + +"You cannot go on this morning. Your little boy must have rest and +medical advice," he said to Adah, when at last the train stopped in +Albany. "I have a few moments to spare. I will see that you are +comfortable. You are going to Snowdon, I think you said. There is an +acquaintance of mine on board who is also bound for Snowdon. I might--" + +Irving Stanley paused here, for certain doubts arose in his mind, +touching the doctor's willingness to be troubled with strangers. + +"Oh, I'd rather go on alone," Adah exclaimed, as she guessed what he had +intended saying. + +"It's quite as well, I reckon," was Mr. Stanley's reply, and taking +Willie in his arms, he conducted Adah to the nearest hotel. + +"If you please, you will not engage a very expensive room for me. I +can't afford it," Adah said, timidly, as she followed her conductor into +the parlor of the Delavan. + +She was poor, then. Irving would hardly have guessed it from her +appearance, but this frank avowal which many would not have made, only +increased his respect for her, while he wished so much that she might +have one of the handsome sitting-rooms, of whose locality he knew so +well. + +It was a cozy, pleasant little chamber into which she was finally +ushered, too nice, Adah feared, half trembling for the bill when she +should ask for it, and never dreaming that just one-half the price had +been paid by Irving, whose kind heart prompted him to the generous act. + + +There were but a few moments now ere he must leave, and standing by her +side, with her little hand in his, he said: + +"The meeting with you has been to me a pleasant incident, and I shall +not soon forget it. I trust we may meet again. There is my card. I am +acquainted North, South, East and West. Perhaps I know your husband. You +have one?" he added quickly, as he saw the hot blood stain her face and +neck to a most unnatural color. + +He had not the remotest suspicion that she had never been a wife; he +only thought from her agitation that she possibly was a widow, and +unconsciously to himself the idea was fraught with a vague feeling of +gladness, for, to most men, it is pleasanter knowing they have been +polite to a pretty girl, or even a pretty widow, than to a wife, whose +lord might object, and Irving was not an exception. Was she a widow, and +had he unwittingly touched the half-healed wound? He wished he knew, and +he stood waiting for her answer to his question, "You have a husband?" + +At a glance Adah had read the name upon the card, knowing now who had +befriended her. It was Irving Stanley, Augusta's brother, second cousin +to Hugh, and 'Lina was with his sister in New York. He was going there, +he might speak of her, and if she told her name, her miserable story +would be known to more than it was already. It was a false pride which +kept Adah silent when she knew that Irving Stanley was waiting for her +to speak, wondering at her agitated manner. He was looking at her eyes, +her large brown eyes, which dared not meet his, and as he looked a +terrible suspicion crept over him. Involuntarily he felt for her third +finger. It was ringless, and he dropped it suddenly, but with a feeling +that he might be unjust, that all were not of his church and creed, he +took it again, and said his parting words. Then, turning to Willie, he +smoothed the silken curls, praised the beauty of the sleeping child, and +left the room. + +Adah knew that he was gone, that she should not see him again, and that, +at the very last, there had arisen some misunderstanding, she hardly +knew what, for the shock of finding who he was had prevented her from +fully comprehending the fact that he had asked her for her husband. She +never dreamed of the suspicion which, for an instant, had a lodgment in +his breast, or she would almost have died where she stood, gazing at the +door through which he had disappeared. + +"I ought to have told him my name, but I could not," she sighed, as the +sound of his rapid footsteps died upon the stairs. + +They ceased at last, and with a feeling of utter desolation, as if she +were now indeed alone, Adah sank upon her knees, and covering her face +with her hands, wept bitterly. Anon, however, holier, calmer feelings +swept over her. She was not alone. They who love God can never be alone, +however black the darkness be around them. And Adah did love Him, +thanking Him at last for raising her up this friend in her sore need, +for putting it into Irving Stanley's heart to care for her, a stranger, +as he had done. And as she prayed, the wish arose that George had been, +more like him. He would not then have deserted her, she sobbed, while +again her lips breathed a prayer for Irving Stanley, thoughts of whom +even then made her once broken heart beat as she had never expected it +to beat again. + +So absorbed was Adah that she did not hear the returning footsteps as +Irving came across the hall. He had remembered some directions he would +give her, and at the risk of being left, had come back a moment. She did +not hear the turning of the knob, the opening of the door, or know that +he for whom she prayed was standing so near to her that he heard +distinctly what she said, kneeling there by the chair where he had sat, +her fair head bent down and her face concealed from view. + +"God in heaven bless and keep the noble Irving Stanley." + + * * * * * + +In the office below, Dr. Richards, who had purposely stopped for the day +in Albany, smoked his expensive cigars, ordered oysters and wine sent to +his room--the very one adjoining Adah's--made two or three calls, wrote +an explanatory note to 'Lina--feeling half tempted to leave out the +"Dear," with which he felt constrained to preface it--thought again of +Lily--poor Lily, as he always called her--thought once of the strange +woman and the little boy, in whom Irving Stanley had been so interested, +wondered where they were going, and who it was the boy looked a little +like--thought somehow of Anna in connection with that boy; and then, +late in the afternoon, sauntered down to the Boston depot, and took his +seat in the car, which, at about ten o'clock that night would deposit +him at Snowdon. There were no "squalling brats" to disturb him, for +Adah, unconscious of his proximity, was in the rear car--pale, weary, +and nervous with the dread which her near approach to Terrace Hill +inspired. What, if after all, Anna, should not want her? And this was a +possible contingency, notwithstanding Alice had been no sanguine. + +Darkly the December night closed in, and still the train kept on, until +at last Danville was reached, and she must alight, as the express did +not stop again until it reached Worcester. With a chill sense of +loneliness, and a vague, confused wish for the one cheering voice which +had greeted her ear since leaving Spring Bank, Adah stood upon the +snow-covered platform, holding Willie in her arms, and pointing out her +trunk to the civil baggage man, who, in answer to her inquiries as to +the best means of reaching Terrace Hill, replied: "You can't go there +to-night; it is too late. You'll have to stay in the tavern kept right +over the depot, though if you'd kept on the train there might have been +a chance, for I see the young Dr. Richards aboard; and as he didn't get +out, I guess he's coaxed or hired the conductor to leave him at +Snowdon." + +The baggage man was right in his conjecture, for the doctor had +persuaded the polite conductor, whom he knew personally, to stop the +train at Snowdon; and while Adah, shivering with cold, found her way up +the narrow stairs into the rather comfortless quarters where she must +spend the night, the doctor was kicking the snow from his feet and +talking to Jim, the coachman from Terrace Hill. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +THE CONVICT + + +It was a sad morning at Spring Bank, that morning of Adah's leaving, and +many a tear was shed as the last good-by was spoken. Mrs. Worthington, +Alice and Hugh accompanied Adah to Frankfort, and Alice had never seemed +in better spirits than on that winter's morning. She would be gay; it +was a duty she owed Hugh, and Adah, too. So she talked and laughed as if +there was no load upon her heart, and no cloud on Adah's spirits. +Outwardly Mrs. Worthington suffered most, wondering why she should cling +so to Adah, and why this parting was so painful. All the farewell words +had been spoken, for Adah would not leave them to the chance of a last +moment. She seemed almost too pretty to send on that long journey alone, +and Hugh felt that he might be doing wrong in suffering her to depart +without an escort. But Adah only laughed at his fears. Willie was her +protector, she said, and then, as the train came up she turned to Mrs. +Worthington, who, haunted with the dread lest something should happen to +prevent 'Lina's marriage, said softly: + +"You'll be careful about 'Lina?" + +Yes, Adah would be careful, and to Alice she whispered: + +"I'll write after I get there, but you must not answer it at least not +till I say you may. Good-by." + + * * * * * + +"Come, mother, we are waiting for you," Hugh said. + +At the sound of Hugh's voice she started and replied: + +"Oh, yes, I remember--we are to visit the penitentiary. Dear me," and in +a kind of absent way, Mrs. Worthington took Hugh's arm, and the party +proceeded on their way to the huge building known as the Frankfort +Penitentiary. Hugh was well acquainted with the keeper, who admitted +them cheerfully, and ushered them at once into the spacious yard. + +Pleased with Alice's enthusiastic interest in everything he said, the +keeper was quite communicative, pointing out the cells of any noted +felons, repeating little incidents of daring attempts to escape, and +making the visit far more entertaining than the party had expected. + +"This," he said, opening a narrow door, "this belongs to the negro +stealer, Sullivan. You know him, Mrs. Worthington. He ran off the old +darky you now own, old Sam, I mean." + +"I'd like to see Mr. Sullivan," Alice said. "I saw old Sam when he was +in Virginia." + +"We'll find him on the ropewalk. We put our hardest customers there. Not +that he gives us trouble, for he does not, and I rather like the chap, +but we have a spite against these Yankee negro stealers," was the +keeper's reply, as he led the way to the long low room, where groups of +men walked up and down--up and down--holding the long line of hemp, +which, as far as they were concerned, would never come to an end until +the day of their release. + +"That's he," the keeper whispered to Alice, who had fallen behind Hugh +and his mother. "That's he, just turning this way--the one to the +right." + +Alice nodded in token that she understood, and then stood watching while +he came up. Mrs. Worthington and Hugh were watching too, not him +particularly, for they did not even know which was Sullivan, but stood +waiting for the whole long line advancing slowly toward them, their eyes +cast down with conscious shame, as if they shrank from being seen. One +of them, however, was wholly unabashed. He thought it probable the +keeper would point him out; he knew they used to do so when he first +came there, but he did not care; he rather liked the notoriety, and when +he saw that Alice seemed waiting for him, he fixed his keen eyes on her, +starting at the sight of so much beauty, end never even glancing at the +other visitors, at Mrs. Worthington and Hugh, who, a little apart from +each other, saw him at the same moment, both turning cold and faint, the +one with surprise, and the other with a horrid, terrible fear. + +It needed but a glance to assure Hugh that he stood in the presence of +the man who with strangely winning powers had tempted him to sin--the +villain who had planned poor Adah's marriage--Monroe, her guardian, +whose sudden disappearance had been so mysterious. Hugh never knew how +he controlled himself from leaping into that walk and compelling the +bold wretch to tell if he knew aught of the base deserter, Willie +Hastings' father. He did, indeed, take one forward step while his fist +clinched involuntarily, but the next moment fell powerless at his side +as a low wail of pain reached his ear and he turned in time to save his +fainting mother from falling to the floor. + +She, too, had seen the ropemaker, glancing at him twice ere sure she saw +aright, and then, as if a corpse buried years ago had arisen to her +view, the blood curdled about her heart which after one mighty throe lay +heavy and still as lead. He was not dead; that paragraph in the paper +telling her so was false; he did not die, such as he could not die; he +was alive--alive--a convict within those prison walls; a living, +breathing man with that same look she remembered so well, shuddering as +she remembered it, 'Lina's father and her own husband! + +"It was the heat, or the smell, or the parting with Adah, or something," +she said, when she came back to consciousness, eagerly scanning Hugh's +face to see if he knew too, and then glancing timidly around as if in +quest of the phantom which had so affected her. + +"Let's go home, I'm sorry I came to Frankfort," she whispered, while her +teeth chattered and her eyes wore a look of terror for which Hugh could +not account. + +He never thought of associating her illness with the man who had so +affected himself. It was overexertion, he said. His mother could not +bear much, and with all the tenderness of an affectionate son he wrapped +her shawl about her and led her gantry from the spot which held for her +so great a terror. It was not physical fear; she had never been afraid +of bodily harm, even when fully in his power. It was rather the olden +horror stealing back upon her, the pain which comes from the slow +grinding out of one's entire will and spirit. She had forgotten the +feeling, it was so long since it had been experienced, but one sight of +him brought it back, and all the way from Frankfort to Spring Bank she +lay upon Hugh's shoulder quiet, but sick and faint, with a shrinking +from what the future might possibly have in store for her. + +In this state of mind she reached Spring Bank, where by some strange +coincidence, if coincidence it can be called, old Densie Densmore was +the first to greet her, asking, with much concern, what was the matter. +It was a rare thing for Densie to be at all demonstrative, but in the +suffering expression of Mrs. Worthington's face she recognized something +familiar, and attached herself at once to the weak, nervous woman, who +sought her bed, and burying her face in the pillow cried herself to +sleep, while Densie, like some white-haired ghost, sat watching her +silently. + +"The poor thing has had trouble," she whispered, "trouble in her day, +and it has left deep furrows in her forehead, but it cannot have been +like mine. She surely, was never betrayed, or deserted, or had her only +child stolen from her. The wretch! I cursed him once, when my heart was +harder than it is now. I have forgiven him since, for well as I could, I +loved him." + +There was a moaning sound in the winter wind howling about Spring Bank +that night, but it suited Densie's mood, and helped to quiet her +spirits, as, until a late hour, she sat by Mrs. Worthington, who aroused +up at intervals, saying, in answer to Densie's inquiries, she was not +sick, she was only tired--that sleep would do her good. + +And while they were thus together a convict sought his darkened cell and +laid him down to rest upon the narrow couch which had been his bed so +long. Drearily to him the morning broke, and with the struggling in of +the daylight he found upon his floor the handkerchief dropped +inadvertently by Mrs. Worthington, and unseen till now. He knew it was +not unusual for strangers to visit the cells, and so he readily guessed +how it came there, holding it a little more to the light to see the name +written so plainly upon it. + +"Eliza Worthington." That was what the convict read, a blur before his +eyes, and a strange sensation at his heart. "Eliza Worthington." + +How came she there, and when? Suddenly he remembered the event of +yesterday, the woman who fainted, the tall man who carried her out, the +beautiful girl who had looked at him so pityingly, and then, while every +nerve quivered with intense excitement, he whispered: + +"That was my wife! I did not see her face, but she saw me, fainting at +the sight." + +Hard, and villainous, and sinful as that man had been, there was a +tender chord beneath the villain exterior, and it quivered painfully as +he said "fainted at the sight." This was the keenest pang of the whole, +for as Densie Densmore had moaned the previous night, "I loved him +once," so he now, rocking to and fro on his narrow bed, with that +handkerchief pressed to his throbbing heart, murmured hoarsely: + +"I loved Eliza once, though she would not believe it." + +Then the image of the young man and the girl came up before him, making +him start again, for he guessed that man was Hugh, his stepson, while +the girl--oh, could that beautiful creature--be--his--daughter! + +"Not Adaline, assuredly," he whispered, "nor Adah, my poor darling Adah. +Oh, where is she this morning? I did love Adah," and the convict +moistened Eliza Worthington's handkerchief with the tears he shed for +sweet Adah Hastings. + +Outwardly, that day the so-called Sullivan was the same, as he paced up +and down the walk, but never since first he began the weary march, had +his brain been the seat of thoughts so tumultuous as those stirring +within him, the day succeeding Mrs. Worthington's visit. Where were his +victims now? Were they all alive? And would he meet them yet? Would +Eliza Worthington ever come there again, or Hugh, and would he see them +if they did? Perhaps not, but some time, a few months hence, he would +find them, would find Hugh at least, and ask if he knew aught of +Adah--Adah, more terribly wronged than even the wife had been. + +And while he thus resolved, poor Mrs. Worthington at home moved +nervously around the house, casting uneasy glances backward, forward, +and sideways, as if she were expecting some goblin shape to rise +suddenly before her and claim her for its own. They were wretched, +uneasy days which followed that visit to Frankfort--days of racking +headache to Mrs. Worthington, and days of anxious thought to Hugh, who +thus was led in a measure to forget the pain he would otherwise have +felt at the memory of Alice's refusal. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +ADAH AT TERRACE HILL + + +The next morning was cold and frosty, as winter mornings in New England +are wont to be, and Adah, accustomed to the more genial climate of +Kentucky, shivered involuntarily as from her uncurtained window she +looked out upon the bare woods and the frozen fields covered with the +snow of yesterday. + +Across the track, near to a dilapidated board fence, a family carriage +was standing, the driver unnecessarily, as it seemed to Adah--holding +the heads of the horses, who neither sheered nor jumped, nor gave other +tokens that they feared the hissing engine. She had not seen that +carriage when it drove up before the door, nor yet the young man who had +alighted from it; but as she stood there, a loud laugh reached her ear, +making her start suddenly, it was so like his--like George's. + +"It could not be George," she said; that were impossible, and yet she +crept softly out into the hall, and leaning over the banister, listened +eagerly to the sounds from the room below, where a crowd of men were +assembled. + +The laugh was not repeated, and with a dim feeling of disappointment she +went back to the window where on Willie's neck she wept the tears which +always flowed when she thought of George's desertion. There was a knock +at the door, and the baggageman appeared. + +"If you please, ma'am," he began, "the Terrace Hill carriage is here. I +told the driver how't you wanted to go there. Shall I give him your +trunk?" + +Adah answered in the affirmative, and then hastened to wrap up Willie, +glancing again at the carriage, which, now that it was associated with +the gentle Anna, looked far better to her than it had at first. She was +ready in a moment and descended to the room where Jim, the driver, stood +waiting for her. + +"A lady," was his mental comment, and with as much politeness as if she +had been Madam Richards herself, he opened the carriage door and held +Willie while she entered, asking if she were comfortable, and peering a +little curiously in Willie's face, which puzzled him somewhat. "A near +connection, I guess, and mighty pretty too. Them old maids will raise +hob with the boy,--nice little shaver," thought the kind-hearted Jim. + +Once, as Adah caught his good-humored eye, she ventured to say to him: + +"Has Miss Anna procured a waiting maid yet?" + +There was a comical gleam in Jim's eye now, for Adah was not the first +applicant he had taken up to Terrace Hill. He never suspected that this +was Adah's business, and he answered frankly: + +"No, that's about played out. Madam turned the last one out doors." + +"Turned her out doors?" and Adah's face was as white as the snow rifts +they were passing. + +The driver felt that he had gossiped too much, and relapsed into +silence, while Adah, in a paroxysm of terror, sat with clasped hands and +closed eyes. Leaning forward, at last she said, huskily: + +"Driver, driver, do you think she'll turn me off, too?" + +"Turn you off!" and in his surprise at the sudden suspicion which for +the first time darted across his mind, Jim brought his horses to a full +stop, while he held a parley with the pale, frightened creature, asking +so eagerly if Mrs. Richards would turn her off. "Why should she? You +ain't going there for that, be you?" + +"Not to be turned out of doors, no," Adah answered; "but I--I--I want +that place so much. I read Miss Anna's advertisement; but please turn +back, or let me get out and walk. I can't go there now. Is Miss Anna +like the rest?" + +"Miss Anna's an angel," he answered. "If you get her ear, you're all +right; the plague is to get it with them two she-cats ready to tear your +eyes out. If I'se you, I'd ask to see her. I wouldn't tell my arrent +either, till I did. She's sick upstairs; but I'll see if Pamely can't +manage it. That's my woman--Pamely; been mine for four years, and we've +had two pair of twins, all dead; so I feel tender toward the little +ones," and Jim glanced kindly at Willie, who had succeeded in making +Adah notice the house standing out so prominently against the winter +sky, and looking to the poor woman-girl more like a prison than a home. + +It might be pleasant there in the summer, Adah thought; but now, with +snow on the roof, snow on the walk, snow on the trees, snow everywhere, +it presented a cheerless aspect. Only one part of it seemed +inviting--the two crimson-curtained windows opening upon a veranda, from +which a flight of steps led down into what must be a flower garden. + +"Miss Anna's room," the driver said, pointing toward it; and Adah looked +wistfully out, vainly hoping for a glimpse of the sweet face she had in +her mind as Anna's. + +But only Asenath's grim, angular visage was seen, as it looked from +Anna's window, wondering whom Jim could be bringing home. + +"It's a handsome trunk--covered, too. Can it be Lottie?" and mentally +hoping it was not, she busied herself again with bathing poor Anna's +head, which was aching sadly to-day, owing to the excitement of her +brother's visit and the harsh words which passed between him and his +sisters, he telling them, jokingly at first, that he was tired of +getting married, and half resolved to give it up; while they, in return, +had abused him for fickleness, taunted him with their poverty, and +sharply reproached him for his unwillingness to lighten their burden, by +taking a rich wife when he could get one. + +All this John had repeated to Anna in the dim twilight of the morning, +as he stood by her bedside to bid her good-by; and she, as usual, had +soothed him into quiet, speaking kindly of his bride-elect, and saying +she should like her. + +He had not told her all of Lily's story, as he meant to do. There was no +necessity for that, for the matter was fixed. 'Lina should be his wife, +and he need not trouble Anna further; so he had bidden her adieu, and +was gone again, the carriage which bore him away bringing back Adah and +her boy. + +Jim opened the wide door for her, and showing her first into the parlor, +but finding that dark and cold, he ushered her next into a little +reception-room, where the Misses Richards received their morning calls. + +Willie seemed perfectly at home, seating himself upon a little stool, +covered with some of Miss Eudora's choicest worsted embroidery, a piece +of work of which she was very proud, never allowing anything to touch +it lest the roses should be jammed, or the raised leaves defaced. But +Willie cared neither for leaves, nor roses, nor yet for Miss Eudora, and +drawing the stool to his mother's side, he sat kicking his little heels +into a worn place of the carpet, which no child had kicked since the +doctor's days of babyhood. The tender threads were fast giving way to +the vigorous strokes, when two doors opposite each other opened +simultaneously, and both Mrs. Richards and Eudora appeared. + +"Are you--ah, yes--you are the lady who Jim said wished to see me," Mrs. +Richards began, bowing politely to Adah, who had not yet dared to look +up, and who when at last she did raise her eyes, withdrew them at once, +more abashed, more frightened, more bewildered than ever, for the face +she saw fully warranted her ideas of a woman who could turn a waiting +maid from her door just because she was a waiting maid. + +Something seemed choking Adah and preventing her utterance, for she did +not speak until Mrs. Richards said again, this time with a little less +suavity and a little more hauteur of manner, "Have I had the honor of +meeting you before?"--then with a low gasp, a mental petition for help, +Adah rose up and lifting to Mrs. Richards' cold, haughty face, her soft, +brown eyes, where tears were almost visible, answered faintly: "We have +not met before. Excuse me, madam, but my business is with Miss Anna, can +I see her please?" + +There was something supplicating in the tone with which Adah made this +request, and it struck Mrs. Richards unpleasantly. She answered +haughtily, though still politely, "My daughter is sick. She does not see +visitors. It will be impossible to admit you to her chamber, but I will +take your name and your errand." + +Adah felt as if she should sink beneath the cold, cruel scrutiny to +which she knew she was subjected by the woman on her right and the woman +on her left. Too much confused to remember anything distinctly, Adah +forgot Jim's injunction; forgot that Pamelia was to arrange it somehow; +forgot everything, except that Mrs. Richards was waiting for her to +speak. An ominous cough from Eudora decided her, and then it came out, +her reason for being there. She had seen Miss Anna's advertisement, she +wanted a place, and she had come so far to get it; had left a happy home +that she might not be dependent but earn, her bread for herself and her +little boy, for Willie. Would they take her message to Anna? Would they +let her stay? + +"You say you left a happy home," and the thin, sneering lips of Eudora +were pressed so tightly together that the words could scarcely find +egress. "May I ask, if it was so happy, why you left it?" + +There was a flush on Adah's cheek as she replied, "Because it was a home +granted at first from charity. It was not mine. The people were poor, +and I would not longer be a burden to them." + +"And your husband--where is he?" + +This was the hardest question of all, and Adah's distress was visible as +she replied, "I will be frank with you. Willie's father left me, and I +don't know where he is." + +An incredulous, provoking smile flitted over Eudora's face as she +returned, "We hardly care to have a deserted wife in our family--it +might be unpleasant." + +"Yes," and the old lady took up the argument, "Anna is well enough +without a maid. I don't know why she put that foolish advertisement in +the paper, in answer, I believe, to one equally foolish which she saw +about 'an unfortunate woman with a child.'" + +"I am that woman. I wrote that advertisement when my heart was heavier +than it is now, and God took care of it. He pointed it out to Miss Anna. +He caused her to answer it. He sent me here, and you will let me see +her. Think if it were your own daughter, pleading thus with some one." + +"That is impossible. Neither my daughter, nor my daughter-in-law, if I +had one, could ever come to a servant's position," Mrs. Richards +replied, not harshly, for there was something in Adah's manner and in +Adah's eyes which rode down her resentful pride; and she might have +yielded, but for Eudora, whose hands had so ached to shake the little +child, now innocently picking at a bud. + +How she did long to box his ears, and while her mother talked, she had +taken a step forward more than once, but stopped as often, held in check +by the little face and soft blue eyes, turned so trustingly upon her, +the pretty lips once actually putting themselves toward her, as if +expecting a kiss. Frosty old maid as she was, Eudora could not harm that +child sitting on her embroidery as coolly as if he had a right; but she +could prevent her mother from granting the stranger's request; so when +she saw signs of yielding, she said, decidedly, "She cannot see Anna, +mother. You know how foolish she is, and there's no telling what fancy +she might take." + +"Eudora," said Mrs. Richards in a low tone, "it might be well for Anna +to have a maid, and this one is certainly different from the others who +have applied." + +"But the child. We can't be bothered with a child. Evidently he is not +governed at all, and brother's wife coming by and by." + +This last caught Adah's ear and changed the whole current of her +thoughts and wishes. Greatly to Mrs. Richards' surprise, she said +abruptly, "If I cannot see Miss Anna, I need not trouble you longer. +When does the next train go west?" + +Adah's voice never faltered, though her heart seemed bursting from her +throat, for she had not the most remote idea as to where the next train +going west would take her. She had reached a point when she no longer +thought or reasoned; she would leave Terrace Hill; that was all she +knew, except that in her mind there was a vague fancy or hope that she +might meet Irving Stanley again. Not George, she did not even think of +him, as she stood before Dr. Richards' mother, who looked at her in +surprise, marveling that she had given up so quietly what she had +apparently so much desired. + +Very civilly she told her when the next train went west, and then added +kindly, "You cannot walk. You must stay here till car-time, when Jim +will carry you back." + +At this unexpected kindness Adah's calmness gave way, and sitting down +by the table, she laid her face upon it and sobbed almost convulsively. + +"Mamma tie, mam-ma tie," and he pulled Mrs. Richards' skirts vigorously +indicating that she must do something for mamma. + +Just then the doorbell rang. It was the doctor, come to visit Anna, and +both Mrs. Richards and Eudora left the room at once. + +"Oh, why did I come here, and where shall I go?" Adah moaned, as a sense +of her lonely condition came over her. + +"Will my Father in heaven direct me? will He tell me what to do?" she +murmured brokenly, praying softly to herself that a way might be opened +for her, a path which she could tread. + +She could not tell how it was, but a quiet peace stole over her, a +feeling which had no thought or care for the future, and it had been +many nights since she had slept as sweetly or soundly as she did for +one half hour with her head upon the table in that little room at +Terrace Hill, Dr. Richards' home and Anna's. She did not see the +good-humored face which looked in at her a moment, nor hear the +whispering in the hall; neither did she know when Willie, nothing loath, +was coaxed from the room and carried up the stairs into the upper hall, +where he was purposely left to himself, while Pamelia, the mother of +Jim's two pairs of twins, went to Anna's room, where she was to sit for +an hour or so, while the ladies had their lunch. Anna's head was better; +the paroxysms of pain were leas frequent than in the morning, and she +lay upon her pillow, her eyes closed wearily, and her thoughts with +Charlie Millbrook. Why had he never written?--why never come to see her? + +So intently was she thinking of Charlie that she did not hear the patter +of little feet in the hall without. Tired of staying by himself, and +spying the open door, Willie hastened toward it, pausing a moment on the +threshold as if to reconnoiter. Something in Anna's attitude, as she lay +with her long hair falling over the pillow, must have reminded him of +Alice, for, with a cry of delight, he ran forward, and patting the white +cheek with his soft baby hand, lisped out the word "Arn-tee, arn-tee," +making Anna start suddenly and gaze at him in wondering surprise. + +"Who is he?" she said, drawing him to her at once and pressing a kiss +upon his rosy face. + +Pamelia told her what she knew of the stranger waiting in the +reception-room, adding in conclusion: "I believe they said you did not +want her, and Jim is to take her to the depot when it's time. She's very +young and pretty, and looks so sorry, Jim told me." + +"Said I did not want her! How did they know?" and something of the +Richards' spirit flashed from Anna's eyes. "The child is so beautiful, +and he called me 'Auntie,' too! He must have an auntie somewhere. Little +dear! how she must love him! Lift him up, Pamelia." + +"I must see his mother," Anna said. "She must be above the ordinary +waiting maids. Perhaps I should like her. At all events I will hear what +she has to say. Show her up, Pamelia; but first smooth my hair a little +and arrange my pillows." + +Pamelia complied with her request; then leaving Willie with Anna, she +repaired to the reception-room, and arousing the sleeping Adah, said to +her hurriedly: + +"Please, miss, come quick; Miss Anna wants to see you. The little boy is +up there with her." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +ANNA AND ADAH + + +For a moment Anna was inclined to think that Pamelia had made a mistake. +That beautiful face, that refined, ladylike manner, did not suit well a +waiting maid, and Anna's doubts were increasing, when little Willie set +her right by patting her cheek again, while he called out: "Mamma, +arntee." + +The look of interest which Anna cast upon him emboldened Adah to say: + +"Excuse him, Miss Richards; he must have mistaken you for a dear friend +at home, whom he calls 'Auntie,' I'll take him down; he troubles you." + +"No, no," and Anna passed her arm around him. "I love children so much. +I ought to have been a wife and mother, my brother says, instead of a +useless old maid." + +Anna smiled faintly as she said this, while thoughts of Charlie +Millbrook flashed across her mind. Adah was too much a stranger to +disclaim against Anna's calling herself old, so she paid no attention to +the remark, but plunged at once into the matter which had brought her +there. Presuming they would rather be alone, Pamelia had purposely left +the room, meeting in the lower hall with Mrs. Richards and her daughter, +who, in much affright, were searching for the recent occupants of the +reception-room. Pamelia quieted them by saying: "The lady was in Miss +Anna's room." + +"How came she there? She must be a bold piece, upon my word!" she said, +angrily, while Pamelia replied: + +"The little boy got upstairs, and walked right into Miss Anna's room. +She was taken with him at once, and asked who he was. I told her and she +sent for the lady. That's how it happened." + +Mrs. Richards hurried up to Anna's chamber, where Willie still was +perched by Anna's pillow, while Adah, with her bonnet in her lap, sat a +little apart, traces of tears and agitation upon her cheeks, but a look +of happiness in the brown eyes fixed so wistfully on Anna's fair, sweet +face. + +"Please, mother," said Anna, motioning her away, "leave us alone a +while. Shut the door, and see that no one comes near." + +Mrs. Richards obeyed, and Anna, waiting until she was out of hearing, +resumed the conversation just where it had been interrupted. + +"And so you are the one who wrote that advertisement which I read. Let +me see--the very night my brother came home from Europe. I remember he +laughed because I was so interested, and he accidentally tore off the +name to light his cigar, so I forgot it entirely. What shall I call you, +please?" + +Adah was tempted to answer her at once, "Adah Hastings"--it seemed so +wrong to impose in any way on that frank, sweet woman; but she +remembered Mrs. Worthington's injunction, and for her sake she +refrained, keeping silent a moment, and then breaking out impetuously: +"Please, Miss Richards, don't ask my real name, for I'd rather not give +it now. I will tell you of the past, though I did not ever mean to do +that; but something about you makes me know I can trust you." And then, +amid a shower of tears, in which Anna's, too, were mingled, Adah told +her sad story. + +"But why do you wish to conceal?" she asked, after Adah had finished. +"Is there any reason?" + +"At first there was none in particular, save a fancy I had, but there +came one afterward--the request of one who had been, kind to me as a +dear mother. Is it wrong not to tell the whole?" + +"I think not. You have dealt honestly with me so far, but what shall I +call you? You must have a name." + +"Oh, may I stay?" Adah asked eagerly, forgetting her late terror of +'Lina. + +"Of course you may. Did you think I would turn you away?" was Anna's +reply; and laying her head upon the white counterpane of the bed, Adah +cried passionately; not a wild, bitter cry, but a delicious kind of cry +which did her good, even though her whole frame quivered and her low, +choking sobs fell distinctly on Anna's ear. + +"Poor child!" the latter said, laying her soft hand on the bowed head. +"You have suffered much, but with me you shall find rest. I want you for +a companion, rather than a maid. I, too, have had my heart troubles; +not like yours, but heavy enough to make me wish I could die." + +It was seldom that Anna alluded to herself in this way, and to do so to +a stranger was utterly foreign to the Richards' nature. But Anna could +not help it. There was something about Adah which interested her +greatly. She could not wholly shield her from her mother's and sisters' +pride, but she would do what she could. + +"Oh, pride, pride," she whispered to herself, "of how much pain hast +thou been the cause." + +Pride had sent her Charlie over the sea without her; pride had separated +her brother from the Lily she was sure he loved, as he could never love +the maiden to whom he was betrothed; and pride, it seemed, had been at +the root of all this young girl's sorrow. Blessed Anna Richards--the +world has few like her--so gentle, so kind, so lovely, and as no one +could long be with her and not feel her influence, so Adah, by the touch +of the fingers still caressing her, was soothed into peaceful quiet. + +When she had grown quite calm, Anna continued: "You have not told me yet +what name to give you, or shall I choose one for you?" + +"Oh, if you only would!" and Adah looked up quickly. + +Anna began to enjoy this mystery, wondering what name she should choose. +Adah should be Rose Markham, and she repeated it aloud, asking Adah how +it sounded. + +"If it did not seem so much like deceiving," Adah said. "You'll tell +your family it is not my real name, won't you?" + +Anna readily agreed to Adah's proposal, and then, remembering that all +this time she had been sitting in her cloak and fur, she bade her lay +them aside. "Or, stay," she added, "touch that bell, if you please, and +ring Pamelia up. There's a little room adjoining this. I mean to give +you that. You will be so near me, and so retired, too, when you like. +John--that's my brother--occupied it when a boy. I think it will answer +nicely for you." + +Obedient to the ring, Pamelia came, manifesting no surprise when told by +Anna to unlock the door and see if the little room was in order for +"Mrs. Markham." + +Pamelia cast a rapid glance at Adah, who winced as she heard the new +name, and felt glad when Anna added: "Pamelia, I can trust you not to +gossip out of the house. This young woman's name is not Markham, but I +choose to have her called so." + +Another glance at Adah, more curious than the first, and then Pamelia +did as she was bidden, opening the door and saying, as she did so: "I +know the room is in order. There's a fire, too; Miss Anna has forgot +that Dr. John slept here last night." + +"I do remember now," Anna replied. "Mrs. Markham can go in at once. +Pamelia, send lunch to her room, and tell your husband to bring up her +trunk." + +Again Pamelia bowed and departed to do her young mistress' bidding, +while Adah entered the pleasant room where Dr. Richards had slept the +previous night. + +On the marble hearth the remains of a cheerful fire were blazing, while +on the mantel over the hearth was a portrait of a boy, apparently ten or +twelve years of age, and a young girl, who seemed a few years older. The +girl was Anna. But the boy, the handsome, smooth-cheeked boy, in his +fancy jacket, with that expression of vanity plainly visible about his +mouth. Who was he? Had Adah any knowledge of him? Had they met before? +Never that she knew of. Dr. Richards was a stranger to her, for she +guessed this was the doctor, 'Lina's betrothed, scrutinizing him +closely, and wondering if the man retained the look of the boy. And as +she gazed, the features seemed to grow familiar. Surely she had met a +face like this, but where she could not guess, and turning from him she +inspected the rest of the room, wondering if Alice Johnson were ever in +this room. + +With thoughts of Alice came memories of Spring Bank, and the wish that +they knew all this. How thankful they would be, and how thankful she was +for this resting place in the protection of sweet Anna Richards. It was +better than she had even dared to hope for, and sinking down by the +snowy-covered bed, she murmured inaudibly the prayer of thanksgiving she +felt compelled to make to Him who had led her to Terrace Hill. It was +thus that Pamelia found her when she came up again, and it did much to +establish the profound respect she ever manifested toward the new +waiting maid, Rose Markham. + +"Your lunch will be here directly," she said to Adah, who little dreamed +of the parley which had taken place between Asenath and Dixson, the +cook, concerning this same lunch. + +Asenath was too proud to discuss the matter with a servant, but when she +saw the slices of cold chicken which Dixson was deliberately cutting up, +and the little pot of jelly which Pamelia placed upon the salver, she +forgot her dignity, and angrily demanded what they were doing. + +"Miss Anna ordered lunch, and I'm a-gettin' it," was Dixson's reply. + +"Yes, but such a lunch for a waiting woman; and going to send it up. I'd +like to know if she's too big a lady to come into the kitchen," and +Asenath's sharp shoulders jerked savagely. + +"I must say, I think you very foolish indeed, to take a person about +whom you know nothing," she said to Anna, as soon as she saw her, but +stopped short as Willie ran out from the adjoining room and stood +looking at her. + +As well as she was capable of doing, Asenath had loved her brother John +when a baby; and when he became a prattling active child, like the one +standing before her, she had almost worshiped him, thinking there was +never a face so pretty or manner so engaging as his. There had come no +baby after him, and she remembered him so well, starting now with +surprise as she saw reflected in Willie's face the look she never had +forgotten. + +"Who is he, Anna? Not her child, the waiting woman's, surely." + +"Hush--sh," came warningly from Anna, as she glanced toward the open +door, and that brought Asenath back from her dream of the past. + +It was the waiting woman's child. There was no look like John now. She +had been mistaken, and rather rudely pushing him away, she said: "I +think you might have consulted us, at least. What are we to do with a +child in this house? Here, here, young man," and Asenath started forward +just in time to frighten Willie and make him drop and break the goblet +he was trying to reach from the stand, "to dink," as he said. + +Asenath's purple silk was deluged with the water, and her temper was +considerably ruffled as she exclaimed: "You see the mischief he has +done, and it was cut glass, too. I hope you'll deduct it from her +wages!" + +"Asenath," and Anna's voice betrayed her astonishment that her sister +should speak so in Adah's presence. + +She had hurried out at Asenath's alarm, but the latter did not at first +observe her, and when she did, she was actually startled into an apology +for her speech. + +"I'm sorry Willie was so careless. I'll pay for the goblet cheerfully," +Adah said, not to Asenath, but to Anna, who answered kindly: "No matter; +it was already cracked across the bottom--don't mind." + +But Adah did mind; and once alone in her room, her tears fell in +torrents. She had heard the whole about Willie's mischief, heard of the +buds torn to pieces, and of the hole kicked in the carpet. She would +like to see that hole, and after Willie was asleep, she stole down to +the reception-room to see the damage for herself. She found the hole, or +what was intended for it, smiling as she examined the few loose threads; +and then she hunted for the stool, finding it under the curtain where +Eudora had placed it, and finding, too, that letter dropped by Jim. The +others were gone, appropriated by Mrs. Richards, who always watched for +the western mail and looked it over herself. + + MISS ANNIE RICHARDS, + SNOWDOWN, + MASS. + +That was the direction, and the envelope was faced with black. Adah +noticed this, together with the heavy seal of wax stamped with an +initial; and she was taking the lost epistle to its rightful owner when +Mrs. Richards met her, asking what she had. + +"I found this beneath the curtain," Adah replied. "It's for Miss Anna; +I'll take it to her, shall I?" + +"Yes, yes--yes, yes; for Anna," and madam snatched eagerly at that +letter from Charlie Millbrook. + +Soon recovering herself, she said naturally: "I'll take it myself. Say, +girl, what is your name, now that you are to work here? You won't mind +righting up the parlors, I presume--sweeping and dusting them, before +you go upstairs again?" + +It was new business for Adah, sweeping parlors as a servant, but she did +it without a murmur; and then, when her task was completed, stopped for +a moment by a window, and looked out upon the town, wondering where +Alice Johnson's home had been. The house where she once lived would seem +like an old friend, she thought, just as Pamelia came in and joined her. +At the same moment Adah's eye caught the cottage by the river, and her +heart beat rapidly, for that seemed to answer Alice's description of her +Snowdon home. + +"Whose pretty place is that?" she asked, pointing it out to Pamelia, who +replied: + +"It was a Mrs. Johnson's, but she's dead, and Miss Alice has gone a +long ways off. I wish you could see Miss Alice, the most beautiful and +the best lady in the world. She and Miss Anna were great friends. She +used to be up here every day, and the village folks talked some that she +came to see the doctor. But my," and Pamelia's face was very expressive +of contempt, "she wouldn't have him, by a great sight. He's going to be +married, though, to a Kentucky belle, with a hundred or more negroes, +they say, and mighty big feelin'. But she needn't bring none of her a'rs +nor her darkies here!" + +"When does she come?" Adah asked, and Pamelia answered: + +"In the spring; so you needn't begin to dread her. Why, your face is +white as paper," and rather familiarly Pamelia pinched Adah's marble +cheek. + +Adah did not mean to be proud, but still she could not help shrinking +from the familiarity, drawing back so quickly that Pamelia saw the +implied rebuke. She did not ask pardon, but she became at once more +respectful. + +A moment after Anna's bell was heard, but Adah paid no heed, till +Pamelia said: + +"That was Miss Anna's bell, and it means for you to come." + +Adah colored, and hastily left the room, while Pamelia muttered to +herself: + +"Ain't no more a maid than Miss Anna herself. But why has she come here? +That's the mystery. She's been unfortunate." + +This was the solution in Pamelia's mind; but the thought went no further +than to her better half. + +Adah's feelings at being called just as Lulu and Muggins were at home, +had been in a measure shared by Anna, who hesitated several minutes ere +touching the bell. + +"If she is to be my maid, it will be better for us both not to act under +restraint," she thought, and so rang out the summons which brought Adah +to her room. + +It was an awkward business, requiring a menial's service of that +ladylike creature, and Anna would have been exceedingly perplexed had +not Adah's good sense come to the rescue, prompting her to do things +unasked in such a way that Anna was at once relieved from embarrassment, +and felt that in Rose Markham she had found a treasure. She did not join +the family in the evening, but kept her room instead, talking with Adah +and caressing and playing with little Willie, who persisted in calling +her "Arntee," in spite of all Adah could say. + +"Never mind," Anna answered, laughingly; "I rather like to hear him. No +one has ever called me by that name, and maybe never will, though my +brother is engaged to be married in the spring. I have a picture of his +betrothed there on my bureau. Would you like to see it?" + +Adah nodded, and was soon gazing on the dark, haughty face she knew so +well, and which, even from the casing, seemed to smile disdainfully +upon, her, just as the original had often done. + +"What do you think of her?" Anna asked. + +Adah must say something, and she replied: + +"I dare say people think her pretty." + +"Yes; but what do you think? I asked your opinion," persisted Anna; and +thus beset Adah replied at last: + +"I think her too showily dressed for a picture. She displays too much +jewelry." + +Anna began to defend her future sister. + +"There's rather too much of ornament, I'll admit, but she's a great +beauty, and attracts much attention. Why, one of her pictures hangs in +Brady's Gallery." + +"At Brady's!" and Adah spoke quickly. "I should not suppose your brother +would like to have it there where so many can look at it." + +Anna tried to shield the heartless 'Lina, never dreaming how much more +than herself Adah knew of 'Lina Worthington. + +It seemed to Adah like a miserable deceit, sitting there and listening +while Anna talked of 'Lina, and she was glad when at last she showed +signs of weariness, and expressed a desire to retire for the night. + +"Would you mind reading to me from the Bible?" Anna asked. + +"Oh, no, I'd like it so much," and Adah read her favorite chapter. + +And Anna listening to the sweet, silvery tones reading: "Let not your +heart be troubled," felt her own sorrow grow less. + +"If you please," Adah said timidly, bending over the sweet face resting +on the pillow, "if you please, may I say the 'Lord's Prayer' here with +you?" + +Anna answered by grasping Adah's hand, and whispering to her: + +"Yes, say it, do." + +Then Adah knelt beside her, and Anna's fair hand rested as if in +blessing on her head as they said together, "Our Father." + +Adah's sleep was sweet that night in her little room at Terrace +Hill--sweet, not because she knew whose home it was, nor yet because +only the previous night he had tossed wearily upon the self-same pillow +where she was resting so quietly, but because of a heart at peace with +God, a feeling that she had at last found a haven of shelter for herself +and her child, a home with Anna Richards, whose low breathings could be +distinctly heard, and who once as the night wore on moaned so loudly in +her sleep that it awakened Adah, and brought her to the bedside. But +Anna was only dreaming and Adah heard her murmur the name of Charlie. + +"I will not awaken her," she said, and gliding back to her own room, she +wondered who was Anna's Charlie, associating him somehow with the letter +she had given, into the care of Mrs. Richards. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +ROSE MARKHAM + + +To Mrs. Richards and her elder daughters Rose Markham was an object of +suspicious curiosity, while the villagers merely thought of Rose Markham +as one far above her position, saying not very complimentary things of +madam and her older daughters when it was known that Rose had been +banished from the family pew to the side seat near the door, where +honest Jim said his prayers, with Pamelia at his side. + +For only one Sabbath had Adah graced the Richards' pew, and then it was +all Jim's work. He had driven his wife and Adah first to church, as the +day was stormy, and ere returning for the ladies, had escorted Adah up +the aisle and turned her into the family pew, where she sat unconscious +of the admiring looks cast upon her by those already assembled, or of +the indignant astonishment of Miss Asenath and Eudora when they found +that for one half day at least they must he disgraced by sitting with +their servant. Very haughtily the scandalized ladies swept up the aisle, +stopping suddenly at the pew door as if waiting for Adah to leave; but +she only drew back further into the corner, while Willie held up to +Asenath the picture he had found in her velvet-bound prayer book. + +Alas! for the quiet hour Adah had hoped to spend, hallowed by thoughts +that the dear ones at Spring Bank were mingling in the same service. +She could not even join in the responses at first for the bitterness at +her heart, the knowing how much she was despised by the proud ladies +beside her. + +Very close she kept Willie at her side, allowing him occasionally as he +grew tired to stand upon the cushion, a proceeding highly offensive to +the Misses Richards and highly gratifying to the row of tittering +schoolgirls in the seat behind him. Willie always attracted attention, +and numerous were the compliments paid to his infantile beauty by the +younger portion of the congregation, while the older ones, they who +remembered the doctor when a boy, declared that Willie Markham was +exactly like him, when standing in the seat he kept the children in +continual excitement by his restless movements and pretty baby ways. + +The fire burned brightly in Anna's room when Adah returned from church, +and Anna herself was waiting for her, welcoming her back with a smile +which went far toward removing the pain still heavy at her heart. Anna +saw something was the matter, but it was her sisters who enlightened her +as together they ate their Sunday dinner in the little breakfast room +where Anna joined them. + +"Such impudence," Eudora said. "She had not heard one word of Mr. +Howard's sermon, for keeping her book and dress and fur away from that +little torment." + +Then followed the story in detail, how "Markham had sat in their seat, +parading herself up there just for show, while Willie had kissed the +picture of little Samuel in Asenath'a book and left thereon the print of +his lips. If Anna would have a maid, they did wish she would get one not +quite so affected as Markham, one who did not try to attract attention +by assuming the airs of a lady," and with this the secret was out. + +Adah was too pretty, too stylish, to suit the prim Eudora, who felt +keenly how she must suffer by comparison with her sister's waiting maid. +Even unsuspicious Anna saw the point, and smiling archly asked "what she +could do to make Rose less attractive." + +In some things Anna could not have her way, and when her mother and +sisters insisted that they would not keep a separate table for Markham, +as they called Adah, she yielded, secretly bidding Pamelia see that +everything was comfortable and nice for Mrs. Markham and her little boy. +There was hardly need for this injunction, for in the kitchen Adah was +regarded as far superior to those who would have trampled her down, and +her presence among the servants was not without its influence, softening +Jim's rough, loud ways, and making both Dixson and Pamelia more careful +of their words and manners when she was with them. Much, too, they grew +to love and pet the little Willie, who, accustomed to the free range of +Spring Bank, asserted the same right at Terrace Hill, going where he +pleased, putting himself so often in Mrs. Richards' way, that she began +at last to notice him, and if no one was near, to caress the handsome +boy. Asenath and Eudora held out longer, but even they were not proof +against Willie's winning ways. + +It was many weeks ere Adah wrote to Alice Johnson, and when at last she +did, she said of Terrace Hill: + +"I am happier here than I at first supposed it possible. The older +ladies were so proud, so cold, so domineering, that it made me very +wretched, in spite of sweet Anna's kindness. But there has come a +perceptible change, and they now treat me civilly, if nothing more, +while I do believe they are fond of Willie, and would miss him if he +were gone." + +Adah was right in this conjecture; for had it now been optional with the +Misses Richards whether Willie should go or stay, they would have kept +him there from choice, so cheery and pleasant he made the house. Adah +was still too pretty, too stylish, to suit their ideas of a servant; but +when, as time passed on, they found she did not presume at all on her +good looks, but meekly kept her place as Anna's maid or companion, they +dropped the haughty manner they had at first assumed, and treated her +with civility, if not with kindness. + +With Anna it was different. Won by Adah's gentleness and purity, she +came at last to love her almost as much as if she had been a younger +sister. Adah was not a servant to her, but a companion, a friend, with +whom she daily held familiar converse, learning from her much that was +good, and prizing her more and more as the winter weeks went swiftly by. + +Since the morning when Adah confided to her a part of her history, she +had never alluded to it or intimated a desire to hear more; but she +thought much about it, revolving in her mind various expedients for +finding and bringing back to his allegiance the recreant lover. + +"If I were not bound to secrecy," she thought one day, as she sat +waiting for Adah's return from the post office, "if I were not bound to +secrecy, I would tell Brother John, and perhaps he might think of +something. Men's wits are sometimes better than women's. When she comes +back from the office I mean to see what she'll say." + +Adah did not join Anna at once, but went instead to her own room, where +she could read and cry alone over the nice long letter from Alice +Johnson, telling how much they missed her, how old Sam pined for Willie, +how Mrs. Worthington and Hugh mourned for Adah, and how she, Alice, +prayed for the dear friend, never so dear as now that she was gone. Many +and minute were Alice's inquiries as to whether Adah had yet seen Dr. +Richards, when was he expected home, and so forth. + +Adah placed her letter in her pocket, and then went to sit with Anna, +whose face lighted up at once, for Adah's society was like sunshine to +her monotonous life. + +"Rose," she said, after an interval of silence had elapsed, "I have been +thinking about you all day, and wishing I might do you good. You have +never told me the city where you met Willie's father, and I fancied it +might be Boston, until I remembered that your advertisement was in the +_Herald_. Was it Boston?" + +It was a direct question, and Adah answered frankly. + +"It was in New York," while Anna quickly rejoined. + +"Oh, I'm so glad! for now you'll let me tell Brother John. He has lived +there so much he must know everybody, or at all events he may find that +man and bring him back. You will have to give his name, of course." + +Adah's face was white as ashes, as she replied: + +"No, no--oh, no. He could not find him. Nobody can but God. I am willing +to wait His time. Don't tell your brother, Miss Anna--don't." + +She spoke so earnestly, and seemed so distressed, that Anna answered at +once: + +"I will not without your permission, though I'd like to so much. He is +coming home by-and-by. His wedding day is fixed for April ----, and he +will visit us before that time, to see about our preparations for +receiving 'Lina. We somehow expected a letter to-day. Did you get one?" + +"Yes, one for your mother--from the doctor, I think," Adah replied, +without telling how faint the sight of the handwriting had made her, it +was so like George's--not exactly like his, either, but enough so to +make her heart beat painfully as she recalled the only letter she ever +received from him, the fatal note which broke her heart. + +"It is so very long since I had a letter all to myself, that I wonder +how it would seem," Anna rejoined. "I have not had one since--since--" + +"The day I came there was one for you," said Adah, while Anna looked +wonderingly at her, saying, "You are mistaken, I'm sure. I've no +remembrance of it. A letter from whom?" + +Adah did not know from whom or where. She only knew there was one, and +by way of refreshing Anna's memory, she said: + +"Jim put it with the others on the table, and it fell behind the +curtain, where I found it in the afternoon. I was bringing it to you +myself, but your mother took it from me and said she would carry it up +while I swept the parlor. Surely you remember now." + +No, Anna did not, and she looked so puzzled that Adah, anxious to set +the matter right, continued: + +"I remember it particularly, because it was spelled A-n-n-i-e instead of +Anna." + +Adah was not prepared for the sudden start, the look almost of terror in +Anna's eyes, or for the color which stained the usually colorless face. +In all the world there was but one person who ever called her Annie, or +wrote it so, and that person was Charlie. Had he written at last, and if +so, why had she never known it? Could it be her proud mother had +withheld what would have been life to her slowly dying daughter? It was +terrible to suspect such a thing, and Anna struggled to cast the thought +aside, saying to Adah. "Was there anything else peculiar about it?" + +"Nothing, except that 'twas inclosed in a mourning envelope, sealed with +wax, and the letter on the seal was--was--" + +"Oh, pray think quick. You have not forgotten. You must not forget," and +Anna's soft blue eyes grew dark with intense excitement as Adah tried to +recall the initial on that seal. + +"She had not noticed particularly, she did not suppose it was important. +She was not certain, but she believed--yes, she was nearly sure--the +letter was 'M.'" + +"Oh, you do not know how much good you have done me," Anna cried, and +laying her throbbing head on Adah's neck, she wept a torrent of tears, +wrung out by the knowing that Charlie had not forgotten her quite. He +had written, and that of itself was joy, even though he loved another. + +"The initial was 'M.'--you are sure, you are sure," she kept whispering, +while Adah soothed the poor head, wondering at Anna's agitation, and in +a measure guessing the truth, the old story, love, whose course had not +run smoothly. + +"And mother took it," Anna said at last, growing more composed. + +"Yes, she said she would bring it to you," was Adah's reply. + +For several minutes Anna sat looking out upon the snowy landscape, her +usually smooth brow wrinkled with thought, and her eyes gleaming with a +strange, new light. There was a shadow on her fair face, a grieved, +injured expression, as if her mother's treachery had hurt her cruelly. +She knew the letter was withheld, and her first impulse was to demand it +at once. But Anna dreaded a scene, and dreaded her mother, too, and +after a moment's reflection that her Charlie would write again, and +Adah, who now went regularly to the office, would get it and bring it to +her, she said: + +"Does mother always look over the letters?" + +"Not at first," was Adah's reply, "but now she meets me at the door, and +takes them from my hand." + +Anna was puzzled. Turning again to Adah, she said: + +"I wish you to go always to the office, and if there comes another +letter for me, bring it up at once. It's mine." + +Anna had no desire now to talk with Adah of the recreant lover, or ask +that John should hear the story. Her mind was too much disturbed, and +for more than half an hour she sat, looking intently into the fire, +seeing there visions of what might be in case Charlie loved her still, +and wished her to be his wife. The mere knowing that he had written made +her so happy that she could not even be angry with her mother, though a +shadow flitted over her face, when her reverie was broken by the +entrance of Madam Richards, who had come to see what she thought of +fitting up the west chambers for John's wife, instead of the north ones. + +"I have a letter from him," she said. "They are to be married the ---- +day of April, which leaves us only five weeks more, as they will start +at once for Terrace Hill. Do, Anna, look interested," she continued, +rather pettishly, as Anna did not seem very attentive. "I am so +bothered. I want to see you alone," and she cast a furtive glance at +Adah, who left the room, while madam plunged at once into the matter +agitating her so much. + +She had fully intended going to Kentucky with her son, but 'Lina had +objected, and the doctor had written, saying she must not go. + +"I have not the money myself," he wrote, "and I'll have to get trusted +for my wedding suit, so you must appeal to Anna's good nature for the +wherewithal with which to fix the rooms. She may stay with you longer +than you anticipate. It is too expensive living here, as she would +expect to live. Nothing but Fifth Avenue Hotel would suit her, and I +cannot ask her for funds at once. I'd rather come to it gradually." + +And this it was which so disturbed Mrs. Richards' peace of mind. She +could not go to Kentucky, and she might as well have saved the money she +had expended in getting her black silk velvet dress fixed for the +occasion, while, worst of all, she must have John's wife there for +months, perhaps, whether she liked it or not, and she must also fit up +the rooms with paper and paint and carpets, notwithstanding that she'd +nothing to do it with, unless Anna generously gave the necessary sum +from her own yearly income. Anna assented to that, and said she would +try to spare the money. Rose could make the carpets, and that would save +a little. + +"I wish, too, mother," she added, "that you would let her arrange the +rooms altogether. She has exquisite taste, besides the faculty of making +the most of things. Our house never looked so well as it has since she +came. Somehow Eudora and Asenath have such a stiff set way of putting +the furniture." + +So it was Anna who selected the tasteful carpet for 'Lina's boudoir, and +the bedchamber beyond it, but it was Adah who made it, Adah who, with +Willie playing on the floor, bent so patiently over the heavy fabric, +sometimes wiping away the bitter tears as she thought of the days +preceding her own bridal, and of her happiness, even though no fingers +were busy for her in the home where they were too proud to receive her. +Where was that home? Was it North or South, East or West, and what was +it like? She had no idea, though, sometimes fancy had whispered that it +might have been like Terrace Hill, that George's haughty mother, who had +threatened to turn her from the door, was a second Mrs. Richards, and +then an involuntary prayer of thanksgiving escaped her lips for the +trial she had escaped. + +Frequently doubts crossed her mind as to the future, when it might be +known that she came from Spring Bank, and knew the expected bride. Would +she not be blamed as a party in the deception? Ought she not to tell +Anna frankly that she knew her brother's betrothed? She did not know, +and the harassing anxiety wore upon her faster than all the work she had +to do. + +Anna seemed very happy. Excitement was what she needed, and never since +her girlish days had she been so bright and active as she was now, +assisting Adah in her labors, and watching the progress of affairs. The +new carpets looked beautiful when upon the floor, and gave to the rooms +a new and cozy aspect. The muslin curtains, done up by the laundress so +carefully, lest they should drop to pieces, looked almost as good as +new, and no one would have suspected that the pretty cornice had been +made from odds and ends found by Adah in an ancient box up in the +lumber-room. The white satin bows which looped the curtains back, were +tied by Adah's hands. + +And during all this while came there to Adah's heart no suspicion for +whom and whose she was thus laboring? No strange interest in the +bridegroom, the handsome doctor, so doted upon by mother and sisters? +None whatever. She scarcely remembered him, or if she did, it was as one +toward whom she was utterly indifferent. He would not notice her. He +might not notice Willie, though yes, she rather thought he would like +her boy; everybody did, and the young mother bent down to kiss her +child, and so hide the blush called up by a remembrance of Irving +Stanley's kindness on that sad journey to Terrace Hill. + +Rapidly the few days went by, bringing at last the very morning when he +was expected. Brightly, warmly the April sun looked in upon Adah, +wondering at the load upon her spirits. She did not associate it with +the doctor, nor with anything in particular. She did not know for +certain that she should even see him. She might and she might not, but +if she did perchance stumble upon him, she would a little rather he +should see that she was not like ordinary waiting-maids. She would make +a good impression! + +And so she wore the pretty dark French calico which Anna had given to +her, fastened the neat linen collar with a chaste little pin, buttoned +her snow-white cuffs, thrust a clean handkerchief into the dainty pocket +on the outside of her skirt, and then descended to the drawing-room to +see that the fires were burning briskly, for spite of the cheerful +sunshine pouring in, the morning was cold and frosty. They had delayed +their breakfast until the doctor should come, and in the dining-room the +table was laid with unusual care. Everything was in its place, and still +Adah fluttered around it like a restless bird, lingering by what she +knew was the doctor's chair, taking up his knife, examining his napkin +ring, and wondering what he would think of the cheap bone rings used at +Spring Bank. + +In the midst of her cogitations, the door bell rang, and she heard the +tramp of horses' feet as Jim drove around to the stable. The doctor had +come and she must go, but where was Willie? + +"Willie, Willie," she called, but Willie paid no heed, and as Eudora had +said, was directly under foot when she unlocked the door, his the first +form distinctly seen, his the first face which met the doctor's view, +and his fearless baby laugh the first sound, which welcomed the doctor +home! + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +THE RESULT + + +It was not a disagreeable picture--that chubby, rose-cheeked little boy. +Willie had run to the door because he heard the bell. He had not +expected to see a stranger, and at sight of the tall figure he drew back +timidly and half hid himself behind Mrs. Richards, whom he knew to be +the warmest ally he had in the hall. + +As the doctor had said to Irving Stanley, he disliked children, but he +could not help noticing Willie, and after the first greetings were over +he asked, "Who have we here? Whose child is this?" + +Eudora and Asenath tried to frown, but the expression of their faces +softened perceptibly as they glanced at Willie, who had followed them +into the parlor, and who, with one little foot thrown forward, and his +fat hands pressed together, stood upon the hearth rug, gazing at the +doctor with that strange look which had so often puzzled, bewildered and +fascinated the entire Richards' family. + +"Anna wrote you that the maid she so much wanted had come to her at +last--a very ladylike person, who has evidently seen better days, and +this is her child, Willie Markham. He is such a queer little fellow +that we allow him more liberties than we ought." + +It was Mrs. Richards who volunteered this explanation, while her son +stood looking down at Willie, wondering what it was about the child +which seemed familiar. Anna had casually mentioned Rose Markham in her +letter, had said how much she liked her, and had spoken of her boy, but +the doctor was too much absorbed in his own affairs to care for Rose +Markham; so he had not thought of her since, notwithstanding that 'Lina +had tried many times to make him speak of Anna's maid, so as to +calculate her own safety. The sight of Willie, however, set the doctor +to thinking, and finally carried him back to the crowded car, the +shrieking child, and the young woman to whom Irving Stanley had been so +kind. + +"I hope I shall not be obliged to see her," he thought, and then he +answered his mother's speech concerning Willie. "So you've taken to +petting a servant's child, for want of something better. Just wait until +my boy comes here." + +Eudora tried to blush, Asenath looked unconscious, while Mrs. Richards +replied: "If I ever have a grandson one half as pretty or as bright as +Willie, I shall be satisfied." + +The doctor did not know how rapidly a lively, affectionate child will +win one's love, and he thought his proud mother grown almost demented; +but still, in spite of himself, he more than once raised his hand to lay +it on Willie's head, pausing occasionally in his conversation to watch +the gambols of the playful child sporting on the carpet. + +"Willie, Willie," called Adah from a distant room, where she was looking +for him. "Willie, Willie," and as the silvery tone fell on the doctor's +ears he started suddenly. + +"Who is that?" he asked, his heart throbs growing fainter as his mother +replied: "That is Mrs. Markham. Singularly sweet voice for a person in +humble life, don't you think so?" + +The doctor's reply was cut short by the entrance of Anna, and in his joy +at meeting his favorite sister and the excitement at the breakfast which +followed immediately, the doctor forgot Rose Markham, who had succeeded +in capturing Willie and borne him to her own room. After breakfast was +over he went with Anna to inspect the rooms which Adah had fitted for +his bride. They were very pleasant, and fastidious as he was he could +find fault with nothing. The carpet, the curtains, the new light +furniture, the armchair by the window where 'Lina was expected to sit, +the fanciful workbasket standing near, and his chair not far away, all +were in perfect taste, and passing his arm caressingly about Anna's +waist he said: "It's very nice, and I thank my little sister so much; of +course, I am wholly indebted to you." + +"Not of course. I furnished means, it is true, but another than myself +planned and executed the effect," and sitting down in 'Lina's chair, +Anna told her brother of Rose Markham, so beautiful, so refined, and so +perfectly ladylike. "You must see her, and judge for yourself. Can't I +think of some excuse for sending for her?" she said. + +It was some evil genius truly which prompted the doctor's reply. + +"Never mind. I'm not partial to smart waiting maids. I'd rather talk +with you." + +And so the golden moment was lost, and Adah was not sent for, while in +his bridal rooms the doctor sat, trying to be interested in all that +Anna was saying, trying to believe he should be happy when 'Lina was his +wife, and trying, oh, so hard, to shut out the vision of another, who +should have been there in his own home, instead of lying in some +lonesome grave, as he believed she was, with her baby on her bosom. Poor +Lily! + +It was a great mistake he made when he cast Lily off, but it could not +now be helped. No tears, no regrets, could bring back the dear little +form laid away beneath the grassy sod, and so he would not waste his +time in idle mourning. He would do the best he could with 'Lina. He did +believe she loved him. He was almost sure of it, and as a means of +redressing Lily's wrongs he would be kind to her. + +And where all this while was Adah? Had she no curiosity, no desire to +see the man about whom she had heard so much? Doubtless she had, and +would have sought an occasion for gratifying it, had not the rather too +talkative Pamelia accidentally overheard the doctor's remark concerning +"smart waiting maids," and repeated it to her, with sundry little +embellishments in tone and manner. Piqued more than she cared to +acknowledge, Adah decided not to trouble him if she could help it, and +so kept out of his way, by staying mostly in her own room, where she was +busy with sewing for Anna. + +Once, as the afternoon was drawing to a close, she felt the hot blood +stain her face and prickle the very roots of her hair, as a step, +heavier than a woman's, came along the soft, carpeted hall, and seemed +to pause opposite her door, which stood partially ajar. She was sitting +with her back that way, and so the doctor only saw the outline of her +graceful form bending over her work, confessing to himself how graceful, +how pliant, how girlish it was. He noted, too, the braids of silken hair +drooping behind the well-shaped ears, just as Lily used to wear hers. +Dear Lily! Her hair was much like Rose Markham's, not quite so dark, +perhaps, or so luxuriant, for seldom had he seen locks so abundant and +glossy as those adorning Rose Markham's head. + +Slowly the twilight shadows were creeping over Terrace Hill and into the +little room, where, with doors securely shut, Adah was preparing for her +accustomed walk to the office. But what was it which fell like a +thunderbolt on her ear, riveting her to the spot, where she stood, rigid +and immovable as a block of granite cut from the solid rock? Between the +closet and Anna's room there was only a thin partition, and when the +door was open every sound was distinctly heard. The doctor had just come +in, and it was his voice, heard for the first time, which sent the blood +throbbing so madly through Adah's veins and made the sparks of fire +dance before her eyes. She was not deceived--the tones were too +distinct, too full, too well remembered to be mistaken, and stretching +out her hands in the dim darkness, she moaned faintly: "George! 'tis +George!" and she sank upon the floor. She could hear him now saying to +Anna, as her moan fell on his ear, "What was that Anna? Are we not +alone? I wish to speak my farewell words in private." + +"Yes, all alone," Anna replied, "unless--" and stepping to Adah's door +she called twice for Rose Markham. + +But Adah, though she tried to do so, could neither move nor speak, and +Anna failed to see the figure crouching in the darkness, poor, crushed, +wretched Adah, who could not dispute her when returning to her brother +she said, "There is no one there; Rose has gone to the post office. I +heard her as she went out. We are all alone. Was it anything particular +you wished to tell me?" + +Again the familiar tones thrilled on Adah's ears as Dr. Richards +replied: "Nothing very particular. I only wished to say a few words, +'Lina. I want you to like her, to make up, if possible, for the love I +ought to give her." + +"Ought to give her! Oh, brother, are you taking 'Lina without love? +Better never make the vow than break it after it is made." + +Anna spoke earnestly, and the doctor, who always tried to retain her +good opinion, replied evasively: "I suppose I do love her as well as +half the world love their wives before marriage, but she is different +from any ladies I have known; so different from what poor Lily was. +Anna, let me talk with you again of Lily. I never told you all--but what +is that?" he continued, as he indistinctly heard the choking, gasping, +stifled sob which Adah gave at the sound of the dear pet name. Anna +answered: "It's only the rising wind. It sounds so always when it's in +the east. We surely are alone. What of Lily? Do you wish you were going +after her instead of 'Lina?" + +Oh, why did the doctor hesitate a moment? Why did he suffer his dread of +losing Anna's respect to triumph over every other feeling? He had meant +to tell her all, how he did love the gentle girl, the little more than +child, who confided herself to him--how he loved even her memory now far +more than he loved 'Lina, but something kept the full confession back, +and he answered: + +"I don't know. We must have money, and 'Lina is rich, while Lily was +very poor, and the only friend or relation she knew was one with whom I +would not dare have you come in contact, so wicked and reckless he was." + +This was what the doctor said, and into the brown eyes, now bloodshot +and dim with anguish, there came the hard, fierce look, before which +Alice Johnson once had shuddered, when Adah Hastings said: + +"I should hate him! Yes, I should hate him!" + +And in that dark hour of agony Adah felt that she did hate him. She knew +now that what she before would not believe was true. He had not made her +a lawful wife, else he had never dared to take another. + +She did not hear him now, for with that prayer, all consciousness +forsook her, and she lay on her face insensible, while at the very last +he did confess to Anna that Lily was his wife. He did not say unlawfully +so. He could not tell her that. He said: + +"I married her privately. I would bring her back if I could, but I +cannot, and I shall marry 'Lina." + +"But," and Anna grasped his hand nervously. "I thought you told me once, +that you won her love, and then, when mother's harsh letters came, left +her without a word. Was that story false?" + +The doctor was wading out in deep water, and in desperation he added +lie to lie, saying: + +"Yes, that was false. I tell you I married her, and she died. Was I to +blame for that?" + +"No, no. I'd far rather it were so. I respect you more than if you had +left her. I am glad, not that she died, but that you are not so bad as I +feared. Sweet Lily," and Anna's tears flowed fast. + +There was a knock at the door, and Jim appeared, inquiring if the doctor +would have the carriage brought around. It was nearly time to go, and +with the whispered words to Anna, "I have told you what no one else must +ever know," the doctor descended with his sister to the parlor, where +his mother was waiting for him. The opening and shutting of the door +caused a draught of air, which, falling on the fainting Adah, restored +her to consciousness, and struggling to her feet, she tried to think +what it was that had happened. + +"Oh, George! George!" she gasped. "You are worse than I believed. You +have made me an outcast, and Willie--" + +George was a greater villain than she had imagined a man could be, and +again her white lips essayed to curse him, but the rash act was stayed +by the low words whispered in her ear, "Forgive as we would be +forgiven." + +"If it were not for Willie, I might, but, oh! my boy, my boy disgraced," +was the rebellious spirit's answer, when again the voice whispered, "And +who art thou to contend against thy God? Know you not that I am the +Father of the fatherless?" + +There were tears now in Adah's eyes, the first which she had shed. + +"I'll try," she murmured, "try to forgive the wrong, but the strength +must all be Thine," and then, though there came no sound or motion, her +heart went out in agonizing prayer, that she might forgive even as she +hoped to be forgiven. + +"God tell me what to do with Willie?" she sobbed, starting suddenly as +the answer to her prayer seemed to come at once. "Oh, can I do that?" +she moaned; "can I leave him here?" + +At first her whole soul recoiled from it, but when she remembered Anna, +and how much she loved the child, her feelings began to change. Anna +would love him more when she knew he was poor Lily's and her own +brother's. She would be kind to him for his father's sake, and for the +sake of the girl she had professed to like. Mrs. Richards, too, would +not cast him off. She thought too much of the Richards' blood, and there +was surely enough in Willie's veins to wipe out all taint of hers. +Willie should be bequeathed to Anna. It would break her heart to leave +him, were it not already broken, but it was better so. It would be +better in the end. He would forget her in time, forget the girlish woman +he had called mamma, unless sweet Anna told him of her, as perhaps she +might. Dear Anna, how Adah longed to fold her arms about her once and +call her sister, but she must not. It might not be well received, for +Anna had some pride, as her waiting maid had learned. + +"A waiting maid!" Adah repeated the name, smiling bitterly as she +thought. "A waiting maid in his own home! Who would have dreamed that I +should ever come to this, when he painted the future so grandly?" + +Then there came over her the wild, yearning desire to see his face once +more, to know if he had changed, and why couldn't she? They supposed her +gone to the office, and she would go there now, taking the depot on the +way. + + * * * * * + +Apart in the ladies' room at Snowdon depot, a veiled figure sat--Dr. +Richards' deserted wife--waiting for him, waiting to look on his face +once more ere she fled she knew not whither. He came at last, Jim's +voice speaking to his horses heralding his approach. + +The group of rough-looking men gathered about the office did not suit +his mood, and so he came on to the ladies' apartment, just as Adah knew +he would. Pausing for a moment on the threshold, he looked hastily in, +his glance falling upon the veiled figure sitting there so lonely and +motionless. She did not care for him, she would not object to his +presence, so he came nearer to the stove, poising his patent leathers +upon the hearth, thrusting both hands into his pockets, and even humming +to himself snatches of a song, which Lily used to sing up the three +flights of stairs in that New York boarding house. + +Poor Adah! How white and cold she grew, listening to that air, and +gazing upon the face she had loved so well. It was changed since the +night when with his kiss warm on her lips he left her forever, changed, +and for the worse. There was a harder, a more reckless, determined +expression there, a look which better than words could have done, told +that self alone was the god he worshiped. + +Once, as he walked up and down the room, passing so near to her that she +might have touched him with her hand, she felt an almost irresistible +desire to thrust her thick brown veil aside, and confronting him to his +face, claim from him what she had a right to claim, his name and a +position as his wife--only for Willie's sake, however; for herself she +did not wish it. + +It was a relief when at last the roll of the cars was heard, and +buttoning his coat still closer around him, he turned toward the door, +half looking back to see if the veiled figure too had risen. It had, and +was standing close beside him, its outside garments sweeping his as the +crowd increased, pressing her nearer to him, but Adah passed back into +the ladies' room, and opening the rear door was out in the street again +almost before the train had left the station. George was gone--lost to +her forever! and with a piteous moan for her ruined life, Adah kept on +her way till the post office was reached. + +There were four letters in the box--one for Mrs. Richards, from an +absent brother; one for Eudora, from Lottie Gardner; one for Asenath, +from an old friend, and at the bottom, last of all, one for Annie +Richards, faced with black, and bearing the initial "M." upon the seal +of wax. + +Adah saw all this, but it conveyed no meaning to her mind except a vague +remembrance that at some time or other, very, very long years it seemed, +Anna had bidden her keep from her mother any letter directed to herself +in a mourning envelope. Adah retained just sense enough to do this, and +separating the letter from the others, thrust it into her pocket, and +then took her way back to Terrace Hill. + +Willie was asleep; and as Pamelia, who brought him up, had thoughtfully +undressed and placed him in bed, there was nothing for Adah to do but +think. She should go away, of course; she could not stay there longer; +but how should she tell them why she went, and who would be her medium +for communication? + +"Anna, of course," she whispered; and lighting her little lamp, she sat +down to write the letter which would tell Anna Richards who was the +waiting maid to whom she had been so kind. + +"Dear Anna," she wrote. "Forgive me for calling you so this once, for +indeed I cannot help it. You have been so kind to me that if my heart +could ache, it would ache terribly at leaving you and knowing it was +forever. I am going away from you, Anna; and when, in the morning, you +wait for me to come as usual, I shall not be here, I could not stay and +meet your brother when he returns. Oh, Anna, Anna, how shall I begin to +tell you what I know will grieve and shock your pure nature so +dreadfully? + +"Anna!--I love to call you Anna now, for you seem, near to me; and +believe me, while I write this to you, I am conscious of no feeling of +inferiority to any one bearing your proud name. I am, or should have +been, your equal, your sister; and Willie!--oh, my boy, when I think of +him, the feeling comes and I almost seem to be going mad! + +"Cannot you guess?--don't you know now who I am? God forgive your +brother, as I asked him to do, kneeling there by the very chair where he +sat an hour since, talking to you of Lily. I heard him, and the sound of +his voice took power and strength away. I could not move to let you know +I was there, for I was, and I lay upon the floor till consciousness +forsook me; and then, when I awoke again, you both were gone. + +"I went to the depot, I saw him in his face to make assurance sure, and +Anna, I--oh, I don't know what I am. The world would not call me a wife, +though I believed I was; but they cannot deal thus cruelly by Willie, or +wash from his veins his father's blood, for I--I, who write this, I who +have been a servant in the house where I should have been the mistress, +am Lily--wronged, deserted Lily--and Willie is your brother's child! His +father's look is in his face. I see it there so plainly now, and know +why that boy portrait of your brother has puzzled me so much. But when I +came here I had no suspicion, for he won me, not as a Richards--George +Hastings, that was the name by which I knew him, and I was Adah Gordon. +If you do not believe me, ask him when he comes back if ever in his +wanderings he met with Adah Gordon, or her guardian, Mr. Monroe. Ask if +he was ever present at a marriage where this same Adah gave her heart to +one for whom she would then have lost her life, erring in that she loved +the gift more than the giver; but God punished idolatry, and He has +punished me, so sorely, oh so sorely; that sometimes my fainting soul +cries out, ''Tis more than I can bear,'" + +Then followed more particulars so that there should be no doubt, and +then the half-crazed Adah took up the theme nearest to her heart, her +boy, her beautiful Willie. She could not take him with her. She knew not +where she was going, and Willie must not suffer. Would Anna take the +child? + +"I do not ask that the new bride should ever call him hers," she wrote; +"I'd rather she would not. I ask that you should give him a mother's +care, and if his father will sometimes speak kindly to him for the sake +of the older time when he did love the mother, tell him--Willie's +father, I mean--tell him, oh I know not what to bid you tell him, except +that I forgive him, though at first it was so hard, and the words +refused to come; I trusted him so much, loved him so much, and until I +had it from his own lips, believed I was his wife. But that cured me; +that killed the love, if any still existed, and now, if I could, I would +not be his, unless it were for Willie's sake. + +"And now farewell. God deal with you, dear Anna, as you deal with my +boy." + +Calmly, steadily, Adah folded up the missive, and laying it with the +mourning envelope, busied herself next in making the necessary +preparations for her flight. Anna had been liberal with her in point of +wages, paying her every week, and paying more than at first agreed upon; +and as she had scarcely spent a penny during her three months' sojourn +at Terrace Hill, she had, including what Alice had given to her, nearly +forty dollars. She was trying so hard to make it a hundred, and so send +it to Hugh some day; but she needed it most herself, and she placed it +carefully in her little purse, sighing over the golden coin which Anna +had paid her last, little dreaming for what purpose it would be used. +She would not change her dress until Anna had retired, as that might +excite suspicion; so with the same rigid apathy of manner she sat down +by Willie's side and waited till Anna was heard moving in her room. The +lamp was burning dimly on the bureau, and so Anna failed to see the +frightful expression of Adah's face, as she performed her accustomed +duties, brushing Anna's hair, and letting her hands linger caressingly +amid the locks she might never touch again. + +It did strike Anna that something was the matter; for when Adah spoke to +her, the voice was husky and unnatural. Still, she paid no attention +until the chapter was read as usual and "Our Father" said; then, as Adah +lingered a moment, still kneeling by the bed, she laid her soft hand on +the young head, and asked, kindly, "if it ached." + +"No, not my head, not my head," and Adah continued impetuously; "Anna, +tell me, have I pleased you?--do you like me? would you, could you love +me if I were your equal--love me as I do you?" + +Anna noticed that the "Miss" was dropped from her name, that her maid +was treating her more familiarly than she had ever done before; and for +an instant a flush showed on her cheek, for pride was Anna's besetting +sin, the one from which she daily prayed to be delivered. There was an +inward struggle, a momentary conflict, such as every Christian warrior +has felt at times, and then the flush was gone from the white cheek, and +her hand still lay on Adah's head, as she replied: "I do not understand +why you question me thus, but I will answer just the same. I do like you +very much, and you have always seemed to me much like an equal. I could +hardly do without you now." + +"And Willie? If I should die, or anything happen to me, would you care +for Willie?" + +There was something very earnest in Adah's tone as she pleaded for her +boy, and had Anna been at all suspicious, she must have guessed there +was something wrong. As it was, she merely thought Adah tired and +nervous. She had been thinking, perhaps, of the deserted, and she +smoothed her hair pityingly as she replied: "Of course I'd care for +Willie. He has won a large place in my heart." + +"Bless you for that. It has made me very happy," Adah whispered, arising +to her feet and adding: "You may think me bold, but I must kiss you +once--only once--for it will be pleasant to remember that I kissed Anna +Richards." + +There was nothing cringing or even pleading in the tone. Adah seemed to +ask it as her right, and ere Anna could answer she had pressed one +burning kiss upon the smooth, white forehead which a menial's lips had +never touched before, and was gone from the room. + +"Was she crazy, or what was it that ailed her?" Anna asked herself, +wondering more and more, the more she thought of the strange conduct, +and lying awake long after the usual hour for sleep. + +But wakeful as she was, there was one who kept the vigils with her, +knowing exactly when she fell away at last into a slumber all the +deeper for the restlessness which had preceded it. Anna slept very +soundly as Adah knew she would, and when toward morning a light footstep +glided across her threshold she did not hear it. The bolt was drawn, the +key was turned, and just as the clock struck three, Adah stood outside +the yard, leaning on the gate and gazing back at the huge building +looming up so dark and grand beneath the starry sky. One more prayer for +Willie and the mother-auntie to whose care she had left him, one more +straining glance at the window of the little room where he lay sleeping, +and she resolutely turned away, nor stopped again until the Danville +depot was reached the station where in less than five minutes after her +arrival the night express stood for an instant, and then went thundering +on, bearing with it another passenger, bound for--she knew not, cared +not whither. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +EXCITEMENT + + +They were not early risers at Terrace Hill, and the morning following +Adah's flight Anna slept later than usual; nor was it until Willie's +baby cry, calling for mamma, was heard, that she awoke, and thinking +Adah had gone down for something, she bade Willie come to her. Putting +out her arms she lifted him carefully into her own bed, and in doing so +brushed from her pillow the letters left for her. But it did not matter +then, and for a full half hour she lay waiting for Adah's return. +Growing impatient at last, she stepped upon the floor, her bare feet +touching something cold, something which made her look down and find +that she was stepping on a letter--not one, but two--and in wondering +surprise she turned them to the light, half fainting with excitement, +when on the back of the first one examined she saw the old familiar +handwriting, and knew that Charlie had written again! + +Anna had hardly been human had she waited an instant ere she tore open +the envelope and learned how many times and with how little success +Charlie Millbrook had written to her since his return from India. He had +not forgotten her. The love of his early manhood had increased with his +maturer years, and he could not be satisfied until he heard from her +that he was remembered and still beloved. + +This was Charlie's letter, this what Anna read, feeling far too happy to +be angry at her mother, and delicious tears of joy flowed over her +beautiful face, as, pressing the paper to her lips, she murmured: + +"Dear Charlie! darling Charlie! I knew he was not false, and I thank the +kind Father for bringing him at last to me." + +Hiding it in her bosom, Anna took the other letter then, and throwing +her shawl around her, for she was beginning to shiver with cold, sat +down by the window and read it through--read it once, read it twice, +read it thrice, and then--sure never were the inmates of Terrace Hill +thrown into so much astonishment and alarm as they were that April +morning, when, in her cambric night robe, her long hair falling unbound +about her shoulders, and her bare feet, gleaming white and cold upon the +floor, Miss Anna went screaming from room to room, and asking her +wonder-stricken mother and sisters if they had any idea who it was that +had been an inmate of their house for so many weeks. + +"Come with me, then," she almost screamed, and dragging her mother to +her room, where Willie sat up in bed, looking curiously about him and +uncertain whether to cry or to laugh, she exclaimed, "Look at him, +mother, and you, too, Asenath and Eudora!" turning to her sisters, who +had followed. "Tell me who is he like? He is John's child. And Rose was +Lily, the young girl whom you forbade him to marry! Listen, mother, you +shall listen to what your pride has done!" and grasping the bewildered +Mrs. Richards by the arm, Anna held her fast while she read aloud the +letter left by Adah. + +Mrs. Richards fainted. She soon recovered, however, and listened eagerly +while Anna repeated all her brother had ever told her of Lily. + +Poor Willie! He was there in the bed, looking curiously at the four +women, none of whom seemed quite willing to own him save Anna. Her heart +took him in at once. He had been given to her. She would be faithful to +the trust, and folding him in her arms, she cried softly over him, +kissing his little face and calling him her darling. + +"Anna, how can you fondle such as he?" Eudora asked, rather sharply. + +"He is our brother's child. Mother, you will not turn from your +grandson," and Anna held the boy toward her mother, who did not refuse +to take him. + +Asenath always went with her mother, and at once showed signs of +relenting by laying her hand on Willie's head and calling him "poor +boy." Eudora held out longer, but Anna knew she would yield in time, +and satisfied with Willie's reception so far, went on to speak of Adah. +Where was she, did they suppose, and what were the best means of finding +her. + +At this Mrs. Richards demurred, as did Asenath with her. + +"Adah was gone, and they had better let her go quietly. She was nothing +to them, nothing whatever, and if they took Willie in, doing their best +with him as one of the Richards' line, it was all that could be required +of them. Had Adah been John's wife, it would of course be different, but +she was not, and his marriage with 'Lina must not now be prevented." + +This was Mrs. Richards' reasoning, but Anna's was different. + +"John had distinctly said, 'I married Lily and she died.' Adah was +mistaken about the marriage being unlawful. It was a falsehood he told +her. She was his wife, and he must not be permitted to commit bigamy. +She would tell John in private. They need not try to dissuade her, for +she should go." + +This was what Anna said, and all in vain were her mother's entreaties to +let matters take their course. Anna only replied by going deliberately +on with the preparations for her sudden journey. She was going to find +Rose, and blessing her for this kindness to one whom they had liked so +much, Dixson and Pamelia helped to get her ready, both promising the +best care to Willie in her absence, both asking where she was going +first and both receiving the same answer, "To Albany." + +Mrs. Richards was too much stunned clearly to comprehend what had +happened or what would be the result; and in a kind of apathetic maze +she bade Anna good-by, and then went back to where Willie sat upon the +sofa, examining and occasionally tearing the costly book of foreign +prints which had been given him to keep him still and make him cease his +piteous wail for "mamma." It seemed like a dream to the three ladies +sitting at home that night and talking about Anna, wondering that a +person of her weak nerves and feeble health should suddenly become so +active, so energetic, so decided, and of her own accord start off on a +long journey alone and unprotected. + +And Anna wondered at herself when the excitement of leaving was past and +the train was bearing her swiftly along on her mission of duty. She had +written a few lines to Charlie Millbrook, telling him of her unaltered +love and bidding him come to her in three weeks' time, when she would be +ready to see him. + +It was very dark and rainy, and the passengers jostled each other +rudely as they passed from the cars in Albany and hurried to the boat. +It was new business to Anna, traveling alone and in the night, and a +feeling akin to fear was creeping over her as she wondered where she +should find the eastern train. + +"Follow the crowd," seemed yelled out for her benefit, though it was +really intended for a timid, deaf old lady, who had anxiously asked what +to do of one whose laconic reply was: "Follow the crowd." And Anna did +follow the crowd which led her safely to the waiting cars. Snugly +ensconced in a seat all to herself, she vainly imagined there was no +more trouble until Cleveland or Buffalo at least was reached. How, then, +was she disappointed when, alighting for a moment at Rochester, she +found herself in a worse babel, if possible, than had existed at Albany. +Where were all these folks going, and which was the train? "I ought not +to have alighted at all," she thought; "I might have known I never could +find my way back." Never, sure, was poor, little woman so confused and +bewildered as Anna, and it is not strange that she stood directly upon +the track, unmindful of the increasing din and roar as the train from +Niagara Falls came thundering into the depot. It was in vain that the +cabman nearest to her helloed to warn her of the impending danger. She +never dreamed that they meant her, or suspected her great peril, until +from out of the group waiting to take that very train, a tall figure +sprang, and grasping her light form around the waist, bore her to a +place of safety--not because he guessed that it was Annie, but because +it was a human being whom he would save from a fearful death. + +"Excuse me, madam," he began, but whatever she might have said was lost +in the low, thrilling scream of joy with which Anna recognized him. + +"Charlie, Charlie! oh, Charlie!" she cried, burying her face in his +bosom and sobbing like a child. + +There was no time to waste in explanations; scarcely time, indeed, for +Charlie to ask where she was going, and if the necessity to go on were +imperative. + +"You won't leave me," Anna whispered. + +"Leave you, darling? No," and pressing the little fingers twining so +lovingly about his own, Charlie replied: "Whither thou goest I will go. +I shall not leave you again." + +He needed no words to tell him of the letters never received; he knew +the truth, and satisfied to have her at last he drew her closely to him, +and laying her tired head upon his bosom, gazed fondly at the face he +had not seen in many, many years. Curious, tittering maidens, of whom +there are usually one or two in every car, looked at that couple near +the door and whispered to their companions: + +"Bride and groom. Just see how he hugs her. Some widower, I know, +married to a young wife." + +But neither Charlie nor Anna cared for the speculations to which they +were giving rise. They had found each other, and the happiness enjoyed +during the two hours which elapsed ere Buffalo was reached more than +made amends for all the lonely years of wretchedness they had spent +apart from each other. Charlie had told Anna briefly of his life in +India--had spoken feelingly, affectionately of his gentle Hattie, who +had died, blessing him with her last breath for the kindness he had ever +shown to her; of baby Annie's grave, by the side of which he buried the +young mother; of his loneliness after that, his failing health, his +yearning for a sight of home, his embarkation for America, his hope +through all that she might still be won; his letters and her mother's +reply, which awakened his suspicions, and his last letter which she +received. + +Sweetly she chided him, amid her tears, for not coming to her at once, +telling how she had waited and watched with an anxious heart, ever since +she heard of his return; and then she told him next where she was going, +and why, sparing her brother as much as possible, and dwelling long upon +poor Lily's gentleness and beauty. + +So it was settled that Charlie should go with her, and his presence made +her far less impatient than she would otherwise have been, when, owing +to some accident, they were delayed so long that the Cleveland train was +gone, and there was no alternative but to wait in Buffalo. At Cincinnati +there was another detention, and it was not until the very day appointed +for the wedding that, with Charlie still beside her, Anna entered the +carriage hired at Lexington, and started for Spring Bank, whither for a +little we will precede her, taking up the narrative prior to this day, +and about the time when 'Lina first returned from New York, laden with +arrogance and airs. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +MATTERS AT SPRING BANK + + +It had been a bright, pleasant day in March, when 'Lina was expected +home, and in honor of her arrival the house at Spring Bank wore its most +cheery aspect; not that any one was particularly pleased because she was +coming, unless it were the mother; but it was still an event of some +importance, and so the negroes cleaned and scrubbed and scoured, +wondering if "Miss 'Lina done fotch 'em anything," while Alice arranged +and re-arranged the plainly-furnished rooms, feeling beforehand how the +contrast between them and the elegancies to which 'Lina had recently +been accustomed would affect her. + +Hugh had thought of the same thing, and much as it hurt him to do it, he +sold one of his pet colts, and giving the proceeds to Alice, bade her +use it as she saw fit. + +Spring Bank had never looked one-half so well before, and the negroes +were positive there was nowhere to be found so handsome a room as the +large airy parlor, with its new Brussels carpet and curtains of worsted +brocatelle. + +Even Hugh was somewhat of the same opinion, but then he only looked at +the room with Alice standing in its center, or stooping in some corner +to drive again a refractory nail, so it is not strange that he should +judge it favorably. Ad would be pleased, he knew, and he gave orders +that the carriage and harness should be thoroughly cleaned, and the +horses well groomed, for he would make a good impression upon his +sister. + +Alas, she was not worth the trouble, the proud, selfish creature, who, +all the way from Lexington to the Big Spring station had been hoping +Hugh would not take it into his head to meet her, or if he did, that he +would not have on his homespun suit of gray, with his pants tucked in +his boots, and so disgrace her in the eyes of Mr. and Mrs. Ford, her +traveling companions, who would see him from the window. Yes, there he +was, standing expectantly upon the platform, and she turned her head the +other way pretending not to see him until the train moved on and Hugh +compelled her notice by grasping her hand and calling her "Sister +'Lina." + +She had acquired a certain city air by her sojourn in New York, and in +her fashionably made traveling dress and hat was far more stylish +looking than when Hugh last parted from her. But nothing abashed he held +her hand a moment while he inquired about her journey, and then +playfully added: + +"Upon my word, Ad, you have improved a heap, in looks I mean. Of course +I don't know about the temper. Spunky as ever, eh?" and he tried to +pinch her glowing cheek. + +"Pray don't be foolish," was 'Lina's impatient reply, as she drew away +from him, and turned, with her blandest smile, to a sprig of a lawyer +from Frankfort, who chanced to be there too. + +Chilled by her manner, Hugh ordered the carriage, and told her they were +ready. Once inside the carriage, and alone with him, 'Lina's tongue was +loosened, and she poured out numberless questions, the first of which +was, what they heard from Adah, and if it were true, as her mother had +written, that she was at Terrace Hill as Rose Markham, and that no one +there knew of her acquaintance with Spring Bank? + +Yes, he supposed it was, and he did not like it either. "Ad," and he +turned his honest face full toward her, "does that doctor still believe +you rich?" + +"How do I know?" 'Lina replied, frowning gloomily. "I'm not to blame if +he does. I never told him I was." + +"But your actions implied as much, which amounts to the same thing. It's +all wrong, Ad, all wrong. Even if he loves you, and it is to be hoped he +does, he will respect you less when he knows how you deceived him." + +"Hadn't you better interfere and set the matter right?" asked 'Lina, now +really aroused. + +"I did think of doing so once," Hugh rejoined, but ere he could say +more, 'Lina grasped his arm fiercely, her face dark with passion as she +exclaimed: + +"Hugh, if you meddle, you'll rue the day. It's my own affair, and I know +what I'm doing." + +"I do not intend to meddle, though I encouraged Adah in her wild plan of +going to Terrace Hill, because I thought they would learn from her just +how rich we are. But Adah has foolishly taken another name, and says +nothing of Spring Bank. I don't like it, neither does Miss Johnson. +Indeed, I sometimes think she is more anxious than I am." + +"Miss Johnson," and 'Lina spoke disdainfully, "I'd thank her to mind her +own business. Hugh, you are getting a ministerial kind of look, and you +have not sworn at me once since we met. I guess Alice has converted you. +Well, I only hope you'll not backslide." + +'Lina laughed hatefully, and evidently expected an outburst of passion, +but though Hugh turned very white, he made her no reply, and they +proceeded on in silence, until they came in sight of Spring Bank, when +'Lina broke out afresh. + +Such a tumble-down shanty as that. It was not fit for decent people to +live in, and mercy knew she was glad her sojourn there was to be short. + +"You are not alone in that feeling," came dryly from Hugh. + +'Lina said he was a very affectionate brother; that she was glad there +were those who appreciated her, even if he did not, and then the +carriage stopped at Spring Bank. Mrs. Worthington was hearty in her +welcome, for her mother heart went out warmly toward her daughter. Oh, +what airs 'Lina did put on, offering the tips of her fingers to good +Aunt Eunice, trying to patronize Alice herself, and only noticing Densie +Densmore with a haughty stare. + +Old Densie had for the last few days been much in 'Lina's mind. She had +disliked her at Saratoga, and somehow it made her feel uncomfortable +every time she thought of finding her at Spring Bank. Densie had never +forgotten 'Lina, and many a time had she recalled the peculiar +expression of her black eyes, shuddering as she remembered how much they +were like another pair of eyes whose gleams of passion had once thrilled +her with terror. + +"Upon my word," 'Lina began, as she entered the pleasant parlor, "this +is better than I expected. Somebody has been very kind for my sake. Miss +Johnson, I'm sure it's you I have to thank," and with a little flash of +gratitude she turned to Alice, who replied in a low tone: + +"Thank your brother. He made a sacrifice for the sake of surprising +you." + +Whether it was with a desire to appear amiable in Alice's eyes, or +because she really was touched with Hugh's generosity, 'Lina +involuntarily threw her arm around his neck, and gave to him a kiss +which he remembered for many, many years. At the nicely prepared dinner +served soon after her arrival, a cloud lowered on 'Lina's brow, induced +by the fact that Densie Densmore was permitted a seat at the table, a +proceeding sadly at variance with 'Lina's lately acquired ideas of +aristocracy. + +Accordingly that very day she sought an opportunity to speak with her +mother when she knew that Densie was in an adjoining room. + +"Mother," she began, "why do you suffer that woman to come to the table? +Is it a whim of Alice's, or what?" + +"Oh, you allude to Mrs. Densmore. I couldn't at first imagine whom you +meant," Mrs. Worthington replied, going on to say how foolish it was for +'Lina to assume such airs, that Densie was as good as anybody, or at all +events was a quiet, well-behaved woman, worthy of respect, and that Hugh +would as soon stay away himself as banish her from the table because she +had once been a servant. + +"Yes, but consider Dr. Richards when he comes. What must he think of us? +At the North they recognize white niggers as well as black. I tell you I +won't have it, and unless you speak to her, I shall." + +'Lina ate her supper exultingly, free from Densie's presence, caring +little for the lonely old woman whose lip quivered and whose tears +started every time that she remembered the slighting words accidentally +overheard. + +Swiftly the days went by, bringing callers to see 'Lina; Ellen Tiffton, +who received back her jewelry, never guessing that the bracelet she +clasped upon her arm was not the same lent so many months ago. Ellen was +to be bridesmaid, inasmuch as Alice preferred to be more at liberty, and +see that matters went on properly. This brought Ellen often to Spring +Bank, and as 'Lina was much with her, Alice was left more time to think. +Adah's continued silence with regard to Dr. Richards had troubled her at +first, but now she felt relieved. 'Lina had stated distinctly that ere +coming to Kentucky, he was going to Terrace Hill, and Adah's last letter +had said the same. She would see him then, and if--if he were +George--alas! for the unsuspecting girl who fluttered gayly in the midst +of her bridal finery, and wished the time would come when she could +"escape from that hole, and go back to dear, delightful Fifth Avenue +Hotel." + +The time which hung so heavily upon her hands was flying rapidly, and at +last only one week intervened ere the eventful day. Hugh had gone down +to Frankfort on some errand for 'Lina, and as he passed the +penitentiary, he thought, as he always did now, of the convict Sullivan. +Was he there still, and if so, why could he not see him face to face, +and question him of the past? + +Three hours later and Hugh Worthington was confronting the famous negro +stealer, who gave him back glance for glance, and stood as unflinchingly +before him as if there were upon his conscience no Adah Hastings, who, +by his connivance, had been so terribly wronged. At the mention of her +name, however, his bold assurance left him. There was a quivering of +the muscles about his mouth, and his whole manner was indicative of +strong emotion as he asked if Hugh knew aught of her since that fatal +night, and then listened while Hugh told what he knew and where she had +gone. + +"To Terrace Hill--into the Richards family; this was no chance +arrangement?" and the convict spoke huskily, asking next for the doctor; +and still Hugh did not suspect the magnitude of the plot, and answered +by telling how Dr. Richards was coming soon to make 'Lina his wife. + +Hugh was not looking at his companion then, or he would have been +appalled by the livid, fearful expression which for an instant flashed +on his face. Accustomed to conceal his feelings, the convict did so now; +and asked calmly when the wedding would take place. Hugh named the day +and hour, and then asked if Sullivan knew aught of Adah's husband. + +"Yes, everything," and the convict said vehemently, "Young man, I cannot +tell you now--there is not time, but wait a little and you shall know +the whole. You are interested in Adah. The wedding, you say, is Thursday +night. My time expires on Tuesday. Don't think me impudent if I ask a +list of the invited guests. Will you give it to me?" + +Surely there was some deep mystery here, and he made no reply till +Sullivan again asked for the list. The original paper on which Hugh had +first written the few names of those to be invited chanced to be in his +vest pocket, and mechanically taking it out he passed it to the convict, +who expressed his thanks, and added: "Don't say that you have seen me, +or that I shall be present at that wedding. I shall only come for good, +but I shall surely be there." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +THE DAY OF THE WEDDING + + +Dr. Richards had arrived at Spring Bank. Hugh was the first to meet him. +For a moment he scrutinized the stranger's face earnestly, and then +asked if they had never met before. + +"Not to my knowledge," the doctor replied in perfect good faith, for he +had no suspicion that the man eying him so closely was the one witness +of his marriage with Adah, the stranger whom he scarcely noticed, and +whose name he had forgotten. + +Once fully in the light, where Hugh could discern the features plainer, +he began to be less sure of having met his guest before, for that +immense mustache and those well-trimmed whiskers had changed the +doctor's physiognomy materially. + +'Lina was glad to see the doctor. She had even cried at his delay, and +though no one knew it, had sat up nearly the whole preceding night, +waiting and listening by her open window for any sound to herald his +approach. + +As the result of this long vigil, her head ached dreadfully the next +day, and even the doctor noticed her burning cheeks and watery eyes, and +feeling her rapid pulse asked if she were ill. + +She was not, she said; she had only been troubled because he did not +come, and then for once in her life she did a womanly act. She laid her +head in the doctor's lap and cried, just as she had done the previous +night. He understood the cause of her tears at last, and touched with a +greater degree of tenderness for her than he had ever before +experienced, he smoothed her glossy black hair, and asked: + +"Would you be very sorry to lose me?" + +Selfish and hard as she was, 'Lina loved the doctor, and with a shudder +as she thought of the deception imposed on him, and a half regret that +she had so deceived him, she replied: + +"I am not worthy of you. I do love you very much, and it would kill me +to lose you now. Promise that when you find, as you will, how bad I am, +you will not hate me!" + +It was an attempt at confession, but the doctor did not so construe it. +Poor 'Lina. It is not often we have seen her thus--gentle, softened, +womanly; so we will make the most of it, and remember it in the future. + +The bright sunlight of the next morning was very exhilarating, and +though the doctor, who had risen early, was disappointed in Spring Bank, +he was not at all suspicious, and greeted his bride-elect kindly, +noticing, while he did so, how her cheeks alternately paled, and then +grew red, while she seemed to be chilly and cold. 'Lina had passed a +wretched night, tossing from side to side, bathing her throbbing head +and rubbing her aching limbs. The severe cold taken in the wet yard was +making itself visible, and she came to the breakfast table jaded, +wretched and sick, a striking contrast to Alice Johnson, who seemed to +the doctor more beautiful than ever. She was unusually gay this morning, +for while talking to Dr. Richards, whom she had met in the parlor, she +had, among other things concerning Snowdon, said to him, casually, as it +seemed: + +"Anna has a waiting maid at last. You saw her, of course?" + +Somehow the doctor fancied Alice wished him to say yes, and as he had +seen Adah's back, he replied at once: + +"Oh, yes, I saw her. Fine looking for a servant. Her little boy is +splendid." + +Alice was satisfied. The shadow lifted from her spirits. Dr. Richards +was not George Hastings. He was not the villain she had feared, and +'Lina might have him now. Poor 'Lina. Alice felt almost as if she had +done her a wrong by suspecting the doctor, and was very kind to her that +day. Poor 'Lina, we say it again, for hard, and wicked, and treacherous, +and unfilial, as she had ever been, she had need for pity on this her +wedding day. Retribution, terrible and crushing, was at hand, hurrying +on in the carriage bringing Anna Richards to Spring Bank, and on the +fleet-footed steed bearing the convict swiftly up the Frankfort pike. + +'Lina could not tell what ailed her. Her _hauteur_ of manner was all +gone, and Mug, who had come into the room to see "the finery," was not +chidden or told to let them alone, while Densie, who, at Alice's +suggestion, brought her a glass of wine, was kindly thanked, and even +asked to stay if she liked while the dressing went on. But Densie did +not care to, and she left the room just as the mud-bespattered vehicle +containing Anna Richards drove up, Mr. Millbrook having purposely +stopped in Versailles, thinking it better that Anna should go on alone. + +It was Ellen of course, 'Lina said, and so the dressing continued, and +she was all unsuspicious of the scene enacting below, in the room where +Anna met her brother alone. She had not given Hugh her name. She simply +asked for Dr. Richards, and conducting her into the parlor, hung with +bridal decorations, Hugh went for the doctor, amusing himself on the +back piazza with the sprightly Mug, who when asked if she were not sorry +Miss 'Lina was going off, had naïvely answered: + +"No-o--sir, 'case she done jaw so much, and pull my har. I tell you, +she's a peeler. Is you glad she's gwine?" + +The doctor was not quite certain, but answered: "Yes, very glad," just +as Hugh announced "a lady who wished to see him." + +Mechanically the doctor took his way to the parlor, while Hugh resumed +his seat by the window, where for the last hour he had watched for the +coming of one who had said, "I will be there." + +Half an hour later, had he looked into the parlor, he would have seen a +frightened, white-faced man crouching at Anna Richards' side and +whispering to her as if all life, all strength, all power to act for +himself were gone: + +"What must I do? Tell me what to do." + +This was a puzzle to Anna, and she replied by asking him another +question. "Do you love 'Lina Worthington?" + +"I--I--no, I guess I don't; but she's rich, and--" + +With a motion of disgust Anna cut him short, saying: "Don't make me +despise you more than I do. Until your lips confessed it, I had faith +that Lily was mistaken, that your marriage was honorable, at least, even +if you tired of it afterward. You are worse than I suppose and now you +speak of money. What shall you do? Get up and not sit whining at my feet +like a puppy. Find Lily, of course, and if she will stoop to listen a +second time to your suit, make her your wife, working to support her +until your hands are blistered, if need be." + +Anna hardly knew herself in this phase of her character, and her brother +certainly did not. + +"Don't be hard on me, Anna," he said, looking at her in a kind of +dogged, uncertain way. "I'll do what you say, only don't be hard. It's +come so sudden, that my head is like a whirlpool. Lily, Willie, Willie. +The child I saw, you mean--yes, the child--I--saw--did it say +he--was--my--boy?" + +The words were thick and far apart. The head drooped lower and lower, +the color all left the lips, and in spite of Anna's vigorous shakes, or +still more vigorous hartshorn, overtaxed nature gave way, and the doctor +fainted at last. It was Anna's turn now to wonder what she should do, +and she was about summoning aid from some quarter when the door opened +suddenly, and Hugh ushered in a stranger--the convict, who had kept his +word, and came to tell what he knew of this complicated mystery, about +which every invited guest was talking, and which was keeping Ellen +Tiffton at home in a fever of excitement to know what it all meant. + + "There will be no bridal at Spring Bank to-night, and if the invited + guests have any respect for the family, they will remain quietly at + home, restraining their curiosity until another day. + + "ONE WHO HAS AUTHORITY" + +Such were the contents of the ten different notes left at ten different +houses in the neighborhood of Spring Bank that April day, by a strange +horseman, who carried them all himself and saw that they were delivered. + +The rider kept on his way, reining his panting steed at last before the +door of Spring Bank, and casting about him anxious glances as he sprang +up the steps. There was nobody in sight but Hugh, who was expecting him, +and who, in reply to his inquiries for the doctor, told where he was, +and that a stranger was with him. There was a low, hurried conversation +between the two, a partial revelation of the business which had brought +Sullivan to the house where were congregated so many of his victims; and +at its close Hugh's face was deadly white, for he knew now that he had +met Dr. Richards before, and that 'Lina could not be his wife. + +"The villain!" he muttered, involuntarily clinching his fist as if to +smite the dastard as he followed Sullivan into the parlor, starting back +when he saw the prostrate form upon the floor, and heard the lady say: +"My brother, sir, has fainted." + +She was Anna, then; and Hugh guessed rightly why she was there. + +"Madam," he began, but ere another word was uttered, there fell upon his +ear a shriek which seemed to cleave the very air and made even the +fainting man move in his unconsciousness. + +It was Mrs. Worthington, who, with hands outstretched as if to keep him +off, stood upon the threshold, gazing in mute terror at the horror of +her life, whispering incoherently: "What is it, Hugh? How came he here? +Save me, save me from him!" + +A look, half of sorrow, half of contempt, flitted across the stranger's +face as he answered for Hugh kindly, gently: "Is the very sight of me so +terrible to you, Eliza? I am only here to set matters right. Here for +our daughter's sake. Eliza, where is our child?" + +He had drawn nearer to her as he said this last, but she intuitively +turned to Hugh, who started suddenly, growing white and faint as a +suspicion of the truth flashed upon him. + +"Mother?" he began, interrogatively, winding his arm about her, for she +was the weaker of the two. + +She knew what he would ask, and with her eye still upon the man who +fascinated her gaze, she answered, sadly: "Forgive me, Hugh. He was--my +husband; he is--'Lina's father, not yours, Hugh--oh! Heaven be praised, +not yours!" and she clung closely to her boy, as if glad one child, at +least, was not tainted with the Murdock blood. + +The convict smiled bitterly, and said to Hugh himself: + +"Your mother is right. She was once my wife, but the law set her free +from the galling chain. Will some one call Densie Densmore in? I may +need her testimony." + +No one volunteered to go for Densie Densmore, and he was about repeating +his request, when Alice came tripping down the stairs, and pausing at +the parlor door, looked in. + +"Anna!" she exclaimed, but uttered no other sound for the terror of +something terrible, which kept her silent. + +She stood looking from one to the other, until the convict said: + +"Young lady, will you call in Densie Densmore? And stay, let the bride +know. She is wanted, too. I may as well confront all my victims at +once." + +Alice never knew what she said to Densie, or 'Lina either. She was only +conscious of following them both down the stairs and into that dreadful +room. No one had said that she was wanted, but she could not keep away. +She must go, and she did, keeping close to Densie, who took but one +step, then with a delirious laugh, she darted upon the stranger like a +tigress, and seizing his arm, said, between a shriek and hiss: + +"David Murdock, why are you here, a wolf in the sheepfold? Tell me, +where is my stolen daughter?" + +For an instant the convict regarded the raving woman, and then, as if in +answer to her question, with a half nod, his glance rested on 'Lina, +who, too much terrified to speak, had crept near to her affianced +husband, now returning to consciousness. Hugh alone saw the nod, and it +brought him at once to 'Lina, where, with his arm upon her chair, he +stood as if he would protect her. Noble Hugh! 'Lina never knew one-half +how good and generous he was until just as she was losing him. + +"Densie," the convict said, trying in vain to shake off the hand which +held him so firmly: "Densie, be calm, and wait, as you see the others +doing. They all, save one, are interested in me." + +"But my daughter, my stolen daughter. I'll have her, or your life!" was +Densie's fierce reply. + +"Auntie," and Alice glided to Densie's side. + +She alone could control that strange being, roused now as she had not +been roused in years. At the sound of her voice, and the touch of her +fingers on her hand, Densie released her hold and suffered herself to +be led to a chair, while Alice knelt beside her. + +There was a moment's hesitancy, and his face flushed and paled +alternately ere the convict could summon courage to begin. + +"Take this seat, sir, you need it," Hugh said, bringing him a chair and +then resuming his watch over 'Lina, who involuntarily leaned her +throbbing head upon his arm, and with the others listened to that +strange tale of sin. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +THE CONVICT'S STORY + + +"It is not an easy task to confess how bad one has been," the stranger +said, "and once no power could have tempted me to do it; but several +years of prison life have taught me some wholesome lessons, and I am not +the same man I was when, Densie Densmore"--and his glance turned toward +her--"when I met you, and won your love. Against you first I sinned. You +are my oldest victim, and it's meet I should begin with you." + +"Yes, with me--me first, and tell me quick of my stolen baby," she +faintly moaned. + +Her ferocity of manner all was gone, and the poor, white-haired creature +sat quietly where Alice had put her, while the story proceeded: + +"You know, Densie, but these do not, how I won your love with promises +of marriage, and then deserted you just when you needed me most. I had +found new prey by that time--was on the eve of marriage with one who was +too good for me. I left you and married Mrs. Eliza Worthington. I--" + +The story was interrupted at this point by a cry from 'Lina, who moaned: + +"No, no, oh no! He is not my father; is he, Hugh? Tell me no. John, Dr. +Richards, pray look at me and say it's all a dream, a dreadful dream! +Oh, Hugh!" and to the brother, scorned so often, poor 'Lina turned for +sympathy, while the stranger continued: + +"It would be useless for me to say now that I loved her, Eliza, but I +did, and when I heard soon after my marriage that I was a father, I +said: 'Densie will never rest now until she finds me, and she must not +come between me and Eliza," so I feigned an excuse and left my new wife +for a few weeks. Eliza, you remember I said I had business in New York, +and so I had. I went to Densie Densmore. I professed sorrow for the +past. I made her believe me, and then laid a most diabolical plan. Money +will do anything, and I had more than people supposed. I had a mother, +too, at that time, a woman old and infirm, and good, even if I was her +son. To her I went with a tale, half false, half true. There was a +little child, I said, a little girl, whose mother was not my wife. I +would have made her so, I said, but she died at the child's birth. Would +my mother take that baby for my sake? She did not refuse, so I named a +day when I would bring it. 'Twas that day, Densie, when I took you to +the museum, and on pretense of a little business I must transact at a +house in Park Row, I left you for an hour, but never went back again." + +"No, never back again--never. I waited so long, waited till I almost +thought I heard my baby cry, and then went home; but baby was gone. +Alice, do you hear me?--baby was gone;" and the poor, mumbling creature, +rocking to and fro, buried her bony fingers in Alice's fair hair. + +"Poor Densie! poor auntie!" was all Alice said, as she regarded with +horror the man, who went on: + +"Yes, baby was gone--gone to my mother's, in a part of the city where +there was no probability of its being found and I was gone, too. You are +shocked, fair maiden, and well you may be," the convict said. + +"In course of time there was a daughter born to me and to Eliza; a sweet +little, brown-haired, brown-eyed girl, whom we named Adaline." + +Instinctively every one in that room glanced at the black eyes and hair +of 'Lina, marveling at the change. + +"I loved this little girl, as it was natural I should, more than I loved +the other, whose mother was a servant. Besides that, she was not so +deeply branded as the other; see--" and pushing back the thick locks +from his forehead, he disclosed his birthmark, while 'Lina suddenly put +her hand where she knew there was another like it. + +"At last there came a separation. Eliza would not live with me longer +and I went away, but pined so for my child that I contrived to steal +her, and carried her to my mother, where was the other one. 'Twas there +you tracked me, Densie. You came one day, enacting a fearful scene, and +frightening my children until they fled in terror and hid away from your +sight." + +"I remember, I remember now. That's where I heard the name," 'Lina said, +while the convict continued: + +"I said you were a mad woman. I made mother believe it; but she never +recovered from the shock, and six weeks after your visit, I was alone +with my two girls, Densie and Adaline. I could not attend to them both, +and so I sent one to Eliza and kept the other myself, hiring a +housekeeper, and to prevent being dogged by Densie again, I passed as +Mr. Monroe Gordon, guardian to the little child whom I loved so much." + +"That was Adah," fell in the whisper from the doctor's lips, but caught +the ear of no one. + +All were too intent upon the story, which proceeded: + +"She grew, and grew in beauty, my fair, lovely child, and I was +wondrously proud of her, giving her every advantage in my power. I sent +her to the best of schools, and even looked forward to the day when she +should take the position she was so well fitted to fill. After she was +grown to girlhood we boarded, she as the ward, I as the guardian still, +and then one unlucky day I stumbled upon you, Dr. John, but not until +you had first stumbled upon my daughter, and been charmed with her +beauty, passing yourself as some one else--as George Hastings, I +believe--lest your fashionable associates should know how the +aristocratic Dr. Richards was in love with a poor, unknown orphan, +boarding up two flights of stairs." + +"Who is he talking about, Hugh? Does he mean me? My head throbs so, I +don't quite understand," 'Lina said, piteously, while Hugh held the poor +aching head against his bosom, crushing the orange blossoms, and +whispering softly: + +"He means Adah." + +"Yes, Adah," the convict rejoined. "John Richards fancied Adah Gordon, +as she was called, but loved his pride and position more. I'll do you +justice, though, young man, I believe at one time you really and truly +loved my child, and but for your mother's letters might have married her +honorably. But you were afraid of that mother. Your pride was stronger +than your love; and as I was determined that you should have my +daughter, I proposed a mock marriage." + +"Monster! You, her father, planned that fiendish act!" and Alice's blue +eyes flashed indignantly upon him, while Hugh, forgetting that the idea +was not new to him, walked up before the "monster," as if to lay him at +his feet. + +"Listen, while I explain, and you will see the monster had an object," +returned the stranger, speaking to Alice, instead of Hugh. "There were +several reasons why I wished Adah to marry Dr. Richards, and as one of +them concerns this scar upon my forehead, I will tell you here its +history. You, madam," addressing himself to Anna, "have probably heard +how your greatgrandfather died." + +"It happened almost a century of years ago, when there was not the +difference of position between the proud Richards line and the humble +Murdocks that there is now. Your greatgrandfather and mine were friends, +boon companions, but one fatal night, when more wine than usual had been +drunk, there arose a fearful quarrel between the two, and with a knife +snatched from a sideboard standing near, Murdock gave his comrade a blow +which resulted in his death. Sobered at once, and nearly beside himself +with terror, he rushed frantically to the chamber of his sleeping wife, +and laying his blood-wet hands upon her brow, screamed for her to rise, +which she did immediately, nearly fainting, it is said, when by the +light of the lamp her husband bore, she saw the bloody print upon her +forehead. Three months afterward my grandfather was born, and over his +left temple was the hated mark which has clung to us ever since, and +which a noted clairvoyant predicted would never disappear until the +feudal parties came together, and a Murdock wedding with a Richards. The +offspring of such union would be without taint or blemish, he said, and +I am told, sir, your boy is fair as alabaster." + +Dr. Richards, to whom this appeal was made, only stared blankly at him, +like one who hears in a dream, but 'Lina, catching at everything +pertaining to the doctor, said, quickly: + +"His boy! Where is his boy? Oh, what does it all mean?" + +"Poor girl!" and the convict spoke sorrowfully. "I did not think she +would take it so hard, but the worst is not yet told, and I must hasten. +I ingratiated myself at once into John Richards' good graces and when I +knew it would answer, I suggested a mock marriage. First, however, I +would know something definite of his family as they were then, and so, +as a Mr. Morris, who wished to purchase a country seat, I went to +Snowdon, and after some inquiries in the village, forced my way to +Terrace Hill. The lady listening to me was the only one I saw, and I +felt sure she at least would be kind to Adah. On my return to New York, +I urged the marriage more pertinaciously than at first, saying, by way +of excusing myself, that as I was only Adah's guardian, I could not, of +course, feel toward her as a near relative would feel--that as I had +already expended large sums of money on her, I was getting tired of it, +and would be glad to be released, hinting, by way of smoothing the +fiendish proposition, my belief that, from constant association, he +would come to love her so much that at last he would really and truly +make her his wife. He did hesitate--he did seem shocked, and if I +remember rightly, called me a brute, an unnatural guardian, and all +that; but little by little I gained ground, until at last he consented, +and I hurried the matter at once, lest he should repent. + +"I had an acquaintance, I said, who lived a few miles from the city--a +man who, for money, would do anything, and who, as a feigned justice of +the peace, would go through with the ceremony, and ever after keep his +own counsel. I wonder the doctor did not make some inquiries concerning +this so-called justice, but I think I am right in saying that he is not +remarkably clear-headed, and this weakness saved me much trouble, and +after a long time I arranged the matter with my friend, who was a lawful +justice, staying with his brother, at that time absent in Europe. This +being done, I decided upon Hugh Worthington for a witness, as being the +person, of all the world, who should be present at Adah's bridal. He had +recently come to New York. I had accidentally made his acquaintance, +acquiring so strong an influence over him that I could almost mold him +to my will. I did not tell him what I wanted until I had tempted him +with drugged wine, and he did not realize what he was doing. He knew +enough, however, to sign his name and to salute the bride, who really +was a bride, as lawful a one as any who ever turned from the altar where +she had registered her vows." + +"Oh, joy, joy!" and Alice sprang at once to her feet, and hastening to +the doctor's side, said to him, authoritatively: + +"You hear, you understand, Adah is your wife, your very own, and you +must go back to her at once. She's in your own home as Rose Markham. She +went from here, Adah Hastings, whose husband's name was George. You do +understand me?" and Alice grew very earnest as the doctor failed to +rouse up, as she thought he ought to do. + +Appealing next to Anna, she continued: + +"Pray, make him comprehend that his wife is at Terrace Hill." + +Very gently Anna answered: + +"She was there, but she has gone. He knows it; I came to tell him, but +she fled immediately after recognizing my brother, and left a letter +revealing the whole." + +It had come to 'Lina by this time that Dr. Richards could never be her +husband, and with a bitter cry, she covered her face with her hands, and +went shivering to the corner where Mrs. Worthington sat, as if a +mother's sympathy were needed now, and coveted as it had never been +before. + +"Oh, mother," she sobbed, laying her head in Mrs. Worthington's lap, "I +wish I had never been born." + +Sadly her wail of disappointment rang through the room, and then the +convict went on with his interrupted narrative. + +"When the marriage was over, Mr. Hastings took his wife to another part +of the city, hiding her from his fashionable associates, staying with +her most of the time, and appearing to love her so much that I thought +it would not be long before I should venture to tell him the truth. I +went South on a little business which a companion and myself had planned +together--the very laudable business of stealing negroes from one State +and selling them in another. Some of you know that I was caught in my +traffic, and that the negro stealer Sullivan, was safely lodged in +prison, from which he was released but two days since. Fearing there +might be some mistake, I wrote from my prison home to Adah herself, but +suppose it did not reach New York till after she had left it. My poor, +dear little girl, thoughts of her have helped to make me a better man +than I ever was before. I am not perfect now, but I certainly am not as +hard, as wicked, or bad as when I first wore the felon's dress." + +A casual observer would have said that Densie Densmore had heard less of +that strange story than any one else, but her hearing faculties had been +sharpened, and not a word was missed by her--not a link lost in the +entire narrative, and when the narrator expressed his love for his +daughter, she darted upon him again, shrieking wildly: + +"And that child whom you loved was the baby you stole, and I shall see +her again--shall hear that blessed name of mother from her own sweet +lips." + +A little apart from the others, his eyes fixed earnestly upon the +convict, stood Hugh. His mind, too, had gathered in every fact, but he +had reached a widely different conclusion from what poor Densie had. + +"Answer her," he said, gravely, as the convict did not reply. "Tell her +if Adah be her child, or--'Lina--which?" + +Had a clap of thunder cleft the air around her, 'Lina could not have +started up sooner than she did. The convict took his eyes away from her, +pitying her so much, while Densie's bony hand was raised as if to thrust +her off, and Densie's voice exclaimed: "Not this, not this. She despises +me, a white nigger. I will not be her mother. The other one--Densie, I +named her--she is mine--" + +The convict shook his head. "No, Densie, not Adah, I kept her, my lawful +child, and sent the other back. It was a bold move, and I wonder it was +not questioned, but Adaline's eyes were not so black then as they are +now, and though six months older than the other, she was small for her +age, and cannot now be so tall as Adah. The mark, too, must have +strengthened the deception, as I knew it would, and eighteen months +sometimes changes a child materially; so Eliza took it for granted that +the girl she received as Adaline, and whose real name was Densie, was +her own; but Adah Hastings is her daughter and Hugh's half-sister, while +this young woman is--the child of myself and Densie Densmore!" + +Alice, Anna, and the doctor looked aghast, while Mrs. Worthington +murmured audibly: "Adah, Adah, darling Adah, she always seemed near to +me; and Willie, precious Willie--oh, I want them here now!" + +One mother had claimed her own, but alas, the fond cry of welcome to +sweet Adah Hastings was a death knell to 'Lina, for it seemed to shut +her out of that gentle woman's heart. There was no place for her, and in +her terrible desolation she stood alone, her eyes wandering wistfully +from one to another, but turning very quickly when they fell on the +white-haired Densie, her mother. She would not have it so; she could not +own the woman she had affected to despise, that servant for her mother, +that villain for her father, and worse--oh, infinitely worse than +all--she had no right to be born! A child of sin and shame, disgraced, +disowned, forsaken. It was a terrible blow, and the proud girl staggered +beneath it. + +"Will no one speak to me?" she said, at last; "no one break this +dreadful silence? Has everybody forsaken me? Do you all loathe and hate +the offspring of such parents? Won't somebody pity and care for me?" + +"Yes, 'Lina," and Hugh--the one from whom she had the least right to +expect pity--Hugh came to her side; and winding his arm around her, +said, with a choking voice: "I will not forsake you, 'Lina; I will care +for you the same as ever, and so long as I have a home you shall have +one, too." + +"Oh, Hugh, I don't deserve this from you!" was 'Lina's faint response, +as she laid her head upon his bosom, whispering: "Take me away--from +them all--upstairs--on the bed I am so sick, and my head is bursting +open!" + +Hugh was strong as a young giant, and lifting gently the yielding form, +he bore it from the room--the bridal room, which she would never enter +again, until he brought her back--and laid her softly down beneath the +windows, dropping tears upon her white, still face, and whispering: + +"Poor 'Lina!" + +As Hugh passed out with his burden in his arms, the bewildered company +seemed to rally; but the convict was the first to act. Turning to Mrs. +Worthington he said: + +"Eliza, I am here to-night for my children's sake; and now that I have +done what I came to do, I shall leave you, only asking that you continue +to be a mother to the poor girl who is really the only sufferer. The +rest have cause for joy; you in particular," turning to the doctor, who +suddenly seemed to break the spell which had bound him, and springing to +his feet, exclaimed: + +"Yes, Lily shall he found, Lily shall be found; but I must see my boy +first. Anna, can't we go now, to-night?" + +That was impossible, Alice said; and as hers was the only clear head in +the household, she set herself at once to plan for everybody. To the +convict and the doctor she paid no heed; but the tired Anna was +conducted at once to her own room, and made to take the rest she so much +needed. Densie too was cared for kindly, soothingly; for the poor old +woman was nearly crushed with all she had heard; and Alice, as she left +her upon the bed, heard her muttering deliriously to herself: + +"She wouldn't let her own mother eat with her. She compared me to a +white nigger; and can I receive her now? No, no; and she don't wish it. +Yet I pitied her when her heart snapped to pieces there in the middle of +the room; poor girl, poor girl!" + +When Alice returned again to the parlor, the convict had gone. There had +been a short consultation between himself and the doctor, an engagement +to meet in Cincinnati to arrange their plan of search; and then he had +turned again to his once wife, still sitting in her corner, motionless, +white, and paralyzed with nervous terror. + +"You need not fear me, Eliza," he said, kindly, "I shall probably never +trouble you again; and though you have no cause to believe my word, I +tell you solemnly that I will never rest until I have found our +daughter, and sent her back to you. Be kind to Densie Densmore; she was +more sinned against than sinning. Good-by, Eliza, good-by." + +He did not offer her his hand; he knew she would not touch it; but with +one farewell look of contrition and regret, he left her, and mounting +the horse which had brought him there, he dashed away from Spring Bank, +just as Colonel Tiffton reined up to the gate. + +Nell would give him no peace until he went over to see what it all meant +and if there really was to be no wedding. It was Alice who met him in +the hall, explaining to him as much as she thought necessary, and asking +him, on his return, to wait a little by the field gate, and turn back +any other guest who might be on the road. + +The colonel promised compliance with her request, and thus were kept +away two carriage loads of people whose curiosity had prompted them to +disregard the contents of the note brought to them so mysteriously. + +Spring Bank was not honored with wedding guests that night; and when the +clock struck eight, the appointed hour for the bridal, only the +bridegroom sat in the dreary parlor, his head bent down upon the sofa +arm, and his chest heaving with the sobs he could not repress as he +thought of all poor Lily had suffered since he left her so cruelly. Hugh +had told him what he did not understand before. He had come into the +room for his mother, whom 'Lina was pleading to see; and after leading +her to the chamber of the half-delirious girl, he had returned to the +doctor, and related to him all he knew of Adah, dwelling long upon her +gentleness and beauty, which had won from him a brother's love, even +though he knew not she was his Sister. + +"I was a wretch, a villain!" the doctor groaned. Then looking wistfully +at Hugh, he said: "Do you think she loves me still? Listen to what she +says in her farewell to Anna," and with faltering voice, he read: "That +killed the love and now, if I could, I would not be his except for +Willie's sake.' Do you think she meant it?" + +"I have no doubt of it, sir. How could her love outlive everything? +Curses and blows might not have killed it, but when you thought to ruin +her good name, to deny your child, she would be less than woman could +she forgive. Why, I hate and despise you myself for the wrong you have +done my sister," and Hugh's tall form seemed to take on an increased +height as he stood, gazing down on one who could not meet his eye, but +cowered and hid his face. + +It was the first time Hugh had called Adah "my sister," and it seemed to +fill every nook and corner of his great heart with unutterable love for +the absent girl. "Sister, sister," he kept repeating to himself, and as +he did so, his resentful indignation grew toward the man who had so +cruelly deceived her, until at last he abruptly left the room, lest his +hot temper should get the mastery, and he knock down his dastardly +brother-in-law, as he greatly wished to do. + +It was a sad house at Spring Bank that night, and only the negroes were +capable of any enjoyment. Terrified at first at what by dint of +listening they saw and heard, they assembled in the kitchen, and +together rehearsed the strange story, wondering if none of the tempting +supper prepared with so much care would be touched by the whites. If +not, they, of course, had the next best right, and when about midnight +Mrs. Worthington passed hurriedly through the dining-room, the table +gave evidence that somebody had partaken of the marriage feast, and not +very sparingly either. But she did not care, her thoughts were divided +between the distant Adah, her daughter--her own--the little brown-eyed +child she had been so proud of years ago, and the moaning, wretched girl +upstairs, 'Lina, tossing distractedly from side to side; now holding her +throbbing head, and now thrusting out her hot, dry hands, as if to keep +off some fancied form, whose hair, she said, was white as snow, and who +claimed to be her mother. + +The shock had been a terrible one to 'Lina--terrible in more senses than +one. She did love Dr. Richards; and the losing him was enough of itself +to drive her mad; but worse even than this, and far more humiliating to +her pride, was the discovery of her parentage, the knowing that a +convict was her father, a common servant her mother, and that no +marriage tie had hallowed her birth. + +"Oh, I can't bear it!" she cried. "I can't. I wish I might die! Will +nobody kill me? Hugh, you will, I know!" + +But Hugh was away for the family physician, for he would not trust a +gossiping servant to do the errand. Once before that doctor had stood by +'Lina's bedside, and felt her feverish pulse, but his face then was not +as anxious as now. He did not speak of danger, but Hugh, who watched him +narrowly, read it in his face, and following him down the stairs, asked +to be told the truth. + +"She is going to be very sick. She may get well, but I have little to +hope from symptoms like hers." + +That was the doctor's reply, and with a sigh Hugh went back to the sick +girl, who had given him little else than sarcasm and scorn. + + + + +CHAPTER XL + +POOR 'LINA + + +Drearily the morning dawned, but there were no bridal slumbers to be +broken, no bridal farewells said. There were indeed good-byes to be +spoken, for Anna was impatient to be gone. But for Adah, who must be +found, and Willie, who must be cared for, and Charlie, who was waiting +for her, she would have tarried longer, and helped to nurse the girl +whom she pitied so much. But even Alice said she had better go, and so +at an early hour she was ready to leave the house she had entered under +so unpleasant circumstances. + +"I would like to see 'Lina," she said to Alice, who carried the request +to the sick room. + +But 'Lina refused. "I can't," she said; "she hates, she despises me, and +she has reason. Tell her I was not worthy to be her sister; tell her +anything you like; but the doctor--oh, Alice, do you think he'll come, +just for a minute, before he goes?" + +It was not a pleasant thing for the doctor to meet 'Lina now face to +face, for of course she wished to reproach him for his treachery. But +she did not--she thought only of herself; and when at last, urged on by +Anna and Alice, he entered into her presence, she only offered him her +hand at first, without a single word. He was shocked to find her so +sick, for a few hours had worked a marvelous change in her, and he +shrank from the bright eyes fixed so eagerly on his face. + +"Oh Dr. Richards," she began at last, "if I loved you less it would not +be so hard to tell you what I must. I did love you, bad as I am, but I +meant to deceive you. It was for me that Adah kept silence at Terrace +Hill. Adah, I almost hate her for having crossed my path." + +There was a fearfully vindictive gleam in the bright eyes now, and the +doctor shudderingly looked away, while 'Lina, with a soft tone, +continued: "You believed me rich, and whether you loved me afterward or +not, you sought me first for my money. I kept up the delusion, for in no +other way could I have won you. Dr. Richards, if I die, as perhaps I +may, I shall have one less sin for which to atone, if I confess to you +that instead of the heiress you imagined me to be, I had scarcely money +enough to pay my board at that hotel. Hugh, who himself is poor, +furnished what means I had, and most of my jewelry was borrowed. Do you +hear that? Do you know what you have escaped?" + +She almost shrieked at the last. + +"Go," she continued, "find your Adah. It's nothing but Adah now. I see +her name in everything. Hugh thinks of nothing else, and why should he? +She's his sister, and I--oh! I'm nobody but a beggarly servant's brat. I +wish I was dead! I wish I was dead! and I will be pretty soon." + +This was their parting, and the doctor left her room a soberer, sadder +man than he had entered it. Half an hour later, and he, with Anna, was +fast nearing Versailles, where they were joined by Mr. Millbrook, and +together the three started on their homeward route. + +Rapidly the tidings flew, told in a thousand different ways, and the +neighborhood was all on fire with the strange gossip. But little cared +they at Spring Bank for the storm outside, so fierce a one was beating +at their doors, that even the fall of Sumter failed to elicit more than +a casual remark from Hugh, who read without the slightest emotion the +President's call for seventy-five thousand men. Tenderer than a brother +was Hugh to the sick girl upstairs, staying by her so patiently that +none save Alice ever guessed how he longed to be free and join in the +search for Adah. To her it had been revealed by a few words accidentally +overheard. "Oh, Adah, sister, I know that I could find you, but my duty +is here." + +This was what he said, and Alice felt her heart throb with increased +respect for the unselfish man, who gave no other token of his impatience +to be gone, but stayed home hour after hour in that close, feverish +room, ministering to all of 'Lina's fancies, and treating her as if no +word of disagreement had ever passed between them. Night after night, +day after day, 'Lina grew worse, until at last, there was no hope, and +the council of physicians summoned to her side said that she would die. +Then Densie softened again, but did not go near the dying one. She could +not be sent away a second time, so she stayed in her own room, which +witnessed many a scene of agonizing prayer, for the poor girl passing so +surely to another world. + +"God save her at the last. God let her into heaven," was the burden of +shattered Densie's prayer, while Alice's was much like it, and Hugh, +too, more than once bowed his head upon the burning hands he held, and +asked that space might be given her for repentance, shuddering as he +recalled the time when, like her, he lay at death's door, unprepared to +enter in. Was he prepared now? Had he made a proper use of life and +health restored? Alas! that the answer conscience forced upon him should +have wrung out so sharp a groan. "But I will be," he said, and laying +his own face by 'Lina's, he promised that if God would bring her reason +back, so they could tell her of the untried world her feet were nearing, +he would henceforth be a better man, and try to serve the God who heard +and answered that earnest prayer. + +It was many days ere the fever abated, but there came a morning in early +May when the eyes were not so fearfully bright as they had been, while +the wild ravings were hushed, and 'Lina lay quietly upon her pillow. + +"Do you know me?" Alice asked, bending gently over her, while Hugh, from +the other side of the bed, leaned eagerly forward for the reply. + +"Yes, Alice, but where am I? This is not New York--not my room. Have +I--am I sick, very sick?" and 'Lina's eyes took a terrified expression +as she read the truth in Alice's face. "I am not going to die, am I?" +she continued, casting upon Alice a look which would have wrung out the +truth, even if Alice had been disposed to withhold it, which she was +not. + +"You are very sick," she answered, "and though we hope for the best, the +doctor does not encourage us much. Are you willing to die, 'Lina?" + +Neither Hugh nor Alice ever forgot the tone of 'Lina's voice as she +replied: + +"Willing? No!" or the expression of her face, as she turned it to the +wall, and motioned them to leave her. + +For two days after that she neither spoke nor gave other token of +interest in anything passing around her, but at the expiration of that +time, as Alice sat by her, she suddenly exclaimed: + +"Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. +I wish He had said that some other way, for if that means we cannot be +forgiven until we forgive everybody, there's no hope for me, for I +cannot, I will not forgive Densie Densmore for being my mother, neither +will I forgive Adah Hastings for having crossed my path. If she had +never seen the doctor I should have been his wife, and never have known +who or what I was. I hate them both, Densie and Adah, so you need not +pray for me. I heard you last night, and even Hugh has taken it up, but +it's no use. I can't forgive." + +'Lina was very much excited--so much indeed, that Alice could not talk +with her then; and for days this was the burden of her remarks. She +could not forgive Densie and Adah, and until she did, there was no use +for her or any one else to pray. But the prayers she could not say for +herself were said for her by others, while Alice omitted no proper +occasion for talking with her personally on the subject she felt to be +all-important. Nor were these efforts without their effect; the bitter +tone when speaking of Densie ceased at last, and Alice was one day +surprised at 'Lina's asking to see her, together with Mrs. Worthington. +Timidly, Densie approached the bed from which she had once been so +angrily dismissed. But there was nothing to fear now from the white, +wasted girl, whose large eyes fastened themselves a moment on the +wrinkled face; then with a shudder, closed tightly, while the lip +quivered with a grieved, suffering expression. She did not say to poor +old Densie that she acknowledged her as a mother, or that she felt for +her the slightest thrill of love. She was through with deception; and +when, at last, she spoke to the anxiously waiting woman, it was only to +say: + +"I wanted to tell you that I have forgiven you; but I cannot call you +mother. You must not expect it. I know no mother but this one," and the +white hand reached itself toward Mrs. Worthington, who took it +unhesitatingly and held it between her own, while 'Lina continued: "I've +given you little cause to love me, and I know how glad you must be that +another, and not I, is your real daughter. I did not know what made me +so bad, but I understand it now. I saw myself so plainly in that man's +eyes; it was his nature in me which made me so hateful to Hugh. Oh, +Hugh! the memory of what I've been to him is the hardest part of all," +and covering her face with the sheet, 'Lina wept bitterly; while Hugh, +who was standing behind her, laid his warm hand on her head, smoothing +her hair caressingly, as he said: + +"Never mind that, 'Lina; I, too, was bad to you. If 'Lina can forgive +me, I surely can forgive 'Lina." + +There was the sound of convulsive sobbing; and then, uncovering her +face, 'Lina raised herself up, and laying her hand on Hugh's bosom, +answered through her tears: + +"I wish I had always felt as I do now. Hugh, you don't know how bad I've +been. Why, I used to be ashamed to call you brother, if any fine people +were near." + +There was a sparkle of indignation in Alice's blue eyes. + +"You have no cause to be ashamed of Hugh," she said, quickly, the tone +of her voice coming like a revelation to 'Lina, who scanned her face +eagerly, and then, turning, looked curiously up to Hugh. + +"I'm glad, I'm glad," she whispered, "for I know now you are worthy even +of her." + +"You are mistaken, 'Lina," Hugh said, huskily, while 'Lina continued; +"And, Hugh, I must tell you more, how bad I've been. You remember the +money you sent to Adah last summer in mother's letter. I kept the whole. +I burned the letter, and mother never saw it. I bought jewelry with +Adah's money. I did so many things, I--I--it goes from me now. I can't +remember all. Oh, must I confess the whole, everything, before I can +say, 'Forgive us our trespasses?'" + +"No, 'Lina. Unless you can repair some wrong, you are not bound to tell +every little thing. Confession is due to God alone," Alice whispered to +the agitated girl, who looked bewildered, as she answered back: "But +God knows all now, and you do not; besides, I can't feel sorry toward +Him as I do toward others. I try and try, but the feeling is not +there--the sorry feeling, I mean, as sorry as I want to feel." + +"God, who knows our feebleness, accepts our purposes to do better, and +gives us strength to carry them out," Alice whispered, again bending +over 'Lina, on whose pallid, distressed face a ray of hope for a moment +shone. + +"I have good purposes," she murmured; "but I can't, I can't. I don't +know as they are real; maybe, if I get well, they would not last, and +it's all so dark, so desolate--nothing to make life desirable--no home, +no name, no friends--and death is so terrible. Oh, Hugh, Hugh! don't let +me go. You are strong; you can hold me back, even from Death himself; +and I can be good to you; I can feel on that point, and I tell you truly +that, standing as I am with the world behind and death before, I see +nothing to make life desirable, but you, Hugh, my noble, my abused +brother. To make you love me, as I hope I might, is worth living for. +You would stand by me, Hugh--you, if no one else, and I wish I could +tell you how fast the great throbs of love keep coming to my heart. Dear +Hugh, Hugh, Brother Hugh, don't let me die--hold me fast." + +With an icy shiver, she clung closer to Hugh, as if he could indeed do +battle with the king of terror stealing slowly into that room. + +"Somebody say 'Our Father,'" she whispered, "I can't remember how it +goes." + +"Do you forgive and love everybody?" Alice asked, sighing as she saw the +bitter expression flash for an instant over the pinched features, while +the white lips answered: "Not Adah, no, not Adah." + +Alice could not pray after that, not aloud at least, and a deep silence +fell upon the group assembled around the deathbed. 'Lina slept at last, +slept quietly on Hugh's strong arm, and gradually the hard expression on +the face relaxed, giving way to one of quiet peace, and Densie, watching +her anxiously, whispered beneath her breath: "See, the Murdock is all +gone, and her face is like a baby's face. Maybe she would call me mother +now." + +Poor Densie! Eagerly she waited for the close of that long sleep, her +eye the first to note that it was ended, and 'Lina awake again. Still +the silence remained unbroken, while 'Lina seemed lost to all else save +the thoughts burning at her breast--thoughts which brought a quiver to +her lips, and forced out upon her brow great drops of sweat, which +Densie wiped away, unnoticed, it may be, or at least unrebuked. The +noonday sun of May was shining broadly into the room, but to 'Lina it +was night, and she said to Alice, now kneeling at her side: "It's +growing dark; they'll light the street lamps pretty soon, and the band +will play in the yard, but I shall not hear them. New York and Saratoga +are a great ways off, and so is Terrace Hill. Tell him I meant to +deceive him, but I did love him. Tell Adah I do forgive her, and I would +like to see her, for she is my half-sister. The bitter is all gone. I am +in charity with everybody, everybody. May I say 'Our Father' now? It +goes and comes, goes and comes, forgive our trespasses, my trespasses; +how is it, Hugh? Say it with me once, and you, too, mother." + +She did not look toward Densie, but her hand fell off that way, and +Densie, with a low cry began with Hugh the soothing prayer in which +'Lina joined feebly, throwing in ejaculatory sentences of her own. + +"I forgive Densie Densmore; I forgive Adah, Adah, everybody. Forgive my +trespasses then as I forgive those that trespass against me. Bless Hugh, +dear Hugh, noble Hugh. Forgive us our trespasses, forgive us our +trespasses, our trespasses, forgive my trespasses, me, forgive, +forgive." + +It was the last word which ever passed 'Lina's lips, "Forgive, forgive," +and Hugh, with his ear close to the lips, heard the faint murmur even +after the hands had fallen from his neck where in the last struggle they +had been clasped, and after the look which comes but once to all had +settled on her face. That was the last of 'Lina, with that cry for +pardon she passed away, and though it was but a deathbed repentance, +and she, the departed, had much need for pardon, Alice and the +half-acknowledged mother clung to it as to a ray of hope, knowing how +tender and full of compassion was the blessed Savior, even to those who +turn not to Him until the river of death is bearing them away. Very +gently Hugh laid the dead girl back upon the pillow, and leaving one +kiss on her white forehead, hurried away to his own room, where, unseen +to mortal eye, he could ask for knowledge to give himself aright to the +God who had come so near to them. + +There were no noisy outbursts among the negroes when told their young +mistress was dead, for 'Lina had not been greatly loved. The sight of +Alice's swollen eyes and tear-stained face affected Mug, it is true, but +even she could not cry until she had coaxed old Uncle Sam to repeat to +her, for the twentieth time, the story of Bethlehem's little children +slain, by order of the cruel Herod. This story, told in old Sam's +peculiar way, had the desired effect, and the tears which refused to +start even at the sight of 'Lina dead, flowed freely for the little ones +over whom Rachel wept, refusing to be comforted. + +"I can cry dreffully now, Miss Alice, I'se sorry, Miss 'Lina is dead, +very sorry. She never can come back any more, can she?" Mug sobbed, +running up to Alice, and hiding her face in her dress. + +And this was about as real as any grief expressed by the blacks for +'Lina. Poor 'Lina, she had taken no pains to win affection while she was +living, and she could not expect to be missed much when she was gone. +Hugh mourned for her the most, more even than his mother or Densie +Densmore--the latter of whom seemed crazier than ever, shutting herself +entirely in her room, and refusing to be present at the funeral. 'Lina +had been ashamed of her, she said, and she would not disgrace her by +claiming relationship now that she was dead, so with eyes whose +blackness was dimmed by tears, she watched from her window the +procession moving from the yard, across the fields, and out to the +hillside, where the Spring Bank dead were buried, and where on the last +day of blooming, beautiful May, they laid 'Lina to rest, forgetting all +her faults, and speaking only kindly words of her as they went slowly +back to the house, from which she had gone forever. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI + +TIDINGS + + +A few days after 'Lina's burial, there came three letters to Spring +Bank, one to Mrs. Worthington from Murdock, as he now chose to be +called, saying that though he had looked, and was still looking +everywhere for the missing Adah, he could only trace her, and that but +vaguely, to the Greenbush depot, where he lost sight of her entirely, no +one after that having seen a person bearing the least resemblance to +her. After a consultation with the doctor, he had advertised for her, +and he inclosed a copy of the advertisement, as it appeared in the +different papers of Boston, Albany, and New York. + +"If A---- H---- will let her whereabouts be known to her friends, she +will hear of something to her advantage." + +This was the purport of Murdock's letter, if we except a kind of inquiry +after 'Lina, of whose death he had not heard. + +The second, for Alice, was from Anna Richards, who was also ignorant as +yet of 'Lina's decease. After inquiring kindly for the unfortunate girl, +she wrote: + +"I have great hopes of my erring brother, now that I know how his whole +heart goes toward his beautiful boy, our darling Willie. I wish poor, +dear Lily could have seen him when, on his arrival at Terrace Hill, he +not only bent over, but knelt by the crib of his sleeping child, waking +him at once, and hugging him to his bosom, while his tears dropped like +rain. I am sure she would have chosen to be his wife, for her own sake +as well as Willie's. + +"You know how proud my mother and sisters are, and it would surprise +you, as it does me, to see them pet, and spoil, and fondle Willie, who +rules the entire household, mother even allowing him to bring +wheelbarrow, drum, and trumpet into the parlor, declaring that she likes +the noise, as it stirs up her blood. Willie has made a vast change in +our once quiet home, and I fear I shall meet with much opposition when I +take him away, as I expect to do next month, for Lily gave him to me, +and brother John has said that I may have him until the mother is found, +while Charlie is perfectly willing; and thus, you see, my cup of joy is +full. + +"Brother is away now, hunting for Adah, and I am wicked enough not to +miss him, so busy am I in the few preparations needed by the wife of a +poor missionary." + +Then, in a postscript. Anna added: "I forgot to tell you that Charlie +and I are to be married some time in July, that the Presbyterian Society +of Snowdon has given him a call to be their pastor, that he has +accepted, and what is best of all, has actually rented your old home for +us to live in. I don't know how it will seem to stop on Sundays at the +meeting house instead of keeping on to our dear, old St. Luke's. I love +the service dearly, but I love my Charlie more, notwithstanding that he +calls me his little heretic, and accuses me of proselytizing intentions +towards himself. I have never confessed it before, but, seriously, I +have strong hopes of seeing him yet in surplice and gown; but till that +time comes, I shall be a real good Presbyterian, or orthodox, as they +are called here in Massachusetts. + +"Perhaps you may have heard that mother was once much opposed to +Charlie. I must say, however, that she has done well at the last, for +when I told her I had found him, and that we were to be married, she +said she was glad on the whole, as it relieved her of a load, and she +hoped I would be happy." + +Anna did not explain to Alice that the load of which her mother was +relieved was mostly Charlie's hidden letters, given up with a full +confession of the pains taken to conceal them, and a frank +acknowledgment of wrong to Anna, who, as her letter indicated, was far +too happy to be angry for a single moment. With a smile, Alice finished +the childlike letter, so much like Anna. Then feeling that Hugh would be +glad to hear from Willie, she went in quest of him, finding him at the +end of the long piazza, where he sat gazing vacantly at the open letter +in his hand--Irving Stanley's letter, which he passed at once to Alice +in exchange for Anna's given to him. + +Glancing at the name at the bottom of the page, Alice blushed painfully, +feeling rather than seeing that Hugh was watching her, and guessing of +what he was thinking. Irving did not know of 'Lina's death. From Dr. +Richards, whom he had accidentally met on Broadway, he had heard of her +sudden illness, and apparently accepted that as the reason why the +marriage was not consummated. Intuitively, however, he felt that there +must be something behind, but he was far too well-bred to ask any idle +questions, and in his letter he merely inquired after 'Lina, as after +any sick friend, playfully hoping that for the sake of the doctor, who +looked very blue, she would soon recover and make him the happiest man +alive. Then followed some allusions to the relationship existing between +himself and Hugh, with regrets that more had not been made of it, and +then he said that having decided to accompany his sister and Mrs. +Ellsworth on her tour to Europe, whither she would go the latter part of +July, and having nothing in particular to occupy him in the interim, he +would, with Hugh's permission, spend a few days at Spring Bank. He did +not say he was coming to see Alice Johnson, but Hugh understood it just +the same, feeling confident that his sole object in visiting Kentucky +was to take Alice back with him, and carry her off to Europe. + +Some such idea flitted across Alice's mind as she read that letter, and +for a single instant her eyes sparkled with delight at the thought of +wandering over Europe in company with Mrs. Ellsworth and Irving Stanley; +but when she looked at Hugh, the bright vision faded, and with it all +desire to go with Irving Stanley, even should he ask her. Hugh needed +her more than Irving Stanley. He was, if possible, more worthy of her. +His noble, unselfish devotion to 'Lina had finished the work begun on +that memorable night, when she said to him: "I may learn to love you," +and from the moment when to 'Lina's passionate cry, "Will no one pity +me?" he had answered, "Yes, 'Lina, I will care for you," her heart had +been all his own, and more than once as she watched with him by 'Lina's +bedside, she had been tempted to wind her arm around his neck and +whisper in his ear: + +"Hugh, I love you now, I will be your wife." + +But propriety had held her back and made her far more reserved toward +him than she had ever been before. Terribly jealous where she was +concerned, Hugh was quick to notice the change, and the gloomy shadow on +his face was not caused wholly by 'Lina's sad death, as many had +supposed. Hugh was very unhappy. Instead of learning to love him, as he +had sometimes hoped she might, Alice had come to dislike him, shunning +his society, and always making some pretense to get away if, by chance, +they were left alone; and now, as the closing act in the sad drama, +Irving Stanley was coming to carry her off forever. + +Hugh's heart was very sore as he sat there waiting for Alice to finish +that letter, and speak to him about it. What a long, long time it took +her to read it through--longer than it needed, he was sure, for the +handwriting was very plain and the letter very brief. + +Alice knew he was waiting for her, and after hesitating a while, she +went up to him, and laying her hand on his shoulder, as she had not done +in weeks, she said: + +"You will be glad to see your cousin?" + +"Yes; I suppose so. Shall you?" + +He turned partly around, so he could look at her; and this it was which +brought the blood so quickly to her face, making her stammer as she +replied: + +"Of course I shall be glad. I like him very much; but--" + +Here she stopped, for she did not know how to tell Hugh that she was not +glad in the way which he supposed. + +"But what?" he asked, "What were you going to say?" and in his eyes +there was a look which drove Alice's courage away, and made her answer: + +"It's queer the doctor did not tell him anything except that 'Lina was +sick." + +"There are a great many queer people in this world," Hugh replied, +rather testily, while Alice mildly rejoined. + +"The letter has been delayed, and he will be here day after to-morrow. +Did you notice?" + +"Yes; and as I am impatient to go for Adah, the sooner he comes the +better, for the sooner it will leave me at liberty. Would it be very +impolite for me to go at once, and leave you to entertain him?" + +"Of course it would," said Alice. "Adah's claim is a strong one, I'll +admit; but the doctor and Mr. Murdock are doing their best; and I ask, +as a favor, that you remain at home to meet Mr. Stanley." + +Now Hugh knew that nothing could have tempted him to leave Spring Bank +so long as Irving Stanley was there; but as he was just in a mood to be +unreasonable, he replied that, "if Alice wished it, he should remain at +home until Mr. Stanley's visit was ended." + +Alice felt exceedingly uncomfortable, for never had Hugh been so +provokingly distant and cool, and she was really glad when at last a +carriage appeared across the fields, and she knew the "city cousin," as +Hugh called him, was coming. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII + +IRVING STANLEY + + +He had come, and up in the chamber where 'Lina died, was making the +toilet necessary after his hot dusty ride. Hugh, heartily ashamed of his +conduct for the last two days, had received him most cordially, meeting +him at the gate, and holding him by the hand, as they walked together to +the house, where Mrs. Worthington stood waiting for him, her lips +quivering, and tears dimming her eyes, as she said to him: "Yes, 'Lina +is dead." + +Irving had heard as much at the depot, and heard, too, a strange story, +the truth of which he greatly doubted. Mrs. Worthington had been 'Lina's +mother, he believed, and his sympathy went out toward her at once, +making him forget that Alice was not there to meet him, as he half +expected she would be, although they were really comparative strangers. + +It was not until a rather late hour that Alice joined him, sitting upon +the cool piazza, with Hugh as his companion. In summer Alice always wore +white, and now, as she came tripping down the long piazza, her muslin +dress floating about her like a snowy mist, her fair hair falling softly +about her face and on her neck, a few geranium leaves twined among the +glossy curls, and her lustrous eyes sparkling with excitement, both +Irving Stanley and Hugh held their breath and watched her as she came, +the one jealously and half angry that she was so beautiful, the other +admiringly and with a feeling of wonder at the beauty he had never seen +surpassed. + +Alice was perfectly self-possessed, and greeted Mr. Stanley as she would +have greeted any friend--and she was glad to see him--spoke of Saratoga, +and then inquired for Mrs. Ellsworth about whom poor 'Lina had talked so +much. + +Mrs. Ellsworth was well, Irving said, though very busy with her +preparations for going to Europe, adding "it was not so much pleasure +which was taking her there as by the hope that by some of the Paris +physicians her little deformed Jennie might be benefited. She had +secured a gem of a governess for her daughter, a young lady whom he had +not yet seen, but over whose beauty and accomplishments his staid sister +Carrie had really waxed eloquent." + +Hugh cared nothing for that governess, and after a little, thinking he +was not wanted, stole quietly away, and being moodily inclined, rambled +off to 'Lina's grave, half wishing, as he stood there in the moonlight, +that he, too, was lying beside it. + +"Were I sure of heaven, it would be a blessed thing to die," he thought, +"for this world has little in it to make me happy. Oh, Alice, Golden +Hair, I could almost wish we had never met, though, as I told her once, +I would rather have loved and lost her than never have loved her at +all." + +Poor Hugh! He was mistaken with regard to Alice. She was not listening +to love words. She was telling Irving Stanley as much of 'Lina's sad +story as she thought necessary, and Irving, though really interested, +was, we must confess, too intent on watching the changing expressions of +her beautiful face to comprehend it clearly in all its complicated +parts. + +He understood that 'Lina was not, and that a certain Adah Hastings was, +Mrs. Worthington's child; understood, too, that Adah was the wife of Dr. +Richards--that she had at some time, not quite clear to him, been at +Terrace Hill, but he somehow received the impression that she eventually +fled from Spring Bank after recognizing the doctor, and never once +thought of associating her with the young woman to whom, many months +previously, he had been so kind in the crowded car, and whose sad, brown +eyes had haunted him at intervals ever since. + +Irving Stanley was not what could well be called fickle. He admired +ladies indiscriminately, respected them all, liked some very much, and +next to Alice was more attracted by and pleased with Adah's face than +any he had ever seen save that of "the Brownie," which seemed to him +much like it. He had thought of Adah often, but had as often associated +her with some tall, bewhiskered man, who loved her and her little boy as +she deserved to be loved. With this idea constantly before him, Adah had +gradually faded from his mind, leaving there only the image of one who +had made the strongest impression upon him of any whom he yet had met. +Alice Johnson, she was the star he followed now, hers the presence which +would make that projected tour through Europe all sunshine. Irving had +decided to be married; his mother said he ought; Augusta said he ought; +Mrs. Ellsworth said he ought; and so, as Hugh suspected, he had come to +Kentucky for the sole purpose of asking Alice to be his wife. At sight, +however, of Hugh, so much improved, so gentlemanly, and so fine looking, +his heart began to misgive him, and Hugh would have been surprised could +he have known that Irving Stanley was as jealous of him as he was of +Irving Stanley. Yet, such was the fact, and it was a hard matter to tell +which was the more miserable of the two, Irving or Hugh, when at last +the latter returned from 'Lina's grave, and seated himself upon the +moon-lighted piazza, a little apart from the lovers, as he believed +Irving and Alice to be. + +By mutual consent the conversation turned upon the war, and Alice could +scarcely forbear laying her hand in Hugh's in token of approbation as +she watched the glow of enthusiasm kindling in his cheek, and the fire +of patriotism flashing from his dark, handsome eyes. + +"I wonder, with your strong desire to punish the South, that you are not +in the field," Irving said, a little dryly, for though not a sympathizer +with the rebellion, he was a Baltimorean, and not yet quite as much +aroused as Hugh, who replied at once: + +"And so I should have been, but for circumstances I could not control. I +shall soon start in quest of my sister, and when she is found I shall +volunteer at once, fighting like a blood-hound, until some ball strikes +me down." + +This he said savagely, and partly for Alice's benefit; never, however, +glancing at her, and so he failed to see the sudden pallor on her cheek, +as she heard, in fancy, the whizzing of the ball which was to lay that +stalwart form in the dust. + +"No, sir," Hugh continued fiercely, "it's not for lack of will that I am +not with them to-day; and, I assure you, nothing could take me to Europe +at such a time as this, unless I went to be rid of the trouble," and +springing from his chair, Hugh strode up and down the piazza, chafing +like a caged lion, while Irving Stanley's face flushed faintly at the +insinuation he could not help understand, and Alice looked surprised +that Hugh should so far have forgotten his position as host. + +The same thought came to Hugh at last, and turning suddenly in his walk, +he confronted Irving Stanley, and offering him his hand, said: + +"Forgive me, sir, for my rudeness. When I get upon the war, I grow too +much excited. I knew you were from Baltimore, and I was fearful you +might uphold that infernal mob which murdered the brave Massachusetts +boys. I could lay that city in ashes." + +Irving took the offered hand, and answered, good humoredly: + +"That would punish the innocent as well as the guilty, so I am not with +you there, though, like you, I recoil in horror from the perpetration of +that fiendish attack upon peaceable troops. I was there myself, and did +what I could to quiet the tumult, receiving more than one brickbat for +my interference. One word more, Cousin Hugh, I am not going to Europe to +be rid of the trouble, or for pleasure either, but as my sister's +escort. I do not yet see that my country needs me; when I do I shall +come home and join the Union army. We may meet yet on some battlefield, +and if we do you will see I am no coward or traitor either." + +Alice's face was white now as marble, and her breath came hurriedly. The +war, before so far off, seemed very near--a terrible reality, when those +two young men talked of standing side by side on some field of carnage. +Hugh noticed her now, and attributing her emotions wholly to her fears +for Irving Stanley, wrung the hand of the latter and then walked away, +half wishing that the leafy woods beyond the distant fields were so many +human beings and he was one of them, marching on to duty. + +In this quiet way two days went by, Irving Stanley, quiet, pleasant, +gentlemanly, and winning all hearts by his extreme suavity of manner; +Hugh, silent, fitful, moody; Alice, artificially gay, and even merry, +trying so hard to make up Hugh's deficiencies, that she led poor Irving +astray, and made him honestly believe she might be won. It was on the +morning of the third day that he resolved to end the uncertainty, and +know just how she regarded him. Hugh had gone to Frankfort, he supposed; +Mrs. Worthington was suffering from a nervous headache, while Densie, as +usual, sat in her own room, mostly silent, but occasionally whispering +to herself, "White nigger, white nigger--that's me!" Apparently it was +the best opportunity he could have, and joining Alice in the large, cool +parlor, he seated himself beside her, and with the thought that nothing +was gained by waiting, plunged at once into his subject. + +"Alice," he began, "I must leave here to-morrow, and the business on +which I came is not yet transacted. Can't you guess what it is? Has not +my manner told you why I came to Kentucky?" + +Alice was far too truthful to affect ignorance, and though it cost her a +most painful effort to do so, she answered, frankly: "I think I can +guess." + +"And you will not tell me no?" Irving said, involuntarily winding his +arm around her, and drawing her drooping head nearer to him. + +Just then a shadow fell upon them, but neither noticed it, or dreamed of +the tall form passing the window and pausing long enough to see Irving +Stanley's arm around Alice's neck, to hear Irving Stanley as he +continued: "Darling Alice, you will be my wife?" + +The rest was lost to Hugh, who had not yet started for Frankfort, as +Irving supposed. With every faculty paralyzed save that of locomotion, +he hurried away to where Rocket stood waiting for him, and mounting his +pet, went dashing across the fields, conscious of nothing save that +Golden Hair was lost forever. In his rapid walk down the piazza he had +not observed Old Sam, seated in the door, nor heard the mumbled words, +"Poor Massa Hugh! I'se berry sorry for him, berry! I kinder thought, +'fore t'other chap comed, Miss Ellis was hankerin' after him a little. +Poor Massa Hugh!" + +Old Sam, like Hugh, had heard Irving Stanley's impassioned words, for +the window nearby was opened wide; he had seen, too, the deadly pallor +on Hugh's face, and how for an instant he staggered, as from a blow, +covering his eyes with his hands and whispering as he passed the negro, +"Oh, Alice, Golden Hair!" + +All this Sam had witnessed, and in his sympathy for "Massa Hugh" he +failed to hear the rest of Irving's wooing, or Alice's low-spoken +answer. She could not be Irving Stanley's wife. She made him understand +that, and then added, sadly: "I am sorry I cannot love you as I ought, +for I well know the meed of gratitude I owe to one who saved my life, +and I have wanted so much to thank you, only you did not seem to +remember me at all." + +In blank amazement Mr. Stanley asked her what she meant, while Alice, +equally amazed, replied: "Surely, you have not forgotten me? Can I be +mistaken? I am the little girl whom Irving Stanley rescued from +drowning, when the _St. Helena_ took fire, several years ago." + +"I was never on a burning boat, never saw the _St. Helena_," was Mr. +Stanley's reply; and then for a moment the two regarded each other +intently, but Irving was the first to speak. + +"It was Hugh," he said. "It must have been Hugh, for I remember now that +when he was a lad, or youth, his uncle sometimes called him Irving, +which is, I think, his middle name." + +"Yes, Yes, H.I. Worthington. I've seen it written thus, but never +thought to ask what 'I.' was for. It was Hugh, and I mistook that old +man for his father. I understand it now," and Alice spoke hurriedly, her +fair face coloring with excitement as the truth flashed upon her that +she was Golden Hair. + +Then the bright color faded away, and alarmed at the pallor which +succeeded it, Irving Stanley passed his arm supportingly around her, +asking if she were faint. Old Sam, moving away from the door, saw her as +she sat thus, but did not hear her reply: "It takes me so by surprise. +Poor Hugh, how he must have suffered." + +She said this last more to herself than to Irving Stanley, who, +nevertheless, saw in it a meaning; and looking her earnestly in the +face, said to her: "Alice, you cannot be my wife, because your heart is +given to Hugh Worthington. Is it not so?" + +Alice would not deceive him, and she answered, frankly: "It is," while +Irving replied: "I approve your choice, although it makes me very +wretched. You will be happy with him. Heaven bless you both." + +He dared not trust himself to say another word, but hurrying from her +presence, sought the shelter of the woods, where alone he could school +himself to bear this terrible disappointment. + +Hugh did not return until evening, and the first object he saw +distinctly as he galloped to the house, was Alice, sitting near to +Irving upon the pleasant piazza, just as it was natural that she should +sit. He did not observe that his mother was there with them; he did not +think of anything as he rode past them with nod and smile, save that +life henceforth was but a dreary, hopeless blank to him. + +Leaving Rocket in Claib's care, he sauntered to the back piazza, where +Sam was sitting, and taking a seat beside him startled him by saying +that he should start on the morrow in quest of his missing sister. + +"Yes, massah," was Sam's quiet reply, for he understood the reason of +this sudden journey. + +Old Sam pitied Hugh, and after a moment's silence his pity expressed +itself in words. Laying his dark hand on Hugh's bowed head, he said: + +"Poor Massah Hugh. Sam kin feel for you ef he is black. Niggers kin love +like the white folks does." + +"What do you mean? What do you know?" Hugh asked, a little haughtily, +while Sam fearlessly replied: + +"'Scuse me, massah, but I hears dem dis mornin'--hears de city chap +sparkin' Miss Ellis, and seen his arm spang round her, too, with her +sweet face, white as wool, lyin' in his buzzum." + +"You saw this after I was gone?" Hugh asked, eagerly, and Sam replied: + +"Yes, massah, strue as preachin', and I'se sorry for massah. I prays +that he may somewhar find anodder Miss Ellis, only not quite so nice, +'cause he can't." + +Hugh smiled bitterly, as he rejoined: + +"Pray rather that I may find Adah, that is the object now for which I +live; and, Sam, keep what you have seen to yourself. Be faithful to Miss +Johnson and kind to mother. There's no telling when I shall return. I +may join the Federal Army, but not a word of this to any one." + +"Oh, massah," Sam began, but Hugh left him ere he finished, and +compelled himself to join the group on the front side of the building, +startling them as he had Sam by announcing his determination to start on +the morrow for New York. + +Alice's exclamation of surprise was lost as Irving rejoined: + +"Then we may travel together, as I, too, leave in the morning." + +Hugh gave him a rapid, searching glance, and then his eye fell on Alice, +whose white face he jealously fancied was caused by the prospect of +parting so soon with her affianced husband. He could not guess whether +she were going to Europe or not. A few weeks seemed so short a time in +which to prepare, that he half believed she might induce Mr. Stanley to +defer the trip till autumn. But he would not ask. She would surely tell +him at the last, he thought. She ought, at least, to trust him as a +brother, and say to him: + +"Hugh, I am engaged to Mr. Stanley, and when you return, if you are long +gone, I shall probably not be here." + +But she said to him no such thing, and only the whiteness of her face +and the occasional quivering of her long eyelashes, showed that she felt +at all, as at an early hour next morning she presided at the breakfast +prepared for the travelers. There was no tremor in her voice, no +hesitancy in her manner, and a stranger could not have told which of the +young men before her held her heart in his possession, or which had kept +her wakeful the entire night, revolving the propriety of telling him ere +he left that the Golden Hair he loved so much was willing to be his. + +"Perhaps he will speak to me. I'll wait," was the final decision, as, +rising from her sleepless pillow, she sat down in the gray dawn of the +morning and penned a hasty note, which she thrust into his hand at +parting, little dreaming how long a time would intervene ere they would +meet again. + +He had not said to her or to his mother that he might join the army, +gathering so fast from every Northern city and hamlet; only Sam knew +this, and so the mother longing for her daughter was pleased rather than +surprised at his abrupt departure, bidding him Godspeed, and lading him +with messages of love for Adah and the little boy. Alice, too, tried to +smile as she said good-by, but it died upon her lips and a tear trembled +on her cheek, when Hugh dropped the little hand he never expected to +hold again just as he held it then. + +Feeling intuitively that Irving and Alice would rather say their parting +words alone, Hugh drew his mother with him as he advanced into the midst +of the sobbing, howling negroes assembled to see him off. But Alice had +nothing to say which she would not have said in his presence. Irving +Stanley understood better than Hugh, and he merely raised her cold hand +to his lips, saying as he did so: + +"Just this once; I shall never kiss it again." + +He was in the carriage when Hugh came up, and Alice stood leaning +against one of the tall pillars, a deep flush now upon her cheek, and +tears filling her soft blue eyes. In another moment the carriage was +rolling from the yard, neither Irving nor Hugh venturing to look back, +and both as by mutual consent avoiding the mention of Alice, whose name +was not spoken once during their journey together to Cincinnati, where +they parted company, Irving continuing his homeward route, while Hugh +stopped in the city to arrange a matter of business with his banker +there. It was not until Irving was gone and he alone in his room that he +opened the little note given him by Alice, the note which would tell him +of her approaching marriage, he believed. How then was he surprised when +he read: + + "DEAR HUGH: I have at last discovered the mistake under which, for + so many years, I have been laboring. It was not Irving Stanley who + saved me from the water, but your own noble self, and you have + generously kept silent all this time, permitting me to expend upon + another the gratitude due to you. + + "Dear Hugh, I wish I had known earlier, or that you did not leave + us so soon. It seems so cold, thanking you on paper, but I have no + other opportunity, and must do it here. + + "Heaven bless you, Hugh. My mother prayed often for the preserver + of her child, and need I tell you that I, too, shall never forget + to pray for you? The Lord keep you in all your ways, and lead you + safely to your sister. + + "ALICE" + +Many times Hugh read this note, then pressing it to his lips thrust it +into his bosom, but failed to see what Alice had hoped he might see, +that the love he once asked for was his, and his alone. He was too sure +that another was preferred before him to reason clearly, and the only +emotions he experienced from reading her note were feelings of pleasure +that she had been set right at last, and that Irving had not withheld +from her the truth. + +"That ends the drama," he said. "I don't quite believe she is going with +him to Europe, but she will be his when he returns; and henceforth my +duty must be to forget, if possible, that ever I knew I loved her. Oh, +Golden Hair, why did I ever meet, or meeting you, why was I suffered to +love her so devotedly, if I must lose her at the last!" + +There were great drops of sweat about Hugh's lips and on his forehead, +as, burying his face in his hands, he laid both upon the table, and +battled manfully with his love for Alice Johnson, a love which refused +at once to surrender its object, even though there seemed no longer a +shadow of hope in which to take refuge. + +"God, help me in my sorrow," was the prayer which fell from the +quivering lips, but did not break the silence of that little room, where +none, save God, witnessed the conflict, the last Hugh ever fought for +Alice Johnson. + +He could give her up at length; could think, without a shudder, of the +time when another than himself would call her his wife; and when, late +that afternoon, he took the evening train for Cleveland, not one in the +crowded car would have guessed how sore was the heart of the young man +who plunged so energetically into the spirited war argument in progress +between a Northern and Southern politician. It was a splendid escape +valve for his pent-up feelings, and Hugh carried everything before him, +taking by turns both sides of the question, and effectually silencing +the two combatants, who said to each other in parting: "We shall hear +from that Kentuckian again, though whether in Rebeldom or Yankeeland we +cannot tell." + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII + +LETTERS FROM HUGH AND IRVING STANLEY + + +Claib had brought two letters from the office, one for Mrs. Worthington +from Hugh, and one for Alice from Irving Stanley. This last had been +long delayed, and as she broke the seal a little nervously, reading that +his trip to Europe had been deferred on account of the illness of his +sister's governess, but that he was going on board the ship that day, +July tenth, and that his sister was there with him and the governess, "A +modest, sweet-faced body," he wrote, "who looks very girl-like from the +fact that her soft, brown hair is worn short in her neck." + +Alice had a tolerably clear insight into Irving Stanley's character, and +immediately her mind conjured up visions of what might be the result of +a sea voyage and months of intimate companionship with that sweet-faced +governess, "who wore her soft, brown hair short in her neck." + +"I hope it may be so," she thought; and folding up her letter, she was +about going out to the rustic seat beneath a tall maple where Mug sat, +whispering over the primer she was trying so hard to read, when a cry +from Mrs. Worthington arrested her attention and brought her at once to +the side of the half-fainting woman. + +"What is it?" Alice asked, in much alarm, and Mrs. Worthington replied: +"Oh, Hugh, Hugh, my boy! he's enlisted, joined the army! I shall never +see him again!" + +Could Hugh have seen Alice then he would not for a moment have doubted +the nature of her feelings toward himself. She did not cry out, nor +faint, but her face turned white as the dress she wore, while her hands +pressed so tightly together, that her long, taper nails left the impress +in her flesh. + +"God keep him from danger and death," she murmured; then, winding her +arms around the stricken mother, she wiped her tears away; and to her +moaning cry that she was left alone, replied: "Let me be your child till +he returns, or, if he never does--" + +She could get no further, for the very idea was overwhelming, and +sinking down beside Hugh's mother, she laid her head on her lap, and +wept bitterly. Alas, that scenes like this should be so common in our +once happy land, but so it is. Mothers start with terror and grow faint +over the boy just enlisted for the war; then follow him with prayers +and yearning love to the distant battlefield; then wait and watch for +tidings from him; and then too often read with streaming eyes and hearts +swelling with agony, the fatal message which says their boy is dead. + +It was a sad day at Spring Bank when first the news of Hugh's enlistment +came, sadder even than when 'Lina died, for Hugh seemed as really dead +as if they all had heard the hissing shell or whizzing ball which was to +bear his young life away. It was nearly two months since he left home, +and he could find no trace of Adah, though searching faithfully for her, +in conjunction with Murdock and Dr. Richards, both of whom had joined +him in New York. + +"If Murdock cannot find her," he wrote, "I am convinced no one can, and +I leave the matter now to him, feeling that another duty calls me, the +duty of fighting for my country." + +It was just after the disastrous battle of Bull Run, when people were +wild with excitement, and Hugh was thus borne with the tide, until at +last he found himself enrolled as a private in a regiment of cavalry +gathering in one of the Northern States. There had been an instant's +hesitation, a clinging of the heart to the dear old home at Spring Bank, +where his mother and Alice were; a thought of Irving Stanley, and then, +with an eagerness which made his whole frame tremble, he had seized the +pen and written down his name, amid deafening cheers for the brave +Kentuckian. This done, there was no turning back; nor did he desire it. +It seemed as if he were made for war, so eagerly he longed to join the +fray. Only one thing was wanting, and that was Rocket. He had tried the +"Yankee horses," as he called them, but found them far inferior to his +pet. Rocket he must have, and in his letter to his mother he made +arrangements for her to send him northward by a Versailles merchant, +who, he knew, was coming to New York. + +Hugh and Rocket, they would make a splendid match, and so Alice thought, +as, on the day when Rocket was led away, she stood with her arms around +his graceful neck, whispering to him the words of love she would fain +have sent his master. She had recovered from the first shock of Hugh's +enlistment. She could think of him now calmly as a soldier; could pray +that God would keep him, and even feel a throb of pride that one who had +lived so many years in Kentucky, then poising almost equally in the +scale, should come out so bravely for the right, though by that act he +called down curses on his head from those at home who favored rebellion, +and who, if they fought at all, would cast in their lot with the +seceding States. She had written to Hugh a kind, sisterly letter, +telling him how proud she was of him, and how her sympathy and prayers +would follow him everywhere. "And if," she had added, in concluding, +"you are sick, or wounded, I will come to you as a sister might do. I +will find you wherever you are." + +She had sent this letter to him three weeks before, and now she stood +caressing the beautiful Rocket, who sometimes proudly arched his long +neck, and then looked wistfully at the sad group gathered around him, as +if he knew that was no ordinary parting. Colonel Tiffton, who had heard +what was going on, had ridden over to expostulate with Mrs. Worthington +against sending Rocket North. "Better keep him at home," he said, "and +tell Hugh to come back, and let those who had raised the muss settle +their own difficulty." + +The old colonel, who was a native of Virginia, did not know exactly +where he stood. "He was very patriotic," he said, "very, but hanged if +he knew which side to take--both were wrong. He didn't go Nell's +doctrine, for Nell was a rabid Secesh; neither did he swallow Abe +Lincoln, and he'd advise Alice to keep a little more quiet, for there +was no knowing what the hotheads might do. He'd heard of Harney's +threatening vengeance on all Unionists, and now that Hugh was gone he +might pounce on Spring Bank any night." + +"Let him!" and Alice's blue eyes flashed brightly, while her girlish +figure seemed to expand and grow higher as she continued: "he will find +no cowards here. I never touched a revolver in my life. I am quite as +much afraid of one that is not loaded as of one that is, but I'll +conquer the weakness. I'll begin to-day. I'll learn to handle firearms. +I'll practice shooting at a mark, and if Hugh is killed I'll--oh, Hugh! +Hugh--" + +She could not tell what she would do, for the woman conquered all other +feelings, and laying her face on Rocket's silken mane, she sobbed aloud. + +"There's pluck, by George!" muttered the old colonel. "I most wish Nell +was that way of thinking." + +It was time now for Rocket to go, and 'mid the deafening howls of the +negroes and the tears of Mrs. Worthington and Alice he was led away, the +latter watching him until he was lost to sight beyond the distant hill, +then, falling on her knees, she prayed, as many a one has done, that +God would be with our brave soldiers, giving them the victory, and +keeping one of them, at least, from falling. + +Sadly, gloomily the autumn days came on, and the land was rife with war +and rumors of war. In the vicinity of Spring Bank were many patriots, +but there were hot Secessionists there also, and bitter contentions +ensued. Old friends were estranged, families were divided, neighbors +watched each other jealously, while all seemed waiting anxiously for the +result. Toward Spring Bank the aspersions of the Confederate adherents +were particularly directed. That Hugh should go North and join the +Federal army was taken as an insult, while Mrs. Worthington and Alice +were closely watched, and all their sayings eagerly repeated. But Alice +did not care. Fully convinced of the right, and that she had yet a work +to do, she carried out her plan so boldly announced to Colonel Tiffton, +and all through the autumn months the frequent clash of firearms was +heard in the Spring Bank woods, where Alice, with Mug at her side, like +her constant shadow, "shot at her marks," hitting once Colonel Tiffton's +dog, and coming pretty near hitting the old colonel himself as he rode +leisurely through the woods. + +After that Alice confided her experiments to the open fields, where she +could see whatever was in danger, and Harney, galloping up and down the +pike, stirring up dissension and scattering his opinions broadcast +through the country, saw her more than once at her occupation, smiling +grimly as he muttered to himself: "It's possible I may try a hand with +you at shooting some day, my fair Yankee miss." + +Blacker, and darker, and thicker the war clouds gathered on our horizon, +but our story has little to do with that first year of carnage, when +human blood was poured as freely as water, from the Cumberland to the +Potomac. Over all that we pass, and open the scene again in the summer +of '62, when people were gradually waking to the fact that Richmond was +not so easily taken, or the South so easily conquered. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV + +THE DESERTER + + +There had been a desertion from a regiment on the Potomac. An officer +of inferior rank, but whose position had been such as to make him the +possessor of much valuable information, and whose perfect loyalty had +been for some time suspected, was missing from his command one morning, +and under such circumstances as to leave little doubt that his intention +was to reach the enemy's lines if possible. Long and loud were the +invectives against the traitor, and none were deeper in their +denunciations than Captain Hugh Worthington, as, seated on his fiery war +horse, Rocket, he heard from Irving Stanley the story of Dr. Richards' +disgrace. + +"He should be pursued, brought back, and shot!" he said, emphatically, +feeling that he would like much to be one of the pursuers, already on +the track of the treacherous doctor, who skillfully eluded them all, and +just at the close of a warm summer day, when afar, in his New England +home, his Sister Anna was reading, with an aching heart, the story of +his disgrace, he sat in the shadow of the Virginia woods, weary, +footsore and faint with the pain caused from his ankle, sprained by a +recent fall. + +He had hunted for Adah until entirely discouraged, and partly as a +panacea for the remorse preying so constantly upon him, and partly in +compliance with Anna's entreaties, he had at last joined the Federal +army, and been sworn in with the full expectation of some lucrative +office. But his unlucky star was in the ascendant. Stories derogatory to +his character were set afloat, and the final result of the whole was +that he found himself enrolled in a company where he knew he was +disliked, and under a captain whom he thoroughly detested, for the fraud +practiced upon himself. In this condition he was sent to the Potomac, +and while on duty as a picket, grew to be on the most friendly terms +with more than one of the enemy, planning at last to desert, and +effecting his escape one stormy night, when the watch were off their +guard. Owing to some mistake, the aid promised by his Rebel friends had +not been extended, and as best he could he was making his way to +Richmond, when, worn out with hunger, watchfulness and fatigue, he sank +down to die, as he believed, at the entrance of some beautiful woods +which skirted the borders of a well-kept farm in Virginia. Before him, +at the distance of nearly a quarter of a mile, a large, handsome house +was visible, and by the wreath of smoke curling from the rear chimney, +he knew it was inhabited, and thought once to go there, and beg for the +food he craved so terribly. But fear kept him back--the people might be +Unionists, and might detain him a prisoner until the officers upon his +track came up. Dr. Richards was cowardly, and so with a groan, he laid +his head upon the grass, and half wished that he had died ere he came to +be the miserable wretch he was. The pain in his ankle was by this time +intolerable, and the limb was swelling so fast that to walk on the +morrow was impossible, and if he found a shelter at all, it must be +found that night. + +Midway between himself and the house was a comfortable-looking barn, +whither he resolved to go. But the journey was a tedious one, and +brought to his flushed forehead great drops of sweat, wrung out by the +agony it caused him to step upon his foot. At last, when he could bear +his weight upon it no longer, he sank upon the ground, and crawling +slowly upon his hands and knees, reached the barn just as it was growing +dark, and the shadows creeping into the corners made him half shrink +with terror lest they were the bayonets of those whose coming he was +constantly expecting. He could not climb to the scaffolding, and so he +sought a friendly pile of hay, and crouching down behind it, ere long +fell asleep for the first time in three long days and nights. + +The early June sun was just shining through the cracks between the +boards when he awoke, sore, stiff, feverish, burning with thirst, and +utterly unable to use the poor, swollen foot, which lay so helplessly +upon the hay. + +"Oh, for Anna now," he moaned; "if she were only here; or Lily, dear +Lily, she would pity and forgive, could she see me now." + +But hark, what sound is it which falls upon his ear, making him quake +with fear, and, in spite of his aching ankle, creep farther behind the +hay? It is a footstep--a light, tripping step, and it comes that way, +nearer, nearer, until a shadow falls between the open chinks and the +bright sunshine without. Then it moves on, around the corner, pausing +for a moment, while the hidden coward holds his breath, and listens +anxiously, hoping nothing is coming there. But there is, and it enters +the same door through which he came the previous night--a girlish +figure, with a basket on her arm--a basket in which she puts the eggs +she knows just where to find. Not behind the hay, where a poor wretch +was almost dead with terror. There was no nest there, and so she failed +to see the ghastly face, pinched with hunger and pain, the glassy eyes, +the uncombed hair, and soiled tattered garments of him who once was +known as one of fashion's most fastidious dandies. + +She had secured her eggs for the morning meal, and the doctor hoped she +was about to leave, when there was a rustling of the hay, and he almost +uttered a scream of fear. But the sound died on his lips, as he heard +the voice of prayer--heard that young girl as she prayed, and the words +she uttered stopped, for an instant, the pulsations of his heart, and +partly took his senses away. First for her baby boy she prayed, asking +that God would be to him father and mother both, and keep him from +temptation. Then for her country, her distracted, bleeding country, and +the doctor, listening to her, knew it was no Rebel tongue calling so +earnestly on God to save the Union, praying so touchingly for the poor, +suffering soldiers, and coming at last even to him, the miserable +outcast, whose bloodshot eyes grew blind, and whose brain grew giddy and +wild, as he heard again Lily's voice, pleading for George, wherever he +might be. She did not say: "God send him back to me, who loves him +still." She only asked forgiveness for the father of her boy, but this +was proof to the listener that she did not hate him, and forgetful of +his pain he raised himself upon his elbow, and looking over the pile of +hay, saw her where she knelt. Lily, Adah, his wife, her fair face +covered by her hands, and her soft, brown hair cut short and curling in +her neck. + +Twice he essayed to speak, but his tongue refused to move, and he sank +back exhausted, just as Adah arose from her knees and turned to leave +the barn. He could not let her go. He should die before she came again; +he was half dying now, and it would be so sweet to breathe out his life +upon her bosom, with perhaps her forgiving kiss upon his lips. + +"Adah!" he tried to say; but the quivering lips made no sound, and Adah +passed out, leaving him there alone. "Adah, Lily, Anna," he gasped, +hardly knowing himself whose name he called in his despair. + +She heard that sound, and started suddenly, for she thought it was her +old, familiar name which no one knew there at Sunny Mead. For a moment +she paused; but it came not again, and so she turned the corner, and her +shadow fell a second time on the haggard face pressed against that +crevice in the wall, the opening large enough to thrust the long fingers +through, in the wild hope of detaining her as she passed. + +"Adah!" + +It was a gasping, bitter cry; but it reached her, and looking back, she +saw the pale hand beckoning, the fingers motioning feebly, as if begging +her to return. There was a moment's hesitation, and then conquering her +timidity, Adah went back, shuddering as she passed the still beckoning +hand, and caught a glimpse of the wild eyes peering at her through the +crevice. + +"Adah!" + +She heard it distinctly now, and with it came thoughts of Hugh. It must +be he; and her feet scarcely touched the ground in her eagerness to find +him. Over the threshold, across the floor, and behind the hay she +bounded; but stood aghast at the spectacle before her. He had struggled +to his knees; and with his sprained limb coiled under him, his ashen +lips apart, and his arms stretched out, he was waiting for her. But Adah +did not spring into those trembling arms, as once she would have done. +She would never willingly rest in their embrace again; and utter, +overwhelming surprise was the only emotion on her face as she recognized +him, not so much by his looks as by the name he gave her. + +"George, oh, George, how came you here?" she asked, drawing backward +from the arm reached out to touch her. + +He felt that he was repulsed, and, with a wail which smote painfully on +Adah's heart, he fell forward on his face, sobbing: "Oh, Adah, Lily, +pity me, pity me, if you can't forgive! I have slept for three nights in +the woods, without once tasting food! My ankle is sprained, my strength +is gone, and I wish that I were dead!" + +She had drawn nearer to him, while he spoke, near enough to recognize +her country's uniform, all soiled and tattered though it was. He was a +soldier, then--Liberty's loyal son--and that fact awoke a throb of pity. + +"George," she said, kneeling down beside him, and laying her hand upon +his ragged coat, "tell me how came you here, and where is your company?" + +He would not deceive her, though tempted to do so, and he answered her +truthfully: "Lily, I am a deserter. I am trying to join the enemy!" + +He did not see the indignant flash of her eyes, or the look of scorn +upon her face, but he felt the reproach her silence implied, and dared +not look up. + +"George," she began at last, sternly, very sternly, "but for Him who +bade us forgive seventy times seven, I should feel inclined to leave you +here to die; but when I remember how much He is tried with one, I feel +that I am to be no one's judge. Tell me, then, why you have deserted; +and tell me, too--oh, George, in mercy--tell me if you know aught of +Willie?" + +The mother had forgotten all the wrongs heaped upon the wife, and Adah +drew nearer to him now, so near, indeed, that his arm encircled her at +last, and held her close; but the ragged, dirty, fallen creature did not +dare to kiss her, and could only press her convulsively to his breast, +as he attempted an answer to her question. + +"You must be quick," she said, suddenly remembering herself; "it is +growing late, Mrs. Ellsworth will be waiting for her breakfast; and +since the stampede of her servants, two old negroes and myself are all +there are left to care for the house. Stay," she added, as a new thought +seemed to strike her; "I must go, or they will look for me; but after +breakfast I will return, and do for you what I can. Lie down again upon +the hay." + +She spoke kindly to him, but he felt it was as she would have spoken to +any one in distress, and not as once she had addressed him. But he knew +that he deserved it, and he suffered her to leave him, watching her with +streaming eyes as she hurried along the path, and counting the minutes, +which seemed to him like hours, ere he saw her returning. She was very +white when she came back, and he noticed that she frequently glanced +toward the house, as if haunted by some terror. Constantly expecting +detection, he grasped her arm, as she bent to bathe his swollen foot, +and whispered huskily: "Adah, there's something on your mind--some evil +you fear. Tell me, is any one after me!" + +Adah nodded; while, like a frightened child, the tall man clung to her +neck, saying, piteously: "Don't give me up! Don't tell; they would hang +me, perhaps!" + +"They ought to do so," trembled on Adah's lips, but she suppressed the +words, and went on bandaging up the ankle, and handling it as carefully +as if it had not belonged to a deserter. + +He did not feel pain now in his anxiety, as he asked: "Who is it, Adah? +who's after me?" but he started when she replied, with downcast eyes and +a flush upon her cheek: "Major Irving Stanley. You were in his +regiment, the ----th New York Volunteers." + +Dr. Richards drew a relieved breath. "I'd rather it were he than Captain +Worthington, who hates me so cordially. Adah, you must hide me; I have +so much to tell. I know your parents, your brother, your husband; and I +am he. It was not a mock marriage. It has been proved real. It was a +genuine justice who married us, and you are my lawful wife. Oh, pray, +please don't hurt me so." He uttered a scream of pain as Adah's hands +pressed heavily now upon the hard, purple flesh. + +She scarcely knew what she was doing as she listened to his words and +heard that she was indeed his wife. Two years before, such news would +have overwhelmed her with delight, but now for a single instant a fierce +and almost resentful pang shot through her heart as she thought of being +bound for life to one for whom she had no love, and whose very caresses +made her loathe him more and more. But when she thought of Willie, and +how the stain upon his birth was washed away, the hard look left her +eyes, and her hot tears dropped upon the ankle she was bandaging. + +"You are glad?" he asked, looking at her curiously, for her manner +puzzled him. + +"Yes, very glad for Willie," she replied, keeping her face bent down so +he could not see its expression. + +Then when her task was done, she seemed to nerve herself for some +powerful task, and sitting down upon the hay, out of reach of his arms, +she said: + +"Tell me now all that has happened since I left Terrace Hill; but first +of Willie. You say Anna has him?" + +"Yes, Anna--Mrs. Millbrook," he replied, and was about to say more, when +Adah interrupted him with: + +"It may spare you some pain if I tell you first what I know of the +tragedy at Spring Bank. I know that 'Lina is dead, and that the fact of +my existence prevented the marriage. So much I heard Mr. Stanley tell +his sister. I had just come to her then. She was prouder toward me than +she is now, and with a look silenced him from talking in my presence, so +that was all I ever knew, as I dared not question her lest I should be +suspected. Go on, you spoke of my parents, my brother. Who are they?" + +Her manner perplexed him greatly, but he controlled himself, while he +repeated rapidly the story known already to our readers, the story +which made Adah reel where she sat, and turn so white that he attempted +to reach her, and so keep her from falling. But just the touch of his +hand had power to arouse her, and drawing back she laid her face in the +hay, and moaned: + +"That gentle woman, my mother; that noble Hugh, my brother! it's more +than I ever hoped. Oh, Heavenly Father, accept my thanks for this great +happiness. A mother and a brother found." + +"And husband, too," chimed in the doctor, eagerly, "thank Him for me, +Adah. You are glad to find me?" + +There was pleading in his tone--earnest pleading, for the terrible +conviction was fastening itself upon him, that not as they once parted +had he and Adah met. For full five minutes Adah lay upon the hay, her +whole soul going out in a prayer of thankfulness for her great joy, and +for strength to bear the bitterness mingling with her joy. Her face was +very white when she lifted it up at last, but her manner was composed, +and she questioned the doctor calmly of Spring Bank, of Alice, of Hugh, +of Anna, but could not trust herself to say much to him of Willie, lest +her calmness should give way, and a feeling spring up in her heart of +something like affection for Willie's father. Alas, for the miserable +man. He had found his wife, his Adah, but there was between them a gulf +which his own act had built, and which he never more might pass. He +began to suspect it, and ere she had finished the story of her +wanderings, which at his request she told, he knew there was no +pulsation of her heart which beat for him. He asked her where she had +been since she fled from Terrace Hill, and how she came to be in Mrs. +Ellsworth's family. + +There was a moment's hesitancy, as if she were deciding how much to tell +him of the past, and then resolving to keep nothing back which he might +know, she told him how, with a stunned heart and giddy brain, she had +gone to Albany, and mingling with the crowd had mechanically followed +them down to a boat just starting for New York. That, by some means, she +never knew how, she found herself in the saloon, and seated next to a +feeble, deformed little girl, who lay upon the sofa, and whose sweet, +childish voice said to her pityingly: + +"Does your head ache, lady, or what makes you so white?" + +She had responded to that appeal, talking kindly to the little girl, +between whom and herself the friendliest of relations were established +and whose name she learned was Jenny Ellsworth. The mother she did not +then see, as, during the journey down the river she was suffering from a +nervous headache, and kept her room. From the child and child's nurse, +however, she heard that Mrs. Ellsworth was going ere long to Europe, and +was anxious to secure some young and competent person to act in the +capacity of Jenny's governess. Instantly Adah's decision was made. Once +in New York she would by letter apply for the situation, for nothing +then could so well suit her state of mind as a tour to Europe, where she +would be far away from all she had ever known. Very adroitly she +ascertained Mrs. Ellsworth's address, wrote to her a note the day +following her arrival in New York, and the day following that, found her +in Mrs. Ellsworth's parlor at the Brevoort House, where for a few days +she was stopping. She had been greatly troubled to know what name to +give, but finally resolved to take her own, the one by which she was +known ere George Hastings crossed her path. Adah Maria Gordon was, as +she supposed, her real name, so in her note to Mrs. Ellsworth she signed +herself "Maria Gordon," omitting the Adah, which might lead to her being +recognized. From her little girl Mrs. Ellsworth had heard much of the +sweet young lady, who was so kind to her on the boat, and was thus +already prepossessed in her favor. + +Adah did not tell Dr. Richards, and perhaps she did not herself know how +surprised and delighted Mrs. Ellsworth was with the fair, girlish +creature, announced to her as Miss Gordon, and who won her heart before +five minutes were gone, making her think it of no consequence to inquire +concerning her at Madam ----'s school, where she said she had been a +pupil. + +"My sister must have been there at the same time," Mrs. Ellsworth had +said. "Perhaps you remember her, Augusta Stanley?" + +Yes, Miss Gordon remembered her well, but added modestly: + +"She may have forgotten me, as I was only a day scholar, and--not--not +quite her circle. I was poor." + +Charmed with her frankness, Mrs. Ellsworth decided in her own mind to +take her, but, for form's sake, she would write to her sister Augusta, +recently married, and living in Milwaukee. + +"Your first name is Maria," she said, taking out her pencil to write it +down. + +Adah could not tell a lie, and she replied unhesitatingly: + +"No, ma'am; my name is Adah Maria, but I prefer being called Maria." + +Mrs. Ellsworth nodded, wrote down "Adah Maria Gordon," but in the letter +sent that day to Augusta, merely spoke of her governess in prospect as a +Miss Gordon, who had been at the same school with Augusta, asking if she +remembered her. + +Yes, Augusta remembered Miss Gordon, well, a brown-eyed, sweet-faced, +conscientious little creature whom she liked so much, and whose services +her sister had better secure. + +Mrs. Ellsworth hesitated no longer, and ten days after the receipt of +this letter, Adah was duly installed as governess to the delighted +little Jennie, who learned to love her gentle teacher with a love almost +amounting to idolatry. + +"You were in Europe then, and that is the reason why we could not find +you," Dr. Richards said, adding, after a moment: "And Irving Stanley +went with you--was your companion all the while?" + +"Yes, all the while," and Adah's cold fingers worked nervously at the +wisp of hay she was twisting in her hand. "I had seen him before--he was +in the cars when Willie and I were on our way to Terrace Hill. Willie +had the earache, and he was so kind to us both." + +Adah looked fixedly now at the craven doctor, who could not meet her +glance, for well he remembered the dastardly part he had played in that +scene, where his own child was screaming with pain, and he sat selfishly +idle. + +"She don't know I was there, though," he thought, and that gave him some +comfort. + +But Adah did know, and she meant he should know she did. Keeping her +calm brown eyes still fixed upon him, she continued: + +"I heard Mr. Stanley talking of you once to his sister, and among other +things he spoke of your dislike for children, and referred to an +occasion in the cars, when a little boy, for whom his heart ached, was +suffering acutely, and for whom you evinced no interest, except to call +him a brat, and wonder why his mother did not stay at home. I never knew +till then that you were so near to me." + +"It's true, it's true," the doctor cried, tears rolling down his soiled +face; "but I never guessed it was you. Lily, I supposed it some ordinary +woman." + +"So did Irving Stanley," was Adah's quiet, cutting answer; "but his +heart was open to sympathy, even for an ordinary woman." + +The doctor could only moan, with his face still hidden in his hands, +until a sudden thought like a revelation flashed upon him, and +forgetting his wounded foot, he sprang like a tiger to the spot where +Adah sat, and winding his arm firmly around her, whispered hoarsely: + +"Adah, Lily, tell me you love this Irving Stanley. My wife loves another +than her husband." + +Adah did not struggle to release herself from his close grasp. It was +punishment she ought to bear, she thought, but her whole soul loathed +that close embrace, and the loathing expressed itself in the tone of her +voice, as she replied: + +"Until within an hour I did not suppose you were my husband. You said +you were not in that letter; I have it yet; the one in which you told me +it was a mock marriage, as, by your own confession, it seems you meant +it should be." + +"Oh, darling, you kill me, yet I deserve it all; but, Adah, I have +suffered enough to atone for the dreadful past; and I tried so hard to +find you. Forgive me, Lily, forgive," and falling again on his knees, +the wretched man poured forth a torrent of entreaties for her +forgiveness, her love, without which he should die. + +Holding fast her cold hands, he pleaded with all his eloquence, until, +maddened by her silence, he even taunted her with loving another, while +her own husband was living. + +Then Adah started, and pushing him away, sprang to her feet, while the +hot blood stained her face and neck, and a resentful fire gleamed from +her brown eyes. + +"It is not well for you to reproach me with faithlessness," she said, +"you, who have dealt so treacherously by me; you, who deliberately +planned my ruin, and would have effected it but for the deeper-laid +scheme of one you say is my father. No thanks to you that I am a lawful +wife. You did not make me so of your own free will. You did to me the +greatest wrong a man can do a woman, then cruelly deserted me, and now +you would chide me for respecting another more than I do you." + +"Not respecting him, Adah, no, not for respecting him. You should do +that. He's worthier than I; but, oh, Adah, Lily, wife, mother of my boy, +do you love Irving Stanley?" + +He was sobbing bitterly, and the words came between the sobs, while he +tried to clutch her dress. Staggering backward against the wooden beam, +Adah leaned there for support, while she replied: + +"You would not understand if I should tell you the terrible struggle it +was for me to be thrown each day in the society of one as noble, as good +as Irving Stanley, and not come at last to feel for him as a poor +governess ought never to feel for the handsome, gifted brother of her +employer. Oh, George, I prayed against it so much, prayed to be kept +from the sin, if it were a sin, to have Irving Stanley mingled with +every thought. But the more I prayed, the more the temptation seemed +thrust upon me. The kinder, gentler, more attentive, grew his manners +toward me. He never treated me as a mere governess. It was more like an +equal at first, and then like a younger sister, so that few strangers +took me for a subordinate, so kind were both Mrs. Ellsworth and her +brother." + +"And he," the doctor gasped, looking wistfully in her face, "does he--do +you think he loves you?" + +Adah colored crimson, but answered frankly: + +"He never told me so; never said to me a word which a husband should not +hear; but--sometimes I've fancied, I've feared, I've left him abruptly +lest he should speak, for that I know would bring the crisis I so +dreaded. I must tell him the whole then, and by my dread of doing this, +I knew he was more than a friend to me. I was fearful at first that he +might recognise me, but I was much thinner than when I saw him in the +cars, while my hair, purposely worn short, and curling in my neck, +changed my looks materially, so that he only wondered whom I was so much +like, but never suspected the truth." + +There was silence, a moment, and then the doctor asked: "How is all this +to end?" + +The question brought into Adah's eyes a fearful look of anguish, but she +did not answer, and the doctor spoke again. + +"Have I found Lily only to lose her?" + +Still there was no reply, and the doctor continued: "You are my wife, +Adah. No power can undo that, save death, and you are my child's mother. +For Willie's sake, oh, Adah, for Willie's sake, forgive." + +When he appealed to her as his wife, Adah seemed turning into stone; but +the mention of Willie touched the mother within that girlish woman, and +the iceberg melted at once. + +"For Willie, my boy," she gasped, "I could do almost anything; I could +die so willingly but--but--oh, George, that ever we should come to this. +You a deserter, a traitor to your country--lamed, disabled, wholly in +my power, and begging of me, your outcast wife, for the love which +surely is dead--dead. No, George, I do forgive, but never, never more +can I be to you a wife." + +There was a rising resentment now in the doctor's manner, as he answered +reproachfully: "Then surrender me at once to the lover hunting for me. +Let him take me back where I can be shot and that will leave you free." + +Adah raised her hand deprecatingly, and when he had finished, rejoined: +"You mistake Major Stanley, if you think he would marry me, knowing what +I should tell him. It's not for him that I refuse. It's for myself. I +could not bear it. I--" + +"Stay, Adah, Lily, don't say you should hate me;" and the doctor's voice +was so full of anguish that Adah involuntarily advanced toward him, +standing quite near, while he begged of her to say if the past could not +be forgotten. His family were ready, were anxious to receive her. Sweet +Anna Millbrook already loved her as a sister, while he, her husband, +words could not tell his love for her. He would do whatever she +required; go back to the Federal army if she said so; seek for the +pardon he was sure to gain; fight for his country like a hero, periling +life and limb, if she would only give him the shadow of a hope. + +"I must have time to think. I cannot decide alone," Adah answered, while +the doctor clutched her dress, half shrieking with terror: + +"You surely will not consult him, Major Stanley?" + +"No," and Adah spoke reverently, "there's a mightier friend than he. One +who has never failed me in my need. He will tell me what to do." + +The doctor knew now what she meant, and with a moan he laid his head +again upon the hay, wishing, oh, so much, that the lessons taught him +when in that little attic chamber, years ago, he knelt by Adah's side, +and said with her, "Our Father," had not been all forgotten. When he +lifted up his face again, Adah was gone, but he knew she would return, +and waited patiently while just outside the door, with her fair face +buried in the sweet Virginia grass, and the warm summer sunshine falling +softly upon her, poor half-crazed Adah fought and won the fiercest +battle she had ever known, coming off conqueror over self, and feeling +sure that God had heard her earnest cry for help, and told her what to +do. There was no wavering now; her step was firm; her voice steady, as +she went back to the doctor's side, and bending over him, said: + +"I will nurse you, my husband, till you are well; then you must go back +whence you came, confess your fault, rejoin your regiment, and by your +faithfulness wipe out the stain of desertion. Then, when the war is +over, or you are honorably discharged, I will--be your wife. I may not +love you at first as once I did, but I shall try, and He, who counsels +me to tell you this, will help me, I am sure." + +It was almost pitiful now to see the doctor, as, spaniel-like, he +crouched at Adah's feet, kissing her hands and blessing her 'mid his +tears. "He would be worthy of her, and they should yet be so happy." + +Adah suffered him to caress her for a moment, and then told him she must +go, for Mrs. Ellsworth would wonder at her long absence, and possibly +institute a search. Pressing one more kiss upon her hand the doctor +crept back to his hiding place, while Adah went slowly to the house +where she knew Irving Stanley was anxiously waiting for her. She dared +not meet him alone now, for latterly each time they had so met, she knew +she had kept at bay the declaration trembling on his lips, and which now +must never be listened to. So she stayed away from the pleasant parlor +where all the morning he sat chatting with his sister, who guessed how +much he loved the beautiful and accomplished girl, whom, by way of his +sister Augusta he now knew as the Brownie he had once seen at Madam ----'s +school, in New York. + +Right-minded and high-principled, Mrs. Ellsworth had conquered any pride +she might at first have felt--any reluctance to her brother's marrying +her governess, and now like him was anxious to have it settled. But Adah +gave him no chance that day, and late in the afternoon he rode back to +his regiment, wondering at the change in Miss Gordon, and why her face +was so deadly white, and her voice so husky, as she bade him good-by. + +Poor Adah! Hers was now a path of suffering, such as she had never known +before. But she did her duty to the doctor faithfully, nursing him with +the utmost care; but never expressing to him the affection she did not +feel. It was impossible to keep his presence there a secret from the two +old negroes, and knowing she could trust them, she told them of the +wounded Union soldier, enlisting their sympathies for him, and thus +procuring for him the care of older and more experienced people than +herself. + +He was able at length to return, and one pleasant summer night, just +three weeks after his arrival at Sunnymead, Adah walked with him to the +woods, and kneeling with him by a running stream, whose waters farther +away would yet be crimson with the blood of our slaughtered brothers, +she commended him to God. Through the leafy branches the moonbeams were +shining, and they showed to Adah the expression of the doctor's wasted +face as he said to her at parting: "I have kissed you many times, my +darling, but you have never returned it. Please do so once, dear Lily, +for the sake of the olden time. It will make me a better soldier." + +She kissed him once for the sake of the olden time, and when he +whispered, "Again for Willie's sake," she kissed him twice, and then she +bade him leave her, herself buttoning about him the soldier coat which +her own hands had cleaned and mended and made respectable. She was glad +afterward that she had done so; glad, too, that she had kissed him and +waited by the tree, where, looking backward, he could see the flutter of +her white dress until a turn in the forest path hid her from his view. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV + +THE SECOND BATTLE OF BULL RUN + + +The second disastrous battle at Bull Run was over, and the shadow of a +summer night wrapped the field of carnage in darkness. Thickly upon the +battlefield lay the dead and dying, the sharp, bitter cries of the +latter rising on the night wind, and adding tenfold to the horror of the +scene. In the woods, not very far away, more than one brave soldier was +weltering in his lifeblood, just where, in his rapid flight, he had +fallen, the grass his pillow, and the leafy branches of the forest trees +his only covering. + +Side by side, and near to a running brook, two wounded men were lying, +or rather one was supporting the other and trying to stanch the purple +gore, pouring darkly from a fearful bullet wound in the region of the +heart. The stronger of the two, he who wore a major's uniform, had come +accidentally upon the other, writhing in agony, and muttering at +intervals snatches of the prayer with which he once had been familiar, +and which seemed to bring Lily back to him again, just as she was when +in the attic chamber she made him kneel by her, and say "Our Father." He +tried to say it now, and the whispered words caught the ear of Irving +Stanley, arresting his steps at once. + +"Poor fellow! it's gone hard with you," he said, kneeling by the +sufferer, whom he recognized as the deserter, Dr. Richards, who had +returned to his allegiance, had craved forgiveness for his sins, and +been restored to the ranks, discharging his duties faithfully, and +fighting that day with a zeal and energy which did much in reinstating +him in the good opinion of those who witnessed his daring bravery. + +But the doctor's work was done, and never from his lips would Lily know +how well his promise had been kept. Giddy with pain and weak from the +loss of blood, he had groped his way through the woods, fighting back +the horrid certainty that to-morrow's sun would not rise for him, and +sinking at length exhausted upon the grass, whose freshness was now +defaced by the blood which poured so freely from his wound. + +It was thus that Irving Stanley found him, starting at first as from a +hissing shell, and involuntarily clasping his hand over the place where +lay a little note, received a few days before, a reply to the earnest +declaration of love he had at last written to his sister's governess, +Maria Gordon. There was but one alternative, and Adah met it resolutely, +though every fiber of her heart throbbed with keen agony as she told to +Irving Stanley the story of her life. She was a wife, a mother, the +sister of Hugh Worthington, they said, the Adah for whom Dr. Richards +had sought so long in vain, and for whom Murdock, the wicked father, was +seeking still for aught she knew to the contrary. Even the story of the +doctor's secretion in the barn at Sunnymead was confessed. Nothing was +withheld except the fact that even as he professed to love her, so she +in turn loved him, or had done so before she knew it was a sin. Surprise +had, for a few moments, stifled every other emotion, and Irving Stanley +had sat like one suddenly bereft of motion, when he read who Maria +Gordon was. Then came the bitter thought that he had lost her, mingled +with a deep feeling of resentment toward the man who had so cruelly +wronged the gentle girl, and who alone stood between him and happiness. +For Irving Stanley could overlook all the rest. His great warm heart, +so full of kindly sympathy and generous charity for all mankind could +take to its embrace the fair, sweet woman he had learned to love so +much, and be a father to her little boy, as if it had been his own. But +this might not be. There was a mighty obstacle in the way, and feeling +that it mattered little now whether he ever came from the field alive, +Irving Stanley, with a whispered prayer for strength to bear and do +right, had hidden the letter in his bosom, and then, when the hour of +conflict came, plunged into the thickest of the fight with a +fearlessness born of keen and recent disappointment, which made life +less valuable than it had been before. + +It is not strange, then, that he should start and stagger backward when +he came so suddenly upon the doctor, or that the first impulse of weak +human nature was to leave the fallen man, but the second, the Christian +impulse, bade him stay, and forgetting his own slight but painful wound, +he bent over Adah's husband, and did what he could to alleviate the +anguish he saw was so hard to bear. At the sound of his voice, a spasm +of pain passed over the doctor's pallid face, and the flash of a sudden +fire gleamed for a moment in his eye, as he, too, remembered Adah, and +thought of what might be when the grass was growing over his untimely +grave. + +The doctor knew that he was dying, and yet his first question was: + +"Do you think I can live? Did any one ever recover with such a wound as +this?" + +Eagerly the dim eyes sought the face above them, the kind, good face of +one who would not deceive him. Irving shook his head as he felt the +pulse, and answered frankly: + +"I believe you will die." + +There was a bitter moan, as all his misspent life came up before him, +followed closely by the dark future, where there shone no ray of hope, +and then with the desperate thought, "It's too late now for regrets. +I'll meet it like a man," he said: + +"It may as well be I as any one, though it's hard even for me to die; +harder than you imagine;" then, growing excited as he talked, he raised +himself upon his elbow, and continued: "Major Stanley, tell me truly, do +you love the woman you know as Maria Gordon?" + +"I did love her once, before I knew I must not--but now--I--yes, Dr. +Richards, my heart tells me that never was she so dear to me as now when +her husband lies dying at my side." + +Irving Stanley hardly knew what he was saying, but the doctor--the +husband, understood, and almost shrieked out the words: + +"You know then that she is Adah, a wife, a mother, and that I am her +lawful husband?" + +"I know the whole," was the reply, as with his hand Irving dipped water +from the brook and laved the feverish brow of the dying man, who went on +to speak of Adah as she was when he first knew her, and of the few happy +months spent with her in those humble lodgings. + +"You don't know my darling," he whispered. "She's an angel, and I might +have been so happy with her. Oh, if I could only live, but that can't be +now, and it is well. Come close to me, Major Stanley, and listen while I +tell you that Adah promised if I would do my duty to my country +faithfully, she would live with me again, and all the while she +promised, her heart was breaking, for she did not love me. It had all +died out for me. It had been given to another; can you guess to whom?" + +Irving made no reply, except to chafe the hands which clasped his so +tightly, and the doctor continued: + +"I am surely dying--I shall never see her more, or my boy, my beautiful +boy. I was a brute in the cars; you remember the time. That was Adah, +and those little feet resting on my lap were Willie's, baby Willie's, +Adah's baby." + +The doctor's mind was wandering now, and he kept on disconnectedly: + +"She's been to Europe with him. She's changed from the shy girl into a +queenly woman. Even the Richards line might be proud of her bearing, and +when I'm gone, tell her I said you might have Willie, and--and--it grows +very dark; the noise of the battle drowns my voice, but come nearer to +me, nearer--tell her--tell Adah, you may have her. She needn't mourn, +nor wait; but carry me back to Snowdon. There's no soldier's grave there +yet. I never thought mine would be the first. Anna will cry, and mother +and Asenath and Eudora; but Adah, oh Lily, darling. She's coming to me +now. Don't you hear that rustle in the grass?" and the doctor listened +intently to a sound which also caught Irving's ear, a sound of a horse's +neigh in the distance, followed by the tramp of feet. + +"Hush-sh," he whispered. "It may be the enemy," but his words were not +regarded, or understood. + +The doctor was in Lily's presence, and in fancy it was her hand, not +Irving's which wiped the death-sweat from his brow, and he murmured +words of love and fond endearment, as to a living, breathing form. +Fainter and fainter grew the pulse, weaker and weaker the trembling +voice, until at last Irving could only comprehend that some one was +bidden to pray--to say "Our Father." + +Reverently, as for a departing brother, he prayed over the dying man, +asking that all the past might be forgiven, and that the erring might +rest at last in peace. + +"Say Amen for me, I'm too weak," the doctor whispered; then, as reason +asserted her sway again, he continued: "I see it now; Lily's gone, and I +am dying here in the woods, in the dark, in the night, on the ground; +cared for by you who will be Lily's husband. You may, you may tell her I +said so; tell her kiss my boy; love him, Major Stanley; love him as your +own, even though others shall call you father. Tell her--I tried--to +pray--" + +He never spoke again; and when next the thick, black, clotted blood +oozed up from the gaping wound, it brought with it all there was of +life; and there in those Virginia woods, in the darkness of the night, +Irving Stanley sat alone with the dead. And yet not alone, for away to +his right, and where the neigh of a horse had been heard, another +wounded soldier lay--his soft, brown locks moist with dew, and his +captain's uniform wet with the blood which dripped from the terrible +gash in the fleshy part of the neck, where a murderous ball had been. +One arm, the right one, was broken, and lay disabled upon the grass; +while the hand of the other clutched occasionally at the damp grass, and +then lifting itself, stroked caressingly the powerful limbs of the +faithful creature standing guard over the prostrate form of his master. + +Hugh and Rocket! They had been in many battles, and neither shot nor +shell had harmed them until to-day, when Hugh had received the charge +which sent him reeling from his horse, breaking his arm in the field, +and scarcely conscious that two of his comrades were leading him from +the field. How or by what means he afterward reached the woods, he did +not know, but reach them he had, and unable to travel farther, he had +fallen to the ground, where he lay, until Rocket came galloping near, +riderless, frightened, and looking for his master. With a cry of joy +the noble brute answered that master's faint whistle, bounding at once +to his side, and by many mute but meaning signs, signifying his desire +that Hugh should mount as heretofore. + +But Hugh was too weak for that, and after several ineffectual efforts to +rise, fell back half fainting on the turf; while Rocket took his stand +directly over him, a powerful and efficient guard until help from some +quarter should arrive. Patiently, faithfully he stood, waiting as +quietly as if he knew that aid was coming, not far away, in the form of +an old man, whose hair was white as snow, and whose steps were feeble +with age, but who had the advantage of knowing every inch of that +ground, for he had trodden it many a time, with a homesick heart which +pined for "old Kentuck," whence he had been stolen. + +Uncle Sam! He it was whose uncertain steps made Rocket prick up his ears +and listen, neighing at last a neigh of welcome, by which he, too, was +recognized. + +"De dear Father be praised if that be'nt Rocket hisself. I've found him, +I've found my Massah Hugh. I tole Miss Ellis I should, 'case I knows all +de way. Dear Massuh Hugh, I'se Sam, I is," and with a convulsive sob the +old negro knelt beside the white-faced man, who but for this timely aid +could hardly have survived that fearful night. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI + +HOW SAM CAME THERE + + +It is more than a year now since last we looked upon the inmates of +Spring Bank, and during that time Kentucky had been the scene of +violence, murder, and bloodshed. The roar of artillery had been heard +upon its hills. Soldiers wearing the Federal uniform had marched up and +down its beaten paths, encamping for a brief season in its capital, and +then departing to other points where their services were needed more. + +Morgan, with his fierce band of guerillas, had carried terror, dismay, +and sometimes death, to many a peaceful home; while Harney, too, +disdaining open, honorable warfare, had joined himself, it was said, to +a horde of savage marauders, gathered, some from Texas, some from +Mississippi, and a few from Tennessee; but none, to her credit be it +said, none from Kentucky, save their chief, the Rebel Harney, who +despised and dreaded almost equally by Unionist and Confederates, kept +the country between Louisville and Lexington in a constant state of +excitement. + +At Spring Bank, well known as the home of stanch Unionists, nothing as +yet had been harmed, thanks to Alice's courage and vigilance, and the +skill with which she had not only taught herself to handle firearms, but +also taught the negroes, who, instead of running away, as the Wendell +Phillips men of the North seem to believe all negroes will do, only give +them the chance, remained firmly at their post, and nightly took turns +in guarding the house against any attack from the guerillas. + +Toward Spring Bank Harney had a peculiar spite, and his threats of +violence had more than once reached the ears of Alice, who wisely kept +them from the nervous, timid Mrs. Worthington. At her instigation, Aunt +Eunice had left her home in the cornfield, and come to Spring Bank, so +that the little garrison numbered four white women, including crazy +Densie, and twelve negro servants. + +As the storm grew blacker, it had seemed necessary for Colonel Tiffton +openly to avow his sentiments, and not "sneak between two fires, for +fear of being burned," as Harney wolfishly told him one day, taunting +him with being a "villainous Yankee," and hinting darkly of the +punishment preparing for all such. + +The colonel was not cowardly, but as was natural he did lean to the +Confederacy. "Peaceful separation, if possible," was his creed; and +fully believing the South destined to triumph, he took that side at +last, greatly to the delight of his high-spirited Nell, who had been a +Rebel from the first. The inmates of Spring Bank, however, were not +forgotten by the colonel, and regularly each morning he rode over to see +if all were safe, sometimes sending there at night one or two of his own +field hands as body guard to Alice, whose courage and intrepidity in +defending her side of the question he greatly admired. + +One night, near the middle of summer, Jake, a burly negro, came earlier +than usual, and seeking Alice, thrust into her hand a note from Colonel +Tiffton. It read as follows: + + "DEAR ALICE: I have a suspicion that the villainous scamps, headed + by Harney, mean to steal horses from Spring Bank to-night, hoping + by that means to engage you in a bit of a fight. In short, Harney + was heard to say, 'I'll have every horse from Spring Bank before + to-morrow morning; and if that Yankee miss appears to dispute my + claim, as I trust she will, I'll have her, too;' and then the bully + laid a wager that 'Major Alice,' as he called you, would be his + prisoner in less than forty-eight hours. + + "I hope it is not true, but if he does come, please keep quietly in + the house, and let him take every mother's son of a horse. I shall + be around watching, but hanged if it will do to identify myself + with you as I wish to do. They'd shoot me like a dog." + +To say that Alice felt no fear would be false. There was a paling of the +cheek and a sinking of the heart as she thought of what the fast-falling +night might bring. But her trust was not in her own strength, and +dismissing Jake from her presence, she bent her face upon the piano lid +and prayed most earnestly to be delivered from the approaching peril, to +know just what to do, and how to act; then summoning the entire +household to the large sitting-room, she explained to them what she had +heard, and asked what they must do. + +"Shall we lock ourselves inside the house and let them have the horses, +or shall we try to keep them?" + +It took a few minutes for the negroes to recover from their fright, and +when they had done so Claib was the first to speak. + +"Please, Miss Ellis, Massa Hugh's last words to me was: 'Mind, boy, you +takes good keer of de hosses.' Massa Hugh sot store by dem. He not stay +quiet in de chimbly corner and let Sudden 'Federacy stole 'em." + +"Dem's my theology, Miss Ellis," chimed in Uncle Sam, rising and +standing in the midst of the dark group assembled near the door. "I'se +for savin' de horses." + +"An' I'se for shootin' Harney," interrupted the little Mug, her eyes +flashing, and her nostrils dilating as she continued: "I knows it's +wicked, but I hates him, an' I never tole you how I seen him in de woods +one day, an' he axes me 'bout my Miss and Mars'r Hugh--did they writ +often, an' was they kinder sparkin'? I told him none of his bizness, and +cut and run, but he bawl after me and say how't he steal Miss Ellis some +night and make her be his wife. I flung a rock at him, big rock, too, +and cut again. Ugh!" + +Mug's face, expressive as it was, only reflected the feelings of the +others and Alice's decision was taken. They would protect Hugh's horses. +But how? That was a perplexing question until Mug suggested that they be +brought into the kitchen, which adjoined the house, and was much larger +than Southern kitchens usually are. It was a novel idea, but seemed the +only feasible one, and was acted upon at once. The kitchen, however, +would not accommodate the dozen noble animals, Claib's special pride, +and so the carpet was taken from the dining-room floor, and before the +clock struck ten every horse was stabled in the house, where they stood +as quietly as if they, too, felt the awe, the expectancy of something +terrible brooding over the household. + +It was Alice who managed everything, giving directions where each one of +her subordinates was to stay, and what they were to do in case of an +attack. Every door and window was barricaded, every possible precaution +taken, and then, with an unflinching nerve, Alice stole up the stairs, +and unfastening a trapdoor which led out upon the roof, stood there +behind a huge chimney top, scanning wistfully the darkness of the woods, +waiting, watching for a foe, whose very name was in itself sufficient to +blanch a woman's cheek with fear. + +"Oh, what would Hugh say, if he could see me now?" she murmured, a tear +starting to her eye as she thought of the dear soldier afar in the +tented field, and wondered if he had forgotten his love for her, as she +sometimes feared, or why, in his many letters, he never breathed a word +of aught save brotherly affection. + +She was his mother's amanuensis, and as she could not follow her +epistles, and see how, ere breaking the seal, Hugh's lips were always +pressed to the place where her fingers had traced his name, she did not +guess how precious they were to him, or how her words of counsel and +sympathy kept him often from temptations, and were molding him so fast +into the truly consistent Christian man she so much wished him to be. He +had in one letter, expressed his surprise that she did not go to Europe, +while she had replied to him: "I never thought of going;" and this was +all the allusion either had made to Irving Stanley since the day that +Hugh left Spring Bank. Gradually, however, the conviction had crept over +Hugh that in his jealousy he acted hastily, that Irving Stanley had sued +for Alice's hand in vain, but he would not seek an explanation yet; he +would do his duty as a soldier, and when that duty was done, he might, +perhaps, be more worthy of Alice's love. He would have had no doubt of +it now could he have seen her that summer night, and known her thoughts +as she stood patiently at her post, now starting with a sudden flutter +of fear, as what she had at first taken for the distant trees seemed to +assume a tangible form; and again laughing at her own weakness, as the +bristling bayonets subsided into sleeping shadows beneath the forest +boughs. + +"Miss Ellis, did you hear dat ar?" came in a whisper from the opening of +the roof, and with a suppressed scream Alice recognized Muggins, who had +followed her young mistress, and for the last half hour had been poising +herself, first on one foot and then upon the other, as she stood upon +the topmost narrow stairs, with her woolly head protruding just above +the roof, and her cat-like ears listening for some sound. + +"How came you here?" Alice asked, and Mug replied: + +"I thinks dis the best place to fire at Mas'r Harney. Mug's gwine to +take aim, fire, bang, so," and the queer child illustrated by holding up +a revolver which she had used more than once under Alice's supervision, +and with which she had armed herself. + +Alice could not forbear a smile, but it froze on her lips, as clutching +her dress Mug whispered: + +"Dar they comes," pointing at the same time toward the woods where a +band of men was distinctly visible, marching directly upon Spring Bank. + +"Will I bang 'em now?" Mug asked, but Alice stopped her with a sign, and +leaning against the chimney, stood watching the advancing foe, who, led +by Harney, made straight for the stables, their suppressed voices +reaching her where she stood, as did their oaths and imprecations when +they found their booty gone. + +There was a moment's consultation and then Harney, dismounting, came +into the yard and seemed to be inspecting the dark, silent building, +which gave no sign of life. + +"We'll try the cabins first. We'll make the negroes tell where the +horses are," Alice heard him say, but the cabins were as empty as the +stalls, and in some perplexity Harney gave orders for them to see, "if +the old rookery were vacant too." + +"Mr. Harney, may I ask why you are here?" + +The clear, silvery tones rang out on the still night and startled that +guerilla band almost as much as would a shell dropped suddenly in their +midst. Looking in the direction whence the voice had come they saw the +girlish figure clearly defined upon the housetop, and one, a burly, +brutal Texan, raised his gun, but Harney struck it down, and +involuntarily lifting his cap, replied: + +"We are here for horses, Miss Johnson. We know Mr. Worthington keeps the +best in the country, and as we need some, we have come to take +possession, peaceably if possible, forcibly if need be. Can you tell us +where they are?" + +"I can," and Alice's voice did not tremble a particle. "They are safely +housed in the kitchen and dining-room and the doors are barred." + +"The fair Alice will please unbar them," was Harney's sneering reply, to +which came back the answer: "The horses are not yours; they are Captain +Worthington's, and we will defend them, if need be, with our lives!" + +"Gritty, by George! I didn't know as Yankee gals, had such splendid +pluck," muttered one of the men, while Harney continued: "You say 'we.' +May I ask the number of your forces?" + +Ere Alice could speak old Sam's voice was heard parleying with the +marauders. + +"That's a nigger, shoot him!" growled one, but the white head was +withdrawn from view just in time to escape the ball aimed at it. + +There was a rush, now for the kitchen door, a horrid sound of fearful +oaths, mingled with the cries of the negroes, the furious yells of +Rover, whom Lulu had let loose, and the neighing of the frightened +steeds. But amid it all Alice retained her self-possession. She had +descended from her post on the housetop, and persuading Mrs. +Worthington, Aunt Eunice, and Densie to remain quietly in her own room, +joined the negroes below, cheering them by her presence, and by her +apparent fearlessness keeping up their sinking courage. + +"We's better gin dem de hosses, Miss Ellis," Claib said, entreatingly, +as blow after blow fell upon the yielding door--"'cause dey's boun' to +hab 'em." + +"I'll try argument first with their leader," Alice replied, and ere +Claib suspected her intention she was undoing the fastenings of a side +door, bidding him bolt it after her as soon as she was safely through +it." + +"Is Miss Ellis crazy?" shrieked Sam. "Dem men has no 'spect for female +wimmen," and he was forcibly detaining her, when the sharp ring of a +revolver was heard, accompanied by a demoniacal shriek as a tall body +leaped high in the air and then fell, weltering in its blood. + +A moment more and a little dusky figure came flying down the stairs, and +hiding itself behind the astonished Alice, sobbed hysterically: "I'se +done it, I has! I'se shooted old Harney!" and Mug, overcome with +excitement, rolled upon the floor like an India rubber ball. + +It was true, as Mug had said. Secreted by the huge chimney she had +watched the proceedings below, keeping her eye fixed on him she knew to +be Harney; and, at last, when a favorable opportunity occurred, had sent +the ball which carried death to him and dismay to his adherents, who +crowded around their fallen leader, forgetful now of the prey for which +they had come, and anxious only for flight. Possibly, too, their desire +to be off was augmented by the fact that from the woods came the sound +of voices and the tramp of horses' feet--Colonel Tiffton, who, with a +few of his neighbors, was coming to the rescue of Spring Bank. But their +services were not needed to drive away the foe, for ere they reached the +gate, the yard was free from the invaders, who, bearing their wounded +leader, Harney, in their midst, disappeared behind the hill, one of +them, the brutal Texan, who had raised his gun at Alice, lingering +behind the rest, and looking back to see the result of his infernal +deed. Secretly, when no one knew it, he had kindled a fire at the rear +of the wooden building, which being old and dry caught readily, and +burned like tinder. + +Alice was the first to discover it, and "Fire! fire!" was echoed +frantically from one to the other, while all did their best to subdue +it. But their efforts were in vain; nothing could stay its progress, and +when the next morning's sun arose it shone on the blackened, smoking +ruins of Spring Bank, and on the tearful group standing near to what had +been their happy home. The furniture mostly had been saved, and was +scattered about the yard just where it had been deposited. There had +been some parley between the negroes as to which should be left to burn, +the old secretary at the end of the upper hall, or a bureau which stood +in an adjoining and otherwise empty room. + +"Massah done keep his papers here. We'll take dis," Claib had said, and +so, assisted by other negroes and Mug, he had carried the old worm-eaten +thing down the stairs, and bearing it across the yard, had dropped it +rather suddenly, for it was wondrously heavy, and the sweat stood in +great drops on the faces of the blacks, as they deposited the load and +turned away so quickly as not to see the rotten bottom splintering to +pieces, or the yellow coin dropping upon the grass. + +Making the circuit of the yard in company with Colonel Tiffton, Alice's +eye was caught by the flashing of something beneath the bookcase, and +stooping down she uttered a cry of surprise as she picked up and held to +view a golden guinea. Another, and another, and another--they were thick +as berries on the hills, and in utter amazement she turned to the +equally astonished colonel for an explanation. It cams to him after a +little. That bookcase, with its false bottom and secret drawers, had +been the hiding place of the miserly John Stanley's gold. In his will, +he had spoken of that particularly, bidding Hugh be careful of it, as it +had come to him from his grandfather, and this was the result. What had +been a mystery to the colonel was explained. He knew what John Stanley +had done with all his money, and that Hugh Worthington's poverty was now +a thing of the past. + +"I'm glad of it--the boy deserves this streak of luck, if ever a fellow +did," he said, as he made his rapid explanations to Alice, who listened +like one bewildered, while all the time she was gathering up the golden +coin, which kept dropping from the sides and chinks of the bookcase. + +There was quite a little fortune, and Alice suggested that it should be +kept a secret for the present from all save Mrs. Worthington, a plan to +which the colonel assented, helping Alice to recover and secrete her +treasure, and then going with her to Mrs. Worthington, who sat weeping +silently over the ruins of her home. + +"Poor Hugh, we are beggars now," she moaned, refusing at first to listen +to Alice's attempts at consolation. + +They told her at last what they had found, proving their words by +occular demonstration, and proposing to her that the story should go no +further until Hugh had been consulted. + +"You'll go home with me, of course," the colonel said, "and then we'll +see what must be done." + +This seemed the only feasible arrangement, and the family carriage was +brought around to take the ladies to Mosside--the negroes, whose cabins +had not been burned, staying at Spring-Bank to watch the fire, and see +that it spread no farther. But Alice could not remain in quietness at +Mosside, and early the next morning she rode down to Spring Bank, where +the negroes greeted her with loud cries of welcome, asking her +numberless questions as to what they were to do, and who would go after +"Massah Hugh." + +It seemed to be the prevailing opinion that he must come home, and Alice +thought so, too. + +"What do you think, Uncle Sam?" she asked, turning to the old man, who +replied: + +"I thinks a heap of things, and if Miss Ellis comes dis way where so +many can't be listen in', I tella her my mind." + +Alice followed him to a respectable distance from the others, and +sitting down upon a chair standing there, waited for Sam to begin. + +Twirling his old straw hat awkwardly for a moment, he stammered out: + +"What for did Massah Hugh jine de army?" + +"Because he thought it his duty," was Alice's reply, and Sam continued: + +"Yes, but dar is anodder reason. 'Scuse me, miss, but I can't keep still +an' see it all agwine wrong. 'Seuse me 'gin, miss, but is you ever gwine +to hev that chap what comed here oncet a sparkin'--Massah Irving, I +means?" + +Alice's blue eyes turned inquiringly upon him, as she replied: "Never, +Uncle Sam. I never intended to marry him. Why do you ask?" + +"'Cause, miss, when a young gal lets her head lay spang on a fellow's +buzzum, and he a kissin' her, it looks mighty like somethin'. Yes, berry +like;" and in his own way Sam confessed what he had seen more than a +year ago, and told, too, how Hugh had overheard the words of love +breathed by Irving Stanley, imitating, as far as possible, his master's +manner as he turned away, and walked hurriedly down the piazza. + +Then he confessed what, in the evening, he had repeated to Hugh, telling +Alice how "poor massah groan, wid face in his hands, and how next day he +went off, never to come back again." + +In mute silence, Alice listened to a story which explained much that had +been strange to her before, and as she listened, her resolve was made. + +"Sam," she said, when he had finished, "I wish I had known this before. +It might have saved your master much anxiety. I am going North--going to +Snowdon first, and then to Washington, in hopes of finding him." + +In a moment Sam was on his knees, begging to go with her. + +"Don't leave me, Miss Ellis. Take me 'long. Please take me to Massah +Hugh. I'se quite peart now, and kin look after Miss Ellis a heap." + +Alice could not promise till she had talked with Mrs. Worthington, whose +anxiety to go North was even greater than her own. They would be nearer +to Hugh, and by going to Washington would probably see him, she said, +while it seemed that she should by some means be brought near to her +daughter, of whom no tidings had been received as yet. So it was +arranged that Mrs. Worthington, Alice and Densie, together with Lulu and +Sam, should start at once for Snowdon, where Alice would leave a part of +her charge, herself and Mrs. Worthington going on to Washington in hopes +of meeting or hearing directly from Hugh. Aunt Eunice and Mug were to +remain with Colonel Tiffton, who promised to look after the Spring Bank +negroes. + +Accordingly, one week after the fire, Alice found herself at the same +station in Lexington where once Hugh Worthington, to her unknown, had +waited for her coming. The morning papers were just out, and securing +one for herself, she entered the car and read the following +announcement: + + "DIED, at his country residence, from the effect of a shot received + while dastardly attacking a house belonging to Unionists, Robert + Harney, Esq., aged thirty-three." + +With a shudder Alice pointed out the paragraph to Mrs. Worthington, and +laying her head upon her hand prayed silently that there might come a +speedy end to the horrors entailed by the cruel war. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII + +FINDING HUGH + + +Sweet Anna Millbrook's eyes were dim with tears, and her heart was sore +with pain when told that Alice Johnson, was waiting for her in the +parlor below. Only the day before had she heard of her brother's +disgrace, feeling as she heard it, how much rather she would that he +had died ere there were so many stains upon his name. But Alice would +comfort her, and she hastened to meet her. Sitting down beside her, she +talked with her long of all that had transpired since last they met; +talked, too, of Adah, and then of Willie, who was sent for, and at +Alice's request taken by her to the hotel, where Mrs. Worthington was +stopping. He had grown to be a most beautiful and engaging child, and +Mrs. Worthington justly felt a thrill of pride as she clasped him to her +bosom, weeping over him passionately. She could scarcely bear to lose +him from her sight, and when later in the day Anna came down for him, +she begged hard for him to stay. But Willie was rather shy of his new +grandmother, and preferred returning with Mrs. Millbrook, who promised +that he should come every day so long as Mrs. Worthington remained at +the hotel. + +As soon as Mrs. Richards learned that Mrs. Worthington and Alice were in +town, she insisted upon their coming to Terrace Hill. There was room +enough, she said, and her friends were welcome there for as long a time +as they chose to stay. There were the pleasant chambers fitted up for +'Lina, they had never been occupied, and Mrs. Worthington could have +them as well as not; or better yet--could take Anna's old chamber, with +the little room adjoining, where Adah used to sleep. Mrs. Worthington +preferred the latter, and removed with Alice at Terrace Hill, while at +Anna's request Densie went to the Riverside Cottage, where she used to +live, and where she was much happier than she would have been with +strangers. + +Not long could Mrs. Worthington stay contentedly at Snowdon, and after a +time Alice started with her and Lulu for Washington, taking Sam also, +partly because he begged so hard to go, and partly because she did not +care to trouble her friends with the old man, who seemed a perfect child +in his delight at the prospect of seeing "Massah Hugh." But to see him +was not so easy a matter. Indeed, he seemed farther off at Washington +than he had done at Spring Bank, and Alice sometimes questioned the +propriety of having left Kentucky at all. They were not very comfortable +at Washington, and as Mrs. Worthington pined for the pure country air, +Alice managed at last to procure board for herself, Mrs. Worthington, +Lulu and Sam, at the house of a friend whose acquaintance she had made +at the time of her visit to Virginia. It was some distance from +Washington, and so near to Bull Run that when at last the second +disastrous battle was fought in that vicinity, the roar of the artillery +was distinctly heard, and they who listened to the noise of that bloody +conflict knew just when the battle ceased, and thought with tearful +anguish of the poor, maimed, suffering wretches left to bleed and die +alone. They knew Hugh must have been in the battle, and Mrs. +Washington's anxiety amounted almost to insanity, while Alice, with +blanched cheek and compressed lip, could only pray silently that he +might be spared, and might yet come back to them. Only Sam thought of +acting. + +"Now is the time," he said to Alice, as they stood talking together of +Hugh, and wondering if he were safe. "Something tell me Massah Hugh is +hurted somewhar, and I'se gwine to find him. I knows all de way, an' +every tree around dat place. I can hide from de 'Federacy. Dem Rebels +let ole white-har'd nigger look for young massah, and I'se gwine. P'raps +I not find him, but I does somebody some good. I helps somebody's Massah +Hugh." + +It seemed a crazy project, letting that old man start off on so strange +an errand, but Sam was determined. + +He had a "'sentiment," as he said, that Hugh was wounded, and he must go +to him. + +In his presentiment Alice had no faith; but she did not oppose him, and +at parting she said to him, hesitatingly: + +"Sam, if you do find your master wounded, and you think him dying, you +may tell him--tell him--that I said--I loved him; and had he ever come +back, I would have been his wife." + +"I tells him, and that raises Massah Hugh from de very jaws of death," +was Sam's reply, as he departed on his errand of mercy, which proved not +to be a fruitless one, for he did find his master, and falling on his +knees beside him, uttered the joyful words we have before repeated. + +To the faint, half-dying Hugh, it seemed more like a dream than a +reality--that familiar voice from home, and that dusky form bending over +him so pityingly. He could not comprehend how Sam came there, or what he +was saying to him. Something he heard of burning houses, and ole miss +and Snowdon, and Washington; but nothing was real until he caught the +name of Alice, and thought Sam said she was there. + +"Where, Sam--where?" he asked, trying to raise himself upon his elbow. +"Is Alice here, did you say?" + +"No, massah; not 'zactly here--but on de road. If massah could ride, Sam +hold him on, like massah oncet held on ole Sam, and we'll get to her +directly. They's kind o' Secesh folks whar she is, but mighty good to +her. She knowed 'em 'fore, 'case way down here is whar Sam was sold dat +time Miss Ellis comed and show him de road to Can'an. Miss Ellis tell me +somethin' nice for Massah Hugh, ef he's dyin'--suffin make him so glad. +Is you dyin', massah?" + +"I hardly think I am as bad as that. Can't you tell unless I am near to +death?" Hugh said; and Sam replied: + +"No, massah; dem's my orders. 'Ef he's dyin', Sam, tell him I'--dat's +what she say. Maybe you is dyin', massah. Feel and see!" + +"It's possible," and something like his old mischievous smile played +around Hugh's white lips as he asked how a chap felt when he was dying. + +"I'se got mizzable mem'ry, and I don't justly 'member," was Sam's +answer; "but I reckons he feel berry queer and choky--berry." + +"That's exactly my case, so you may venture to tell," Hugh said; and +getting his face close to that of the young man, Sam whispered: "She +say, 'Tell Massah Hugh--I--I--' You's sure you's dyin'?" + +"I'm sure I feel as you said I must," Hugh, continued, and Sam went on: +"'Tell him I loves him; and ef he lives I'll be his wife.' Dem's her +very words, nigh as I can 'member--but what is massah goin' to do?" he +continued in some surprise, as Hugh attempted to rise. + +"Do? I'm going to Alice," was Hugh's reply, as with a moan he sank back +again, too weak to rise alone. + +"Then you be'nt dyin', after all," was Sam's rueful comment, as he +suggested: "Ef massah only clamber onto Rocket." + +This was easier proposed than done, but after several trials Hugh +succeeded; and, with Sam steadying him, while he half lay on Rocket's +neck, Hugh proceeded slowly and safely through the woods, meeting at +last with some Unionists, who gave him what aid they could, and did not +leave him until they saw him safely deposited in an ambulance, which, in +spite of his entreaties, took him direct to Georgetown. It was a bitter +disappointment to Hugh, so bitter, indeed, that he scarcely felt the +pain when his broken arm was set; and when, at last, he was left alone +in his narrow hospital bed, he turned his face to the wall and cried, +just as many a poor, homesick soldier had done before him, and will do +again. + +Twenty-four hours had passed, and in Hugh's room it was growing dark +again. All the day he had watched anxiously the door through which +visitors would enter, asking repeatedly if no one had called for him; +but just as the sun was going down he fell away to sleep, dreaming at +last that Golden Hair was there--that her soft, white hands were on his +brow, her sweet lips pressed to his, while her dear voice murmured +softly: "Darling Hugh!" + +There was a cry of pain from a distant corner, and Hugh awoke to +consciousness--awoke to know it was no dream--the soft hands on his +brow, the kiss upon his lips--for Golden Hair was there; and by the +tears she dropped upon his face, and the mute caresses she gave him, he +knew that Sam had told him truly. For several minutes there was silence +between them, while the eyes looked into each other with a deeper +meaning than words could have expressed; then, smoothing back his damp +brown hair, and letting her fingers still rest upon his forehead, Alice +whispered to him: "Why did you distrust me, Hugh? But for that we need +not have been separated so long." + +Winding his well arm around her neck, and drawing her nearer to him, +Hugh answered: + +"It was best just as it is. Had I been sure of your love, I should have +found it harder to leave home. My country needed me. I am glad I have +done what I could to defend it. Glad that I joined the army, for Alice, +darling, Golden Hair, in my lonely tent reading that little Bible you +gave me so long ago, the Savior found me, and now, whether I live or +not, it is well, for if I die, I am sure you will be mine in heaven; and +if I live--" + +Alice finished the sentence for him. + +"If you live, God willing, I shall be your wife. Dear Hugh, I bless the +Good Father, first for bringing you to Himself, and then restoring you +to me, darling Hugh." + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII + +GOING HOME + + +The Village hearse was waiting at Snowdon depot, and close beside it +stood the carriage from Terrace Hill; the one sent there for Adah, the +other for her husband, whose lifeblood, so freely shed, had wiped away +all stains upon his memory, and enshrined him in the hearts of Snowdon's +people as a martyr. He was the first dead soldier returned to them, his +the first soldier's grave in their churchyard; and so a goodly throng +were there, with plaintive fife and muffled drum, to do him honor. His +major was coming with him, it was said--Major Stanley, who had himself +been found, in a half-fainting condition watching by the dead--Major +Stanley, who had seen that the body was embalmed, had written to the +wife, and had attended to everything, even to coming on himself by way +of showing his respect. Death is a great softener of errors; and the +village people, who could not remember a time when they had not disliked +John Richards, forgot his faults now that he was dead. + +It seemed a long-time-waiting for the train, but it came at last, and +the crowd involuntarily made a movement forward, and then drew back as a +tall figure appeared upon the platform, his stylish uniform betokening +an officer of rank, and his manner showing plainly that he was master of +ceremonies. + +"Major Stanley," ran in a whisper through the crowd, whose wonder +increased when another, and, if possible, a finer-looking man, emerged +into view, his right arm in a sling, and his face pale and worn, from +the effects of recent illness. He had not been expected, and many +curious glances were cast at him as, slowly descending the steps, he +gave his well hand to the lady following close behind, Mrs. Worthington; +they knew her, and recognized also the two young ladies, Alice and Adah, +as they sprang from the car. Poor Adah! how she shrank from the public +gaze, shuddering as on her way to the carriage she passed the long box +the men were handling so carefully. + +Summoned by Irving Stanley, she had come on to Washington to meet, not a +living husband, but a husband dead, and while there had learned that +Mrs. Worthington, Hugh, and Alice were all in Georgetown, whither she +hastened at once, eager to meet the mother whom she had never yet met as +such. Immediately after the discovery of her parentage, she had written +to Kentucky, but the letter had not reached its destination, +consequently no one but Hugh knew how near she was; and he had only +learned it a few days before the battle, when he had, by accident, a few +moments' conversation with Dr. Richards, whom he had purposely avoided. +He was talking of Adah, and the practicability of sending for her, when +she arrived at the private boarding house to which he had been removed. + + +The particulars of that interview between the mother and her daughter we +cannot describe, as no one witnessed it save God; but Adah's face was +radiant with happiness, and her soft, brown eyes beaming with joy when +it was ended, and she went next to where Hugh was waiting for her. + +"Oh, Hugh, my noble brother!" was all she could say, as she wound her +arms around his neck and pressed her fair cheek against his own, +forgetting, in those moments of perfect bliss, all the sorrow, all the +anguish of the past. + +Nor was it until Hugh said to her: "The doctor was in that battle. Did +he escaped unharmed?" that a shadow dimmed the sunshine flooding her +pathway that autumn morning. + +At the mention of him the muscles about her mouth grew rigid, and a look +of pain flitted across her face, showing that there was yet much of +bitterness mingled in her cup of joy. Composing herself as soon as +possible she told Hugh that she was a widow, but uttered no word of +complaint against the dead, and Hugh, knowing that she could not sorrow +as other women have sorrowed over the loved ones slain in battle, drew +her nearer to him, and after speaking a few words of poor 'Lina, told +her of the golden fortune which had so unexpectedly come to him, and +added: "And you shall share it with me. Your home shall be with me and +Golden Hair--Alice--who has promised to be my wife. We will live very +happily together yet, my sister." + +Then he asked what Major Stanley's plan was concerning the body of her +husband, and upon learning that it was to bury the doctor at home, he +announced his determination to accompany them, as he knew he should be +able to do so. + +Hugh had no suspicion of the truth, but Alice guessed it readily, and +could scarcely forbear throwing her arms around Adah's neck and +whispering to her how glad she was. She had said to her softly: "I am to +be your sister, Adah--are you willing to receive me?" and Adah had only +answered by a warm pressure of the hand she held in hers and by the +tears which shone in her brown eyes. + +It was a great trial to Adah to face the crowd they found assembled at +the depot, but Irving, Hugh, and Alice all helped to screen her from +observation, and almost before she was aware of it she found herself +safe in the carriage which effectually hid her from view. Slowly the +procession moved through the village, the foot passengers keeping time +to the muffled drum, whose solemn beats had never till that morning been +heard in the quiet streets. The wide gate which led into the grounds of +Terrace Hill was opened wide, and the black hearse passed in, followed +by the other carriages, which wound around the hill and up to the huge +building where badges of mourning were hung out--mourning for the only +son, the youngest born, the once pride and pet of the stately woman who +watched the coming of that group with tear-dimmed eyes, holding upon her +lap the little boy whose father they were bringing in, dead, coffined +for the grave. Not for the world would that high-bred woman have been +guilty of an impropriety, and so she sat in her own room, while Charlie +Millbrook met the bearers in the hall and told them where to deposit +their burden. + +In the same room where we first saw him on the night of his return from +Europe, they left him, and went their way, while to Dixson and Pamelia +was accorded the honor of first welcoming Adah, whom they treated with +as much deference as if she had never been with them in any capacity +save that of mistress. She had changed since they last saw her--was +wonderfully improved, they said to each other as they left her at the +door of the room, where Mrs. Richards, with her two older daughters, was +waiting to receive her. But if the servants were struck with the air of +dignity and cultivation which Adah acquired during her tour in Europe, +how much more did this same air impress the haughty ladies waiting for +her appearance, and feeling a little uncertain as to how they should +receive her. Any doubts, however, which they had upon this subject were +dispelled the moment she entered the room, and they saw at a glance that +it was not the timid, shrinking Rose Markham with whom they had to deal, +but a woman as wholly self-possessed as themselves, and one with whose +bearing even their critical eyes would find no fault. She would not +suffer them to patronize her; they must treat her fully as an equal or +as nothing, and with a new-born feeling of pride in her late son's +widow, Mrs. Richards arose, and putting Willie from her lap, advanced to +meet her, cordially extending her hand, but uttering no word of welcome. +Adah took the hand, but her eyes never sought the face of her lady +mother. They were riveted with a hungry, wistful, longing look on +Willie, the little boy, who, clinging to his grandmother's skirts, +peered curiously at her, holding back at first, when, unmindful of +Asenath and Eudora, who had not yet been greeted, she tried to take him +in her arms. + +"Oh, Willie, darling, don't you know me? I am poor mamma," and Adah's +voice was choked with sobs at this unlooked-for reception from her +child. + +He had been sent for from Anna's home to meet his mother, because it was +proper; but no one at Terrace Hill had said to him that the mamma for +whom sweet Anna taught him daily to pray was coming. She was not in his +mind, and as eighteen months had obliterated all memories of the gentle, +girlish creature he once knew as mother, he could not immediately +identify that mother with the lady before him. + +It was a sad disappointment to Adah, and without knowing what she was +doing, she sank down upon the sofa, and involuntarily laying her head in +Mrs. Richards' lap, cried bitterly, her tears bringing answering ones +from the eyes of all three of the ladies, for they half believed her +grief, in part, was for the lifeless form in the room below. + +"Poor child, you are tired and worn. It is hard to lose him just as +there was a prospect of perfect reconciliation with us all," Mrs. +Richards said, softly smoothing the brown tresses lying on her lap, and +thinking even then that curls were more becoming to her daughter-in-law +than braids had been, but wondering why, now she was in mourning, Adah +had persisted in wearing them. + +"Pretty girl, pretty turls, is you tyin'?" and won by her distress, +Willie drew near, and laid his baby hand upon the curls he thought so +pretty. + +"That's mamma, Willie," Asenath said; "the mamma Aunt Anna said would +come some time--Willie's mamma. Can't he kiss her?" + +The child could not resist the face which, lifting itself up, looked +eagerly at him, and he put up his little hands for Adah to take him, +returning the kisses she showered upon him and clinging to her neck, +while he said: + +"Is you mam-ma sure? I prays for mam-ma--God take care of her, and pa-pa +too. He's dead. They brought him back with a dum. Poor pa-pa, Willie +don't want him dead;" and the little lip began to quiver. + +Never before since she knew she was a widow had Adah felt so vivid a +sensation of something akin to affection for the dead, as when her child +and his mourned so plaintively for papa; and the tears which now fell +like rain were not for Willie alone, but were given rather to the dead. + +"Mrs. Richards has not yet greeted us," Asenath said; and turning to +her at once, Adah apologized for her seeming neglect, pressing both her +and Eudora's hands more cordially than she would have done a few moments +before. + +"Where is Anna?" she asked; and Mrs. Richards replied: + +"She's sick. She regretted much that she could not come up here to-day;" +while Willie, standing in Adah's lap, with his chubby arm around her +neck, chimed in. + +"You don't know what we've dot. We've dot 'ittle baby, we has." + +Adah knew now why Anna was absent, and why Charlie Millbrook looked so +happy when at last he came in to see her, delivering sundry messages +from his Anna, who, he said could scarcely wait to see her dear sister. +There was something genuine in Charlie's greeting, something which made +Adah feel as if she were indeed at home, and she wondered much how even +the Richards race could ever have objected to him, as she watched his +movements and heard him talking with his stately mother. + +"Yes, Major Stanley came," he said, in reply to her questions, and Adah +was glad it was put to him, for the blushes dyed her cheek at once, and +she bent over Willie to hide them, while Charlie continued: "Captain +Worthington came, too, Adah's brother, you know. He was in the same +battle with the doctor, was wounded rather seriously and has been +discharged, I believe." + +"Oh," and Mrs. Richards seemed quite interested now, asking where the +young men were, and appearing disappointed when told that, after waiting +a few moments in hopes of seeing the ladies, they had returned to the +hotel, where Mrs. Worthington and Alice were stopping. + +"I fully expected the ladies here; pray, send for them at once," she +said, but Adah interposed: + +"Her mother would not willingly be separated from Hugh, and as he of +course would remain at the hotel, it would be useless to think of +persuading Mrs. Worthington to come to Terrace Hill." + +"But Miss Johnson surely will come," persisted Mrs. Richards. + +Adah could not explain then that Alice was less likely to leave Hugh +than her mother, but she said: "Miss Johnson, I think, will not leave +mother alone," and so the matter was settled. + +It was a terribly long day to Adah, for Mrs. Richards and her daughter +kept their darkened room, seeing no one who called, and appearing +shocked when Adah stole out from their presence, and taking Willie with +her, sought the servants' sitting-room, where the atmosphere was not so +laden with restraint. Once the elder lady rang for Pamelia, asking where +Mrs. Richards was, and looking a little distressed when told she was in +the garden playing with Willie. + +"Why, do you want her?" was Pamelia's blunt inquiry, to which her +mistress responded with an aggrieved sigh: + +"No-o, only I thought perhaps she was with her dead husband; but, poor +thing, it is not her nature, I presume, to take it much to heart." + +Pamelia didn't believe she did "take it much to heart." Indeed, she +didn't see how she could, but she said nothing, and Adah was left to +play with Willie until Alice was announced as being in the +reception-room. She had driven around, she said, to call on Mrs. +Richards, and after that take Adah with her to the cottage, where Anna, +she knew, was anxious to receive her. At first Mrs. Richards demurred, +fearing it would be improper, but saying: "my late son's wife is, of +course, her own mistress, and can do as she likes." + +Very adroitly Alice waived all objections, and bore Adah off in triumph. + +"I knew you must be lonely up there," she said, as they drove slowly +along, "and there can be no harm in visiting one's sick sister." + +Anna surely did not think there was, as her warm, welcoming kisses fully +testified. + +"I wanted so much to see you to-day," she said, "that I have worked +myself into quite a fever; but knowing mother as I do, I feared she +might not sanction your coming;" then proudly turning down the blanket, +she disclosed the red-faced baby, who, just one week ago, had come to +the Riverside Cottage. + +"Isn't he a beauty?" she asked, pressing her lips upon the wrinkled +forehead. "A boy, too, and looks so much like Charlie, but--" and her +soft, blue eyes seemed more beautiful than ever with the maternal +love-shining for them, "I shall not call him Charlie, nor yet John, +though mother's heart is set on the latter name. I can't. I loved my +brother dearly, and never so much as now that he is dead, but my baby +boy must not bear his name, and so I have chosen Hugh, Hugh Richards. I +know it will please you both," and she glanced archly at Alice, who +blushingly kissed the little boy who was to bear the name dearest to her +of all others. + +Hugh--they talked of him a while, and then Anna spoke of Irving Stanley, +expressing her fears that she could not see him to thank him for his +kindness and forbearance to her erring brother. + +"He must be noble and good," she said, then turning to Adah, she +continued: "You were with him a year. You must know him well. Do you +like him?" + +"Yes," and Adah's face was all ablaze, as the simple answer dropped from +her lips. + +For a moment Anna regarded her intently, then her eyes were withdrawn +and her white hand beat the counterpane softly, but nothing more was +said of Irving Stanley then. + +The next day near the sunsetting, they buried the dead soldier, Mrs. +Richards and Adah standing side by side as the body was lowered to its +last resting place, the older leaning upon the younger for support, and +feeling as she went back to her lonely home and heard the merry laugh of +little Willie in the hall that she was glad her son had married the +young girl, who, now that John was gone forever from her sight began to +be very dear to her as his wife, the Lily whom he had loved so much. In +the dusky twilight of that night when alone with Adah she told her as +much, speaking sadly of the past, which she regretted, and wishing she +had never objected to receiving the girl about whom John wrote so +lovingly. + +"Had I done differently he might have been living now, and you might +have been spared much pain, but you'll forgive me. I'm an old woman, I +am breaking fast, and soon shall follow my boy, but while I live I wish +for peace, and you must love me, Lily, because I was his mother. Let me +call you Lily, as he did," and the hand of her who had conceded so much +rested entreatingly upon the bowed head of the young girl beside her. +There was no acting there, Adah knew, and clasping the trembling hand +she involuntarily whispered: + +"I will love you, mother, I will." + +"And stay with me, too?" Mrs. Richards continued, her voice choked with +the sobs she could not repress, when she heard herself called mother by +the girl she had so wronged. "You will stay with him, Lily. Anna is +gone, my other daughters are old. We are lonely in this great house. We +need somebody young to cheer our solitude, and you will stay, as +mistress, if you choose, or as a petted, youngest daughter." + +This was an unlooked for trial to Adah. She had not dreamed of living +there at Terrace Hill, when Hugh and her own mother could make her so +happy in their home. But Adah had never consulted her own happiness, and +as she listened to the pleading tones of the woman who surely had some +heart, some noble qualities, she felt that 'twas her duty to remain +there for a time at least, and so she replied at last: + +"I expected to live with my own mother, but for the present my home +shall be here with you." + +"God bless you, darling," and the proud woman's lips touched the fair +cheek, while the proud woman's hand smoothed again the soft short curls, +pushing them back from the white brow, as she murmured: "You are very +beautiful, my child, just as John said you were." + +It was hard for Adah to tell Mrs. Worthington that she could not make +one of the circle who would gather around the home fireside Hugh was to +purchase somewhere, but she did at last, standing firmly by her decision +and saying in reply to her mother's entreaties: "It is my duty. They +need me more than you, who have both Hugh and Alice." + +Adah was right, so Hugh said, and Alice, too, while Irving Stanley said +nothing. He must have found much that was attractive about the little +town of Snowdon, for he lingered there long after there was not the +least excuse for staying. He did not go often to Terrace Hill, and when +he did, he never asked for Adah, but so long as he could see her on the +Sabbath days when, with the Richards' family she walked quietly up the +aisle, her cheek flushing when she passed him, and so long as he +occasionally met her at Mrs. Worthington's rooms, or saw her riding in +the Richards' carriage, so long was he content to stay. But there came a +time when he must go, and then he asked for Adah, and in the presence of +her mother-in-law invited her to go with him to her husband's grave. She +went, taking Willie with her, and there, with that fresh mound between +them, Irving Stanley told her what he had hitherto withheld, told what +the dying soldier had said, and asked if it should be so. + +"Not now, not yet," he continued, as Adah's eyes were bent upon that +grave, "but by and by, will you do your husband's bidding--be my wife?" + +"I will," and taking Willie's hand Adah put it with hers into the broad, +warm palm which clasped them both, as Irving whispered: "Your child, +darling, shall be mine, and never need he know that I am not his +father." + +It was arranged that Alice should tell Mrs. Richards, as Adah would have +no concealments. Accordingly, Alice asked a private interview with the +lady, to whom she told everything as she understood it. And Mrs. +Richards, though weeping bitterly, generously exonerated Adah from all +blame, commended her as having acted very wisely, and then added, with a +flush of pride: + +"Many a woman would be glad to marry Irving Stanley, and it gives me +pleasure to know that to my son's widow the honor is accorded. He is +worthy to take John's place, and she, I believe, is worthy of him. I +love her already as my daughter, and shall look upon him as a son. You +say they are in the garden. Let them both come to me." + +They came, and listened quietly, while Mrs. Richards sanctioned their +engagement, and then, with a little eulogy upon her departed son, said +to Adah: "You will wait a year, of course. It will not be proper +before." + +Irving had hoped for only six months' probation, but Adah was satisfied +with the year, and they went from Mrs. Richards' presence with the +feeling that Providence was indeed smiling upon their pathway, and +flooding it with sunshine. + +The next day Major Stanley left Snowdon, but not until there had come to +Hugh a letter, whose handwriting made Mrs. Worthington turn pale, it +brought back so vividly the terror of the olden times. It was from +Murdock, and it inclosed for Densie Densmore the sum of five hundred +dollars. + +"Should she need more, I will try and supply it," he wrote, "for I have +wronged her cruelly." Then, after speaking of his fruitless search for +Adah, and his hearing at last that she was found and Dr. Richards dead, +he added: "As there is nothing left for me to do, and as I am sure to be +playing mischief if idle, I have joined the army, and am training a band +of contrabands to fight as soon as the government comes to its senses, +and is willing for the negroes to bear their part in the battle." + +The letter ended with saying that he should never come out of the war +alive, simply because it would last until he was too old to live any +longer. + +It was a relief for Mrs. Worthington to hear from him, and know that he +probably would not trouble her again, while Adah, whose memories of him +were pleasanter, expressed a strong desire to see him. + +"We will find him by and by, when you are mine," Irving said playfully; +then, drawing her into an adjoining room where they could be alone, he +said his parting words, and then with Hugh went to meet the train which +took him away from Snowdon. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX + +CONCLUSION + + +The New England hills were tinged with that peculiar purplish haze so +common to the Indian summer time, and the warm sunlight of November fell +softly upon Snowdon, whose streets this morning were full of eager, +expectant people, all hurrying on to the old brick church, and +quickening their steps with every stroke of the merry bell, pealing so +joyfully from the tall, dark tower. The Richards' carriage was out, and +waiting before the door of the Riverside Cottage, for the appearance of +Anna, who was this morning to venture out for a short time, and leaving +her baby Hugh alone. Another, and far handsomer carriage, was standing +before the hotel, where Hugh and his mother were yet stopping, and +where, in a pleasant private room, Adah Richards helped Alice Johnson +make her neat, tasteful toilet, smoothing lovingly the rich folds of +grayish-colored silk, arranging the snowy cuffs and collar, and then +bringing the stylish hat of brown Neapolitan, with its pretty face +trimmings of blue, and declaring it a shame to cover up the curls of +golden hair falling so luxuriously about the face and neck of the +blushing bride. For it was Alice's wedding day, and in the room +adjoining, Hugh Worthington stood, waiting impatiently the opening of +the mysterious door which Adah had shut against him, and wondering if, +after all, it were not a dream that the time was coming fast when +neither bolts nor locks would have a right to keep him from his wife. + +It seemed too great a joy to be true, and by way of reassuring himself +he had to look often at the crowds of people hurrying by, and down upon +old Sam, who, in full dress, with white cotton gloves drawn awkwardly +upon his cramped distorted fingers, stood by the carriage, bowing to all +who passed, himself the very personification of perfect bliss. Sam was +very happy, inasmuch as he took upon himself the credit of having made +the match, and was never tired of relating the wondrous story to all who +would listen to it. + +"Massah Hugh de perfectest massah," he said, "and Miss Ellis a little +more so;" adding that though "Canaan was a mighty nice place, he 'sumed +he'd rather not go thar jist yet, but live a leetle longer to see them +'joy themselves. Thar they comes--dat's miss in gray. She knows how't +orange posies and silks and satins is proper for weddin' nights; but +she's gwine travelin', and dat's why she comed out in dat stun-color, +Sam'll be blamed if he fancies." And having thus explained Alice's +choice of dress, the old negro held the carriage door himself, while +Hugh, handing in his mother, sister and his bride, took his seat beside +them, and was driven to the church. + +Twenty minutes passed, and then the streets were filled again; but now +the people were going home, talking as they went of the beauty of the +bride and of the splendid-looking bridegroom, who looked so fondly at +her as she murmured her responses, kissing her first himself when the +ceremony was over, and letting his arm rest for a moment around her +slender form. No one doubted its being a genuine love match, and all +rejoiced in the happiness of the newly-married pair, who, at the village +depot, were waiting for the train which would take them on their way to +Kentucky, for that was their destination. + +In the distracted condition of the country, Hugh's presence was needed +there; for, taking advantage of his absence, and the thousand rumors +afloat touching the Proclamation, one of his negroes had already run +away in company with some half dozen of the colonel's, who, in a +terrible state of excitement, talked seriously of emigrating to Canada. +Hugh's timely arrival, however, quieted him somewhat, though he listened +in sorrow, and almost with tears, to Hugh's plan of selling the Spring +Bank farm and removing with his negroes to some New England town, where +Alice, he knew, would be happier than she had been in Kentucky. This was +one object which Hugh had in view in going to Kentucky then, but a +purchaser for Spring Bank was not so easily found in those dark days; +and so, doing with his land the best he could, he called about him his +negroes, and giving to each his freedom, proposed that they stay quietly +where they were until spring, when he hoped to find them all employment +on the farm he went to buy in New England. + +Aunt Eunice, who understood managing blacks better than his timid mother +or his inexperienced wife, was to be his housekeeper in that new home of +his, where the colonel and his family would always be welcome; and +having thus provided for those for whom it was his duty to care, he bade +adieu to Kentucky, and returned to Snowdon in time to join the Christmas +party at Terrace Hill, where Irving Stanley was a guest, and where, in +spite of the war clouds darkening our land, and in spite of the sad, +haunting memories of the dead, there was much hilarity and +joy--reminding the villagers of the olden time when Terrace Hill was +filled with gay revelers. Anna Millbrook was there, more beautiful than +in her girlhood, and almost childishly fond of her missionary Charlie, +who she laughingly declared was perfectly incorrigible on the subject of +surplice and gown, adding that as the mountain would not go to Mahomet, +Mahomet must go to the mountain; and so she was fast becoming an +out-and-out Presbyterian of the very bluest stripe. + +Sweet Anna! None who looked into her truthful, loving face, or knew the +beautiful consistency of her daily life, could doubt that whether +Presbyterian or Episcopal in sentiment, the heart was right and the feet +were treading the narrow path which leadeth unto life eternal. + +It was a happy week spent at Terrace Hill; but one heart ached to its +very core when, at its close, Irving Stanley went back to where duty +called him, trusting that the God who had succored him thus far, would +shield him from future harm, and keep him safely till the coming autumn, +when, with the first falling of the leaf, he would gather to his embrace +his darling Adah, who, with every burden lifted from her spirits, had +grown in girlish beauty until others than himself marveled at her +strange loveliness. + + * * * * * + +On the white walls of a handsome country seat just on the banks of the +Connecticut, the light of the April sunset falls, and the soft April +wind kisses the fair cheek and lifts the golden curls of the young +mistress of Spring Bank--for so, in memory of the olden time, have they +named their new home--Hugh and Alice, who, arm in arm, walk up and down +the terraced garden, talking softly of the way they have been led, and +gratefully ascribing all praise to Him who rules and overrules, but does +nought save good to those who love Him. + +Down in the meadow land and at the rear of the building, dusky forms are +seen--the negroes, who have come to their Northern home, and among them +the runaway, who, ashamed of his desertion, has returned to his former +master, resenting the name of contraband, and dismissing the +ultra-abolitionists as humbugs, who deserved putting in the front of +every battle. Hugh knows it will be hard accustoming these blacks to +Northern usages and ways of doing things, but as he has their good in +view as well as his own, and as they will not leave him, he feels sure +that in time he will succeed, and cares but little for the opinion of +those who wonder what he "expects to do with that lazy lot of niggers." + +On a rustic seat, near a rear door, white-haired old Sam is sitting, +listening intently, while dusky Mug reads to him from the book of books, +the one he prizes above all else, stopping occasionally to expound, in +his own way, some point which he fancies may not be clear to her, +likening every good man to "Massah Hugh," and every bad one to the +leader of the "Suddern 'Federacy," whose horse he declares he held once +in "ole Virginny," telling Mug, in an aside, "how, if 'twasn't wicked, +nor agin' de scripter, he should most wish he'd put beech nuts under +Massah Jeffres' saddle, and so broke his fetched neck, 'fore he raise +sich a muss, runnin' calico so high that Miss Ellis 'clar she couldn't +'ford it, and axin' fifteen cents for a paltry spool of cotton." + +In the stable yard, Claib, his good-humored face all aglow with pride, +is exercising the fiery Rocket, who arches his neck as proudly as of +old, and dances mincingly around, while Lulu leans over the gate, +watching not so much him as the individual who holds him. And now that +it grows darker, and the ripple of the river sounds more like eventide, +lights gleam from the pleasant parlor, and thither Hugh and Alice +repair, still hand in hand, still looking love into each other's eyes, +but not forgetting others in their own great happiness. + +Very pleasantly Alice smiles upon Mrs. Worthington and Aunt Eunice +sitting by the cheerful fire just kindled on the marble hearth; and +then, withdrawing her hand from Hugh's, trips up the stairs and knocking +at a door, goes in where Densie sits, watching the daylight fade from +the western sky, and whispering to herself of the baby she could not +find when she went back to her home in the far-off city. Without turning +her head, she puts to Alice the same question she puts to every one: + +"Have you children, madam?" and when Alice answers no, she adds: "Be +thankful then, for they will never call you a white nigger, as 'Lina did +her mother. Poor 'Lina, she died, though saying 'Our Father.' Will you +say that with me?" + +"Yes, Densie, it's almost time to say our evening prayer, I came for +you," Alice rejoins, and taking the crazed creature's hand, she leads +her gently down to the parlor below, where, ere long, the blacks are all +assembled, and kneeling side by side, they follow with stammering +tongues, but honest hearts, their beloved master as he says first the +prayer our Savior taught, and then with words of thankful praise asks +God to bless and keep him and his in the days to come, even as He has +blessed and kept them in the days gone by. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BAD HUGH*** + + +******* This file should be named 16662-8.txt or 16662-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/6/6/16662 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/old/16662-8.zip b/old/16662-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..23594c8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/16662-8.zip diff --git a/old/16662.txt b/old/16662.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f6dfa31 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/16662.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14649 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Bad Hugh, by Mary Jane Holmes + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Bad Hugh + + +Author: Mary Jane Holmes + + + +Release Date: September 5, 2005 [eBook #16662] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BAD HUGH*** + + +E-text prepared by David Garcia, Maria Khomenko, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) from page +images generously made available by Kentuckiana Digital Library +(http://kdl.kyvl.org/) + + + +Note: Images of the original pages are available through the + Electronic Text Collection of Kentuckiana Digital Library. See + http://kdl.kyvl.org/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=kyetexts;cc=kyetexts;xc=1&idno=B92-205-30908797&view=toc + + + + + +BAD HUGH + +by + +MARY J. HOLMES + +Author of "Lena Rivers", "Tempest and Sunshine", "Meadow Brook", +"The English Orphans", etc., etc. + +GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS NEW YORK + +1900 + + + + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER PAGE + + I. Spring Bank 5 + + II. What Rover Found 15 + + III. Hugh's Soliloquy 26 + + IV. Terrace Hill 29 + + V. Anna and John 37 + + VI. Alice Johnson 42 + + VII. Riverside Cottage 50 + + VIII. Mr. Liston and the Doctor 57 + + IX. Matters in Kentucky 60 + + X. Lina's Purchase and Hugh's 71 + + XI. Sam and Adah 77 + + XII. What Followed 81 + + XIII. How Hugh Paid His Debts 84 + + XIV. Mrs. Johnson's Letter 88 + + XV. Saratoga 96 + + XVI. The Columbian 101 + + XVII. Hugh 108 + + XVIII. Meeting of Alice and Hugh 111 + + XIX. Alice and Muggins 116 + + XX. Poor Hugh 118 + + XXI. Alice and Adah 126 + + XXII. Waking to Consciousness 133 + + XXIII. Lina's Letter. 138 + + XXIV. Foreshadowings 145 + + XXV. Talking with Hugh 149 + + XXVI. The Day of the Sale 153 + + XXVII. The Sale 161 + + XXVIII. The Ride 165 + + XXIX. Hugh and Alice 169 + + XXX. Adah's Journey 177 + + XXXI. The Convict 184 + + XXXII. Adah at Terrace Hill 189 + + XXXIII. Anna and Adah 196 + + XXXIV. Rose Markham 204 + + XXXV. The Result 212 + + XXXVI. Excitement 223 + + XXXVII. Matters at Spring Bank 227 + +XXXVIII. The Day of the Wedding 232 + + XXXIX. The Convict's Story 238 + + XL. Poor 'Lina 248 + + XLI. Tidings 255 + + XLII. Irving Stanley 259 + + XLIII. Letters from Hugh and Irving Stanley 268 + + XLIV. The Deserter 272 + + XLV. The Second Battle of Bull Run 286 + + XLVI. How Sam Came There 291 + + XLVII. Finding Hugh 300 + + XLVIII. Going Home 304 + + XLIX. Conclusion 314 + + + + + +BAD HUGH + + + + + +CHAPTER I + +SPRING BANK + + +A large, old-fashioned, weird-looking wooden building, with strangely +shaped bay windows and stranger gables projecting here and there from +the slanting roof, where the green moss clung in patches to the moldy +shingles, or formed a groundwork for the nests the swallows built year +after year beneath the decaying eaves. Long, winding piazzas, turning +sharp, sudden angles, and low, square porches, where the summer sunshine +held many a fantastic dance, and where the winter storm piled up its +drifts of snow, whistling merrily as it worked, and shaking the loosened +casement as it went whirling by. Huge trees of oak and maple, whose +topmost limbs had borne and cast the leaf for nearly a century of years, +tall evergreens, among whose boughs the autumn wind ploughed mournfully, +making sad music for those who cared to listen, and adding to the +loneliness which, during many years, had invested the old place. A wide +spreading grassy lawn, with the carriage road winding through it, over +the running brook, and onward 'neath graceful forest trees, until it +reached the main highway, a distance of nearly half a mile. A spacious +garden in the rear, with bordered walks and fanciful mounds, with +climbing roses and creeping vines showing that somewhere there was a +taste, a ruling hand, which, while neglecting the somber building and +suffering it to decay, lavished due care upon the grounds, and not on +these alone, but also on the well-kept barns, and the whitewashed +dwellings in front, where numerous, happy, well-fed negroes lived and +lounged, for ours is a Kentucky scene, and Spring Bank a Kentucky home. + +As we have described it so it was on a drear December night, when a +fearful storm, for that latitude, was raging, and the snow lay heaped +against the fences, or sweeping-down from the bending trees, drifted +against the doors, and beat against the windows, whence a cheerful light +was gleaming, telling of life and possible happiness within. There were +no flowing curtains before the windows, no drapery sweeping to the +floor, nothing save blinds without and simple shades within, neither of +which were doing service now, for the master of the house would have it +so in spite of his sister's remonstrances. + +Some one might lose their way on that terrible night, he said, and the +blaze of the fire on the hearth, which could be seen from afar, would be +to them a beacon light to guide them on their way. Nobody would look in +upon them, as Adaline, or 'Lina as she chose to be called, and as all +did call her except himself, seemed to think there might, and even if +they did, why need she care? To be sure she was not quite as fixey as +she was on pleasant days when there was a possibility of visitors, and +her cheeks were not quite so red, but she was looking well enough, and +she'd undone all those little tags or braids which disfigured her so +shockingly in the morning, but which, when brushed and carefully +arranged, did give her hair that waving appearance she so much desired. +As for himself, he never meant to do anything of which he was ashamed, +so he did not care how many were watching him through the window, and +stamping his heavy boots upon the rug, for he had just come in from the +storm Hugh Worthington piled fresh fuel upon the fire, and, shaking back +the mass of short brown curls which had fallen upon his forehead, strode +across the room and arranged the shades to his own liking, paying no +heed when his more fastidious sister, with a frown upon her dark, +handsome face, muttered something about the "Stanley taste." + +"There, Kelpie, lie there," he continued, returning to the hearth, and, +addressing a small, white, shaggy dog, which, with a human look in its +round, pink eyes, obeyed the voice it knew and loved, and crouched down +in the corner at a safe distance from the young lady, whom it seemed +instinctively to know as an enemy. + +"Do, pray, Hugh, let the dirty things stay where they are," 'Lina +exclaimed, as she saw her brother walk toward the dining-room, and +guessed his errand. "Nobody wants a pack of dogs under their feet. I +wonder you don't bring in your pet horse, saddle and all." + +"I did want to when I heard how piteously he cried after me as I left +the stable to-night," said Hugh, at the same time opening a door leading +out upon a back piazza, and, uttering a peculiar whistle, which brought +around him at once the pack of dogs which so annoyed his sister. + +"I'd be a savage altogether if I were you!" was the sister's angry +remark, to which Hugh paid no heed. + +It was his house, his fire, and if he chose to have his dogs there, he +should, for all of Ad, but when the pale, gentle-looking woman, knitting +so quietly in her accustomed chair, looked up and said imploringly: + +"Please turn them into the kitchen, they'll surely be comfortable +there," he yielded at once, for that pale, gentle woman, was his mother, +and, to her wishes, Hugh was generally obedient. + +The room was cleared of all its canine occupants, save Kelpie, who Hugh +insisted should remain, the mother resumed her knitting, and Adaline her +book, while Hugh sat down before the blazing fire, and, with his hands +crossed above his head, went on into a reverie, the nature of which his +mother, who was watching him, could not guess; and when at last she +asked of what he was thinking so intently, he made her no reply. He +could hardly have told himself, so varied were the thoughts crowding +upon his brain that wintry night. Now they were of the eccentric old +man, who had been to him a father, and from whom he had received Spring +Bank, together with the many peculiar ideas which made him the strange, +odd creature he was, a puzzle and a mystery to his own sex, and a kind +of terror to the female portion of the neighborhood, who looked upon him +as a woman-hater, and avoided or coveted his not altogether disagreeable +society, just as their fancy dictated. For years the old man and the boy +had lived together alone in that great, lonely house, enjoying vastly +the freedom from all restraint, the liberty of turning the parlors into +kennels if they chose, and converting the upper rooms into a hay-loft, +if they would. No white woman was ever seen upon the premises, unless +she came as a beggar, when some new gown, or surplice, or organ, or +chandelier, was needed for the pretty little church, lifting its modest +spire so unobtrusively among the forest trees, not very far from Spring +Bank. John Stanley didn't believe in churches; nor gowns, nor organs, +nor women, but he was proverbially liberal, and so the fair ones of +Glen's Creek neighborhood ventured into his den, finding it much +pleasanter to do so after the handsome, dark-haired boy came to live +with him; for about that frank, outspoken boy there was then something +very attractive to the little girls, while their mothers pitied him, +wondering why he had been permitted to come there, and watching for the +change in him, which was sure to ensue. + +Not all at once did Hugh conform to the customs of his uncle's +household, and at first there often came over him a longing for +something different, a yearning for the refinements of his early home +among the Northern hills, and a wish to infuse into Chloe, the colored +housekeeper, some of his mother's neatness. But a few attempts at reform +had taught him how futile was the effort, Aunt Chloe always meeting him +with the argument: + +"'Taint no use, Mr. Hugh. A nigger's a nigger; and I spec' ef you're to +talk to me till you was hoarse 'bout your Yankee ways of scrubbin', and +sweepin', and moppin' with a broom, I shouldn't be an atomer +white-folksey than I is now. Besides Mas'r John, wouldn't bar no finery; +he's only happy when the truck is mighty nigh a foot thick, and his +things is lyin' round loose and handy." + +To a certain extent this was true, for John Stanley would have felt +sadly out of place in any spot where, as Chloe said, "his things were +not lying round loose and handy," and as habit is everything, so Hugh +soon grew accustomed to his surroundings, and became as careless of his +external appearance as his uncle could desire. Only once had there come +to him an awakening--a faint conception of the happiness there might +arise from constant association with the pure and refined, such as his +uncle had labored to make him believe did not exist. He was thinking of +that incident now, and as he thought the veins upon his broad, white +forehead stood out round and full, while the hands clasped above the +head worked nervously together, and it was not strange that he did not +heed his mother when she spoke, for Hugh was far away from Spring Bank, +and the wild storm beating against its walls was to him like the sound +of the waves dashing against the vessel's side, just as they did years +ago on that night he remembered so well, shuddering as he heard again +the murderous hiss of the devouring flames, covering the fatal boat with +one sheet of fire, and driving into the water as a safer friend the +shrieking, frightened wretches who but an hour before had been so full +of life and hope, dancing gayly above the red-tongued demon stealthily +creeping upward from the hold below, where it had taken life. What a +fearful scene that was, and the veins grew larger on Hugh's brow while +his broad chest heaved with something like a stifled sob as he recalled +the little childish form to which he had clung so madly until the cruel +timber struck from him all consciousness, and he let that form go +down--down 'neath the treacherous waters of Lake Erie never to come up +again alive, for so his uncle told when, weeks after the occurrence, he +awoke from the delirious fever which ensued and listened to the +sickening detail. + +"Lost, my boy, lost with many others," was what his uncle had said. + +He heard the words as plainly now as when they first were spoken, +remembering how his uncle's voice had faltered, and how the thought had +flashed upon his mind that John Stanley's heart was not as hard toward +womenkind as people had supposed. "Lost"--there was a world of meaning +in that word to Hugh more than any one had ever guessed, and, though it +was but a child he lost, yet in the quiet night, when all else around +Spring Bank was locked in sleep, he often lay thinking of that child and +of what he might perhaps have been had she been spared to him. He was +thinking of her now, and as he thought visions of a sweet, pale face, +shadowed with curls of golden hair, came up before his mind, and he saw +again the look of bewildered surprise and pain which shone in the soft, +blue eyes and illumined every feature when in an unguarded moment he +gave vent to the half infidel principles he had learned from his uncle. +Her creed was different from his, and she explained it to him so +earnestly, so tearfully, that he had said to her at last he did but jest +to hear what she would say, and, though she seemed satisfied, he felt +there was a shadow between them--a shadow which was not swept away, even +after he promised to read the little Bible she gave him and see for +himself whether he or she were right. He had that Bible now hidden away +where no curious eye could find it, and carefully folded between its +leaves was a curl of golden hair. It was faded now, and its luster was +almost gone, but as often as he looked upon it, it brought to mind the +bright head it once adorned, and the fearful hour when he became its +owner. That tress and the Bible which inclosed it had made Hugh +Worthington a better man. He did not often read the Bible, it is true, +and his acquaintances were frequently startled with opinions which had +so pained the little girl on board the _St. Helena_, but this was merely +on the surface, for far below the rough exterior there was a world of +goodness, a mine of gems, kept bright by memories of the angel child +which flitted for so brief a span across his pathway and then was lost +forever. He had tried so hard to save her--had clasped her so fondly to +his bosom when with extended arms she came to him for aid. He could save +her, he said--he could swim to the shore with perfect ease and so +without a moment's hesitation she had leaped with him into the surging +waves, and that was about the last he could remember, save that he +clutched frantically at the long, golden hair streaming above the water, +retaining in his firm grasp the lock which no one at Spring Bank had +ever seen, for this one romance of Hugh's seemingly unromantic life was +a secret with himself. No one save his uncle had witnessed his emotions +when told that she was dead; no one else had seen his bitter tears or +heard the vehement exclamation: "You've tried to teach me there was no +hereafter, no heaven for such as she, but I know better now, and I am +glad there is, for she is safe forever." + +These were not mere idle words, and the belief then expressed became +with Hugh Worthington a firm, fixed principle, which his skeptical uncle +tried in vain to eradicate. "There was a heaven, and she was there," +comprised nearly the whole of Hugh's religious creed, if we except a +vague, misty hope, that he, too, would some day find her, how or by what +means he never seriously inquired; only this he knew, it would be +through her influence, which even now followed him everywhere, producing +its good effects. It had checked him many and many a time when his +fierce temper was in the ascendant, forcing back the harsh words he +would otherwise have spoken, and making him as gentle as a child; and +when the temptations to which young men of his age are exposed were +spread out alluringly before him, a single thought of her was sufficient +to lead him from the forbidden ground. + +Only once had he fallen, and that two years before, when, as if some +demon had possessed him, he shook off all remembrances of the past, and +yielding to the baleful fascinations of one who seemed to sway him at +will, plunged into a tide of dissipation, and lent himself at last to an +act which had since embittered every waking hour. As if all the events +of his life were crowding upon his memory this night, he thought of two +years ago, and the scene which transpired in the suburbs of New York, +whither immediately after his uncle's death he had gone upon a matter of +important business. In the gleaming fire before him there was now +another face than hers, an older, a different, though not less beautiful +face, and Hugh shuddered as he thought how it must have changed ere +this--thought of the anguish which stole into the dark, brown eyes when +first the young girl learned how cruelly she had been betrayed. Why +hadn't he saved her? What had she done to him that he should treat her +so, and where was she now? Possibly she was dead. He almost hoped she +was, for if she were, the two were then together, his golden-haired and +brown, for thus he designated the two. + +Larger and fuller grew the veins upon his forehead, as memory kept thus +faithfully at work, and so absorbed was Hugh in his reverie that until +twice repeated he did not hear his mother's anxious inquiry: + +"What is that noise? It sounds like some one in distress." + +Hugh started at last, and, after listening for a moment he, too, caught +the sound which had so alarmed his mother, and made 'Lina stop her +reading. A moaning cry, as if for help, mingled with an infant's wail, +now here, now there it seemed to be, just as the fierce north wind +shifted its course and drove first at the uncurtained window of the +sitting-room, and then at the ponderous doors of the gloomy hall. + +"It is some one in the storm, though I can't imagine why any one should +be abroad to-night," Hugh said, going to the window and peering out into +the darkness. + +"Lyd's child, most likely. Negro young ones are always squalling, and I +heard her tell Aunt Chloe at supper time that Tommie had the colic," +'Lina remarked opening again the book she was reading, and with a slight +shiver drawing nearer to the fire. + +"Where are you going, my son?" asked Mrs. Worthington, as Hugh arose to +leave the room. + +"Going to Lyd's cabin, for if Tommie is sick enough to make his screams +heard above the storm, she may need some help," was Hugh's reply, and a +moment after he was ploughing his way through the drifts which lay +between the house and the negro quarters. + +"How kind and thoughtful he is," the mother said, softly, more to +herself than to her daughter, who nevertheless quickly rejoined: + +"Yes, kind to niggers, and horses, and dogs, I'll admit, but let me, or +any other white woman come before him as an object of pity, and the +tables are turned at once. I wonder what does make him hate women so." + +"I don't believe he does," Mrs. Worthington replied. "His uncle, you +know, was very unfortunate in his marriage, and had a way of judging +all our sex by his wife. Living with him as long as Hugh did, it's +natural he should imbibe a few of his ideas." + +"A few," 'Lina repeated, "better say all, for John Stanley and Hugh +Worthington are as near alike as an old and young man well could be. +What an old codger he was though, and how like a savage he lived here. I +never shall forget how the house looked the day we came, or how +satisfied Hugh seemed when he met us at the gate, and said, 'everything +was in spendid order,'" and closing her book, the young lady laughed +merrily as she recalled the time when she first crossed her brother's +threshold, stepping, as she affirmed, over half a dozen dogs, and as +many squirming kittens, catching her foot in some fishing tackle, +finding tobacco in the china closet, and segars in the knife box, where +they had been put to get them out of the way. + +"But Hugh really did his best for us," mildly interposed the mother. +"Don't you remember what the servants said about his cleaning one floor +himself because he knew they were tired!" + +"Did it more to save the lazy negroes' steps than from any regard for +our comfort," retorted 'Lina. "At all events he's been mighty careful +since how he gratified my wishes. Sometimes I believe he perfectly hates +me, and wishes I'd never been born," and tears, which arose from anger, +rather than any wounded sisterly feeling, glittered in 'Lina's black +eyes. + +"Hugh does not hate any one," said Mrs. Worthington, "much less his +sister, though you must admit that you try him terribly." + +"How, I'd like to know?" 'Lina asked, and her mother replied: + +"He thinks you proud, and vain, and artificial, and you know he abhors +deceit above all else. Why, he'd cut off his right hand sooner than tell +a lie." + +"Pshaw!" was 'Lina's contemptuous response, then after a moment she +continued: "I wonder how we came to be so different. He must be like his +father, and I like mine--that is, supposing I know who he is. Wouldn't +it be funny if, just to be hateful, he had sent you back the wrong +child?" + +"What made you think of that?" Mrs. Worthington asked, quickly, and +'Lina replied: + +"Oh, nothing, only the last time Hugh had one of his tantrums, and got +so outrageously angry at me, because I made Mr. Bostwick think my hair +was naturally curly, he said he'd give all he owned if it were so, but +I reckon he'll never have his wish. There's too much of old Sam about me +to admit of a doubt," and half spitefully, half playfully she touched +the spot in the center of her forehead known as her birthmark. + +When not excited it could scarcely be discerned at all, but the moment +she was aroused, the delicate network of veins stood out round and full, +forming what seemed to be a tiny hand without the thumb. It showed a +little now in the firelight, and Mrs. Worthington shuddered as she +glanced at what brought so vividly before her the remembrance of other +and wretched days. Adaline observed the shudder and hastened to change +the conversation from herself to Hugh, saying by way of making some +amends for her unkind remarks: "It really is kind in him to give me a +home when I have no particular claim upon him, and I ought to respect +him for that. I am glad, too, that Mr. Stanley made it a condition in +his will that if Hugh ever married, he should forfeit the Spring Bank +property, as that provides against the possibility of an upstart wife +coming here some day and turning us, or at least me, into the street. +Say, mother, are you not glad that Hugh can never marry even if he +wishes to do so, which is not very probable." + +"I am not so sure of that," returned Mrs. Worthington, smoothing, with +her small, fat hands the bright worsted cloud she was knitting, a +feminine employment for which she had a weakness. "I am not so sure of +that. Suppose Hugh should fancy a person whose fortune was much larger +than the one left him by Uncle John, do you think he would let it pass +just for the sake of holding Spring Bank?" + +"Perhaps not," 'Lina replied; "but there's no possible danger of any +one's fancying Hugh." + +"And why not?" quickly interrupted the mother. "He has the kindest heart +in the world, and is certainly fine-looking if he would only dress +decently." + +"I'm much obliged for your compliment, mother," Hugh said, laughingly, +as he stepped suddenly into the room and laid his hand caressingly on +his mother's head, thus showing that even he was not insensible to +flattery. "Have you heard that sound again?" he continued. "It wasn't +Tommie, for I found him asleep, and I've been all around the house, but +could discover nothing. The storm is beginning to abate, I think, and +the moon is trying to break through the clouds," and, going again to the +window, Hugh looked out into the yard, where the shrubbery and trees +were just discernible in the grayish light of the December moon. "That's +a big drift by the lower gate," he continued; "and queer shaped, too. +Come see, mother. Isn't that a shawl, or an apron, or something blowing +in the wind?" + +Mrs. Worthington arose, and, joining her son, looked in the direction +indicated, where a garment of some kind was certainly fluttering in the +gale. + +"It's something from the wash, I guess," she said. "I thought all the +time Hannah had better not hang out the clothes, as some of them were +sure to be lost." + +This explanation was quite satisfactory to Mrs. Worthington, but that +strange drift by the gate troubled Hugh, and the signal above it seemed +to him like a signal of distress. Why should the snow drift there more +than elsewhere? He never knew it do so before. He had half a mind to +turn out the dogs, and see what that would do. + +"Rover," he called, suddenly, as he advanced to the rear room, where, +among his older pets, was a huge Newfoundland, of great sagacity. +"Rover, Rover, I want you." + +In an instant the whole pack were upon him, jumping and fawning, and +licking the hands which had never dealt them aught save kindness. It was +only Rover, however, who was this time wanted, and leading him to the +door, Hugh pointed toward the gate, and bade him see what was there. +Snuffing slightly at the storm, which was not over yet, Rover started +down the walk, while Hugh stood waiting in the door. At first Rover's +steps were slow and uncertain, but as he advanced they increased in +rapidity, until, with a sudden bound and cry, such as dogs are wont to +give when they have caught their destined prey, he sprang upon the +mysterious ridge, and commenced digging it down with his paws. + +"Easy, Rover--be careful," Hugh called from the door, and instantly the +half-savage growl which the wind had brought to his ear was changed into +a piteous cry, as if the faithful creature were answering back that +other help than his was needed there. + +Rover had found something in that pile of snow. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +WHAT ROVER FOUND + + +Unmindful of the sleet beating upon his uncovered head Hugh hastened to +the spot, where the noble brute was licking a face, a baby face, which +he had ferreted out from beneath the shawl trapped so carefully around +it to shield it from the cold, for instead of one there were two in that +rift of snow--a mother and her child! That stiffened form lying there so +still, hugging that sleeping child so closely to its bosom, was no +delusion, and his mother's voice calling to know what he was doing +brought Hugh back at Last to a consciousness that he must act, and that +immediately. + +"Mother," he screamed, "send a servant here, quick! or let Ad come +herself. There's a woman dead, I fear. I can carry her, but the child, +Ad must come for her." + +"The what?" gasped Mrs. Worthington, who, terrified beyond measure at +the mention of a-dead woman, was doubly so at hearing of a child. "A +child," she repeated, "whose child?" + +Hugh, made no reply save an order that the lounge should be brought near +the fire and a pillow from his mother's bed. "From mine, then," he +added, as he saw the anxious look in his mother's face, and guessed that +she shrank from having her own snowy pillow come in contact with the +wet, limp figure he was depositing upon the lounge. It was a slight, +girlish form, and the long brown hair, loosened from its confinement, +fell in rich profusion over the pillow which 'Lina brought half +reluctantly, eying askance the insensible object before her, and +daintily holding back her dress lest it should come in contact with the +child her mother had deposited upon the floor, where it lay crying +lustily. + +The idea of a strange woman being thrust upon them in this way was +highly displeasing to Miss 'Lina, who haughtily drew back from the +little one when it stretched its arms out toward her, while its pretty +lip quivered and the tears dropped over its rounded cheek. + +Meantime Hugh, with all a woman's tenderness, had done for the now +reviving stranger what he could, and as his mother began to collect her +scattered senses and evince some interest in the matter, he withdrew to +call the negroes, judging it prudent to remain away a while, as his +presence might be an intrusion. From the first he had felt sure that the +individual thrown upon his charity was not a low, vulgar person, as his +sister seemed to think. He had not yet seen her face distinctly, for it +lay in the shadow, but the long, flowing hair, the delicate hands, the +pure white neck, of which he had caught a glimpse as his mother +unfastened the stiffened dress, all these had made an impression, and +involuntarily repeating to himself, "Poor girl, poor girl," he strode a +second time across the drifts which lay in his back yard, and was soon +pounding at old Chloe's cabin door, bidding her and Hannah dress at once +and come immediately to the house. + +An indignant growl at being thus aroused from her first sleep was +Chloe's only response, but Hugh knew that his orders were being obeyed. + +The change of atmosphere and restoratives applied had done their work, +and Mrs. Worthington saw that the long eyelashes began to tremble, while +a faint color stole into the hitherto colorless cheeks, and at last the +large, brown eyes unclosed and looked into hers with an expression so +mournful, so beseeching, that a thrill of yearning tenderness for the +desolate young creature shot through her heart, and bending down she +said, "Are you better now?" + +"Yes, thank you. Where is Willie?" was the low response, the tone +thrilling Mrs. Worthington again with emotion. + +Even 'Lina started, it was so musical, and coming near she answered: "If +it's the baby you mean, he is here, playing with Rover." + +There was a look of gratitude in the brown eyes, which closed again +wearily. With her eyes thus closed, 'Lina had a fair opportunity to scan +the beautiful face, with its delicately-chiseled features, and the +wealth of lustrous brown hair, sweeping back from the open forehead, on +which there was perceptible a faint line, which 'Lina stooped down to +examine. + +"Mother, mother," she whispered, drawing back, "look, is not that a mark +just like mine?" + +Thus appealed to, Mrs. Worthington, too, bent down, but, upon a closer +scrutiny, the mark seemed only a small, blue vein. + +"She's pretty," she said. "I wonder why I feel so drawn toward her?" + +'Lina was about to reply, when again the brown eyes looked up, and the +stranger asked hesitatingly: + +"Where am I? And is he here! Is this his house?" + +"Whose house?" Mrs. Worthington asked. + +The girl did not answer at once, and when she did her mind seemed +wandering. + +"I waited so long," she said, "but he never came again, only the letter +which broke my heart. Willie was a baby then, and I almost hated him for +a while, but he wasn't to blame. I wasn't to blame. I'm glad God gave me +Willie now, even if he did take his father from me." + +Mrs. Worthington and her daughter exchanged glances, and the latter +abruptly asked: + +"Where is Willie's father?" + +"I don't know," came in a wailing sob from the depths of the pillow. + +"Where did you come from?" was the next question. The young girl looked +up in some alarm, and answered meekly: + +"From New York. I thought I'd never get here, but everybody was so kind +to me and Willie, and the driver said if 'twan't so late, and he so many +passengers, he'd drive across the fields. He pointed out the way and I +came on alone." + +The color had faded from Mrs. Worthington's face, and very timidly she +asked again: + +"Whom are you looking for? Whom did you hope to find?" + +"Mr. Worthington. Does he live here?" was the frank reply; whereupon +'Lina drew herself up haughtily, exclaiming: + +"I knew it. I've thought so ever since Hugh came home from New York." + +'Lina was about to commence a tirade of abuse, when the mother +interposed, and with an air of greater authority than she generally +assumed toward her imperious daughter, bade her keep silence while she +questioned the stranger, gazing wonderingly from one to the other, as if +uncertain what they meant. + +Mrs. Worthington had no such feelings for the girl as 'Lina entertained. + +"It will be easier to talk with you," she said, leaning forward, "if I +know what to call you." + +"Adah," was the response, and the brown eyes, swimming with tears, +sought the face of the questioner with a wistful eagerness, as if it +read there the unmistakable signs of a friend. + +"Adah, you say. Well, then, Adah, why have you come to my son on such a +night as this, and what is he to you?" + +"Are you his mother?" and Adah started up. "I did not know he had one. +Oh, I'm so glad. And you'll be kind to me, who never had a mother?" + +A person who never had a mother was an anomaly to Mrs. Worthington, +whose powers of comprehension were not the clearest imaginable. + +"Never had a mother!" she repeated. "How can that be?" + +A smile flitted for a moment across Adah's face, and then she answered: + +"I never knew a mother's care, I mean." + +"But your father? What do you know of him?" said Mrs. Worthington, and +instantly a shadow stole into the sweet young face, as Adah replied: + +"Only this, I was left at a boarding school." + +"And Hugh? Where did you meet him? And what is he to you?" + +"The only friend I've got. May I see him, please?" + +"First tell what he is to you and to this child," 'Lina rejoined. Adah +answered calmly: + +"Your brother might not like to be implicated. I must see him first--see +him alone." + +"One thing more," and 'Lina held back her mother, who was starting in +quest of Hugh, "are you a wife?" + +"Don't, 'Lina," Mrs. Worthington whispered, as she saw the look of agony +pass over Adah's face. "Don't worry her so; deal kindly by the fallen." + +"I am not fallen!" came passionately from the quivering lips. "I am as +true a woman as either of you--look!" and she pointed to the golden band +encircling the third finger. + +'Lina was satisfied, and needed no further explanations. To her, it was +plain as daylight. In an unguarded moment, Hugh had set his uncle's will +at naught, and married some poor girl, whose pretty face had pleased his +fancy. How glad 'Lina was to have this hold upon her brother, and how +eagerly she went in quest of him, keeping back old Chloe and Hannah +until she had witnessed his humiliation. + +Somewhat impatient of the long delay, Hugh sat in the dingy kitchen, +when 'Lina appeared, and with an air of injured dignity, bade him follow +her. + +"What's up now that Ad looks so solemn like?" was Hugh's mental comment +as he took his way to the room where, in a half-reclining position sat +Adah, her large, bright eyes fixed eagerly upon the door through which +he entered, and a bright flush upon her cheek called up by the +suspicions to which she had been subjected. + +Perhaps they might be true. Nobody knew but Hugh, and she waited for him +so anxiously, starting when she heard a manly step and knew that he was +coming. For an instant she scanned his face curiously to assure herself +that it was he, then with an imploring cry as if for him to save her +from some dreaded evil, she stretched her little hands toward him and +sobbed: "Mr. Worthington, was it true? Was it as his letter said?" and +shedding back from her white face the wealth of flowing hair, Adah +waited for the answer, which did not come at once. In utter amazement +Hugh gazed upon the stranger, and then exclaimed: + +"Adah, Adah Hastings, why are you here?" + +In the tone of his voice surprise and pity were mingled with +disapprobation, the latter of which Adah detected at once, and as if it +had crushed out the last lingering hope, she covered her face with her +hands and sobbed piteously. + +"Don't you turn against me, or I'll surely die, and I've come so far to +find you." + +By this time Hugh was himself again. His rapid, quick-seeing mind had +come to a decision, and turning to his mother and sister, he said: + +"Leave us alone for a time." + +Rather reluctantly Mrs. Worthington and her daughter left the room. +Deliberately turning the key in the lock, Hugh advanced to her side, +groaning as his eye fell upon the child, which had fallen asleep again. + +"I hoped this might have been spared her," he thought, as, kneeling by +the couch, he said, kindly: "Adah, I am more pained to see you here than +I can express. Why did you come, and where is--" + +The name was lost to 'Lina, and muttering to herself: "It does not sound +much like a man and wife," she rather unwillingly quitted her position, +and Hugh was really alone with Adah. + +Never was Hugh in so awkward a position before, or so uncertain how to +act. The sight of that sobbing, trembling wretched creature, whose heart +he had helped to crush, had perfectly unmanned him, making him almost as +much a woman as herself. + +"Oh, what made you? Why didn't you save me?" she said, looking up to him +with an expression of reproach. + +He had no excuse. He knew how innocent she was, and he held her in his +arms as he would once have held the Golden Haired, had she come to him +with a tale of woe. + +"Let me see that letter again," he said. + +She gave it to him; and he read once more the cruel lines, in which +there was still much of love for the poor thing, to whom they were +addressed. + +"You will surely find friends who will care for you, until the time when +I may come to really make you mine." + +Hugh repeated these words twice, aloud, his heart throbbing with the +noble resolve, that the confidence she had placed in him by coming +there, should not be abused, for he would be true to the trust, and care +for the poor, little, half-crazed Adah, moaning so piteously beside him, +and as he read the last line, saying eagerly: + +"He speaks of coming back. Do you think he ever will? or could I find +him if I should try? I thought of starting once, but it was so far; and +there was Willie. Oh, if he could see Willie! Mr. Worthington, do you +believe he loves me one bit?" + +Hugh said at last, that the letter contained many assurances of +affection. + +"It seems family pride has something to do with it. I wonder where his +people live, or who they are? Did he never tell you?" + +"No," and Adah shook her head mournfully. + +"Would you go to them?" Hugh asked quickly; and Adah answered: + +"Sometimes I've thought I would. I'd brave his proud mother--I'd lay +Willie in her lap. I'd tell her whose he was, and then I'd go away and +die." Then, after a pause, she continued: "Once, Mr. Worthington, I went +down to the river, and said I'd end my wretched life, but God held me +back. He cooled my scorching head--He eased the pain, and on the very +spot where I meant to jump, I kneeled down and said: 'Our Father.' No +other words would come, only these: 'Lead us not into temptation.' +Wasn't it kind in God to save me?" + +There was a radiant expression in the sweet face as Adah said this, but +it quickly passed away and was succeeded by one of deep concern when +Hugh abruptly said: + +"Do you believe in God?" + +"Oh, Mr. Worthington. Don't you? You do, you must, you will," and Adah +shrank away from him as from a monster. + +The action reminded him of the Golden Haired, when on the deck of the +_St. Helena_ he had asked her a similar question, and anxious further to +probe the opinion of the girl beside him, he continued: + +"If, as you think, there is a God who knew and saw when you were about +to drown yourself, why didn't He prevent the cruel wrong to you? Why did +He suffer it?" + +"What He does we know not now, but we shall know hereafter," Adah said, +reverently, adding: "If George had feared God, he would not have left me +so; but he didn't, and perhaps he says there is no God--but you don't, +Mr. Worthington. Your face don't look like it. Tell me you believe," and +in her eagerness Adah grasped his arm beseechingly. + +"Yes, Adah, I believe," Hugh answered, half jestingly, "but it's such as +you that make me believe, and as persons of your creed think everything +is ordered for good, so possibly you were permitted to suffer that you +might come here and benefit me. I think I must keep you, Adah, at least, +until he is found." + +"No, no," and the tears flowed at once, "I cannot be a burden to you. I +have no claim." + +After a moment she grew calm again, and continued: + +"You whispered, you know, that if I was ever in trouble, come to you, +and that's why I remembered you so well, maybe. I wrote down your name, +and where you lived, though why I did not know, and I forgot where I put +it, but as if God really were helping me I found it in my old portfolio, +and something bade me come, for you would know if it was true, and your +words had a meaning of which I did not dream when I was so happy. George +left me money, and sent more, but it's most gone now. I can take care of +myself." + +"What can you do?" Hugh asked, and Adah replied: + +"I don't know, but God will find me something. I never worked much, but +I can learn, and I can already sew neatly, too; besides that, a few days +before I decided to come here, I advertised in the _Herald_ for some +place as governess or ladies' waiting maid. Perhaps I'll hear from +that." + +"It's hardly possible. Such advertisements are thick as blackberries," +Hugh said, and then in a few brief words, he marked out Adah's future +course. + +George Hastings might or might not return to claim her, and whether he +did or didn't, she must live meantime, and where so well as at Spring +Bank, or who, next to Mr. Hastings, was more strongly bound to care for +her than himself?" + +"To be sure, he did not like women much," he said; "their artificial +fooleries disgusted him. There wasn't one woman in ten thousand that was +what she seemed to be. But even men are not all alike," he continued, +with something like a sneer, for when Hugh got upon his favorite hobby, +"women and their weaknesses," he generally grew bitter and sarcastic. +"Now, there's the one of whom you are continually thinking. I dare say +you have contrasted him with me and thought how much more elegant he was +in his appearance. Isn't it so?" and Hugh glanced at Adah, who, in a +grieved tone, replied: + +"No, Mr. Worthington, I have not compared you with him--I have only +thought how good you were." + +Hugh knew Adah was sincere, and said: + +"I told you I did not like women much, and I don't but I'm going to take +care of you until that scoundrel turns up; then, if you say so, I'll +surrender you to his care, or better yet, I'll shoot him and keep you to +myself. Not as a sweetheart, or anything of that kind," he hastened to +add, as he saw the flush on Adah's cheek. "Hugh Worthington has nothing +to do with that species of the animal kingdom, but as my Sister Adah!" +and as Hugh repeated that name, there arose in his great heart an +indefinable wish that the gentle girl beside him had been his sister +instead of the high-tempered Adaline, who never tried to conciliate or +understand him, and whom, try as he might, Hugh could not love as +brothers should love sisters. + +He knew how impatiently she was waiting now to know the result of that +interview, and just how much opposition he should meet when he announced +his intention of keeping Adah. Hugh was master of Spring Bank, but +though its rightful owner, Hugh was far from being rich, and many were +the shifts and self-denials he was obliged to make to meet the increased +expense entailed upon him by his mother and sister. John Stanley had +been accounted very wealthy, and Hugh, who had often seen him counting +out his gold, was not a little surprised when, after his death, no ready +money could be found, or any account of the same--nothing but the Spring +Bank property, consisting of sundry acres of nearly worn-out land, the +old, dilapidated house, and a dozen or more negroes. This to a certain +extent was the secret of his patched boots, his threadbare coat and +coarse pants, with which 'Lina so often taunted him, saying he wore +them just to be stingy and mortify her, she knew he did, when in fact +necessity rather than choice was the cause of his shabby appearance. He +had never told her so, however, never said that the unfashionable coat +so offensive to her fastidious vision was worn that she might be the +better clothed and fed. But Hugh was capable of great self-sacrifices. +He could manage somehow, and Adah should stay. He would say that she was +a friend whom he had known in New York, that her husband had deserted +her, and in her distress she had come to him for aid. + +All this he explained to Adah, who assented tacitly, thinking within +herself that she should not long remain at Spring Bank, a dependent upon +one on whom she had no claim. She was too weak now, however, to oppose +him, and merely nodding to his suggestions laid her head upon the arm of +the lounge with a low cry that she was sick and warm. Stepping to the +door Hugh turned the key, and summoning the group waiting anxiously in +the adjoining room, bade them come at once, as Mrs. Hastings appeared to +be fainting. Great emphasis he laid upon the Mrs. and catching it up at +once 'Lina repeated, "Mrs. Hastings! So am I just as much." + +"Ad," and the eyes which shone so softly on poor Adah flashed with +gleams of fire as Hugh said to his sister, "not another word against +that girl if you wish to remain here longer. She has been unfortunate." + +"I guessed as much," sneeringly interrupted 'Lina. + +"Silence!" and Hugh's foot came down as it sometimes did when chiding a +refractory negro. "She is as true, yes, truer, than you. He who should +have protected her has basely deserted her. There is a reason which I do +not care to explain, why I should care for her and I shall do it. See +that a fire is kindled in the west chamber, and go up yourself when it +is made and see that all is comfortable. Do you understand?" and he +gazed sternly at 'Lina, who was too much astonished to answer, even if +she had been so disposed. + +Quick as thought, 'Lina darted up a back stairway, and when, half an +hour later, Hugh, hearing mysterious sounds above, and suspecting +something wrong, went up to reconnoiter, he found Hannah industriously +pulling the tacks from the carpet, preparatory to taking it up. In +thunder tones, he demanded what she was doing, and with a start, which +made her drop tacks, hammer, saucer and all, Hannah replied: + +"Lor', Mas'r Hugh, how you skeered me! Miss 'Lina done order me to take +up de carpet, 'case it's ole miss's, and she won't have no low-lived +truck tramplin' over it. That's what Miss 'Lina say," and Hannah tossed +her head quite conceitedly. + +"Miss 'Lina be hanged," was Hugh's savage response; "and you, woman, do +you hear?--drive those nails back faster than you took them out." + +"Yes, mas'r," and Hannah hastened down. Whispering to her mistress, +Hannah told what Hugh had said, and instantly there came over Mrs. +Worthington's face a look of concern, as if she, too, objected to having +the stranger occupy a room wherein an ex-governor had slept, but Hugh's +wish was law to her, and she answered that all was ready. A moment +after, Hugh appeared, and taking Adah in his arms, carried her to the +upper chamber, where the fire was burning brightly, casting cheerful +shadows upon the wall, and making Adah smile gratefully, as she looked +up in his face, and murmured: + +"God bless you, Mr. Worthington! Adah will pray for you to-night, when +she is alone. It's all that she can do." + +They laid her upon the bed, Hugh himself arranging her pillows, which no +one else appeared inclined to touch. + +Family opinion was against her, innocent and beautiful as she looked +lying there--so helpless, so still, with her long-fringed lashes shading +her colorless cheek, and her little hands folded upon her bosom, as if +already she were breathing the promised prayer for Hugh. Only in Mrs. +Worthington's heart was there a chord of sympathy. She couldn't help +feeling for the desolate stranger; and when, at her own request, Hannah +placed Willie in her lap, ere laying him by his mother, she gave him an +involuntary hug, and touched her lips to his fat, round cheek. + +"He looks as you did, Hugh, when you were a baby like him," she said, +while Chloe rejoined: + +"De very spawn of Mas'r Hugh, now. I 'tected it de fust minit. Can't +cheat dis chile," and, with a chuckle, which she meant to be very +expressive, the fat old woman waddled from the room. + +Hugh and his mother were alone, and turning to her son, Mrs. Worthington +said, gently: + +"This is sad business, Hugh; worse than you imagine. Do you know how +folks will talk?" + +"Let them talk," Hugh growled. "It cannot be much worse than it is now. +Nobody cares for Hugh Worthington; and why should they, when his own +mother and sister are against him, in actions if not in words?--one +sighing when his name is mentioned, as if he really were the most +provoking son that ever was born, and the other openly berating him as a +monster, a clown, a savage, a scarecrow, and all that. I tell you, +mother, there is but little to encourage me in the kind of life I'm +leading. Neither you nor Ad have tried to make anything of me." + +Choking with tears, Mrs. Worthington said: + +"You wrong me, Hugh; I do try to make something of you. You are a dear +child to me, dearer than the other, but I'm a weak woman, and 'Lina +sways me at will." + +A kind word unmanned Hugh at once, and kneeling by his mother, he put +his arms around her, and asked again her care for Adah. + +"Hugh," and Mrs. Worthington looked him steadily in the face, "is Adah +your wife, or Willie your child?" + +"Great guns, mother!" and Hugh started to his feet as quick as if a bomb +had exploded at his side. "No! Are you sorry, mother, to find me better +than you imagined it possible for a bad boy like me to be?" + +"No, Hugh, not sorry. I was only thinking that I've sometimes fancied +that, as a married man, you might be happier, even if you did lose +Spring Bank; and when this woman came so strangely, and you seemed so +interested, I didn't know, I rather thought--" + +"I know," and Hugh interrupted her. "You thought, maybe, I raised Ned +when I was in New York; and, as a proof of said resurrection, Mrs. Ned +and Ned, Junior, had come with their baggage." + +If the hair was golden instead of brown, and the eyes a different shade, +he shouldn't "make so tremendous a fuss," he thought; and, with a sigh +to the memory of the lost Golden Hair, he turned abruptly to his mother, +and as if she had all the while been cognizant of his thoughts, said: + +"But that's nothing to do with the case in question. Will you be kind to +Adah Hastings, for my sake? And when Ad rides her highest horse, as she +is sure to do, will you smooth her down? Tell her Adah has as good a +right here as she, if I choose to keep her." + +"I never meddle with your affairs," and there was a tone of whining +complaint in Mrs. Worthington's voice; "I never pry and you never tell, +so I don't know how much you are worth, but I can judge somewhat, and I +don't think you are able." + +Mrs. Worthington was much more easily won over to Hugh's opinion than +'Lina. They'd be a county talk, she said; nobody would come near them; +hadn't Hugh enough on his hands already without taking more? + +"If my considerate sister really thinks so, hadn't she better try and +help herself a little?" retorted Hugh in a blaze of anger. + +'Lina began to cry, and Hugh, repenting of his harsh speech as soon as +it was uttered, but far too proud to take it back, strode up and down +the room, chafing like a young lion. + +"Come children, it's after midnight, let us adjourn until to-morrow," +Mrs. Worthington said, by way of ending the painful interview, at the +same time handing a candle to Hugh, who took it silently and withdrew, +banging the door behind him with a force which made 'Lina start and +burst into a fresh flood of tears. + +"I'm a brute, a savage, and want to kick myself," was Hugh's not very +self-complimentary soliloquy, as he went up the stairs. "What did I want +to twit Ad for? Confound my badness!" and having by this time reached +his own door, Hugh sat down to think. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +HUGH'S SOLILOQUY + + +"One, two three--yes, as good as four women and a child," he began, "to +say nothing of the negroes, and that is not the worst of it; the hardest +of all is the having people call me stingy, and the knowing that this +opinion of me is encouraged and kept alive by the remarks and +insinuations of my own sister," and in the red gleam of the firelight +the bearded chin quivered for a moment as Hugh thought how unjust 'Lina +was to him, and how hard was the lot imposed upon him. + +Then shifting the position of his feet, which had hitherto rested upon +the hearth, to a more comfortable and suggestive one upon the mantel, +Hugh tried to find a spot in which he could economize. + +"I needn't have a fire in my room nights," he said, as a coal fell into +the pan and thus reminded him of its existence, "and I won't, either. +It's nonsense for a great hot-blooded clown, like me to be babied with a +fire. I've no tags to braid, no false switches to comb out and hide, no +paint to wash off, only a few buttons to undo, a shake or so, and I'm +all right. So there's one thing, the fire--quite an item, too, at the +rate coal is selling. Then there's coffee. I can do without that, I +suppose, though it will be perfect torment to smell it, and Hannah makes +such splendid coffee, too; but will is everything. Fire, coffee--I'm +getting on famously. What else?" + +"Tobacco," something whispered, but Hugh answered promptly: "No, sir, I +shan't! I'll sell my shirts, the new ones Aunt Eunice made, before I'll +give up my best friend. It's all the comfort I have when I get a fit of +the blues. Oh, you needn't try to come it!" and Hugh shook his head +defiantly at his unseen interlocutor, urging that 'twas a filthy +practice at best, and productive of no good. + +Horses was suggested again. "You have other horses than Bet," and Hugh +was conscious of a pang which wrung from him a groan, for his horses +were his idols. The best-trained in the country, they occupied a large +share of his affections, making up to him for the friendship he rarely +sought in others, and parting with them would be like severing a right +hand. It was too terrible to think about, and Hugh dismissed it as an +alternative which might have to be considered another time. Then hope +made her voice heard above the little blue imps tormenting him so sadly. + +He should get along somehow. Something would turn up. Ad might marry and +go away. What made her so different from his mother? He had loved her, +and he thought of her now as she used to look when in her dainty white +frocks, with the strings of coral he had bought with nuts picked on the +New England hills. + +He used to kiss those chubby arms--kiss the rosy cheeks, and the soft +brown hair. But that hair had changed sadly since the days when its +owner had first lisped his name, and called him "Ugh," for the bands and +braids coiled around 'Lina's haughty head were black as midnight. Not +less changed than 'Lina's tresses was 'Lina herself, and Hugh, strong +man that he was, had often felt like crying for the little baby sister, +so lost and dead to him in her young womanhood. What had changed Ad so? + +There was many a tender spot in Hugh Worthington's heart, and shadow +after shadow flitted across his face as he thought how cheerless was his +life, and how little there was in his surroundings to make him happy. +There was nothing he would not do for people if approached in the right +way, but nobody cared for him, unless it were his mother and Aunt +Eunice. They seemed to like him, and he reckoned they did, but for the +rest, who was there that ever thought of doing him a kindness? Poor +Hugh! It was a dreary picture he drew as he sat alone that night, +brooding over his troubles, and listening to the moan of the wintry +wind--the only sound he heard, except the rattling of the shutters and +the creaking of the timbers, as the old house rocked in the December +gale. + +Suddenly there crept into his mind Adah's words, "I shall pray for you +to-night." He never prayed, and the Bible given by Golden Hair had not +been opened this many a day. Since his dark sin toward Adah he had felt +unworthy to touch it, but now that he was doing what he could to atone, +he surely might look at it, and unlocking the trunk where it was hidden, +he took it from its concealment and opened it reverently, half wondering +what he should read first, and if it would have any reference to his +present position. + +"Inasmuch as ye did it to the least of these ye did it unto Me." + +That was what Hugh read in the dim twilight, that the passage on which +the lock of hair lay, and the Bible dropped from his hands as he +whispered: + +"Golden Hair, are you here? Did you point that out to me? Does it mean +Adah? Is the God you loved on earth pleased that I should care for her?" + +To these queries, there came no answer, save the mournful wailing of the +night wind roaring down the chimney and past the sleet-covered window, +but Hugh was a happier man for reading that, and had there before +existed a doubt as to his duty toward Adah, this would have swept it +away. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +TERRACE HILL + + +The storm which visited Kentucky so wrathfully, and was far milder among +the New England hills, and in the vicinity of Snowdon, whither our story +now tends, was scarcely noticed, save as an ordinary winter's storm. As +yet it had been comparatively warmer in New England than in Kentucky; +and Miss Anna Richards, confirmed invalid though she was, had decided +that inasmuch as Terrace Hill mansion now boasted a furnace in the +cellar, it would hardly be necessary to take her usual trip to the +South, so comfortable was she at home, in her accustomed chair, with her +pretty crimson shawl wrapped gracefully around her. Besides that, they +were expecting her Brother John from Paris, where he had been for the +last eighteen months, pursuing his medical profession, and she must be +there to welcome him. + +Anna was proud of her young, handsome brother, as were the entire +family, for on him and his success in life all their future hopes were +pending. Aside from being proud, Anna was also very fond of John, +because as all were expected to yield to her wishes, she had never been +crossed by him, and because he was nearer to her own age, and had +evidently preferred her to either of his more stately sisters, Miss +Asenath and Miss Eudora, whose birthdays were very far distant from his. + +John had never been very happy at home--never liked Snowdon much, and +hence the efforts they were putting forth to make it attractive to him +after his long absence. He could not help but like home now, the ladies +said to each other, as, a few days before his arrival, they rode from +the village, where they had been shopping, up the winding terraced hill, +admiring the huge stone building embosomed in evergreens, and standing +out so distinctly against the wintry sky. And indeed Terrace Hill +mansion was a very handsome place, exciting the envy and admiration of +the villagers, who, while commenting upon its beauty and its well-kept +grounds, could yet remember a time when it had looked better even than +it did now--when the house was oftener full of city company, of +sportsmen who came up to hunt, and fish, and drink, as it was sometimes +hinted by the servants, of whom there was then a greater number than at +present--when high-born ladies rode up and down in carriages, or dashed +on horseback through the park and off into the leafy woods--when sounds +of festivity were heard in the halls from year's end to year's end, and +the lights in the parlors were rarely extinguished, or the fires on the +hearth put out. All this was during the lifetime of its former owner. +With his death there had come a change to the inhabitants of Terrace +Hill. In short it was whispered rather loudly now that the ladies of +Terrace Hill were restricted in their means, that it was harder to +collect a bill from them than it used to be, that there was less display +of dress and style, fewer fires, and lights, and servants, and +withdrawal from society, and an apparent desire to be left to +themselves. + +This was what the village people whispered, and none knew the truth of +the whisperings better than the ladies in question. They knew they were +growing poorer with each succeeding year, but it was not the less +mortifying to be familiarly accosted by Mrs. Deacon Briggs, or invited +to a sociable by Mrs. Roe. + +How Miss Asenath and Miss Eudora writhed under the infliction, and how +hard they tried to appear composed and ladylike just as they would deem +it incumbent upon them to appear, had they been on their way to the +gallows. How glad, too, they were when their aristocratic doors closed +upon the little, talkative Mrs. Roe, and what a good time they had +wondering how Mrs. Johnson, who really was as refined and cultivated as +themselves, could associate with such folks to the extent she did. She +was always present at the Snowdon sewing circles, they heard, and +frequently at its tea-drinkings, while never was there a sickbed but she +was sure to find it, particularly if the sick one were poor and +destitute. This was very commendable and praiseworthy, they admitted, +but they did not see how she could endure it. Once Miss Asenath had +ventured to ask her, and she had answered that all her best, most useful +lessons, were learned in just such places--that she was better for these +visits, and found her purest enjoyments in them. To Miss Asenath and +Miss Eudora, this was inexplicable, but Anna, disciplined by years of +ill health, had a slight perception of higher, purer motives than any +which actuated the family at Terrace Hill. On the occasion of little +Mrs. Roe's call it was Anna who apologized for her presumption, saying +that Mrs. Roe really had the kindest of hearts; besides, it was quite +natural for the villagers not to stand quite so much in awe of them now +that their fortune was declining, and as they could not make +circumstances conform to them, they must conform to circumstances. +Neither Asenath nor Eudora, nor the lady mother liked this kind of +conformation, but Anna was generally right, and they did not annihilate +Mrs. Roe with a contemptuous frown as they had fully intended doing. +Mrs. Johnson and her daughter Alice had been present, they heard, the +latter actually joining in some of the plays, and the new clergyman, Mr. +Howard, had suffered himself to be caught by Miss Alice, who disfigured +her luxuriant curls with a bandage, and played at blindman's buff. This +proved conclusively to the elder ladies of Terrace Hill that ministers +were no better than other people, and they congratulated themselves +afresh upon their escape from having one of the brotherhood in thir +family. + +In this escape Anna was particularly interested, as it had helped to +make her the delicate creature she was, for since the morning when she +had knelt at her proud father's feet, and begged him to revoke his cruel +decision, and say she might be the bride of a poor missionary, Anna had +greatly changed, and the father, ere he died, had questioned the +propriety of separating the hearts which clung so together. But the +young missionary had married another, and neither the parents nor the +sisters ever forgot the look of anguish which stole into Anna's face, +when she heard the fatal news. She had thought herself prepared, but the +news was just as crushing when it came, accompanied, though it was with +a few last lines from him. Anna kept this letter yet, wondering if the +missionary remembered her yet, and if they would ever meet again. This +was the secret of the missionary papers scattered so profusely through +the rooms at Terrace Hill. Anna was interested in everything pertaining +to the work, though, it must be confessed, that her mind wandered +oftenest to the banks of the Bosphorus, the City of Mosques and +Minarets, where he was laboring. Neither the mother, nor Asenath, nor +Eudora ever spoke to her of him, and so his name was never heard at +Terrace Hill, unless John mentioned it, as he sometimes did, drawing +comical pictures of what Anna would have been by this time had she +married the missionary. + +Anna only laughed at her wild brother's comments, telling him once to +beware, lest he, too, follow her example, and was guilty of loving some +one far beneath him. John Richards had spurned the idea. The wife who +bore his name should be every way worthy of a Richards. This was John's +theory, nursed and encouraged by mother and sisters, the former charging +him to be sure and keep his heart from all save the right one. Had he +done so? + +A peep at the family as on the day of his expected arrival from Paris +they sat waiting for him will enlighten us somewhat. Taken as a whole, +it was a very pleasant family group, which sat there waiting for the +foreign lion, waiting for the whistle of the engine which was to herald +his approach. + +"I wonder if he has changed," said the mother, glancing at the opposite +mirror and arranging the puffs of glossy false hair which shaded her +aristocratic forehead. + +"Of course he has changed somewhat," returned Miss Asenath, rubbing +together her white, bony hands, on one of which a costly diamond was +flashing. "Nearly two years of Paris society must have imparted to him +that _air distingue_ so desirable in a young man who has traveled." + +"He'll hardly fail of making a good match now," Miss Eudora remarked, +caressing the pet spaniel which had climbed into her lap. "I think we +must manage to visit Saratoga or some of those places next summer. Mr. +Gardner found his wife at Newport, and they say she's worth half a +million." + +"But horridly ugly," and Anna looked up from the reverie in which she +had been indulging. "Lottie says she has tow hair and a face like a +fish. John would never be happy with such a wife." + +"Possibly you think he had better have married that sewing girl about +whom he wrote us just before going to Europe," Miss Eudora said +spitefully, pinching the long silken ears of her pet until the animal +yelled with pain. + +There was a faint sigh from the direction of Anna's chair, and all knew +she was thinking of the missionary. The mother continued: + +"I trust he is over that fancy, and ready to thank me for the strong +letter I wrote him." + +"Yes, but the girl," and Anna leaned her white cheek in her whiter hand. +"None of us know the harm his leaving her may have done. Don't you +remember he wrote how much she loved him--how gentle and confiding her +nature was, and how to leave her then might prove her ruin?" + +"Our little Anna is growing very eloquent upon the subject of sewing +girls," Miss Asenath said, rather scornfully, and Anna rejoined: + +"I am not sure she was a sewing girl. He spoke of her as a schoolgirl." + + +"But it is most likely he did that to mislead us," said the mother. "The +only boarding school he knows anything about is the one where Lottie +was. If he were not her uncle by marriage I should not object to Lottie +as a daughter," was the next remark, whereupon there ensued a +conversation touching the merits and demerits of a certain Lottie +Gardner, whose father had taken for a second wife Miss Laura Richards. + +This Laura had died within a year of her marriage, but Lottie had +claimed relationship to the family just the same, grandmaing Mrs. +Richards and aunty-ing the sisters. John, however, was never called +uncle, except in fun. He was too near her age, the young lady frequently +declaring that she had half a mind to throw aside all family ties and +lay siege to the handsome young man, who really was very popular with +the fair sex. During this discussion of Lottie, Anna had sat listlessly +looking up and down the columns of an old _Herald_, which Dick, Eudora's +pet dog, had ferreted out from the table and deposited at her feet. She +evidently was not thinking of Lottie, nor yet of the advertisements, +until one struck her notice as being very singular. Holding it a little +more to the light she said: "Possibly this is the very person I +want--only the child might be an objection. Just listen," and Anna read +as follows: + + "WANTED--By an unfortunate young married woman, with a child a few + months old, a situation in a private family either as governess, + seamstress, or lady's maid. Country preferred. Address--" + +Anna was about to say whom when a violent ringing of the bell announced +an arrival, and the next moment a tall young man, exceedingly +Frenchified in his appearance, entered the room, and was soon in the +arms of his mother. + +John, hastening to where Anna sat, wound his arms around her light +figure, and kissed her white lips and looked into her face with an +expression, which told that, however indifferent he might be to others, +he was not so to Anna. + +"You have not changed for the worse," he said. "You are scarcely thinner +than when I went away." + +"And you are vastly improved," was Anna's answer. + +His mother continued: "I thought, perhaps, you were offended at my plain +letter concerning that girl, and resented it by not coming, but of +course you are glad now, and see that mother was right. What could you +have done with a wife in Paris?" + +"I should not have gone," John answered, moodily, a shadow stealing over +his face. + +It was not good taste for Mrs. Richards thus early to introduce a topic +on which John was really so sore, and for a moment an awkward silence +ensued, broken at last by the mother again, who, feeling that all was +not right, and anxious to know if there was yet aught to fear from a +poor, unknown daughter-in-law, asked, hesitatingly: + +"Have you seen her since your return?" + +"She's dead," was the laconic reply, and then, as if anxious to change +the conversation, the young doctor turned to Anna and said: "Guess who +was my fellow traveler from Liverpool?" + +Anna never could guess anything, and after a little her brother said: + +"The Rev. Charles Millbrook, missionary to Turkey, returning for his +health." + +For an instant Anna trembled as if she saw opening before her the grave +which for fourteen years had held her buried heart. Charlie was +breathing again the air of the same hemisphere with herself. She might, +perhaps, see him once more, and Hattie, was she with him, or was there +another grave made with the Moslem dead by little Anna's aide? She would +not ask, for she felt the cold, critical eyes bent upon her from across +the hearth, and a few commonplace inquiries was all she ventured upon. +Had Mr. Millbrook greatly changed since he went away? Did he look very +sick? And how had her brother liked him? + +"I scarcely spoke to him," was John's reply. "I confess to a most +lamentable ignorance touching the Rev. Mr. Millbrook and his family. He +wore crape on his hat, I remember, but there was a lady with him to whom +he was quite attentive, and who, I think, was called by his name." + +"Tall, with black eyes, like Lottie's?" Anna meekly asked, and John +replied: "Something after the Lottie order, though more like yourself." + +"It's strange I never saw a notice of his expected return," was Anna's +next remark. "Perhaps it was in the last _Missionary Herald_. You have +not found it yet, have you, mother?" + +The ringing of the supper bell prevented Mrs. Richards from answering. +How gracefully he did the honors, and how proud all were of him, as he +repeated little incidents of Parisian life, speaking of the emperor and +Eugenie as if they had been everyday sights to him. In figure and form +the fair empress reminded him of Anna, he said, except that Anna was the +prettier of the two--a compliment which Anna acknowledged with a blush +and a trembling of her long eyelashes. It was a very pleasant family +reunion, for John did his best to be agreeable. + +"Oh, John, please be careful. There's an advertisement I want to save," +Anna exclaimed, as she saw her brother tearing a strip from the _Herald_ +with which to light his cigar, but as she spoke, the flame curled around +the narrow strip, and Dr. Richards had lighted his cigar with the name +and address appended to the advertisement which had so interested Anna. + +How disturbed she was when she found that nought was left save the +simple wants of the young girl. + +"Let's see," and taking the mutilated sheet, Dr. Richards read the +"Wanted, by a young unfortunate married woman." + +"That unfortunate may mean a great deal more than you imagine," he said. + +"Yes, but she distinctly says married. Don't you see, and I had really +some idea of writing to her." + +"I'm sorry I was so careless, but there are a thousand unfortunate women +who would gladly be your maid, little sister. I'll send you out a score, +if you say so," and John laughed. + +"Has anything of importance occurred in this slow old town?" he +inquired, after Anna had become reconciled to her loss. "Are the people +as odd as usual?" + +"Yes, more so," Miss Eudora thought, "and more presuming," whereupon she +rehearsed the annoyances to which they had been subjected from their +changed circumstances, dwelling at length upon Mrs. Roe's tea drinking, +and the insult offered by inviting them, when she knew there would be no +one present with whom they associated. + +"You forget Mrs. Johnson," interposed Anna. "We would be glad to know +her better than we do, she is so refined and cultivated in all her +tastes, while Alice is the sweetest girl I ever knew. By the way, +brother, they have come here since you left, consequently you have a +rare pleasure in store, the forming their acquaintance." + +"Whose, the old or the young lady's?" John asked. + +"Both," was Anna's reply. "The mother is very youthful in her +appearance. Why, she scarcely looks older than I, and I, you know, am +thirty-two." + +As if fearful lest her own age should come next under consideration, +Miss Eudora hastened to say: + +"Yes, Mrs. Johnson does look very young, and Alice seems like a child. +Such beautiful hair as she has. It used to be a bright yellow, or +golden, but now it has a darker, richer shade, while her eyes are the +softest, handsomest blue." + +Alice Johnson was evidently a favorite, and this stamped her somebody, +so John began to ask who the Johnsons were. + +Mrs. Richards seemed disposed to answer, which she did as follows: + +"Mrs. Johnson used to live in Boston, and her husband was grandson of +old Governor Johnson." + +"Ah, yes," and John began to laugh. "I see now what gives Miss Alice's +hair that peculiar shade, and her eyes that heavenly blue; but go on, +mother, and give her figure as soon as may be." + +"What do you mean?" asked Anna. "I should suppose you'd care more for +her face than her form." + +John smiled mischievously, while his mother continued: + +"I fancy that Mrs. Johnson's family met with a reverse of fortune before +her marriage. I do not see her as often as I would like to, for I am +greatly pleased with her, although she has some habits of which I cannot +approve. Why, I hear that Alice had a party the other day +consisting-wholly of ragged urchins." + +"They were her Sabbath school scholars," interposed Anna. + +"I vote that Anna goes on with Alice's history. She gives it best," said +John, and so Anna continued: + +"There is but little more to tell. Mrs. Johnson and her daughter are +both nice ladies, and I am sure you will like them--everybody does; and +rumor has already given Alice to our young clergyman, Mr. Howard." + +"And she is worth fifty thousand dollars, too," rejoined Asenath. + +"I have her figure at last," said John, winking slyly at Anna. + +And, indeed, the fifty thousand dollars did seem to make an impression +on the young man, who grew interested at once, making numerous +inquiries, asking where he would be most likely to see her. + +"At church," was Anna's reply. "She is always there, and their pew joins +ours." + +Dr. Richards was exceedingly vain, and his vanity manifested itself from +the tie of his neckerchief down to the polish of his boots. Once, had +Hugh Worthington known him intimately, he would have admitted that there +was at least one man whose toilet occupied quite as much time as +Adaline's. In Paris the vain doctor had indulged in the luxury of a +valet, carefully keeping it a secret from his mother and sisters, who +were often compelled to deny themselves that the money he asked for so +often might be forthcoming. But that piece of extravagance was over now; +he dared not bring his valet home, though he sadly wished him there as +he meditated upon the appearance he would make in church next Sabbath. +He was glad there was something new and interesting in Snowdon in the +shape of a pretty girl, for he did not care to return at once to New +York, where he had intended practicing his profession. There were too +many sad memories clustering about that city to make it altogether +desirable, but Dr. Richards was not yet a hardened wretch, and thoughts +of another than Alice Johnson, with her glorious hair and still more +glorious figure, crowded upon his mind as on that first evening of his +return, he sat answering questions and asking others of his own. + +It was late ere the family group broke up, and the storm, beating so +furiously upon Spring Bank, was just making its voice heard around +Terrace Hill mansion, when the doctor took the lamp the servant brought, +and bidding his mother and sisters good-night, ascended the stairs +whither Anna had gone before him. She was not, however, in bed, and +called softly to him: + +"John, Brother John, come in a moment, please." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +ANNA AND JOHN + + +He found her in a tasteful gown, its heavy tassels almost sweeping the +floor, while her long, glossy hair, loosened from its confinement of +ribbon and comb, covered her neck and shoulders as she sat before the +fire always kindled in her room. + +"How picturesque you look," he said, gayly. + +"John," and Anna's voice was soft and pleasing, "was Charlie greatly +changed? Tell me, please." + +"I was so young in the days when he came wooing that I hardly remember +how he used to look. I should not have known him, but my impression is +that he looks about as well as men of forty usually look." + +"Not forty, John, only thirty-eight," Anna interposed. + +"Well, thirty-eight, then. You remember his age remarkably well," John +said, laughingly, adding: "Did you once love him very much?" + +"Yes," and Anna's voice faltered a little. + +"Why didn't you marry him, then?" + +John spoke excitedly, and the flush deepened on his cheek when Anna +answered meekly: + +"Why didn't you marry that poor girl?" + +"Why didn't I?" and John started to his feet; then he continued: "Anna, +I tell you there's a heap of wrong for somebody to answer for, but it is +not you, and it is not me--it's--it's mother!" and John whispered the +word, as if fearful lest the proud, overbearing woman should hear. + +"You are mistaken," Anna replied, "for as far as Charlie was concerned +father had more to do with it than mother. I've never seen him since. He +did marry another, but I've never quite believed that he forgot me." + +Anna was talking now more to herself than to John, and Charlie, could he +have seen her, would have said she was not far from the narrow way which +leadeth unto life. To John her white face, irradiated with gleams of the +soft firelight, was as the face of an angel, and for a time he kept +silence before her, then suddenly exclaimed: + +"Anna, you are good, and so was she, so good, so pure, so artless, and +that made it hard to leave her, to give her up. Anna, do you know what +my mother wrote me? Listen, while I tell, then see if she is not to +blame. She cruelly reminded me that by my father's will all of us, save +you, were wholly dependent upon her, and said the moment I threw myself +away upon a low, vulgar, penniless girl, that moment she'd cast me off, +and I might earn my bread and hers as best I could. She said, too, my +sisters, Anna and all, sanctioned what she wrote, and your opinion had +more weight than all the rest." + +"Oh, John, mother could not have so misconstrued my words. Surely my +note explained--I sent one in mother's letter." + +"It never reached me," John said, while Anna sighed at this proof of her +mother's treachery. + +Always conciliatory, however, she soon remarked: + +"You are sole male heir to the Richards name. Mother's heart and pride +are bound up in you. A poor, unknown girl would only add to our +expenses, and not help you in the least. What was her name? I've never +heard." + +John hesitated, then answered: "I called her Lily, she was so fair and +pure." + +Anna was never in the least suspicious, but took all things for granted, +so now she thought within herself, "Lilian, most likely." Then she said: +"You were not engaged to her, were you?" + +John started forward, and gazed into his sister's face with an +expression as if he wished she would question him more closely, but Anna +never dreamed of a secret, and seeing him hesitate, she said: + +"You need not tell me unless you like. I only thought, maybe, you and +Lily were not engaged." + +"We were. Anna, I'm a wretch--a miserable wretch, and have scarcely +known an hour's peace since I left her." + +"Was there a scene?" Anna asked; and John replied: + +"Worse than that. Worse for her. She did not know I was going till I was +gone. I wrote to her from Paris, for I could not meet her face and tell +her how mean I was. I've thought of her so much, and when I landed in +New York I went at once to find her, or at least to inquire, hoping +she'd forgotten me. The beldame who kept the place was not the same with +whom I had left Lily, but she know about her, and told me she died with +cholera last September. She and--oh, Lily, Lily--" and hiding his face +in Anna's lap, John Richards, whom we have only seen as a traveled +dandy, sobbed like a little child. + +"John," she said at last, when the sobbing had ceased, "You say this +Lily was good. Do you mean she was a Christian, like Charlie?" + +"Yes, if there ever was one. Why, she used to make a villain like me +kneel with her every night, and say the Lord's Prayer." + +For an instant, a puzzling thought crossed Anna's brain as to the +circumstances which could have brought her brother every night to Lily's +side, but it passed away immediately as she rejoined: + +"Then she is safe in heaven, and there are no tears there. We'll try to +meet her some day. You could not help her dying. She might have died had +she been your wife, so I'd try to think it happened for the best, and +you'll soon get to believing it did. That's my experience. You are young +yet, and life has much in store for you. You'll find some one to fill +Lily's place; some one whom we shall all think worthy of you, and +_we'll_ be so happy together." + +She did not speak of Alice Johnson, but she thought of her. John, too, +thought of Alice Johnson, wondering how she would look to him who might +have married the daughter of a count. He had not told Anna of this, and +he was about preparing to leave her, when, changing the conversation, +she said: + +"Did we ever write to you--no, we didn't--about that mysterious +stranger, that man who stopped for a day or two at the hotel, nearly two +years ago, and made so many inquiries about us and our place, pretending +he wanted to buy it in exchange for city property, and that some one had +told him it was for sale?" + +"What man? Who was he?" John asked; and Anna replied: + +"He called himself Bronson." + +"Describe him," John said, settling back so that his face was partly +concealed in the shadow. + +"Rather tall, firmly-knit figure, with what I imagine people mean when +they say a bullet-head, that is, a round, hard head, with keen gray +eyes, sandy mustache, and a scar or something on his right temple. Are +you cold?" and she turned quickly to her brother, who had shuddered +involuntarily at her description, for well he knew now who that man was. + +But why had he come there? This John did not know, and as it was +necessary to appear natural, he answered to Anna's inquiry, that he +thought he had taken cold, as the cars were badly warmed. + +"But, go on; tell me more of this Bronson. He heard our house was for +sale. How, pray?" + +"From some one in New York; and the landlord suggested it might have +been you." + +"It's false. I never told him so," and John spoke savagely. + +"Then you did know him? What was he? We were half afraid of him, he +behaved so strangely," Anna said, looking wonderingly at her brother, +whose face alternately flushed and then grew pale. + +Simple little Anna, how John blessed her in his heart for possessing so +little insight into the genuine springs of his character, for when he +answered: + +"Of course I don't know him--I mean that I never told any one that +Terrace Hill was for sale." + +She believed what he said, and very innocently continued: + +"Had there been a trifle more of fun in my nature, I should, have teased +Eudora, by telling her he came here to see her or Asenath. He was very +curious for a sight of all of us." + +"Did he come here--into the house?" John asked; and Anna replied: + +"Why, yes. He was rather coarse-looking, to be sure, with marks of +dissipation, but very gentlemanly and even pleasing in his address." + +Anna went on: "He was exceedingly polite--apologized for troubling me, +and then stated his business. I told him he must have been misinformed, +as we never dreamed of selling. He took his leave, looking back all the +way through the park, and evidently examining minutely the house and +grounds. Mother was so fidgety after it, declaring him a burglar, and +keeping a watch for several nights after his departure." + +"Undoubtedly he was," said John. "A burglar, I dare say, and you were +fortunate, all of you, in not being stolen from your beds as you lay +sleeping." + +"Oh, we keep our doors locked," was Anna's demure reply. + +"Midnight, as I live!" he exclaimed, and was glad of an excuse for +retiring, as he wished now to be alone. + +Anna had not asked him half what she had meant to ask concerning +Charlie, but she would not keep him longer, and with a kiss upon his +handsome brow she sent him away, herself holding the door a little ajar +and listening to see what effect the new carpet would have upon him. It +did not have any at first, so much was he absorbed in that man with the +scar upon his temple. Why had he come there, and why had it not been +told him before? His people were so stupid in their letters, never +telling what was sure to interest him most. But what good could it have +done had he known of the mysterious visit? None whatever--at least +nothing particular had resulted from it, he was sure. + +"It must have been just after one of his sprees, when he is always more +than half befogged," he said to himself. "Possibly he was passing this +way and the insane idea seized him to stop and pretend to buy Terrace +Hill. The rascal!" and having thus satisfactorily settled it in his +mind, the doctor did look at Anna's carpet, admiring its pattern, and +having a kind of pleasant consciousness that everything was in keeping, +from the handsome drapery which shaded the windows to the marble hearth +on which a fire was blazing. + +In Adah Hastings' dream that night there were visions of a little room +far up in a fourth story, where her fair head was pillowed again upon +the manly arm of one who listened while she chided him gently for his +long delay, and then told him of their Willie boy so much like him, as +the young mother thought. + +In Dr. Richards' dreams, when at last he slept, there were visions of a +lonely grave in a secluded part of Greenwood, and he heard again the +startling words: + +"Dead, both she and the child." + +He did not know there was a child, and he staggered in his sleep, just +as he staggered down the creaking stairs, repeating to himself: + +"Lily's child--Lily's child. May Lily's God forgive me." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +ALICE JOHNSON + + +The Sabbath dawned at last. The doctor had not yet made his appearance +in the village, and Saturday had been spent by him in rehearsing to his +sisters and the servants the wonderful things he had seen abroad, and in +lounging listlessly by a window which overlooked the town, and also +commanded a view of the tasteful cottage by the riverside, where they +told him Mrs. Johnson lived. One upper window he watched with peculiar +interest, from the fact that, early in the day, a head had protruded +from it a moment, as if to inhale the wintry air, and then been quickly +withdrawn. + +"Does Miss Johnson wear curls?" he asked, rather indifferently, with his +eye still on the cottage by the river. + +"Yes; a great profusion of them," was Mrs. Richards' reply, and then the +doctor knew he had caught a glimpse of Alice Johnson, for the head he +had seen was covered with curls, he was sure. + +But little good did a view at that distance afford him. He must see her +nearer ere he decided as to her merits to be a belle. He did not believe +her face would at all compare with the one which continually haunted his +dreams, and over which the coffin lid was shut weary months ago, but +fifty thousand dollars had invested Miss Alice with that peculiar charm +which will sometimes make an ugly face beautiful. The doctor was +beginning to feel the need of funds, and now that Lily was dead, the +thought had more than once crossed his mind that to set himself at once +to the task of finding a wealthy wife was a duty he owed himself and his +family. Had poor, deserted Lily lived; had he found her in New York, he +could not tell what he might have done, for the memory of her sweet, +gentle love was the one restraining influence which kept him from much +sin. He never could forget her; never love another as he had once loved +her, but she was dead, and it was better, so he reasoned, for now was he +free to do his mother's will, and take a wife worthy of a Richards. + +Anna was not with the party which at the usual hour entered the family +carriage with Bibles and prayer books in hand. She seldom went out +except on warm, pleasant days; but she stood in the deep bay window +watching the carriage as it wound down the hill, thinking first how +pleasant and homelike the Sabbath bells must sound to Charlie this day, +and secondly, how handsome and stylish her young brother looked with his +Parisian cloak and cap, which he wore so gracefully. Others than Anna +thought so, too; and at the church door there was quite a little stir, +as he gallantly handed out first his mother and then his sisters, and +followed them into the church. + +Dr. Richards had never enjoyed a reputation for being very devotional, +and the interval between his entrance and the commencement of the +service was passed by him in a rather scornful survey of the time-worn +house. With a sneer in his heart, he mentally compared the old-fashioned +pulpit, with its steep flight of steps and faded trimmings, with the +lofty cathedral he had been in the habit of attending in Paris, and a +feeling of disgust and contempt was creeping over him, when a soft +rustling of silk, and a consciousness of a delicate perfume, which he at +once recognized as aristocratic, warned him that somebody was coming; +somebody entirely different from the score of females who had +distributed themselves within range of his vision, their countrified +bonnets, as he termed them, trimmed outside and in without the least +regard to taste, or combination of color. But the little lady, moving so +quietly up the aisle--she was different. She was worthy of respect, and +the Paris beau felt an inclination to rise at once and acknowledge her +superior presence. + +Wholly unconscious of the interest she was exciting, the lady deposited +her muff upon the cushions, and then kneeling reverently upon the +well-worn stool, covered her face with the hands which had so won the +doctor's admiration. What a little creature she was, scarcely larger +than a child twelve summers old, and how gloriously beautiful were the +curls of indescribable hue, falling in such profusion from beneath the +jaunty hat. All this Dr. Richards noted, marveling that she knelt so +long, and wondering what she could be saying. + +Alice's devotion ended at last, and the view so coveted was obtained; +for in adjusting her dress Alice turned toward him, or rather toward his +mother, and the doctor drew a sudden breath as he met the brilliant +flashing of those laughing sunny blue eyes, and caught the radiant +expression of that face, slightly dimpled with a smile. Beautiful, +wondrously beautiful was Alice Johnson, and yet the features were not +wholly regular, for the piquant nose had a slight turn up, and the +forehead was not very high; but for all this, the glossy hair, the +dancing blue eyes, the apple-blossom complexion, and the rosebud mouth +made ample amends; and Dr. Richards saw no fault in that witching face, +flashing its blue eyes for an instant upon him, and then modestly +turning to the service just commencing. So absorbed was Dr. Richards as +not to notice that the strain of music filling the old church did not +come from the screeching melodeon he had so anathematized, but from an +organ as mellow and sweet in its tone as any he had heard across the +sea. He did not notice anything; and when his sister, surprised at his +sitting posture, whispered to him of her surprise, he started quickly, +and next time the congregation arose he was the first upon his feet, +mingling his voice with that of Alice Johnson and even excelling her in +the loudness of his reading! + +As if divining his wishes in the matter, his mother turned to the +eagerly expectant doctor, whom she introduced as "My son, Dr. Richards." + +Alice had heard much of Dr. Richards from the young girls of Snowdon. +She had heard his voice in the Psalter, his responses in the Litany, and +accepted it as a sign of marked improvement. He could not be as +irreverent and thoughtless as he had been represented by those who did +not like him; he must have changed during his absence, and she frankly +offered him her hand, and with a smile which he felt even to his finder +tips, welcomed him home, making some trivial remark touching the +contrast between their quiet town and the cities he had left. + +"But you will help make it pleasanter for us this winter, I am sure," +she continued, and the sweet blue eyes sought his for an answer as to +whether he would desert Snowdon immediately. + +What a weak, vacillating creature is man before a pretty woman like +Alice Johnson. Twenty-four hours ago, and the doctor would have scoffed +at the idea that he should tarry longer than a week or two at the +farthest in that dull by-place, where the people were only half +civilized; but now the tables were turned as by magic. Snowdon was as +pretty a rural village as New England could boast, and he meant to enjoy +it for a while. It would be a relief after the busy life he had led, and +was just the change he needed! So, in answer to Alice's remark, he said +he should probably remain at home some time, that he always found it +rather pleasant at Snowdon, though as a boy he had, he supposed, often +chafed at its dullness; but he saw differently now. Besides, it could +not now be dull, with the acquisition it had received since he was there +before; and he bowed gracefully toward the young lady, who acknowledged +the compliment with a faint blush, and then turned toward the group of +"noisy, ill-bred children," as Dr. Richards thought, who came thronging +about her. + +"My Sabbath school scholars," Alice said, as if in answer to these +mental queries, "Ah, here comes my youngest--my pet," and Alice stooped +to caress a little rosy-cheeked boy, with bright brown eyes and patches +on both coat sleeves. + +The doctor saw the patches, but not the handsome face, and with a +gesture of impatience, turned to go, just as his ear caught another +kiss, and he knew the patched boy received what he would have given much +to have. + +"Hanged if I don't half wish I was one of those ragged urchins," he +said, after handing his mother and sisters to their carriage, and +seating himself at their side. "But does not Miss Johnson display +strange taste? Surely some other one less refined might be found to look +after those brats, if they must be looked after, which I greatly doubt. +Better leave them, as you find them; can't elevate them if you try. It's +trouble thrown away." + +Just before turning from the main road into the park which led to +Terrace Hill, they met a stylish little covered sleigh. The colored +driver politely touched big hat to the ladies, who leaned out a moment +to look after him. + +"That's Mrs. Johnson's turnout," said Eudora. "In the winter Martin +always takes Alice to church and then returns for her." + +"And folks say," interposed Asenath, "that if the walking is bad or the +weather cold, both Alice and her mother go two miles out of their way to +carry home some old woman or little child, who lives at a distance. I've +seen Alice myself with half a dozen or more of these children, and she +looked as proud and happy as a queen. Queer taste, isn't it?" + +John thought it was, though he himself said: "It is like what Lily would +have done, had she possessed the power and means." + +"Well, brother, what of Miss Alice? Was she at church?" Anna asked +softly. "I need not ask though, for of course she was. I should almost +as soon think of hearing that Mr. Howard himself was absent as Alice." + +"That reminds me," said John, "of what you said concerning Mr. Howard +and Alice. There can't be any truth in it. She surely does not fancy +him." + +"Not as a lover," Anna replied. "She respects him greatly, however, +because he is a clergyman." + +"Is she then a very strong church woman?" John asked. + +"Yes, but not a bit of a blue," Anna replied. "If all Christians were +like Alice, religion would be divested of much of its supposed gloom. +She shows it everywhere, and so does not have to wear it on set +occasions to prove that she possesses it. How were you pleased with Miss +Johnson?" + +"How was I pleased with her? I felt like kissing the hem of her blue +silk, of course! But I tell you, Anna, those ragged, dirty urchins who +came trooping into that damask-cushioned pew, marred the picture +terribly. What possible pleasure can she take in teaching them?" + +Anna had an idea of the pleasure it might be to feel that one was doing +good, but she could not explain lucidly, so she did not attempt it. She +only said Miss Alice was very benevolent and received her reward in the +love bestowed upon her so freely by those whom she befriended. + +"And to win her good graces, must one pretend to be interested in those +ragamuffins?" John asked, a little spitefully. + +"Why, no, not unless they were. Alice could not wish you to be +deceitful," was Anna's reply, after which a long silence ensued, and +Anna dropped away to sleep, while her brother sat watching the fire +blazing in the grate, and trying to decide as to his future course. + +Should he return to New York, accept the offer of an old friend of his +father's, an experienced practitioner, and thus earn his own bread +honorably; or, should he remain a while at Snowdon and cultivate Alice +Johnson? He had never yet failed when he chose to exert himself, and +though he might, for a time, be compelled to adopt a different code of +morality from that which he at present acknowledged, he would do it for +once. He could be interested in those ragged children; he could +encourage Sunday schools; he could attend church as regularly as Alice +herself; and, better yet, he could doctor the poor for nothing, as that +was sure to tell, and he would do it, too, if necessary. This was the +finale which he reached at last by a series of arguments pro and con, +and when it was reached, he was anxious to commence the task at once. He +presumed he could love Alice Johnson; she was so pretty; but even if he +didn't, he would only be doing what thousands had done before him. He +should be very proud of her, and would certainly try to make her happy. +One long, almost sobbing sigh to the memory of poor Lily, who had loved +so much and been so cruelly betrayed, one faint struggle with +conscience, which said that Alice Johnson was too pure a gem for him to +trifle with, and then, the past, with its sad memories, was buried. + +"Not going to church twice in one day!" Mrs. Richards exclaimed as the +doctor threw aside the book he had been reading, and started for his +cloak. + +"Why, yes," he answered. "I liked that parson so much better than I +expected, that I think I'll go again," and hurrying out, he was soon on +his way to St. Paul's. + +"Gone on foot, too, when it's so cold!" and the mother, who had risen +and stood watching him from the window, spoke anxiously. + +The service was commencing, but the doctor was in no hurry to take his +seat. He would as soon be seen as not, and, vain fop that he was, he +rather enjoyed the stirring of heads he felt would ensue when he moved +up the aisle. At last he would wait no longer, and with a most +deferential manner, as if asking pardon for disturbing the congregation, +he walked to his pew door, and depositing his hat and cloak, sat down +just where he meant to sit, next the little figure, at which he did not +glance, knowing, of course, that it was Alice. + +How then was he astonished and confounded when at the reading of the +Psalter, another voice than hers greeted his ear!--a strange, sharp +voice, whose tones were not as indicative of refinement as Alice's had +been, and whose pronunciation, distinctly heard, savored somewhat of the +so-called down East. He looked at her now, moving off a foot or more, +and found her a little, odd, old woman, shriveled and withered, with +velvet hat, not of the latest style, its well-kept strings of black +vastly different from the glossy blue he had so much admired at an +earlier period of the day. Was ever man more disappointed? Who was she, +the old witch, for so he mentally termed the inoffensive woman devoutly +conning her prayer book, unconscious of the wrath her presence was +exciting in the bosom of the young man beside her! How he wished he had +stayed at home, and were it not that he sat so far distant from the +door, he would certainly have left in disgust. What a drawling tone was +Mr. Howard's. + +Such were the doctor's thoughts. But hark! Whose voice was that? The +congregation seemed to hold their breath as the glorious singer warbled +forth the bird-like strain, "Thou that takest away the sins of the +world." She sang those words as if she felt them every one, and Dr. +Richards' heart thrilled with an indefinable emotion us he listened. +"Thou that sittest on the right hand of God the Father;" how rich and +full her voice as she sang that alone; and when the final Amen was +reached, and the grand old chant was ended, Dr. Richards sat like one +entranced, straining his ear to catch the last faint echo of the +sweetest music he had ever heard. + +Could Alice sing like that, and who was this nightingale? How he wished +he knew; and when next the people arose, obedient to the organ's call, +he was of their number, and turning full about, looked up into the +gallery, starting as he looked, and half uttering an exclamation of +surprise. There was no mistaking the Russian sable fur, the wide blue +ribbons thrown so gracefully back, the wealth of sunny hair, or the +lustrous eyes, which swept for an instant over the congregation below, +taking in him with the rest, and then were dropped upon the keys, where +the snowy, ungloved hands were straying. The organist was Alice Johnson! +There were no more regrets now that he had come to church, no more +longings to be away, no more maledictions against Mr. Howard's drawling +manner, no more invectives against the poor old woman, listening like +himself with rapt attention, and wondering if the music of heaven could +be sweeter than that her bonny Alice made. The doctor, too, felt better +for such music, and he never remembered having been more attentive to a +sermon in his life than to the one, which followed the evening service. + +When it was ended, and the people dismissed, she came tripping down the +stairs, flooding the dingy vestibule with a world of sunshine. + +"Here, Aunt Densie, here I am. Martin is waiting for us," the doctor +heard her say to the old lady, who was elbowing her way through the +crowd, and who at last came to a standstill, apparently looking for +something she could not find. "What is it, auntie?" Alice said again. +"Lost something, have you? I'll be with you in a minute." + +Two hours ago, and Dr. Richards would not have cared if fifty old women +had lost their entire wardrobe. As an attache of some kind to Alice +Johnson, Densie was an object of importance, and stepping forward, just +as Alice had made her way to the distressed old lady's side, he very +politely offered to assist in the search. + +"Ah, Dr. Richards, thank you," Alice said, as the black kid was found, +and passed to its anxious owner. + +The doctor never dreamed of an introduction, for his practiced eye saw +at once that however Alice might auntie her, the woman was still a +servant. How then was he surprised when Alice said: + +"Miss Densmore, this is Dr. Richards, from Terrace Hill," adding, in an +aside to him: "My old nurse, who took care of both mother and myself +when we were children." + +They were standing in the door now, and the covered sleigh was drawn up +just in front. + +"Auntie first," she said, as they reached the carriage steps, and so the +doctor was fain to help auntie in, whispering gallantly in an aside: + +"Age before beauty always!" + +"Thank you," and Alice's ringing laugh cut the winter air as she +followed Densie Densmore, the doctor carefully wrapping her cloak about +her, and asking if her fur was pulled up sufficiently around her neck. + +"It's very cold," he said, glancing up at the glittering stars, scarcely +brighter than the blue eyes flashing on him. "At least I found it so on +my walk to church," and with a slight shiver the scheming doctor was +bowing himself away, when Alice exclaimed: + +"Did you walk this wintry night? Pray, gratify me then by accepting a +seat in our sleigh. There's plenty of room without crowding auntie." + +Happy Dr. Richards! How he exerted himself to be agreeable, talking +about the singing, asking if she often honored the people as she had +to-night. + +"I take Miss Fisher's place when she is absent," Alice replied, +whereupon, the doctor said he must have her up at Terrace Hill some day, +to try Anna's long-neglected instrument. "It was once a most superb +affair, but I believe it is sadly out of tune. Anna is very fond of you, +Miss Johnson, and your visits would benefit her greatly. I assure you +there's a duty of charity to be discharged at Terrace Hill as well as +elsewhere. Anna suffers from too close confinement indoors, but, with a +little skill, I think we can manage to get her out once more. Shall we +try?" + +Selfish Dr. Richards! It was all the same to him whether Anna went out +once a day or once a year, but Alice did not suspect him and she +answered frankly that she should have visited Terrace Hill more +frequently, had she supposed his mothers and sisters cared particularly +for society, but she had always fancied they preferred being alone. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +RIVERSIDE COTTAGE + + +Mrs. Johnson did not like Dr. Richards, and yet he became an almost +daily visitor at Riverside Cottage, where one face at least grew +brighter when he came, and one pair of eyes beamed on him a welcome. His +new code of morality worked admirably. Mr. Howard himself was not more +regular at church, or Alice more devout, than Dr. Richards. The +children, whom he had denominated "ragged brats," were no longer spurned +with contempt, but fed with peanuts and molasses candy. He was popular +with the children, but the parents, clear-sighted, treated him most +shabbily at his back, accusing him of caring only for Miss Alice's good +opinion. + +This was what the poor said, and what many others thought. Even Anna, +who took everything for what it seemed, roused herself and more than +once remonstrated with her brother upon the course he was pursuing, if +he were not in earnest, as something he once said to her made her half +suspect. + +She had become very intimate with Alice latterly, and as her health +improved with the coming of spring, almost every fine day found her at +Riverside Cottage, where once she and Mrs. Johnson stumbled upon a +confidential chat, having for its subject John and Alice, Anna said +nothing against her brother. She merely spoke of him as kind and +affectionate, but the quick-seeing mother detected more than the words +implied, and after that the elegant doctor was less welcome to her +fireside than, he had been before. + +As the winter passed away and spring advanced, he showed no intentions +of leaving Snowdon, but on the contrary opened an office in the village, +greatly to the surprise of the inhabitants, who remembered his former +contempt for any one who could settle down in that dull town, and +greatly to the dismay of old Dr. Rogers, who for years had blistered and +bled the good people without a fear of rivalry. + +"Does Dr. Richards intend locating permanently in Snowdon?" Mrs. Johnson +asked of her daughter as they sat alone one pleasant spring evening. + +"His sign would indicate as much," was Alice's reply. + +"Mother," she said gently, "you look pale and worried. You have looked +so for some time past. What is it, mother? Are you very sick, or are you +troubled about me?" + +"Is there any reason why I should be troubled about my darling?" asked +the mother. + +Alice never had any secrets from her mother, and she answered frankly: +"I don't know, unless--unless--mother, why don't you like Dr. Richards?" + +The ice was fairly broken now, and very briefly but candidly Mrs. +Johnson told why she did not like him. He was handsome, refined, +educated, and agreeable, she admitted, but still there was something +lacking. The mask he was wearing had not deceived her, and she would +have liked him far better without it. This she said to Alice, adding +gently: "He may be all he seems, but I doubt it. I distrust him greatly. +I think he fancies you and loves your money." + +"Oh, mother," and in Alice's voice there was a sound of tears, "you do +him injustice, and he has been so kind to us, while Snowdon is so much +pleasanter since he came." + +"Are you engaged to him?" was Mrs. Johnson's next question. + +"No," and Alice looked up wonderingly. "I do not believe I like him +well enough for that." + +Alice Johnson was wholly ingenuous and would not for the world have +concealed a thing from her mother, and very frankly she continued: + +"I like Dr. Richards better than any gentleman I have ever met. I should +have told you, mother." + +"God bless my darling, and keep her as innocent as now," Mrs. Johnson +murmured. "I am glad there is no engagement. Will you promise there +shall not be for one year at least?" + +"Yes, I will, I do," Alice said at last. + +A second "God bless my darling," came from the mother's lips, and +drawing her treasure nearer to her, she continued: "You have made me +very happy, and by and by you'll be so glad. You may leave me now, for I +am tired and sick." + +It was long ere Alice forgot the expression of her mother's face or the +sound of her voice, so full of love and tenderness, as she bade her +good-night on that last evening they ever spent together alone. The +indisposition of which Mrs. Johnson had been complaining for several +days, proved to be no light matter, and when next morning Dr. Rogers was +summoned to her bedside, he decided it to be a fever which was then +prevailing to some extent in the neighboring towns. + +That afternoon it was told at Terrace Hill that Mrs. Johnson was very +sick, and half an hour later the Richards carriage, containing the +doctor and his Sister Anna, wound down the hill, and passing through the +park, turned in the direction of the cottage, where they found Mrs. +Johnson even worse than they had anticipated. The sight of distress +aroused Anna at once, and forgetting her own feebleness she kindly +offered to stay until night if she could be of any service. Mrs. Johnson +was fond of Anna, and she expressed her pleasure so eagerly that Anna +decided to remain, and went with Alice to remove her wrappings. + +"Oh, I forgot!" she exclaimed, as a sudden thought seemed to strike her. +"I don't know as I can stay after all, though I might write it here, I +suppose as well as at home; and as John is going to New York to-night he +will take it along." + +"What is it?" Alice asked; and Anna replied: + +"You'll think me very foolish, no doubt, but I want to know if you too +think so. I'm so dependent on other's opinions," and, in a low tone, +Anna told of the advertisement seen early last winter, how queerly it +was expressed, and how careless John had been in tearing off the name +and address, with which to light his cigar. "It seems to me," she +continued, "that 'unfortunate married woman' is the very one I want." + +"Yes; but how will you find her? I understand that the address was +burned," Alice rejoined quickly, feeling herself that Anna was hardly +sane in her calculations. + +"Oh, I've used that in the wording," Anna answered. "I do not know as it +will ever reach her, it's been so long, but if it does, she'll be sure +to know I mean her, or somebody like her." + +"I dislike writing very much," she said, as she saw the array of +materials, "and I write so illegibly too. Please do it for me, that's a +dear, good girl," and she gave the pen to Alice, who wrote the first +word, "Wanted," and then waited for Anna to dictate. + + "WANTED--By an invalid lady, whose home is in the country, a young + woman, who will be both useful and agreeable, either as a companion + or waiting maid. No objection will be raised if the woman is + married, and unfortunate, or has a child a few months old. Address, + + "A.E.R., Snowdon, Hampden Co., Mass." + +Alice thought it the queerest advertisement she had ever seen, but Anna +was privileged to do queer things, and folding the paper, she went out +into the hall, where the doctor sat waiting for her. + +John's mustached lip curled a little scornfully as he read it. + +"Why, puss, that girl or woman is in Georgia by this time, and as the +result of this, Terrace Hill will be thronged with unfortunate women and +children, desiring situations. Better let me burn this, as I did the +other, and not be foolish. She will never see it," and John made a +gesture as if he would put it in the stove, but Anna caught his hand, +saying imploringly: "Please humor me this once. She may see it, and I'm +so interested." + +Anna was always humored, and the doctor placed in his memorandum book +the note, then turning to Alice he addressed her in so low a tone that +Anna readily took the hint and left them together. Dr. Richards was not +intending to be gone long, he said, though the time would seem a little +eternity, so much was his heart now bound up in Snowdon. + +Afraid lest he might say something more of the same nature, Alice +hastened to ask if he had seen her mother, and what he thought of her. + +"I stepped in for a moment while you were in the library," he replied. +"She seemed to have a high fever, and I fancied it increased while I +stood by her. I am sorry to leave while she is so sick, but remember +that if anything happens you will be dearer to me than ever," and the +doctor pressed the little hand which he took in his to say good-by, for +now he must really go. + +As the day and night wore on Mrs. Johnson grew worse so rapidly, that at +her request a telegram was forwarded to Mr. Liston, who had charge of +her moneyed affairs, and who came at once, for the kind old man was +deeply interested in the widow and her lovely daughter. As Mrs. Johnson, +could bear it, they talked alone together until he perfectly understood +what her wishes were with regard to Alice, and how to deal with Dr. +Richards, whom he had not yet seen. Then promising to return again in +case the worst should happen, he took his leave, while Mrs. Johnson, now +that a weight was lifted from her mind, seemed to rally, and the +physician pronounced her better. But with that strange foreknowledge, as +it were, which sometimes comes to people whose days are nearly numbered, +she felt that she would die, and that in mercy this interval of rest and +freedom from pain was granted her, in which she might talk with Alice +concerning the arrangements for the future. + +"Alice, darling," she said, when they were alone, "come sit by me here +on the bed and listen to what I say." + +Alice obeyed, and taking her mother's hot hands in hers she waited for +what was to come. + +"You have learned to trust God in prosperity, and He will be a +thousandfold nearer to you in adversity. You'll miss me, I know, and be +very lonely without me, but you are young, and life has many charms for +you, besides God will never forget or forsake His covenant children." + +Gradually as she talked the wild sobbing ceased, and when the white face +lifted itself from its hiding place there was a look upon it as if the +needed strength had been sought and to some extent imparted. + +"My will was made some time ago," Mrs. Johnson continued, "and I need +not tell you that with a few exceptions, such as legacies to Densie +Densmore, and some charitable institutions, you are my sole heir. Mr. +Liston is to be your guardian, and will look after your interests until +you are of age, or longer if you choose. You know that as both your +father and myself were the only children you have no near relatives on +either side--none to whom you can look for protection. + +"You will remember having heard me speak occasionally of some friends +now living in Kentucky, a Mrs. Worthington, whose husband was a distant +relative of ours. Ralph Worthington and your father were schoolboys +together, and afterward college companions. Only once did anything come +between them, and that was a young girl, a very young girl, whom both +desired, and whom only one could have." + +Alice was interested now, and forgetting in a measure her grief, she +asked quickly: "Did my father love some one else than you?" + +"I never knew he did," and a tear rolled down the faded cheek of the +sick woman. "Ralph Worthington was true as steel, and when he found +another preferred to himself, he generously yielded the contest." + +"Oh, I shall like Mr. Worthington," Alice exclaimed, a desire rising in +her heart to see the man who had loved and lost her mother. + +"He was, at his own request, groomsman at our wedding, and the +bridesmaid became his wife in little less than a year." + +"Did he love her?" Alice asked, in some astonishment, and her mother +replied evasively: + +"He was kind and affectionate, while she loved him with all a woman's +devotion. I was but sixteen when I became a bride, and several years +elapsed ere God blessed me with a child. Your father was consumptive, +and the chances were that I should early be left a widow. This it was +which led to the agreement made by the two friends that if either died +the living one should care for the widow and fatherless. To see the two +you would not have guessed that the athletic Ralph would be the first to +go, yet so it was. He died ere you were born." + +"Then he is dead? Oh, I'm so sorry," Alice exclaimed. + +"Yes, he's dead; and, as far as possible, your father fulfilled his +promise to the widow and her child--a little boy, five years old, of +whom Mrs. Worthington herself was appointed guardian. I never knew what +spirit of evil possessed Eliza, but in less than a year after her +husband's death, she made a second and most unfortunate marriage. Mr. +Murdoch proved a greater scoundrel than we supposed, and when their +little girl was nearly two years old, we heard of a divorce. Mr. +Johnson's health was failing fast, and we were about to make the tour of +Europe. Just before we sailed we visited poor Eliza, whom we found +heartbroken, for the brutal wretch had managed to steal her daughter, +and carried it no one knew whither. I never shall forgot the distress of +the brother. Clasping my dress, he sobbed: 'Oh, lady, please bring back +my baby sister, or Hugh will surely die.' I've often thought of him +since, and wondered what he had grown to be. We comforted Eliza as best +we could, and left money to be used for her in case she needed it. Then +we embarked with you and Densie for Europe. You know how long we stayed +there, how for a while, your father seemed to regain his strength, how +he at last grew worse and hastened home to die. In the sorrow and +excitement which followed, it is not strange that Eliza was for a time +forgotten, and when I remembered and inquired for her again, I heard +that Hugh had been adopted by some relation in Kentucky, that the stolen +child had been mysteriously returned, and was living with its mother in +Elmwood. + +"At first Eliza appeared a little cool, but this soon wore off. She did +not talk much of Hugh. Neither did she say much of Adaline, who was then +away at school. Still my visit was a sadly satisfactory one, as we +recalled old times when we were girls together, weeping over our great +loss when our husbands were laid to rest. Then we spoke of their +friendship, and lastly of the contract. + +"'It sounds preposterous, in me, I know,' Mrs. Worthington said, when we +parted, 'you are so rich, and I so poor, but if ever your Alice should +want a mother's care, I will gladly give it to her.' + +"This was nearly eight years ago. In my anxiety about you, I failed to +write her for a long, long time, while she was long in answering, and +then the correspondence ceased till just before her removal to Kentucky, +when she apprised me of the change. You have now the history of Mrs. +Worthington, the only person who comes to mind as one to whose care I +can intrust you." + +"But, mother, I may not be wanted there," and Alice's lip quivered +painfully. + +"You will not go empty-handed, nor be a burden to them. They are poor, +and money will not come amiss. I said that Mr. Liston would attend to +all pecuniary matters, paying your allowance quarterly; and I am sure +you will not object when I tell you that I think it right to leave +Adaline the sum of one thousand dollars. It will not materially lessen +your inheritance, and it will do her a world of good. Mr. Liston will +arrange it for you. You will remain here until you hear from Mrs. +Worthington, and then abide by her arrangements. Will you go, my +daughter--go cheerfully and do as I desire?" + +"Yes, mother, I'll go," came gaspingly from Alice's lips. "I'll go; but, +mother, oh, mother," and Alice's cry ended as it always did, "you will +not, you must not die!" + +But neither tears, nor prayers could avail to keep the mother longer. +Her work on earth was done, and after this conversation with her +daughter, she grew worse so rapidly that hope died out of Alice's heart, +and she knew that soon she would be motherless. There were days and +nights of pain and delirium in which the sick woman recognized none of +those around her save Alice, whom she continually blessed as her +darling, praying that God, too, would bless and keep His covenant child. +At last there came a change, and one lovely Sabbath morning, ere the +bell from St. Paul's tower sent forth its summons to the house of God, +there rang from its belfry a solemn toll, and the villagers listening to +it, said, as they counted forty-four, that Mrs. Johnson was dead. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +MR. LISTON AND THE DOCTOR + + +Among Snowdon's poor that day, as well as among the wealthier class, +there was many an aching heart, and many a prayer was breathed for the +stricken Alice, not less beloved than the mother had been. At Terrace +Hill mansion too, much sorrow was expressed. On the whole it was very +unfortunate that Mrs. Johnson should have died so unexpectedly, and they +did wish John was there to comfort the young girl who, they heard, +refused to see any one except the clergyman and Mr. Liston. + +"Suppose we telegraph for John," Eudora said, and in less than two hours +thereafter, Dr. Richards in New York read that Alice was an orphan. + +There was a pang as he thought of her distress, a wish that he were with +her, and then in his selfish heart the thought arose, "What if she does +not prove as wealthy as I have supposed? Will that make any +difference?" + +"I must do something," he soliloquized, "or how can I ever pay those +debts in New York, of which mother knows nothing? I wish that widow--" + +He did not finish his wishes, for a turn in the path brought him +suddenly face to face with Mr. Liston, whom he had seen at a distance, +and whom he recognized at once. + +"I'll quiz the old codger," he thought. "He don't, of course, know me, +and will never suspect my object." + +Mistaken, doctor! The old codger was fully prepared. He did know Dr. +Richards by sight, and was rather glad than otherwise when the elegant +dandy, taking a seat upon the gnarled roots of the tree under which he +was sitting, made some trivial remark about the weather, which was very +propitious for the crowd who were sure to attend Mrs. Johnson's funeral. + +Yes, Mr. Liston presumed there would be a crowd. It was very natural +there should be, particularly as the deceased was greatly beloved and +was also reputed wealthy, "It beats all what a difference it makes, even +after death, whether one is supposed to be rich or poor," and the codger +worked away industriously at the pine stick he was whittling. + +"But in this case the supposition of riches must be correct, though I +know people are oftener overvalued than otherwise," and with his +gold-headed cane the doctor thrust at a dandelion growing near. + +"Nothing truer than that," returned the whittler, brushing the litter +from his lap. "Now I've no doubt that prig of a doctor, who they say is +shining up to Alice, will be disappointed when he finds just how much +she's worth. Let me see. What is his name? Lives up there," and with his +jackknife Mr. Liston pointed toward Terrace Hill. + +"The Richards family live there, sir. You mean their son, I presume." + +"Ted, the chap that has traveled and come home so changed. They do say +he's actually taken to visiting all the rheumatic old women in town, +applying sticking-plasters to their backs and administering squills to +their children, all free gratis." + +Poor doctor! How he fidgeted, moving so often that his tormentor +demurely asked him if he were sitting on a thistle or what! + +"Does Miss Johnson remain here?" the doctor asked at last, and Mr. +Liston replied by telling what he knew of the arrangements. + +At the mention of Worthington the doctor looked up quickly. Whom had he +known by that name, or where had he heard it before? "Mrs. Worthington, +Mrs. Worthington," he repeated, unpleasant memories of something, he +knew not what, rising to his mind. "Is he living in this vicinity?" + +"In Elmwood. It's a widow and her daughter," Mr. Liston answered, wisely +resolving to say nothing of a young man, lest the doctor should feel +anxious. + +"A widow and her daughter! I must be mistaken in thinking I ever knew +any one by that name, though it seems strangely familiar," said the +doctor, and as by this time he had heard all he wished to hear, he +arose, and bidding Mr. Liston good-morning walked away in no enviable +frame of mind. + +Looking at his watch the doctor found that it lacked several hours yet +ere the express from Boston was due. But this did not discourage him. He +would stay in the fields or anywhere, and turning backward he followed +the course of the river winding under the hill until he reached the +friendly woods which shielded him from observation. How he hated himself +hiding there among the trees, and how he longed for the downward train, +which came at last, and when the village bell tolled out its summons to +the house of mourning, he sat in a corner of the car returning to New +York even faster than he had come. + +Gradually the Riverside cottage filled with people assembling to pay the +last tribute of respect to the deceased, who during her short stay among +them had endeared herself to many hearts. + +Slowly, sadly, they bore her to the grave. Reverently they laid her down +to rest, and from the carriage window Alice's white face looked +wistfully out as "earth to earth, ashes to ashes," broke the solemn +stillness. Oh, how she longed to lay there, too, beside her mother! How +the sunshine, flecking the bright June grass with gleams of gold, seemed +to mock her misery as the gravelly earth rattled heavily down upon the +coffin lid, and she knew they were covering up her mother. "If I, too, +could die!" she murmured, sinking back in the carriage corner and +covering her face with her veil. But not so easily could life be shaken +off by her, the young and strong. She must live yet longer. She had a +work to do--a work whose import she knew not; and the mother's death, +for which she then could see no reason, though she knew well that one +existed, was the entrance to that work. She must live and she must +listen while Mr. Liston talked to her that night on business, arranging +about the letter, which was forwarded immediately to Kentucky, and +advising her what to do until an answer was received, when he would come +up again and do whatever was necessary. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +MATTERS IN KENTUCKY + + +Backward now with our reader we turn, and take up the broken thread of +our story at the point where we left Adah Hastings. + +It was a bitter morning in which to face the fierce north wind, and plow +one's way to the Derby cornfield, where, in a small, dilapidated +building, Aunt Eunice Reynolds, widowed sister of John Stanley, had +lived for many years, first as a pensioner upon her brother's bounty, +and next as Hugh's incumbent. At the time of her brother's death Aunt +Eunice had intended removing to Spring Bank, but when Hugh's mother +wrote, asking for a home, she at once abandoned the plan, and for two +seasons more lived alone, watching from her lonely door the tasseled +corn ripening in the August sun. Of all places in the world Hugh liked +the cottage best, particularly in summer. Few would object to it then +with its garden of gayly colored flowers, its barricades of tasseled +corn and the bubbling music of the brook, gushing from the willow spring +a few rods from the door. But in the winter people from the highway, as +they caught from across the field the gleam of Aunt Eunice's light, +pitied the lonely woman sitting there so solitary beside her wintry +fire. But Aunt Eunice asked no pity. If Hugh came once a week to spend +the night, and once a day to see her, it was all that she desired, for +Hugh was her darling, her idol, the object which kept her old heart warm +and young with human love. For him she would endure any want or +encounter any difficulty, and so it is not strange that in his dilemma +regarding Adah Hastings, he intuitively turned to her, as the one of all +others who would lend a helping hand. He had not been to see her in two +whole days, and when the gray December morning broke, and he looked out +upon the deep, untrodden snow, and then glanced across the fields to +where a wreath of smoke, even at that early hour, was rising slowly from +her chimney, he frowned impatiently, as he thought how bad the path +must be between Spring Bank and the cornfield, whither he intended +going, as he would be the first to tell what had occurred. 'Lina's +fierce opposition to and his mother's apparent shrinking from Adah had +convinced him how hopeless was the idea that she could stay at Spring +Bank with any degree of comfort to herself or quiet to him. Aunt +Eunice's house was the only refuge for Adah, and there she would be +comparatively safe from censorious remarks. + +"Inasmuch as ye did it to the least of these ye did it unto Me," kept +ringing in Hugh's ears, as he hastily dressed himself, striking his +benumbed fingers together, and trying hard to keep his teeth from +chattering, for Hugh was beginning his work of economy, and when at +daylight Claib came as usual to build his master's fire, he had sent him +back, saying he did not need one, and bidding him go, instead, to Mrs. +Hastings' chamber. + +"Make a hot one there," he said. "Pile the coals on high, so as to heat +up quick." + +As Hugh passed through the hall on his way downstairs, he could not +refrain from pausing a moment at the door of Adah's room. The fire was +burning, he knew, for he heard the kindling coals sputtering in the +flames, and that was all he heard. He would look in an instant, he said, +to see if all were well, and carefully turning the knob he entered the +chamber where the desolate Adah lay sleeping, her glossy brown hair +falling like a veil about her sweet pale face, on which the tear stains +still were visible. + +As she lay with the firelight falling full upon her forehead, Hugh, too, +caught sight of the mark which had attracted 'Lina's curiosity, and +starting forward, bent down for a nearer view. + +"Strange that she should have that mark. Oh Heaven!" and Hugh staggered +against the bedpost as a sudden thought flashed upon him. "Was that +polished villain who had led him into sin anything to Adaline, anything +to his mother? Poor girl, I am sorry if you, too, have been +contaminated, however slight the contamination may be," he said, softly, +glancing again at Adah, about whose lips a faint smile was playing, and +who, as he looked, murmured faintly: + +"Kiss me, George, just as you used to do." + +"Rascally villain!" Hugh muttered, clinching his fist involuntarily. +"You don't deserve that such as she should dream of you. I'd kiss her +myself if I was used to the business, but I should only make a bungle, +as I do with everything, and might kiss you, little shaver," and Hugh +bent over Willie. + +There was something in Hugh which won his confidence at once, and +stretching-out his dimpled arms, he expressed his willingness to be +taken up. Hugh could not resist Willie's appeal, and lifting him gently +in his arms, he bore him off in triumph, the little fellow patting his +cheek, and rubbing his own against it. + +"I don't know what I'll do with you, my little man," he said, as he +reached the lower hall; then suddenly turning in the direction of his +mother's room, he walked deliberately to the bedside, and ere the +half-awakened 'Lina was aware of his intention, deposited his burden +between her and his mother. + +"Here, Ad, here's something that will raise you quicker than yeast," he +said, beating a hasty retreat, while the indignant young lady verified +his words by leaping half-way across the floor, her angry tones mingling +with Willie's crowing laugh, as the child took the whole for fun, meant +expressly for his benefit. + +Hugh knew that Willie was safe with his mother, and hurried out to the +kitchen, where only a few of his negroes were yet stirring. + +"Ho, Claib!" he called, "saddle Rocket quick and bring him to the door. +I'm going to the cornfield." + +"Lor' bless you, mas'r, it's done snow higher than Rocket's head. He +never'll stand it nohow." + +"Do as I bid you," was Hugh's reply, and indolent Claib went shivering +to the stable where Hugh's best horses were kept. + +A whinnying sound of welcome greeted him as he entered, but was soon +succeeded by a spirited snort as he attempted to lead out a most +beautiful dapple gray, Hugh's favorite steed, his pet of pets, and the +horse most admired and coveted in all the country. + +"None of yer ars," Claib said, coaxingly, as the animal threw up its +graceful neck defiantly. "You've got to git along, 'case Mas'r Hugh say +so. You knows Mas'r Hugh." + +"What is it?" Hugh asked, coming out upon the stoop, and comprehending +the trouble at a glance. "Rocket, Rocket," he cried, "easy, my boy," and +in an instant Rocket's defiant attitude changed to one of perfect +obedience. + +"There, my beauty," he said, as the animal continued to prance around +him, now snuffing at the snow, which he evidently did not fancy, and +then pawing at it with his forefeet. "There, my beauty, you've showed +off enough. Come, now, I've work for you to do." + +Docile as a lamb when Hugh commanded, he stood quietly while Claib +equipped him for his morning's task. + +"Tell mother I shan't be back to breakfast," Hugh said, as he sprang +into the saddle, and giving loose rein to Rocket went galloping through +the snow. + +Under ordinary circumstances that early ride would have been vastly +exhilarating to Hugh, who enjoyed the bracing air, but there was too +much now upon his mind to admit of his enjoying anything. Thoughts of +Adah, and the increased expense her presence would necessarily bring, +flitted across his mind, while Barney's bill, put over once, and due +again ere long, sat like a nightmare on him, for he saw no way in which +to meet it. No way save one, and Rocket surely must have felt the +throbbing of Hugh's heart as that one way flashed upon him, for he gave +a kind of coaxing whine, and dashed on over the billowy drifts faster +than before. + +"No, Rocket, no," and Hugh patted his glossy neck. He'd never part with +Rocket, never. He'd sell Spring Bank first with all its incumbrances. + +It was now three days since Hugh had gladdened Aunt Eunice's cottage +with the sunshine of his presence, and when she awoke that morning, and +saw how high the snow was piled around her door, she said to herself, +"The boy'll be here directly to know if I'm alive," and this accounted +for the round deal table drawn so cozily before the blazing fire, and +looking so inviting with its two plates and cups, one a fancy china +affair, sacredly kept for Hugh, whose coffee always tasted better when +sipped from its gilded side, the lightest of egg bread was steaming on +the hearth, the tenderest of steak was broiling on the griddle, while +the odor of the coffee boiling on the coals came tantalizingly to Hugh's +olfactories as Aunt Eunice opened the door, saying pleasantly: + +"I told 'em so. I felt it in my bones, and the breakfast is all but +ready. Put Rocket up directly, and come in to the fire." + +Fastening Rocket in his accustomed place in the outer shed, Hugh stamped +the snow from his heavy boots, and then went in to Aunt Eunice's +cheerful kitchen-parlor, as she called it, where the tempting breakfast +stood upon the table. + +"No coffee! What new freak is that?" and Aunt Eunice gazed at him in +astonishment as he declined the cup she had prepared with so much care, +dropping in the whitest lumps of sugar, and stirring in the thickest +cream. + +It cost Hugh a terrible struggle to refuse that cup of coffee, but if he +would retrench, he must begin at once, and determining to meet it +unflinchingly he replied that "he had concluded to drink water for a +while, and see what that would do; much was said nowadays about coffee +being injurious, and he presumed it was." + +"There's something on your mind," she said, observing his abstraction. +"Have you had another dunning letter, or what?" + +Aunt Eunice had made a commencement, and in his usual impulsive way Hugh +began by asking if "she ever knew him tell a lie?" + +No, Aunt Eunice never did. Nobody ever did, bad as some folks thought +him. + +"Do they think me very bad?" and Hugh spoke so mournfully that Aunt +Eunice tried to apologize. + +"She didn't mean anything, only folks sometimes said he was cross and +rough, and--and--" + +"Stingy," he suggested, supplying the word she hated to say. + +Yes, that was what Ellen Tiffton said, because he refused to go to the +Ladies' Fair, where he was sure to have his pockets picked. But, law, +she wasn't worth minding, if she was Colonel Tiffton's girl, and going +to have a big party one week from the next Monday. Had Hugh heard of it? + +Hugh believed Ad said something about it yesterday, but he paid no +attention, for, of course, he should not go even if he were invited, as +he had nothing fit to wear. + +"But why did you ask if I ever knew you tell a lie?" Aunt Eunice said, +and then in a low tone, as if afraid the walls might hear, Hugh told the +whole story of Adah. + +"'Twas a mighty mean trick, I know," he said, as he saw Aunt Eunice's +look of horror when he confessed the part he had had in wronging the +poor girl, "but, Aunt Eunice, that villain coaxed me into drinking wine, +which you know I never use, and I think now he must have drugged it, for +I remember a strange feeling in my head, a feeling not like drunkenness, +for I knew perfectly well what was transpiring around me, and only felt +a don't-care-a-tive-ness which kept me silent when I should have spoken. +She has come to me at last. She believes God sent her, and if He did +He'll help me take care of her. I shall not turn her off." + +"But, Hugh," and Aunt Eunice spoke earnestly, "you cannot afford the +expense. Think twice before you commit yourself." + +"I have thought twice, the last time just as I did the first. Adah shall +stay, and I want you to take her. You need some one these winter nights. +There's the room you call mine. Give her that. Will you, Aunt Eunice?" +and Hugh wound his arm around Aunt Eunice's ample waist, while he +pleaded for Adah Hastings. + +Aunt Eunice was soon won over, as Hugh knew she would be, and it was +settled that she should come that very day, if possible. + +"Look, the sky is clearing," and he pointed to the sunshine streaming +through the window. + +"We'll have her room fixed before I go," and with his own hands Hugh +split and prepared the wood which was to kindle Adah's fire, then with +Aunt Eunice's help sundry changes were made in the arrangement of the +rather meager furniture, which never seemed so meager to Hugh as when he +looked at it with Adah's eyes and wondered how she'd like it. + +"Oh, I wish I were rich," he sighed mentally, and taking out his +well-worn purse he carefully counted its contents. + +Aunt Eunice, who had stepped out for a moment, reappeared, bringing a +counterpane and towel, one of which was spread upon the bed, while the +other covered the old pine stand, marred and stained with ink and +tallow, the result of Hugh's own carelessness. + +"What a heap of difference that table cloth and pocket handkerchief do +make," was Hugh's man-like remark, his face brightening with the +improved appearance of things, and his big heart grew warm with the +thought that he might keep his twenty-five dollars and Adah be +comfortable still. + +"Ad may pick Adah's eyes out before I get home," was his laughing remark +as he vaulted into his saddle and dashed off across the fields, where, +beneath the warm Kentucky sun, the snow was already beginning to soften. + +Breakfast had been rather late at Spring Bank that morning, for the +strangers had required some care, and Miss 'Lina was sipping her coffee +rather ill-naturedly when a note was handed her, and instantly her mood +was changed. + +"Splendid, mother!" she exclaimed, glancing at the tiny, three-cornered +thing; "an invitation to Ellen Tiffton's party. I was half afraid she +would leave me out after Hugh's refusal to attend the Ladies' Fair, or +buy a ticket for her lottery. It was only ten dollars either, and Mr. +Harney spent all of forty, I'm sure, in the course of the evening. I +think Harney is splendid." + +"Hugh had no ten dollars to spare," Mrs. Worthington said, +apologetically, "though, of course, he might have been more civil than +to tell Ellen it was a regular swindle, and the getters-up ought to be +indicted. I almost wonder at her inviting him, as she said she'd never +speak to him again." + +"Invited him! Who said she had? It's only one card for me," and with a +most satisfied expression 'Lina presented the rote to her mother, whose +pale face flushed at the insult thus offered her son--an insult which +even 'Lina felt, but would not acknowledge, lest it should interfere +with her going. + +"You won't go, of course," Mrs. Worthington said, quietly. "You'll +resent her slighting Hugh." + +"Indeed I shan't," the young lady retorted. "I hardly think it fair in +Ellen, but I shall accept, of course, and I must go to town to-day to +see about having my pink silk fixed. I think I'll have some black lace +festooned around the skirt. How I wish I could have a new one. Do you +suppose Hugh has any money?" + +"None for new dresses or lace flounces, either," Mrs. Worthington +replied, "I fancy he begins to look old and worn with this perpetual +call for money from us. We must economize." + +"Never mind, when I get Bob Harney I'll pay off old scores," 'Lina said, +laughingly, as she arose from the table, and went to look over her +wardrobe. + +Meanwhile Hugh had returned, meeting in the kitchen with Lulu. + +"Well, Lu, what is it? What's happened?" Hugh asked, as he saw she was +full of some important matter. + +In an instant the impetuous Lulu told him of the party to which he was +not invited, together with the reason why, and the word she had sent +back. + +"I'll give 'em a piece of my mind!" she said, as she saw Hugh change +color. "She may have old Harney. His man John told Claib how his a +master said he meant to get me and Rocket, too, some day; me for her +waiting maid, I reckon. You won't sell me, Master High, will you?" and +Lulu's soft black eyes looked pleadingly up to Hugh. + +"Never!" and Hugh's riding whip came down upon the table with a force +which made Lulu start. + +Satisfied that she was safe from Ellen Tiffton's whims, Lulu darted +away, singing as she went, while Hugh entered the sitting-room, where +'Lina sat, surrounded by her party finery, and prepared to do the +amiable to the utmost. + +"That really is a handsome little boy upstairs," she said, as if she +supposed it were her mother who came in; then with an affected start she +added, "Oh, it's you! I thought 'twas mother. Don't you think, Ellen has +not invited you. Mean, isn't it?" + +"Ellen can do as she likes," Hugh replied, adding, as he guessed the +meaning of all that finery, "you surely are not going?" + +"Why not?" and 'Lina's black eyes flashed full upon him. + +"I thought perhaps you would decline for my sake," he replied. + +An angry retort trembled on 'Lina's lip, but she had an object to +attain, so she restrained herself and answered that "she had thought of +it, but such a course would do no good, and she wanted to go so much, +the Tifftons were so exclusive and aristocratic." + +Hugh whistled a little contemptuously, but 'Lina kept her temper, and +continued, coaxingly: + +"Everybody is to be there, and after what has been said about--about--your +being rather--close, you'd like to have your sister look decent, I know; +and really, Hugh, I can't unless you give me a little money. Do, Hugh, +be good for once." + +"Ad, I can't," and Hugh spoke sorrowfully, for a kind word from 'Lina +always touched his weaker side. "I would if I could, but honestly I've +only twenty-five dollars in the world, and I've thought of a new coat. I +don't like to look so shabby. It hurts me worse than it does you," and +Hugh's voice trembled as he spoke. + +Any but a heart of stone would have yielded at once, but 'Lina was too +supremely selfish. Hugh had twenty-five dollars. He might give her half, +or even ten. She'd be satisfied with ten. He could soon make that up. +The negro hire came due ere long. He must have forgotten that. + +No, he had not; but with the negro hire came debts, thoughts of which +gave him the old worn look his mother had observed. Only ten dollars! It +did seem hard to refuse, and if 'Lina went Hugh wished her to look well, +for underneath his apparent harshness lurked a kind of pride in his +dark sister, whose beauty was of the bold, dashing style. + +"Take them," he said at last, counting out the ten with a half-regretful +sigh. "Make them go as far as you can, and, Ad, remember, don't get into +debt." + +"I won't," and with a civil "Thank you," 'Lina rolled up her bills, +while Hugh sought his mother, and sitting down beside her said, +abruptly: + +"Mother, are you sure that man is dead?--Ad's father I mean?" + +There was a nervous start, a sudden paling of Mrs. Worthington's cheek, +and then she answered, sadly: + +"I suppose so, of course. I received a paper containing a marked +announcement of his death, giving accurately his name and age. There +could be no mistake. Why do you ask that question?" + +"Nothing, only I've been thinking of him this morning. There's a mark on +Adah's temple similar to Ad's, only not so plain, and I did not know but +she might possibly be related. Have you noticed it?" + +"'Lina pointed it out last night, but to me it seemed a spreading vein, +nothing more. Hugh!" and Mrs. Worthington grasped his arm with a +vehemence unusual to her accustomed quiet manner, "you seem to know +Adah's later history. Do you know her earlier? Who is she? Where did she +come from?" + +"I'm going to her now; will you come, too?" she said, and accordingly +both together ascended to the chamber where Adah sat before the fire +with Willie on her lap, her glossy hair, which Lulu's skillful fingers +had arranged, combed smoothly down upon her forehead, so as to hide the +mysterious mark, if mark there were, on that fair skin. + +Something in the expression of her face as she turned toward Mrs. +Worthington made that lady start, while her heart throbbed with an +indefinable emotion. Who was Adah Hastings, and why was she so drawn +toward her? + +Addressing to her some indifferent remark, she gradually led the +conversation backward to the subject of her early home, asking again +what she could remember, but Adah was scarcely more satisfactory than on +the previous night. Memories she had of a gentle lady, who must have +been her mother, of a lad who called her sister, and kissed her +sometimes, of a cottage with grass and flowers, and bees buzzing beneath +the trees. + +"Are you faint?" Hugh asked, quickly, as his mother turned white as +ashes, and leaned against the mantel. + +She did not seem to hear him, but continued questioning Adah. + +"Did you say bees? Were there many?" + +"Oh, yes, so many, I remember, because they stung me once," and Adah +gazed dreamily into the fire, as if listening again to the musical hum +heard in that New England home, wherever it might have been. + +"Go on, what more can you recall?" Mrs. Worthington said, and Adah +replied: + +"Nothing but the waterfall in the river. I remember that near our door." + +During this conversation, Hugh had been standing by the table, where lay +a few articles which he supposed belonged to Adah. One of these was a +small double locket, attached to a slender chain. + +"The rascal's, I presume," he said to himself, and taking it in his +hand, he touched the spring, starting quickly as the features of a +young-girl met his view. How radiantly beautiful the original of that +picture must have been, and Hugh gazed long and earnestly upon the sweet +young face, and its soft, silken curls, some shading the open brow, and +others falling low upon the uncovered neck. Adah, lifting up her head, +saw what he was doing, and said: + +"Don't you think her beautiful?" + +"Who is she?" Hugh asked, coming to her side, and passing her the +locket. + +"I don't know," Adah replied. "She came to me one day when Willie was +only two weeks old and my heart was so heavy with pain. She had heard I +did plain sewing and wanted some for herself. She seemed to me like an +angel, and I've sometimes thought she was, for she never came again. In +stooping over me the chain must have been unclasped. I tried to find her +when I got well, but my efforts were all in vain, and so I've kept it +ever since. It was not stealing, was it?" + +"Of course not," Hugh said, while Adah, opening the other side, showed +him a lock of dark brown hair, tied with a tiny ribbon, in which was +written, "_In memoriam_, Aug. 18." + +As Hugh read the date his heart gave one great throb, for that was the +summer, that the month when he lost the Golden Haired. Something, too, +reminded him of the warm moonlight night, when the little snowy fingers, +over which the fierce waters were soon to beat, had strayed through his +heavy locks, which the girl had said were too long to be becoming, +playfully severing them at random, and saying "she means to keep the +fleece to fill a cushion with." + +"I wonder whose it is?" Adah said; "I've thought it might have been her +mother's." + +"Her lover's more likely," suggested Hugh, glancing once more at the +picture, which certainly had in it a resemblance to the Golden Haired, +save that the curls were darker, and the eyes a deeper blue. + +"Will mas'r have de carriage? He say something 'bout it," Caesar said, +just then thrusting his woolly head in at the door, and thus reminding +Hugh that Adah had yet to hear of Aunt Eunice and his plan of taking her +thither. + +With a burst of tears, Adah listened to him, and then insisted upon +going away, as she had done the previous night. She had no claim on him, +and she could not be a burden. + +"You, madam, think it best, I'm sure," she said, appealing to Mrs. +Worthington, whose heart yearned strangely toward the unprotected +stranger, and who answered, promptly: + +"I do not, I am willing you should remain until your friends are found." + +Adah offered no further remonstrance, but turning to Hugh, said, +hesitatingly: + +"I may hear from my advertisement. Do you take the _Herald_?" + +"Yes, though I can't say I think much of it," Hugh replied, and Adah +continued: + +"Then if you ever find anything for me, you'll tell me, and I can go +away. I said, 'Direct to Adah Hastings.' Somebody will be sure to see +it. Maybe George, and then he'll know of Willie," and the white face +brightened with eager anticipation as Adah thought of George reading +that advertisement, a part of which had lighted Dr. Richards' cigar. + +With a muttered invective against the "villain," Hugh left the room to +see that the carriage was ready, while his mother, following him into +the hall, offered to go herself with Adah if he liked. Glad to be +relieved, as he had business that afternoon in Versailles, and was +anxious to set off as soon as possible, Hugh accepted at once, and half +an hour later, the Spring Bank carriage drove slowly from the door, +'Lina calling after her mother to send Caesar back immediately. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +'LINA'S PURCHASE AND HUGH'S + + +There were piles of handsome dress goods upon the counter at Harney's +that afternoon, and Harney was anxious to sell. It was not always that +he favored a customer with his own personal services, and 'Lina felt +proportionably flattered when he came forward and asked what he could +show her. Of course, a dress for the party--he had sold at least a dozen +that day, but fortunately he still had the most elegant pattern of all, +and he knew it would exactly suit her complexion and style. + +Deluded 'Lina! Richard Harney, the wealthy bachelor merchant, did not +mean one word he said. He had tried to sell that dress a dozen times, +and been as often refused, no one caring just then to pay fifty dollars +for a dress which could only be worn on great occasions. But 'Lina was +easily flattered, while the silk was beautiful. But ten dollars was all +she had, and turning away from the tempting silk she answered faintly, +that "it was superb, but she could not afford it, besides, she had not +the money to-day." + +"Not the slightest consequence," was Harney's quick rejoinder. "Not the +slightest consequence. Your brother's credit is good--none better in the +country, and I'm sure he'll be proud to see you in it. I should, were I +your brother." + +'Lina blushed, while the wish to possess the silk grew every moment +stronger. + +"If it were only fifty dollars, it would not seem so bad," she thought. +Hugh could manage it some way, and Mr. Harney was so good natured; he +could wait a year, she knew. But the making would cost ten dollars more, +for that was the price Miss Allis charged, to say nothing of the +trimmings. "No, I can't," she said, quite decidedly, at last, asking for +the lace with which she at first intended renovating her old pink silk, +"She must see Miss Allis first to know how much she wanted," and +promising to return, she tripped over to Frankfort's fashionable +dressmaker, whom she found surrounded with dresses for the party. + +As some time would elapse ere Miss Allis could attend to her, she went +back to Harney's just for one more look at the lovely fabric. It was, if +possible, more beautiful than before, and Harney was more polite, while +the result of the whole was that, when 'Lina at four o'clock that +afternoon entered her carriage to go home, the despised pink silk, still +unpaid on Haney's books, was thrown down anywhere, while in her hands +she carefully held the bundle Harney brought himself, complimenting her +upon the sensation she was sure to create, and inviting her to dance the +first set with him. Then with a smiling bow he closed the door upon her, +and returning to his books wrote down Hugh Worthington his debtor to +fifty dollars more. + +"That makes three hundred and fifty," he said to himself. "I know he +can't raise that amount of ready money, and as he is too infernal proud +to be sued, I'm sure of Rocket or Lulu, it matters but little which," +and with a look upon his face which made it positively hideous, the +scheming Harney closed his books, and sat down to calculate the best +means of managing the rather unmanageable Hugh! + +It was dark when 'Lina reached home, but the silk looked well by +firelight, better even than in the light of day, and 'Lina would have +been quite happy but for her mother's reproaches and an occasional +twinge as she wondered what Hugh would say. He had not yet returned, and +numerous were Mrs. Worthington's surmises as to what was keeping him so +late. A glance backward for an hour or so will let us into the secret. + +It was the day when a number of negroes were to be sold in the +courthouse. There was no trouble in disposing of them all, save one, a +white-haired old man, whom they called Uncle Sam. + +With tottering steps the old man took his place, while his dim eyes +wandered wistfully over the faces around him congregated, as if seeking +for their owner. But none was found who cared for Uncle Sam. + +"Won't nobody bid for Sam? I fetched a thousan' dollars onct," and the +feeble voice trembled as it asked this question. + +"What will become of him if he is not sold?" Hugh asked of a bystander, +who replied, "Go back to the old place to be kicked and cuffed by the +minions of the new proprietor, Harney. You know Harney, of Frankfort?" + +Yes, Hugh did know Harney as one who was constantly adding to his +already large possessions houses and lands and negroes without limit, +caring little that they came to him laden with the widow's curse and the +orphan's tears. This was Harney, and Hugh always felt exasperated +whenever he thought of him. Advancing a step or two he came nearer to +the negro, who took comfort at once from the expression of his face, and +stretching out his shaking hand he said, beseechingly: + +"You, mas'r, you buy old Sam, 'case it 'ill be lonesome and cold in de +cabin at home when they all is gone. Please, mas'r." + +"What can you do?" was Hugh's query, to which the truthful negro +answered: + +"Nothin' much, 'cept to set in the chimbly corner eatin' corn bread and +bacon--or, yes," and an expression of reverence and awe stole over the +wrinkled face, as in a low tone he added, "I can pray for young mas'r, +and I will, only buy me, please." + +Hugh had not much faith in praying negroes, but something in old Sam +struck him as sincere. His prayers might do good, and be needed +somebody's, sadly. But what should he offer, when fifteen dollars was +all he had in the world, and was it his duty to encumber himself with a +piece of useless property? Visions of the Golden Haired and Adah both +arose up before him. They would say it was right. They would tell him to +buy old Sam, and that settled the point with him. + +"Five dollars," he called out, and Sam's "God bless you," was sounding +in his ears, when a voice from another part of the building doubled the +bid, and with a moan Uncle Sam turned imploringly toward Hugh. + +"A leetle more, mas'r, an' you fotches 'em; a leetle more," he +whispered, coaxingly, and Hugh faltered out "Twelve." + +"Thirteen," came again from the corner, and Hugh caught sight of the +bidder, a sour-grained fellow, whose wife had ten young children, and so +could find use for Sam. + +"Thirteen and a half," cried Hugh. + +"Fourteen," responded his opponent. + +"Leetle more, mas'r, berry leetle," whispered Uncle Sam. + +"Fourteen and a quarter," said Hugh, the perspiration starting out about +his lips, as he thought how fast his pile was diminishing, and that he +could not go beyond it. + +"Fourteen and a half," from the corner. + +"Leetle more, mas'r," from Uncle Sam. + +"Fourteen, seventy-five," from Hugh. + +"Fifteen," from the man in the corner, and Hugh groaned aloud. + +"That's every dime I've got." + +Quick as thought an acquaintance beside him slipped a bill into his +hand, whispering as he did so: + +"It's a V. I'll double it if necessary. I'm sorry for the darky." + +It was very exciting now, each bidder raising a quarter each time, while +Sam's "a leetle more, mas'r," and the vociferous cheers of the crowd, +whenever Hugh's voice was heard, showed him to be the popular party. + +"Nineteen, seventy-five," from the corner, and Hugh felt his courage +giving way as he faintly called out: + +"Twenty." + +Only an instant did the auctioneer wait, and then his decision, "Gone!" +made Hugh the owner of Uncle Sam, who, crouching down before him, +blessed him with tears and prayers. + +"I knows you're good," he said; "I knows it by yer face; and mebby, when +the rheumatics gits out of my ole legs I kin work for mas'r a heap. Does +you live fur from here?" + +"Look here, Sam," and Hugh laughed heartily at the negro's forlorn +appearance, as, regaining his feet, he assumed a most deprecating +attitude, asking pardon for tumbling down, and charging it all to his +shaky knees. "Look here, there's no other way, except for you to ride, +and me to walk. Rocket won't carry double," and ere Sam could +remonstrate, Hugh had dismounted and placed him in the saddle. + +Rocket did not fancy the exchange, as was manifest by an indignant +snort, and an attempt to shake Sam off, but a word from Hugh quieted +him, and the latter offered the reins to Sam, who was never a skillful +horseman, and felt a mortal terror of the high-mettled steed beneath +him. With a most frightened expression upon his face, he grasped the +saddle pommel with both hands, and bending nearly double, gasped out: + +"Sam ain't much use't to gemman's horses. Kind of bold me on, mas'r, +till I gits de hang of de critter. He hists me around mightily." + +So, leading Rocket with one hand, and steadying Sam with the other, Hugh +got on but slowly, and 'Lina had looked for him many times ere she spied +him from the window as he came up the lawn. + +"Who is he, and what did you get him for?" Mrs. Worthington asked, as +Hugh led Sam into the dining-room. + +Briefly Hugh explained to her why he had bought the negro. + +"It was foolish, I suppose, but I'm not sorry yet," he added, glancing +toward the corner where the poor old man was sitting, warming his +shriveled hands by the cheerful fire, and muttering to himself blessings +on "young mas'r." + +But for the remembrance of her dress, 'Lina would have stormed, but as +it was, she held her peace, and even asked Sam some trivial question +concerning his former owners. Supper had been delayed for Hugh, and as +he took his seat at the table, he inquired after Adah. + +"Pretty well when I left," said his mother, adding that Lulu had been +there since, and reported her as looking pale and worn, while Aunt +Eunice seemed worried with Willie, who was inclined to be fretful. + +"They need some one," Hugh said, refusing the coffee his mother passed +him on the plea that he did not feel like drinking it to-night. "They +need one of the servants. Can't you spare Lulu?" + +Mrs. Worthington did not know, but 'Lina, to whom Lulu was a kind of +waiting maid, took the matter up alone, and said: + +"Indeed they couldn't. There was no one at Spring Bank more useful, and +it was preposterous for Hugh to think of giving their best servant to +Adah Hastings. Let her take care of her baby herself. She guessed it +wouldn't hurt her. Anyway, they couldn't afford to keep a servant for +her." + +With a long-drawn sigh, Hugh finished his supper, and was about lighting +his cigar when he felt some one touching him, and turning around he saw +that Sam had grasped his coat. The negro had heard the conversation, and +drawn correct conclusions. His new master was not rich. He could not +afford to buy him, and having bought him could not afford to keep him. +There was a sigh in the old man's heart, as he thought how useless he +was, but when he heard about the baby, his spirits arose at once. In all +the world there was nothing so precious to Sam as a child, a little +white child, with waxen hands to pat his old black face, and his work +was found. + +"Mas'r," he whispered, "Sam kin take keer that baby. He knows how, and +the little children in Georgy, whar I comed from, used to be mighty fond +of Sam. I'll tend to the young lady, too. Is she yourn, mas'r?" + +'Lina laughed aloud, while Hugh replied: + +"She's mine while I take care of her." + +Then, turning to his sister, he asked if she procured what she wanted. + +With a threatening frown at Lulu, who had seen and gone into ecstasies +over the rose silk, 'Lina answered that she was fortunate enough to get +just what she wanted, adding quickly: + +"It's to be a much gayer affair than I supposed. They are invited from +Louisville, and even from Cincinnati, so Mr. Harney says." + +"Harney, did you trade there?" Hugh asked. + +"Why, yes. It's the largest and best store in town. Why shouldn't I?" +'Lina replied, while Sam, catching at the name, put in: + +"Hartley's the man what foreclosed the mortgage. You orto hear ole mas'r +cuss him oncet. Sharp chap, dat Harney; mighty hard on de blacks, folks +say," and glad to have escaped from his clutches, Sam turned again to +his dozing reverie, which was broken at last by Hugh's calling Claib, +and bidding him show Sam where he was to sleep. + +How long Hugh did sit up that night, and 'Lina, who wanted so much to +see once more just how her rose silk looked by lamplight, thought he +never would take her broad hints and leave. He dreaded to go--dreaded to +exchange that warm, pleasant room for the cold, cheerless chamber above, +where he knew no fire would greet him, for he had told Claib not to make +one, and that was why he lingered as long below. But the ordeal must be +met, and just as the clock was striking eleven, he bade his mother and +sister good-night, whistling as he bounded up the stairs, by way of +keeping up his spirits. How dreary and dark it looked in his room, as +with a feeling akin to homesickness Hugh set his candle down and glanced +at the empty hearth. + +"After all, what does it matter?" he said. "I only have to hurry and get +in bed the sooner," and tossing one boot here and another there, he was +about to finish undressing when suddenly he remembered the little Bible, +and the passage read last night. Would there be one for him to-night? He +meant to look and see, and all cold and shivery as he was, Hugh lifted +the lid of the trunk which held his treasure, and taking it out, opened +to the place where the silken curl was lying. There was a great throb at +his heart when he saw that the last coil of the tress lay just over the +words, "Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a +cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, verily, I say unto you, he +shall in no wise lose his reward." + +"It does seem as if this was meant to encourage me," Hugh said, reading +the passage twice. "I don't much believe, though, I bought old Sam in +the name of a disciple, though I do think his telling me he prayed had a +little to do with it. It's rather pleasant to think there's two to pray +for me now, Adah and Sam. I wonder if it makes any difference with God +that one prayer is white and the other black? Golden Hair said it didn't +when we talked about the negroes," and shutting the Bible, Hugh was +about to put it up when something whispered of his resolution to +commence reading it through. + +"It's too confounded cold. I'll freeze to death, I tell you," he said, +as if arguing the point with some unseen presence. "Get into bed and +read it then, hey? It's growing late and my candle is most burned out. +The first chapter of Genesis is short, is it? Won't take one over three +minutes? Stick like a chestnut burr, don't you," and as if the matter +were decided, Hugh sprang into bed, shivering as if about to take a cold +plunge bath. How then was he disappointed to find the sheets as nice and +warm as Aunt Chloe's warming pan of red-hot coals could make them. + +And so he fell away to sleep, dreaming that Golden Hair had come back, +and that he held her in his arms, just as he held the Bible he had +unconsciously taken from the pillow beneath his head. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +SAM AND ADAH + + +It was Saturday night again, and Adah, with heavy eyes and throbbing +head, sat bending over the dazzling silk, which 'Lina had coaxed her to +make. + +'Lina could be very gracious when she chose, and as she saw a way by +which Adah might be useful to her, she chose to be so now, and treated +the unsuspecting girl so kindly, that Adah promised to undertake the +task, which proved a harder one than she had anticipated. Anxious to +gratify 'Lina, and keep what she was doing a secret from Hugh, who came +to the cottage often, she was obliged to work early and late, bending +over the dress by the dim candlelight until her head seemed bursting +with pain, and rings of fire danced before her eyes. She never would +have succeeded but for Uncle Sam, who proved a most efficient member of +the household, fitting in every niche and corner, until Aunt Eunice, +with all her New England aversion to negroes, wondered how she had ever +lived without him. Particularly did he attach himself to Willie, +relieving Adah from all care, and thus enabling her to devote every +spare moment to the party dress. + +"You'se workin' yourself to death," he said to her, as late on Saturday +night she sat bending to the tallow candle, her hair brushed back from +her forehead and a purplish glow upon her cheek. + +"I know I'm working too hard," she said. "I'm very tired, but Monday is +the party. Oh, I am so hot and feverish," and, as if even the slender +chain of gold about her neck were a burden, she undid the clasp, and +laid upon the stand the locket which had so interested Hugh. + +Naturally inquisitive Sam took it in his hand, and touching the spring +held it to the light, uttering an exclamation of surprise. + +"Dat's de bery one, and no mistake," he said, his old withered face +lighting up with eager joy. + +"Who is she, Sam?" Adah asked, forgetting her work in her new interest. + +"Miss Ellis. I done forgot de other name. Ellis they call her way down +thar whar Sam was sold, when dat man with the big splot on his forerd +like that is on your'n steal me away and sell me in Virginny. Miss, ever +hearn tell o' dat? We thinks he's takin' a bee line for Canada, when +fust we knows we's in ole Virginny, and de villain not freein' us at +all. He sell us. Me he most give away, 'case I was so old, and the mas'r +who buy some like Mas'r Hugh, he pity, he sorry for ole shaky nigger. +Sam tell him on his knees how he comed from Kaintuck, but Mas'r Sullivan +say he bought 'em far, and that the right mas'r sell 'em sneakin' like +to save rasin' a furse, and he show a bill of sale. They believe him +spite of dis chile, and so Sam 'long to anodder mas'r." + +"Yes; but the lady, Miss Ellis. Where did you find her?" Adah asked, and +Sam replied: + +"I'se comin' to her d'rectly. Mas'r Fitzhugh live on big plantation--big +house, too, with plenty company; and one day she comed, with great +trunk, a visitin' you know. She'd been to school with Miss Mabel, Mas'r +Fitzhugh's daughter." + +"Are you sure it's the same?" Adah asked. + +"Yes, miss, Sam sure, he 'members them curls--got a heap of 'em; and +that neck--oh, wear that neck berry low, so low, so white, it make even +ole Sam feel kinder, kinder, yes, Sam feel very much that way." + +Adah could not repress a smile, but she was too much interested to +interrupt him, and he went on: + +"They all think heap of Miss Ellis, and I hear de blacks tellin' how she +berry rich, and comed from way off thar wher white niggers +live--Masser-something." + +"Massachusetts?" suggested Adah. + +"Yes; that's the very mas'r, I 'member dat." + +"Was Ellis her first or last name?" Adah asked, and Sam replied: + +"It was neider, 'twas her Christian name. I'se got mizzable memory, and +I disremembers her last name. The folks call her Ellis, and the blacks +Miss Ellis." + +"A queer name for a first one," Adah thought, while Sam continued: + +"She jest like bright angel, in her white gownds and dem long curls, and +Sam like her so much. She promise to write to Mas'r Browne and tell him +whar I is. I didn't cry loud then--heart too full. I cry whimperin' +like, and she cry, too. Then she tell me about God, and Sam listen, oh, +listen so much, for that's what he want to hear so long. Miss Nancy, in +Kuntuck, be one of them that reads her pra'rs o' Sundays, and ole mas'r +one that hollers 'em. Sam liked that way best, seemed like gettin' along +and make de Lord hear, but it don't show Sam the way, and when the +ministers come in, he listen, but they that reads and them that hollers +only talk about High and Low--Jack and the Game, or something, Sam +disremembers so bad; got mizzable memory. He only knows he not find the +way, 'till Miss Ellis tells him of Jesus, once a man and always God. +It's very queer, but Sam believe it, and then she sing, 'Come unto me.' +You ever hear it?" + +Adah nodded, and Sam went on. + +"But you never hear Miss Ellis sing it. Oh, so fine, the very rafters +hold their breff, and Sam find the way at last." + +"Where is Miss Ellis now?" Adah asked, and Sam replied: + +"Gone to Masser--what you say once. She gived me five dollars and then +ask what else. I look at her and say, 'Sam wants a spear or two of yer +shinin' hair,' and Miss Mabel takes shears and cut a little curl. I'se +got 'em now. I never spend the money," and from an old leathern wallet +Sam drew a bill and a soft silken curl, which he laid across Adah's +hand. + +"Yes, that is like her hair," Adah said, gazing fondly upon the tiny +lock which was Sam's greatest earthly treasure; then, returning it to +him, she asked: "And where is that Sullivan?" a chill creeping over her +as she remembered how about four years ago the man she called her +guardian was absent for some time, and came back to her with colored +hair and whiskers. + +"Oh, he gone long before, nobody know whar. Sam b'lieves, though, he +hear they tryin' to cotch him, but disremembers, got such mizzable +memory." + +"You say he had a mark like mine?" Adah continued. + +"Yes, berry much, but more so. Show plainer when he cussin' mad, just as +yours show more when you tired. Whar you git dat?" and Sam bent down to +inspect more closely Adah's birthmark. + +"I don't know. I was born with it," and Adah half groaned aloud at the +sad memories which Sam's story had awakened within her. + +She could scarcely doubt that Sullivan, the negro-stealer, and Monroe, +her guardian, were the same, but where was he now, and why had he +treated her so treacherously, when he had always seemed so kind? + +"Miss Adah prays," the old man answered. "Won't she say 'Our Father' +with Sam?" + +Surely Hugh's sleep was sweeter that night for the prayer breathed by +the lowly negro, and even the wild tumult in Adah's heart was hushed by +Sam's simple, childlike faith that God would bring all right at last. + +Early on Monday afternoon 'Lina, taking advantage of Hugh's absence, +came over for her dress, finding much fault, and requiring some of the +work to be done twice ere it suited her. Without a murmur Adah obeyed, +but when the last stitch was taken and the party dress was gone, her +overtaxed frame gave way, and Sam himself helped her to her bed, where +she lay moaning, with the blinding pain in her head, which increased so +fast that she scarcely saw the tempting little supper which Aunt Eunice +brought, asking her to eat. Of one thing, however, she was conscious, +and that of the dark form bending over her pillow and whispering +soothingly the passage which had once brought Heaven to him, "Come unto +me, come unto me, and I will give you rest." + +The night had closed in dark and stormy, and the wintry rain beat +fiercely against the windows; but for this Sam did not hesitate a moment +when at midnight Aunt Eunice, alarmed at Adah's rapidly increasing +fever, asked if he could find his way to Spring Bank. + +"In course," he could, and in a few moments the old, shriveled form was +out in the darkness, groping its way over fences, and through the +pitfalls, stumbling often, and losing his hat past recovery, so that the +snowy hair was dripping wet when at last Spring Bank was reached and he +stood upon the porch. + +In much alarm Hugh dressed himself and hastened to the cottage. But Adah +did not know him and only talked of dresses and parties, and George, +whom she begged to come back and restore her good name. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +WHAT FOLLOWED + + +There was a bright light in the sitting-room, and through the +half-closed shutters Hugh caught glimpses of a blazing fire. 'Lina had +evidently come home, and half wishing she had stayed a little longer, +Hugh entered the room. + +Poor 'Lina! The party had proved a most unsatisfactory affair. She had +not made the sensation she expected to make. Harney had scarcely noticed +her at all, having neither eyes nor ears for any one save Ellen Tiffton, +who surely must have told that Hugh was not invited, for, in no other +way could 'Lina account for the remark she overheard touching her want +of heart in failing to resent a brother's insult. In the most unenviable +of moods, 'Lina left at a comparatively early hour. She bade Caesar drive +carefully, as it was very dark, and the rain was almost blinding, so +rapidly it fell. + +"Ye-es, mis-s, Caes--he--done been to party fore now. Git 'long dar, +Sorrel," hiccoughed the negro, who, in Colonel Tiffton's kitchen had +indulged rather too freely to insure the safety of his mistress. + +Still the horses knew the road, and kept it until they left the main +highway and turned into the fields. Even then they would probably have +made their way in safety, had not their drunken driver persisted in +turning them into a road which led directly through the deepest part of +the creek, swollen now by the melted snow and the vast amount of rain +which had fallen since the sunsetting. Not knowing they were wrong, +'Lina did not dream of danger until she heard Caesar's cry of "Who'a dar, +Sorrel. Git up, Henry. Dat's nothin' but de creek," while a violent +lurch of the carriage sent her to the opposite side from where she had +been sitting. + +A few mad plunges, another wrench, which pitched 'Lina headlong against +the window, and the steep, shelving bank was reached, but in endeavoring +to climb it the carriage was upset, and 'Lina found herself in pitchy +darkness. Perfectly sobered now, Caesar extricated her as soon as +possible. The carriage was broken and there was no alternative save for +'Lina to walk the remaining distance home. It was not far, for the scene +of the disaster was within sight of Spring Bank, but to 'Lina, +bedraggled with mud and wet to the skin, it seemed an interminable +distance, and her strength was giving out just as she reached the +friendly piazza, and called on her mother for help, sobbing hysterically +as she repeated her story, but dwelling most upon her ruined dress. + +"What will Hugh say? It was not paid for, either. Oh, dear, oh, dear, I +most wish I was dead!" she moaned, as her mother removed one by one the +saturated garments. + +The sight of Hugh called forth her grief afresh, and forgetful of her +dishabille, she staggered toward him, and impulsively winding her arms +around his neck, sobbed out: + +"Oh, Hugh, Hugh! I've had such a doleful time. I've been in the creek, +the carriage is broken, the horses are lamed, Caesar is drunk, +and--and--oh, Hugh, I've spoiled my dress!" + +Laughing merrily Hugh held her off at a little distance, likening her to +a mermaid fresh from the sea, and succeeding at last in quieting her +down until she could give a more concise account of the catastrophe. + +"Never mind the dress," he said, good-humoredly, as she kept recurring +to that. "It isn't as if it were new. An old thing is never so +valuable." + +Alas, that 'Lina did not then confess the truth. Had she done so he +would have forgiven her freely, but she let the golden opportunity pass, +and so paved the way for much bitterness of feeling in the future. + +During the gloomy weeks which followed, Hugh's heart and hands were +full, inclination tempting him to stay by the moaning Adah, who knew the +moment he was gone, and stern duty, bidding him keep with delirious +'Lina, who, strange to say, was always more quiet when he was near, +taking readily from him the medicine refused when offered by her mother. +Day after day, week after week, Hugh watched alternately at the +bedsides, and those who came to offer help felt their hearts glow with +admiration for the worn, haggard man, whose character they had so +mistaken, never dreaming what depths of patient, all-enduring tenderness +were hidden beneath his rough exterior. Even Ellen Tiffton was softened, +and forgetting the Ladies' Fair, rode daily over to Spring Bank, +ostensibly to inquire after 'Lina, but really to speak a kindly word to +Hugh, to whom she felt she had done a wrong. How long those fevers ran, +and Hugh began to fear that 'Lina's never would abate, sorrowing much +for the harsh words which passed between them, wishing they had been +unsaid, for he would rather that none but pleasant memories should be +left to him of this, his only sister. But 'Lina did not die, and as her +disease had from the first assumed a far more violent form than Adah's, +so it was the first to yield, and February found her convalescent. With +Adah it was different. But there came a change at last, a morning when +she awoke from a death-like stupor which had clouded her faculties so +long, as the attending physician said to Hugh that his services would be +needed but a little longer. Physicians' bills, together with that of +Harney's yet unpaid, for Harney, villain though he was, would not +present it when Hugh was full of trouble; but the hour was coming when +it must be settled, and Hugh at last received a note, couched in +courteous terms, but urging immediate payment. + +"I'll see him to-day. I'll know the worst at once," he said, and +mounting Rocket, who never looked more beautiful than he did that +afternoon, he dashed down the Frankfort turnpike, and was soon closeted +with Harney. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +HOW HUGH PAID HIS DEBTS + + +The perspiration was standing in great drops about Hugh's quivering +lips, and his face was white as ashes, as, near the close of that +interview, he hoarsely asked: + +"Do I understand you, sir, that Rocket will cancel this debt and leave +you my debtor for one hundred dollars?" + +"Yes, that was my offer, and a most generous one, too, considering how +little horses are bringing," and Harney smiled villainously as he +thought within himself: "Easier to manage than I supposed. I believe my +soul I offered too much. I should have made it an even thing." + +Hugh knew how long this plan had been premeditated, and his blood boiled +madly when he heard it suggested, as if that moment had given it birth. +Still he restrained himself, and asked the question we have recorded, +adding, after Harney's reply: + +"And suppose I do not care to part with Rocket?" + +Harney winced a little, but answered carelessly: + +"Money, of course, is just as good. You know how long I've waited. Few +would have done as well." + +Yes, Hugh knew that, but Rocket was as dear to him as his right eye, and +he would almost as soon have plucked out the one as sold the other. + +"I have not the money," he said, frankly, "and I cannot part with +Rocket. Is there nothing else? I'll give a mortgage on Spring Bank." + +Harney did not care for a mortgage, but there was something else, and +the rascally face brightened, as, stepping back, while he made the +proposition, he faintly suggested "Lulu." He would give a thousand +dollars for her, and Hugh could keep his horse. For a moment the two +young men regarded each other intently, Hugh's eyes flashing gleams of +fire, and his whole face expressive of the contempt he felt for the +wretch who cowed at last beneath the look, and turned away muttering +that "he saw nothing so very heinous in wishing to purchase a nigger +wench." + +Then, changing his tone to one of defiance, he added: + +"Since you are not inclined to part with either of your pets, you'll +oblige me with the money, and before to-morrow night. You understand me, +I presume?" + +"I do," and bowing haughtily, Hugh passed through the open door. + +In a kind of desperation he mounted Rocket, and dashed out of town at a +speed which made more than one look after him, wondering what cause +there was for his headlong haste. A few miles from the city he slacked +his speed, and dismounting by a running brook, sat down to think. The +price offered for Lulu would set him free from every pressing debt, and +leave a large surplus, but not for a moment did he hesitate. + +"I'd lead her out and shoot her through the heart, before I'd do that +thing," he said. + +Then turning to the noble animal cropping the grass beside him, he wound +his arms around his neck, and tried to imagine how it would seem to know +the stall at home was empty, and his beautiful Rocket gone. + +"If I could pawn him," he thought, just as the sound of wheels was +heard, and he saw old Colonel Tiffton driving down the turnpike. + +Between the colonel and his daughter Ellen there had been a conversation +that very day touching the young man Hugh, in whom Ellen now felt a +growing interest. Seated in their handsome parlor, with her little hands +folded listlessly one above the other, Ellen was listening, while her +father told her mother. + +"He didn't see how that chap was ever to pay his debts. One doctor twice +a day for three months was enough to ruin anybody, let alone having +two," and the sometimes far-seeing old colonel shook his head +doubtfully. + +"Father," and Ellen stole softly to his side, "if Mr. Worthington wants +money so badly, you'll lend it to him, won't you?" + +Again a doubtful shake as the prudent colonel replied: "And lose every +red I lend, hey? That's the way a woman would do, I s'pose, but I am too +old for that. Now, if he could give good security, I wouldn't mind, but +what's he got, pray, that we want?" + +Ellen's gray eyes scanned his face curiously a moment, and then Ellen's +rather pretty lips whispered in his ear: "He's got Rocket, pa." + +"Yes, yes, so he has; but no power on earth could make him part with +that nag. I've always liked that boy, always liked old John, but the +plague knows what he did with his money." + +"You'll help Hugh?" and Ellen returned to the attack. + +"Well," said the old man, "we'll see about this Hugh matter," and the +colonel left the house, and entered the buggy which had been waiting to +take him to Frankfort. + +"That's funny that I should run a-foul of him," he thought, stopping +suddenly as he caught sight of Hugh, and calling out cheerily: "How +d'ye, young man? That's a fine nag of yours. My Nell is nigh about crazy +for me to buy him. What'll you take?" + +"What'll you give?" was Hugh's Yankee-like response, while the colonel, +struck by Hugh's peculiar manner, settled himself back in his buggy and +announced himself ready to trade. + +Hugh knew he could trust the colonel, and after a moment's hesitation +told of his embarrassments, and asked the loan of five hundred dollars, +offering Rocket as security, with the privilege of redeeming him in a +year. + +"You ask a steep sum," he said, "but I take it you are in a tight spot +and don't know what else to do. That girl in the snow bank--I'll be +hanged if that was ever made quite clear to me." + +"It is to me, and that is sufficient," Hugh answered, while the old +colonel replied: + +"Good grit, Hugh. I like you for that. In short, I like you for +everything, and that's why I was sorry about that New York lady. You +see, it may stand in the way of your getting a wife by and by, that's +all." + +"I shall never marry," Hugh answered, thinking of the Golden Haired. + +"No?" the colonel replied. "Well, there ain't many good enough for you, +that's a fact, and so I tell 'em when they get to--get to--" + +Hugh looked up inquiringly, his face flashing as he guessed at what they +got. + +"Bless me, there's ain't many girls good for anybody. I never saw but +one, except my Nell, that was worth a picayune, and that was Alice +Johnson." + +"Who? Who did you say?" And Hugh grew white as marble. + +The colonel replied: "I said Alice Johnson, twentieth cousin of +mine--blast that fly!--lives in Massachusetts; splendid girl--hang it +all can't I hit him?--there, I've killed him." And the colonel put up +his whip, never dreaming of the effect that name had produced on Hugh, +whose heart gave one great throb of hope, and then grew heavy and sad as +he thought how impossible it was that the Alice Johnson the colonel +knew could be the Golden Haired. + +"There are fifty by that name, no doubt," he said, "and if there were +not, she is dead." + +Hugh dared not question the colonel further, and was only too glad when +the latter said: "If I understand you, I can have Rocket for five +hundred dollars, provided I let you redeem him within a year. Now that's +equivalent to my lending you five hundred dollars out and out. I see, +but seeing it's you, I reckon I'll have to do it. As luck will have it, +I was going down to Frankfort this very day to put some money in the +bank, and if you say so, we'll clinch the bargain at once," and the +colonel began to count the amount. + +Alice Johnson was forgotten in that moment when Hugh felt as if his very +life was dying out. Then chiding himself as weak, he lifted up his head +and said: "Rocket is yours." + +The words were like a sob; and the generous old man hesitated. But Hugh +was in earnest. His debts must be paid, and that five hundred dollars +would do it. + +"I'll bring him around to-morrow. Will that be time enough?" he asked, +as he rolled up the bills. + +"Yes, oh, yes," the colonel replied, while Hugh continued: "And, +colonel, you'll--you'll be kind to Rocket. He's never been struck a blow +since he was broken to the saddle. He wouldn't know what it meant." + +"Oh, yes, I see--Rarey's method. Now I never could make that work. Have +to lick 'em sometimes, but I'll remember Rocket. Good-day," and +gathering up his reins Colonel Tiffton rode slowly away. + +Hugh rode back to Frankfort and dismounted at Harney's door. + +In silence Harney received the money, gave his receipt, and then watched +Hugh as he rode again from town, muttering: "I shall remember that he +knocked me down, and some time I'll repay it." + +It was dark when Hugh reached home, his flashing eyes indicating the +storm which burst forth the moment he entered the room where 'Lina was +sitting. In tones which made even her tremble he accused her of her +treachery, pouring forth such a torrent of wrath that his mother urged +him to stop, for her sake if no other. She could always quiet Hugh, and +he calmed down at once, hurling but one more missile at his sister, and +that in the shape of Rocket, who, he said, was sold for her +extravagance. + +'Lina was proud of Rocket, and the knowledge that he was sold touched +her far more than all Hugh's angry words. But her tear a were of no +avail; the deed was done, and on the morrow Hugh, with an unflinching +hand, led his idol from the stable and rode rapidly across the fields, +leading another horse which was to bring him home. + +The next morning Lulu came running up the stairs, exclaiming: + +"He's done come home, Rocket has. He's at the kitchen door." + +It was even as Lulu, said, for the homesick brute, suspecting something +wrong, had broken from his fastenings, and bursting the stable door had +come back to Spring Bank, his halter dangling about his neck, and +himself looking very defiant, as if he were not again to be coaxed away. +At sight of Hugh he uttered a sound of joy, and bounding forward planted +both feet within the door ere Hugh had time to reach it. + +"Thar's the old colonel now," whispered Claib, just as the colonel +himself appeared to claim his runaway. + +"I'll take him home myself," he said to the old colonel, emerging from +his hiding place behind the leach, and bidding Claib follow with another +horse Hugh went a second time to Colonel Tiffton's farm. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +MRS. JOHNSON'S LETTER + + +The spring had passed away, and the warm June sun was shining over +Spring Bank, whose mistress and servants were very lonely now, for Hugh +was absent, and with him the light of the house had departed. Business +of his late uncle's had taken him to New Orleans, where he might +possibly remain all the summer. 'Lina was glad, for since the fatal +dress affair there had been but little harmony between herself and her +brother. The tenderness awakened by her long illness seemed to have been +forgotten, and Hugh's manner toward her was cold and irritating to the +last degree, so that the young lady rejoiced to be freed from his +presence. + +"I do hope he'll stay all summer," she said one morning, when speaking +of him to her mother. "I think it's a heap nicer without him, though +dull enough at the best. I wish we could go somewhere, some watering +place I mean. There's the Tifftons, just returned from New York, and I +don't much believe they can afford it more than we, for I heard their +place was mortgaged, or something. Oh, bother, to be so poor," and the +young lady gave a little angry jerk at the tags she was unbraiding. + +"Whar's ole miss's?" asked Claib, who had just returned from Versailles. +"Thar's a letter for you," and depositing it upon the bureau, he left +the room. + +"Whose writing is that?" 'Lina said, catching it up and examining the +postmark. "Shall I open it?" she called, and ere her mother could reply, +she had broken the seal, and held in her hand the draft which made her +the heiress of one thousand dollars. + +Had the fabled godmother of Cinderella appeared to her suddenly, she +would scarcely have been more bewildered. + +"Mother," she screamed again, reading aloud the "'Pay to the order of +Adaline Worthington,' etc. Who is Alice Johnson? What does she say? 'My +dear Eliza, feeling that I have not long to live--' What--dead, hey? +Well, I'm sorry for that, but, I must say, she did a very sensible thing +at the last, sending me a thousand dollars. We'll go somewhere now, +won't we?" and clutching fast the draft, the heartless girl yielded the +letter to her mother, who, burying her face in her hands, sobbed +bitterly as the past came back to her, when the Alice, now at rest and +herself were girls together. + +'Lina took up the letter her mother had dropped and read it through. +"Wants you to take her daughter, Alice. Is the woman crazy? And her +nurse, Densie, Densie Densmore. Where have I heard that name before? +Say, mother, let's talk the matter over. Shall you let Alice come? Ten +dollars a week, they'll pay. Let me see. Five hundred and twenty dollars +a year. Whew! We are rich as Jews. Our ship is really coming in," and +'Lina rang the bell and ordered Lulu to bring "a lemonade with ice cut +fine and a heap of sugar in it." + +By this time Mrs. Worthington was able to talk of a matter which had +apparently so delighted 'Lina. Her first remark, however, was not very +pleasant to the young lady: + +"I would willingly give Alice a home, but it's not for me to say. Hugh +alone can decide it." + +"You know he'll refuse," was 'Lina'a angry reply. "He hates young +ladies. So you may as well save your postage to New Orleans, and write +at once to Miss Johnson that she cannot come on account of a boorish +clown." + +"'Lina," feebly interposed Mrs. Worthington, "'Lina, we must write to +Hugh." + +"Mother, you shall not," and 'Lina spoke determinedly. "I'll send an +answer to this letter myself, this very day. I will not suffer the +chance to be thrown away. Hugh may swear a little at first, but he'll +get over it." + +"Hugh never swears," and Mrs. Worthington spoke up at once. + +"He don't hey? Maybe you've forgotten when he came home from Frankfort, +that time he heard about my dress!" + +"I know he swore then; but he never has since, I'm sure, and I think he +is better, gentler, more refined than he used to be, since--since--Adah +came." + +A contemptuous "Pshaw!" came from 'Lina's lips. "Say," she continued, +"wouldn't you rather Adah were your child than me? Then you'd be granny, +you know." And a laugh came from 'Lina's lips. + +Mrs. Worthington did not reply; and 'Lina proceeded to speak of Alice +Johnson, asking for her family. Were they aristocratic? Were they the +F.F.V.'s of Boston? and so forth. + +"Now let us talk a little about the thousand dollars. What shall I do +with it?" 'Lina said, for already the money was beginning to burn in her +hands. + +"Redeem Rocket with half of it," Mrs. Worthington said, "and that will +reconcile Hugh to Alice Johnson." + +"Do you think I've taken leave of my senses?" 'Lina asked, with +unaffected surprise. "Buy Rocket for five hundred dollars! Indeed, I +shall do no such thing. If Hugh had not sworn so awfully, I might; but I +remember what he said too well to part with half of my inheritance for +him. I'm going to Saratoga, and you are going, too. We'll have heaps of +dresses, and--oh, mother, won't it be grand! We'll take Lu for a waiting +maid. That will be sure to make a sensation at the North. I can imagine +just how old Deacon Tripp of Elwood, would open his eyes when he heard +'Mrs. Square Worthington and darter' had come back with a 'nigger.' It +would furnish him with material for half a dozen monthly concerts, and +I'm not sure but he'd try to run her off, if he had a chance. But Lu +likes Hugh too well ever to be coaxed away; so we're safe on that +score. 'Mrs. Worthington, daughter, and colored servant, Spring Bank, +Kentucky.' I can almost see that on the clerk's books at the United +States. Then I can manage to let it be known that I'm an heiress, as I +am. We needn't tell that it's only a thousand dollars, most of which I +have on my back, and maybe I'll come home Adaline somebody else. There +are always splendid matches at Saratoga. We'll go North the middle of +July, just three weeks from now." + +'Lina had talked so fast that Mrs. Worthington had been unable to put in +a word; but it did not matter. 'Lina was invulnerable to all she could +say, and it was in vain that she pleaded for Rocket, or reminded the +ungrateful girl of the many long, weary nights, when Hugh had sat by her +bedside, holding her feverish hands and bathing her aching head. This +was very kind and brotherly, 'Lina admitted; but she steeled her heart +against the still, small voice, which whispered to her: "Redeem Rocket, +and let Hugh find him here when he gets home." + +'Lina wrote to Alice Johnson herself that morning, went to Frankfort +that afternoon, to Versailles and Lexington the next day, and on the +morning of the third day after the receipt of Mrs. Johnson's letter, +Spring Bank presented the appearance of one vast show-room, so full it +was of silks and muslins and tissues and flowers and ribbons and laces, +while amid it all, in a maze of perplexity as to what was required of +her, or where first to commence, Adah Hastings sat, a flush on her fair +cheeks, and a tear half dimming the luster of her eyes as thoughts of +Willie crying for mamma at home, and refusing to be comforted even by +old Sam came to her. + +When 'Lina first made known her request to Adah, to act as her +dressmaker, Aunt Eunice had objected, on the ground of Adah's illness +having been induced by overwork, but 'Lina insisted so strenuously, +promising not to task her too much, and offering with an air of extreme +generosity to pay three shillings a day, that Adah had consented, for +pretty baby Willie wanted many little things which Hugh would never +dream of, and for which she could not ask him. Three shillings a day for +twelve days or more seemed like a fortune to Adah, and so she tore +herself away from Willie's clinging arms and went willingly to labor for +the capricious 'Lina, ten times more impatient and capricious since she +"had come into possession of property." + +Womanlike, the sight of 'Lina's dresses awoke in Adah a thrill of +delight, and she entered heartily into the matter without a single +feeling of envy. + +"I's goin', too. Did you know that?" Lulu said to her as she sat bending +over a cloud of lace and soft blue silk. + +"Do you want to go?" Adah asked, and Lulu replied: + +"Not much. Miss 'Lina will be so lofty. Jes' you listen and hear her +call me oncet. 'Ho Loo-loo, come quick,' jes' as if she done nothin' all +her life but order a nigger 'round. I knows better. I knows how she done +made her own bed, combed her own ha'r, and like enough washed her own +rags afore she comed here. Yes, 'Loo-loo is coming,'" and the saucy +wench darted off to 'Lina screaming loudly for her. + +"Miss Worthington," Adah said, timidly, as 'Lina came near, "Lulu tells +me she is going North with you. Why not take me instead of her?" + +"You!" and 'Lina's black eyes flashed scornfully. "What in the world +could I do with you and that child, and what would people think? Why, +I'd rather have Lulu forty times. A negro gives an _eclat_ to one's +position which a white servant cannot. By the way, here is Miss +Tiffton's square-necked bertha. She's just got home from New York, and +says they are all the fashion. You are to cut me a pattern. There's a +paper, the Louisville _Journal_, I guess, but nobody reads it, now Hugh +is gone," and with a few more general directions, 'Lina hurried away +leaving Adah so hot, so disappointed, that the hot tears fell upon the +paper she took in her hand, the paper containing Anna Richards' +advertisement, intended solely for the poor girl sitting so lonely and +sad at Spring Bank that summer morning. + +In spite of the doctor's predictions and consignment of that girl to +Georgia, or some warmer place, it had reached her at last. She did not +see it at first, so fast her tears fell, but just as her scissors were +raised to cut the pattern her eyes fell on the spot headed, "A Curious +Advertisement," and suspending her operations for a moment, she read it +through, a feeling rising in her heart that it was surely an answer to +her own advertisement, sent forth months ago, with tearful prayers that +it might be successful. + +At the table she heard 'Lina say that Claib was going to town that +afternoon, and thinking within herself. "If a letter were only ready, he +could take it with him," she asked permission to write a few lines. It +would not take her long, she said, and she could work the later to make +it up. + +'Lina did not refuse, and in a few moments Adah penned a note to A.E.R. + +"It's an answer to an advertisement for a governess or waiting maid," +she said, as 'Lina glanced carelessly at the superscription. + +"It will do no harm, or good either, I imagine," was 'Lina'a reply, and +placing the letter in her pocket, she was about returning to her mother, +when she spied Ellen Tiffton dismounting at the gate. + +Ellen was delighted to see 'Lina, and 'Lina was delighted to see Ellen, +leading her at once into the work-room, where Adah sat by the window, +busy on the bertha, and looking up quietly when Ellen entered, as if +half expecting an introduction. But 'Lina did not deign to notice her, +save in an aside to Ellen, to whom she whispered softly: + +"That girl, Adah, you know." + +Reared in a country where the menials all were black, Ellen knew no such +marked distinction among the whites, and walked directly up to Adah, +whose face seemed to puzzle her. It was the first time they had met, and +Adah turned crimson beneath the close scrutiny to which she was +subjected. Noticing her embarrassment, and wishing to relieve it, Ellen +addressed to her some trivial remark concerning her work, complimenting +her skill, asking some questions about Willie, whom she had seen, and +then leaving her for a girlish conversation with 'Lina, to whom she +related many particulars of her visit to New York. Particularly was she +pleased with a certain Dr. Richards, who was described as the most +elegant young man at the hotel. + +"There was something queer about him too," she said, in a lower tone, +and drawing nearer to 'Lina. "He seemed so absent-like, as if there were +something on his mind--some heart trouble, you know; but that only made +him more interesting; and such an adventure as I had, too. Send her out +of the room, please," and nodding toward Adah, Ellen spoke beneath her +breath. + +'Lina comprehended her meaning, and turning to Adah said rather +haughtily: + +"It's cool on the west end of the piazza. You may go and sit there a +while." + +With a heightened color at being thus addressed before a stranger, Adah +withdrew, and Ellen continued: + +"It's so strange. I found in the hall, near my door, a tiny ambrotype of +a young girl, who must have been very beautiful--such splendid hair, +soft brown eyes, and cheeks like carnation pinks. I wondered much whose +it was, for I knew the owner must be sorry to lose it. Father suggested +that we put a written notice in the business office, and that very +afternoon Dr. Richards knocked at our door, saying the ambrotype was +his. 'I would not lose it for the world,' he said, 'as the original is +dead,' and he looked so sad that I pitied him so much; but I have the +strangest part yet to tell. You are sure she cannot hear?" and walking +to the open window, Ellen glanced down the long piazza to where Adah's +dress was visible. + +"I looked at the face so much that I never can forget it, particularly +the way the hair was worn, combed almost as low upon the forehead as you +wears yours, and just as that Mrs. Hastings wears hers. I noticed it the +moment I came in; and, 'Lina, Mrs. Hastings is the original of that +ambrotype, I'm sure, only the picture was younger, fresher-looking, than +she. But they are the same, I'm positive, and that's why I started so +when I first saw this Adah. Funny, isn't it?" + +'Lina knew just how positive Ellen was with regard to any opinion she +espoused, and presumed in her own mind that in this point, as in many +others, she was mistaken. Still she answered that it was queer, though +she could not understand what Adah could possibly be to Dr. Richards. + +"Call her in for something and I'll manage to question her. I'm so +curious and so sure," Ellen said, while 'Lina called: "Adah, Miss +Tiffton wishes to see how my new blue muslin fits. Come help me try it +on." + +Obedient to the call Adah came, and was growing very red in the face +with trying to hook 'Lina's dress, when Ellen casually remarked: + +"You lived in New York, I think?" + +"Yes, ma'am," was the reply, and Ellen continued: + +"Maybe I saw some of your acquaintances. I was there a long time." + +Oh, how eagerly Adah turned toward her now, the glad thought flashing +upon her that possibly she meant George. Maybe he'd come home. + +"Whom did you see?" she asked, her eyes fixed wistfully on Ellen, who +replied: + +"Oh, a great many. There was Mr. Reed, and Mr. Benedict, and Mr. Ward, +and--well, I saw the most of Dr. Richards, perhaps. Do you know either +of them?" + +"No, I never heard of them before," was the reply, so frankly spoken +that Ellen was confounded, for she felt sure that Dr. Richards was a +name entirely new to Adah. + +"I thought you were mistaken," 'Lina said, when the dress was taken off +and Adah gone. "A man such as you describe the doctor would not care for +a poor girl like Adah. Is his home at New York, and are you sure he'll +be at Saratoga?" + +"He said so; and I think he told me his mother and sisters were in some +such place as Snow-down, or Snow-something." + +"Snowdon," suggested 'Lina. "That's where Alice Johnson lives. I must +tell you of her." + +"Alice Johnson," Ellen repeated; "why, that's the girl father says so +much about. Of course I fell in the scale, for there was nothing like +Alice, Alice--so beautiful, so religious." + +"Religious!" and 'Lina laughed scornfully. "Adah pretends to be +religious, too, and so does Sam, while Alice will make three. Pleasant +prospects ahead. I wonder if she's the blue kind--thinks dancing wicked, +and all that." + +Ellen could not tell. She thought it queer that Mrs. Johnson should send +her to a stranger, as it were, when they would have been so glad to +receive her. "Pa won't like it a bit, and she'd be so much more +comfortable with us," and Ellen glanced contemptuously around at the +neat but plainly-furnished room. + +It was not the first time Ellen had offended by a similar remark, and +'Lina flared up at once. Mrs. Johnson knew her mother well, and knew to +whom she was committing her daughter. + +"Did she know Hugh, too?" hot-tempered Ellen asked, sneeringly, +whereupon there ensued a contest of words touching Hugh, in which +Rocket, the Ladies' Fair, and divers other matters figured +conspicuously, and when, ten minutes later, Ellen left the house, she +carried with her the square-necked bertha, together with sundry other +little articles of dress, which she had lent for patterns, and the two +were, on the whole, as angry as a sandy-haired and black-eyed girl could +be. + +"What a stupid I was to say such hateful things of Hugh, when I really +do like him," was Ellen's comment as she galloped away, while 'Lina +muttered: "I stood up for Hugh once, anyhow. To think of her twitting me +about our house, when everybody says the colonel is likely to fail any +day," and 'Lina ran off upstairs to indulge in a fit of crying over what +she called Nell Tiffton's meanness. + +One week later and there came a letter from Alice herself, saying that +at present she was stopping in Boston with her guardian, Mr. Liston, who +had rented the cottage in Snowdon, but that she would meet Mrs. +Worthington and daughter at Saratoga. Of course she did not now feel +like mingling in gay society and should consequently go to the +Columbian, where she could be comparatively quiet; but this need not in +the least interfere with their arrangements, as the United States was +very near, and they could see each other often. + +The same day also brought a letter from Hugh, making many kind inquiries +after them all, saying his business was turning out better than he +expected, and inclosing forty dollars, fifteen of which, he said, was +for Adah, and the rest for Ad, as a peace offering for the harsh things +he had said to her. Forty dollars was just the price of a superb pearl +bracelet in Lexington, and if Hugh had only sent it all to her instead +of a part to Adah! The letter was torn in shreds, and 'Lina went to +Lexington next day in quest of the bracelet, which was pronounced +beautiful by the unsuspecting Adah, who never dreamed that her money had +helped to pay for it. Truly 'Lina was heaping up against herself a dark +catalogue of sin to be avenged some day, but the time was not yet. + +Thus far everything went swimmingly. The dresses fitted admirably, and +nothing could exceed the care with which they had been packed. Her +mother no longer bothered her about Hugh. Lulu was quite well posted +with regard to her duty. + +Thus it was in the best of humors, that 'Lina tripped from Spring Bank +door one pleasant July morning, and was driven with her mother and Lulu +to Lexington, where they intended taking the evening train for +Cincinnati. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +SARATOGA + + +"Mrs. Worthington, daughter, and colored servant, Spring Bank, +Kentucky." + +"Dr. John Richards and mother, New York City." + +"Irving Stanley, Esq., Baltimore." + +These were the last entries the flaxen-haired clerk at Union Hall had +made, feeling sure, as he made them, that each one had been first to +the United States, and failing to find accommodations there, had come +down to Union Hall. + +The Union was so crowded that for the newcomers no rooms were found +except the small, uncomfortable ones far up in the fourth story of the +Ainsworth block, and thither, in not the most amiable mood, 'Lina +followed her trunks, and was followed in turn by her mother and Lulu, +the crowd whom they passed deciphering the name upon the trunks and +whispering to each other: "From Spring Bank, Kentucky. Haughty-looking +girl, wasn't she?" + +From his little twelve by ten apartment, where the summer sun was +pouring in a perfect blaze of heat, Dr. Richards saw them pass, and +after wondering who they were, and hoping they would be comfortable in +their pen, gave them no further thought, but sat jamming his penknife +into the old worm-eaten table, and thinking savage thoughts against that +capricious lady, Fortune, who had compelled him to come to Saratoga, +where rich wives were supposed to be had for the asking. In Dr. +Richard's vest pocket there lay at this very moment a delicate little +note, the meaning of which was that Alice Johnson declined the honor of +becoming his wife. Now he was ready for the first chance that offered, +provided that chance possessed a certain style, and was tolerably +good-looking. + +This, then, was Dr. Richards' errand to Saratoga, and one cause of his +disgust at being banished from the United States, where heiresses were +usually to be found in such abundance. + +From his pleasanter, airier apartment, on the other side of the narrow +hall, Irving Stanley looked out through his golden glasses, pitying the +poor ladies condemned to that slow roast. + +How hot, and dusty, and cross 'Lina was, and what a look of dismay she +cast around the room, with its two bedsteads, its bureau, its table, its +washstand, and its dozen pegs for her two dozen dresses, to say nothing +of her mother's. + +How tired and faint poor Mrs. Worthington was, sinking down upon the +high-post bed! How she wished she had stayed at home, like a sensible +woman, instead of coming here to be made so uncomfortable in this hot +room. But it could not now be helped, 'Lina said; they must do the best +they could; and with a forlorn glance at the luxuriant patch of weeds, +the most prominent view from the window, 'Lina opened one of her trunks, +and spreading a part of its contents upon the bed, began to dress for +dinner. The dinner bell had long since ceased ringing, and the tread of +feet ceased in the halls below ere she descended to the deserted parlor, +followed by her mother, nervous and frightened at the prospect of this, +her first appearance at Saratoga. + +"Pray, rouse yourself," 'Lina whispered, "and not let them guess you +were never at a watering place before," and 'Lina thoughtfully smoothed +her mother's cap by way of reassuring her. + +But even 'Lina herself quailed when she reached the door and caught a +glimpse of the busy life within, the terrible ordeal she must pass. + +"Oh, for a pair of pantaloons to walk beside one, even if Hugh were in +them," she thought, as her own and her mother's lonely condition arose +before her. + +"Courage, mother," she whispered again, and then advanced into the room, +growing bolder at every step, for with one rapid glance she had swept +the hall, and felt that amid that bevy of beauty and fashion there were +few more showy than 'Lina Worthington in her rustling dress of green, +with Ellen Tiffton's bracelet on one arm and the one bought with Adah's +money on the other. + +Not having been an heiress long enough to know just what was expected of +her, and fancying it quite in character to domineer over every colored +person just as she did over Lulu, 'Lina issued her commands with a +dignity worthy of the firm of Mrs. Worthington & Daughter. Bowing +deferentially, the polite attendant quickly drew back her chair, while +she spread out her flowing skirts to an extent which threatened to +envelop her mother, sinking meekly into her seat, not confused and +flurried. But alas for 'Lina. The servant did not calculate the distance +aright, and my lady, who had meant to do the thing so gracefully, who +had intended showing the people that she had been to Saratoga before, +suddenly found herself prostrate upon the floor, the chair some way +behind her, and the plate, which, in her descent, she had grasped +unconsciously, flying off diagonally past her mother's head, and +fortunately past the head of her mother's left-hand neighbor. + +Poor 'Lina! How she wished she might never get up again. + +At first, 'Lina thought nothing could keep her tears back, they gathered +so fast in her eyes, and her voice trembled so that she could not answer +the servant's question: + +"Soup, madam, soup?" + +But he of the white hand did it for her. + +"Of course she'll take soup," then in an aside, he said to her gently: +"Never mind, you are not the first lady who has been served in that way. +It's quite a common occurrence." + +There was something reassuring in his voice, and turning toward him for +the first time, 'Lina caught the gleam of the golden glasses, and knew +that her _vis-a-vis_ upstairs was also her right-hand neighbor. Who was +he, and whom did he so strikingly resemble? Suddenly it came to her. +Saving the glasses, he was very much like Hugh. No handsomer, not a +whit, but more accustomed to society, easier in his manners and more +gallant to ladies. Could it be Irving Stanley? she asked herself, +remembering now to have heard that he did resemble Hugh, and also that +he wore glasses. Yes, she was sure, and the red which the doctor had +pronounced "well put on," deepened on her cheeks, until her whole face +was crimson with mortification, that such should have been her first +introduction to the aristocratic Irving. + +Kind and gentle as a woman, Irving Stanley was sometimes laughed at by +his own sex, as too gentle, too feminine in disposition; but those who +knew him best loved him most, and loved him, too, just because he was +not so stern, so harsh, so overbearing as lords of creation are wont to +be. + +Such was Irving Stanley, and 'Lina might well be thankful that her lot +was cast so near him. He did not talk to her at the table further than a +few commonplace remarks, but when, after dinner was over, and his Havana +smoked, he found her sitting with her mother out in the grove, apart +from everybody, and knew instantly that they were there alone, he went +to them at once, and ere many minutes had elapsed discovered to his +surprise that they were his so-called cousins from Kentucky. Nothing +could exceed 'Lina's delight. He was there unfettered by mother or +sister or sweetheart, and of course would attach himself exclusively to +her. 'Lina was very happy, and more than once her loud laugh rang out so +loud that Irving, with all his charity, had a faint suspicion that +around his Kentucky cousin, brilliant though she was, there might linger +a species of coarseness, not altogether agreeable to one of his +refinement. Still he sat chatting with her until the knowing dowagers, +who year after year watch such things at Saratoga, whispered behind +their fans of a flirtation between the elegant Mr. Stanley and that +dark, haughty-looking girl from Kentucky. + +"I never saw him so familiar with a stranger upon so short an +acquaintance," said fat Mrs. Buford. + +"Is that Irving Stanley, whom Lottie Gardner talks so much about?" And +Mrs. Richards leveled her glass again, for Irving Stanley was not +unknown to her by reputation. "She must be somebody, John, or he would +not notice her," and she spoke in an aside, adding in a louder tone: "I +wonder who she is? There's their servant. I mean to question her," and +as Lulu came near, she said: "Girl, who do you belong to?" + +"'Longs to them," answered Lulu, jerking her head toward 'Lina and Mrs. +Worthington. + +"Where do you live?" was the next query, and Lulu replied: + +"Spring Bank, Kentucky. Missus live in big house, 'most as big as this;" +then anxious to have the ordeal passed, and fearful that she might not +acquit herself satisfactorily to 'Lina, who, without seeming to notice +her, had drawn near enough to hear, she added: "Miss 'Lina is an airey, +a very large airey, and has a heap of--of--" Lulu hardly knew what, but +finally in desperation added: "a heap of a'rs," and then fled away ere +another question could be asked her. + +"What did she say she was?" Mrs. Richards asked, and the doctor replied: + +"She said an airey. She meant an heiress." + +Money, or the reputation of possessing money, is an all-powerful charm, +and in few places does it show its power more plainly than at Saratoga, +where it was soon known that the lady from Spring Bank, with pearls in +her hair, and pearl bracelets on her arms, was heiress to immense wealth +in Kentucky, how immense nobody knew, and various were the estimates put +upon it. Among Mrs. Bufort's clique it was twenty thousand, farther away +in another hall it was fifty, while Mrs. Richards, ere the supper hour +arrived, had heard that it was at least a hundred thousand dollars. How +or where she heard it she hardly knew, but she indorsed the statement as +current, and at the tea table that night was exceedingly gracious to +'Lina and her mother, offering to divide a little private dish which she +had ordered for herself, and into which poor Mrs. Worthington +inadvertently dipped, never dreaming that it was not common property. + +"It was not of the slightest consequence, Mrs. Richards was delighted to +share it with her," and that was the way the conversation commenced. + +'Lina knew now that the proud man whose lip had curled so scornfully at +dinner was Ellen's Dr. Richards, and Dr. Richards knew that the girl who +sat on the floor was 'Lina Worthington, from Spring Bank, where Alice +Johnson was going. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE COLUMBIAN + + +It was very quiet at the Columbian, and the few gentlemen seated upon +the piazza seemed to be of a different stamp from those at the more +fashionable houses, as there were none of them smoking, nor did they +stare impertinently at the gayly-dressed lady coming-up the steps, and +inquiring of the clerk if Miss Alice Johnson were there. + +Yes, she was, and her room was No. ----. Should he send the lady's card? +Miss Johnson had mostly kept her room. + +'Lina had brought no card, but she gave her name, and passed on into the +parlor, which afforded a striking contrast to the beehive downtown. In a +corner two or three were sitting; another group occupied a window; while +at the piano were two more, an old and a young lady; the latter of whom +was seated upon the stool, and with her foot upon the soft pedal, was +alternately striking a few sweet, musical chords, and talking to her +companion, who seemed to be a little deaf. + +"This is Miss Johnson," and the waiter bowed toward the musician, who, +quick as thought, seized upon the truth, and springing to Mrs. +Worthington's side, exclaimed: + +"It's Mrs. Worthington, I know, my mother's early friend. Why did you +sit here so long without speaking to me? I am Alice Johnson," and +overcome with the emotions awakened by the sight of her mother's early +friend, Alice hid her face with childlike confidence in Mrs. +Worthington's bosom, and sobbed for a moment bitterly. + +Then growing calm, she lifted up her head and smiling through her tears +said: + +"Forgive me for this introduction. It is not often I give way, for I +know and am sure it was best and right that mother should die. I am not +rebellious now, but the sight of you brought it back so vividly. You'll +be my mother, won't you?" and kissing the fat white hands involuntarily +smoothing her bright hair, the impulsive girl nestled closer to Mrs. +Worthington, looking up into her face with a confiding affection which +won a place for her at once in Mrs. Worthington's heart. + +"My darling," she said, winding her arm around her waist, "as far as I +can I will be to you a mother, and 'Lina shall be your sister. This is +'Lina, dear," and she turned to 'Lina, who, piqued at having been so +long unnoticed, was frowning gloomily. + +But 'Lina never met a glance purer or more free from guile than that +which Alice gave her, and it disarmed her at once of all jealousy, +making her return the orphan's kisses with as much apparent cordiality +as they had been given. During this scene the woman of the snowy hair +and jet black eyes had stood silently by, regarding 'Lina with that same +curious expression which had so annoyed the young lady, and from which +she now intuitively shrank. + +"My nurse, Densie Densmore," Alice said at last, adding in an aside: +"She is somewhat deaf and may not hear distinctly, unless you speak +quite loud. Poor old Densie," she continued, as the latter bowed to her +new acquaintances, and then seated herself at a respectful distance. +"She has been in our family for a long time." Then changing the +conversation, Alice made many inquiries concerning Kentucky, startling +them with the announcement that she had that day received a letter from +Colonel Tiffton, who she believed was a friend of theirs, urging her to +spend a few weeks with him. "They heard from you what were mother's +plans for my future, and also that I was to meet you here. They must be +very thoughtful people, for they seem to know that I cannot be very +happy here." + +For a moment 'Lina and her mother looked aghast, and neither knew what +to say. 'Lina, as usual, was the first to rally and calculate results. + +They were very intimate at Colonel Tiffton's. She and Ellen were fast +friends. It was very pleasant there, more so than at Spring Bank; and +all the objection she could see to Alice's going was the fear lest she +should become so much attached to Mosside, the colonel's residence, as +to be homesick at Spring Bank. + +"If she's going, I hope she'll go before Dr. Richards sees her, though +perhaps he knows her already--his mother lives in Snowdon," 'Lina +thought, and rather abruptly she asked if Alice knew Dr. Richards, who +was staying at the Union. + +Alice blushed crimson as she replied: + +"Yes, I know him very well and his family, too. Are either of his +sisters with him?" + +"His mother is here," 'Lina replied, "and I like her so much. She is +very familiar and friendly; don't you think so?" + +Alice would not tell a lie, and she answered frankly: + +"She does not bear that name in Snowdon. They consider her very haughty +there. I think you must be a favorite." + +"Are they very aristocratic and wealthy?" 'Lina asked, and Alice +answered: + +"Aristocratic, not wealthy. They were very kind to me, and the doctor's +sister, Anna, is one of the sweetest ladies I ever knew. She may +possibly be here during the summer. She is an invalid, and has been for +years." + +Suddenly Ellen Tiffton's story of the ambrotype flashed into 'Lina's +mind. Alice might know something of it, and after a little she asked if +the doctor had not at one time been engaged. + +Alice did not know. It was very possible. Why did Miss Worthington ask +the question? + +'Lina did not stop to consider the propriety or impropriety of making so +free with a stranger, and unhesitatingly repeated what Ellen Tiffton had +told her of the ambrotype. This, of course, compelled her to speak of +Adah, who, she said, came to them under very suspicious circumstances, +and was cared for by her eccentric brother, Hugh. + +In spite of the look of entreaty visible on Mrs. Worthington's face, +'Lina said: + +"To be candid with you, Miss Johnson, I'm afraid you won't like Hugh. He +has many good traits, but I am sorry to say we have never succeeded in +cultivating him one particle, so that he is very rough and boorish in +his manner, and will undoubtedly strike you unfavorably. I may as well +tell you this, as you will probably hear it from Ellen Tiffton, and must +know it when you see him. He is not popular with the ladies; he hates +them all, he says. Mother, Loo-loo, come," and breaking off from her +very sisterly remarks concerning Hugh, 'Lina sprang up in terror as a +large beetle, attracted by the light, fastened itself upon her hair. + +Mrs. Worthington was the first to the rescue, while Lulu, who had +listened with flashing eye when Hugh was the subject of remark, came +laggardly, whispering slyly to Alice: + +"That's a lie she done tell you about Mas'r Hugh. He ain't rough, nor +bad, and we blacks would die for him any day." + +Alice was confounded at this flat contradiction between mistress and +servant, while a faint glimmer of the truth began to dawn upon her. The +"horn-bug" being disposed of, 'Lina became quiet, and might, perhaps, +have taken up Hugh again, but for a timely interruption in the shape of +Irving Stanley, who had walked up to the Columbian, and seeing 'Lina and +her mother through the window, sauntered leisurely into the parlor. + +"Ah, Mr. Stanley," and 'Lina half arose from her chair, thus intimating +that he was to join them. "Miss Johnson, Mr. Stanley," and 'Lina watched +them closely. + +"You have positively been smitten by Miss Johnson's pretty face," said +'Lina, laughing a little spitefully, as they parted at the piazza, +Irving to go after his accustomed glasses of water, and 'Lina to seek +out Dr. Richards in the parlor. "Yes, I know you are smitten, and +inasmuch as we are cousins, I shall expect to see you at Spring Bank +some day not far in the future." + +"It is quite probable you will," was Irving's reply, as he walked away, +his head and heart full of Alice Johnson. + +Meantime "Mrs. Worthington, daughter and servant," had entered the still +crowded parlors, where Mrs. Richards sat fanning herself industriously, +and watching her John with motherly interest as he sauntered from one +group of ladies to another, wondering what made Saratoga so dull, and +where Miss Worthington had gone. It is not to be supposed that Dr. +Richards cared a fig for Miss Worthington as Miss Worthington. It was +simply her immense figure he admired, and as, during the evening he had +heard on good authority that said figure was made up mostly of cotton +growing on some Southern field, the exact locality of which his +informant did not know, he had decided that, of course, Miss 'Lina's +fortune was over-estimated. Such things always were, but still she must +be wealthy. He had no doubt of that, and he might as well devote himself +to her as to wait for some one else. Accordingly the moment he spied her +in the crowd he joined her, asking if they should not take a little turn +up and down the piazza." + +"Wait till I ask mamma's permission to stay up a little longer. She +always insists upon my keeping such early hours," was 'Lina's very +filial and childlike reply, as she walked up to mamma, not to ask +permission, but to whisper rather peremptorily, "Dr. Richards wishes me +to walk with him, and as you are tired, you may as well go to bed!" + +Meantime the doctor and 'Lina were walking up and down the long piazza, +chatting gayly, and attracting much attention from 'Lina's loud manner +of talking and laughing. + +"By the way, I've called on Miss Johnson, at the Columbian," she said. +"Beautiful, isn't she?" + +"Ra-ather pretty, some would think," and the doctor had an uncomfortable +consciousness of the refusal in his vest pocket. + +If Alice had told. But no, he knew her better than that. He could trust +her on that score, and so the dastardly coward affected to sneer at what +he called her primness, charging 'Lina to be careful what she did, if +she did not want a lecture, and asking if there were any ragged children +in Kentucky, as she would not be happy unless she was running a Sunday +school! + +"She can teach the negroes! Capital!" and 'Lina laughed so loudly that +Mrs. Richards joined them, laughing, too, at what she did not know, +only--Miss Worthington had such spirits; it did one good; and she wished +Anna was there to be enlivened. + +"Write to her, John, won't you?" + +John mentally thought it doubtful. Anna and 'Lina would never +assimilate, and he would rather not have his pet sister's opinion to +combat until his own was fully made up. + +"Anna--oh, yes!" 'Lina exclaimed. "Miss Johnson spoke of her as the +sweetest lady she ever saw. I wish she would come. I'm so anxious to see +her. An invalid, I believe?" + +Yes, dear Anna was a sad invalid, and cared but little to go from home, +though if she could find a waiting maid, such as she had been in quest +of for the last six months she might perhaps be persuaded. + +"A waiting maid," 'Lina repeated to herself, remembering the forgotten +letter in her dress pocket, wondering if it could be Anna Richards, +whose advertisement Adah had answered, and if it were, congratulating +herself upon her thoughtlessness in forgetting it, as she would not for +the world have Adah Hastings, with her exact knowledge of Spring Bank, +in Mrs. Richards' family. It passed her mind that the very dress had +been given to Adah, who might find the letter yet. She only reflected +that the letter never was sent, and felt glad accordingly. Very adroitly +she set herself at work to ascertain if Anna Richards and "A.E.R." were +one and the same individual. + +If Anna wished for a waiting maid, she could certainly find one, she +should suppose. She might advertise. + +"She has," and the doctor began to laugh. "The most ridiculous thing. I +hardly remember the wording, but it has been copied and recopied, for +its wording, annoying Anna greatly, and bringing to our doors so many +unfortunate women in search of places, that my poor little sister +trembles now every time the bell rings, thinking it some fresh answer to +her advertisement." + +"I've seen it," and 'Lina very unconsciously laid her hand on his arm. +"It was copied and commented upon by Prentice, and my sewing woman +actually thought of answering it, thinking the place would suit her. I +told her it was preposterous that 'A.E.R.' should want her with a +child." + +"The very one to suit Anna," and the doctor laughed again. "That was one +of the requirements, or something. How was it, mother? I think we must +manage to get your sewing woman. What is her name?" + +'Lina had trodden nearer dangerous ground than she meant to do, and she +veered off at once, replying to the doctor: + +"Oh, she would not suit at all. She's too--I hardly know what, unless I +say, lifeless, or insipid. And then, I could not spare my seamstress. +She cuts nearly all my dresses." + +"She must be a treasure. I have noticed how admirably they fitted," and +old Mrs. Richards glanced again at the blue silk, half wishing that Anna +had just such a waiting maid, they could all find her so useful. "If +John succeeds, maybe Miss Worthington will bring her North," was her +mental conclusion, and then, as it was growing rather late, she very +thoughtfully excused herself, saying, "It was time old people retired; +young ones, of course, could act at their own discretion. She would not +hurry them," and hoping to see more of Miss Worthington to-morrow, she +bowed good-night, and left the doctor alone with 'Lina. + +"In the name of the people, what are you sitting up for?" was 'Lina's +first remark when she went upstairs, followed by a glowing account of +what Dr. Richards had said, and the delightful time she'd had. "Only +play our cards well, and I'm sure to go home the doctor's _fiancee_. +Won't Ellen Tiffton stare when I tell her, mother?" and 'Lina spoke in a +low tone. "The doctor thinks I'm very rich. So do all the people here. +Lulu has told that I'm an heiress; now don't you upset it all with your +squeamishness about the truth. Nobody will ask you how much I'm worth, +so you won't be compelled to a lie direct. Just keep your tongue between +your teeth, and leave the rest to me. Will you?" + +There was, as usual, a feeble remonstrance, and then the weak woman +yielded so far as promising to keep silent was concerned. + +Meantime the doctor sat in his own room nearby, thinking of 'Lina +Worthington, and wishing she were a little more refined. + +"Where does she get that coarseness?" he thought. "Not from her mother, +certainly. She seems very gentle and ladylike. It must be from the +Worthingtons," and the doctor wondered where he had heard that name +before, and why it affected him rather unpleasantly, bringing with it +memories of Lily. "Poor Lily," he sighed mentally. "Your love would have +made me a better man if I had not cast it from me. Dear Lily, the mother +of my child," and a tear half trembled in his eyelashes, as he tried to +fancy that child; tried to hear the patter of the little feet running to +welcome him home, as they might have done had he been true to Lily; +tried to hear the baby voice calling him "papa;" to feel the baby hands +upon his face--his bearded face where the great tears were standing now. +"I did love Lily," he murmured; "and had I known of the child I never +could have left her. Oh, Lily, my lost Lily, come back to me, come!" and +his arms were stretched out into empty space, as if he fain would +encircle again the girlish form he had so often held in his embrace. + +It was very late ere Dr. Richards slept that night, and the morning +found him pale, haggard and nearly desperate. Thoughts of Lily were +gone, and in their place was a fixed determination to follow on in the +course he had marked out, to find him a rich wife, to cast remorse to +the winds, and be as happy as he could. + +How anxious the doctor was to have Alice go; how fearful lest she should +not; and how relieved when asked by 'Lina one night to go with her the +next morning and see Miss Johnson off. There were Mrs. Worthington and +'Lina, Dr. Richards and Irving Stanley, and a dozen more admirers, who, +dazzled with Alice's beauty, were dancing attendance upon her to the +latest moment, but none looked so sorry as Irving Stanley, or said +good-by so unwillingly, and 'Lina, as she saw the wistful gaze he sent +after the receding train, playfully asked him if he did not feel some +like the half of a pair of scissors. + +The remark jarred painfully on Irving's finer feelings, while the +doctor, affecting to laugh and ejaculate "pretty good," wished so much +that his black-eyed lady were different in some things. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +HUGH + + +An unexpected turn in Hugh's affairs made it no longer necessary for him +to remain in the sultry climate of New Orleans, and just one week from +his mother's departure from Spring Bank he reached it, expressing +unbounded surprise when he heard from Aunt Eunice where his mother had +gone, and how she had gone. + +"Fool and his money soon parted," Hugh said. "I can fancy just the dash +Ad is making. But who sent the money?" + +"A Mrs. Johnson, an old friend of your mother's," Aunt Eunice replied, +while Hugh looked up quickly, wondering why the Johnsons should be so +continually thrust upon him, when the only Johnson for whom he cared was +dead years ago. + +"And the young lady--what about her?" he asked, while Aunt Eunice told +him the little she knew, which was that Mrs. Johnson wished her daughter +to come to Spring Bank, but she did not know what they had concluded +upon. + +"That she should not come, of course," Hugh said. "They had no right to +give her a home without my consent, and I've plenty of young ladies at +Spring Bank now. Oh, it was such a relief when I was gone to know that +in all New Orleans there was not a single hoop annoyed on my account. I +had a glorious time doing as I pleased." + +"And yet you've improved, seems to me," Aunt Eunice said. + +"Oh, I'll turn out a polished dandy by and by, who knows?" Hugh +answered, laughingly; then helping his aunt to mount the horse which had +brought her to Spring Bank, he returned to the house, which seemed +rather lonely, notwithstanding that he had so often wished he could once +more be alone, just as he was before his mother came. + +On the whole, however, he enjoyed his freedom from restraint, and very +rapidly fell back into his old loose way of living, bringing his dogs +even into the parlor, and making it a repository for both his hunting +and fishing apparatus. + +"It's splendid to do as I'm mind to," he said, one hot August morning, +nearly three weeks after his mother's departure. + +"Hello, Mug, what do you want?" he asked, as a very bright-looking +little mulatto girl appeared in the door. + +"Claib done buyed you this yer," and the child handed him the letter +from his mother. + +The first of it was full of affection for her boy, and Hugh felt his +heart growing very tender as he read, but when he reached the point +where poor, timid Mrs. Worthington tried to explain about Alice, making +a wretched bungle, and showing plainly how much she was swayed by 'Lina, +it began to harden at once. + +"What the plague!" he exclaimed as he read on. "Suppose I remember +having heard her speak of her old school friend, Alice Morton? I don't +remember any such thing. Her daughter's name's Alice--Alice Johnson," +and Hugh for an instant turned white, so powerfully that name always +affected him. + +"She is going to Colonel Tiffton's first, though they've all got the +typhoid fever, I hear, and that's no place for her. That fever is +terrible on Northerners--terrible on anybody. I'm afraid of it myself, +and I wish this horrid throbbing I've felt for a few days would leave my +head. It has a fever feel that I don't like," and the young man pressed +his hand against his temples, trying to beat back the pain which so much +annoyed him. + +Just then Collonel Tiffton was announced, his face wearing an anxious +look, and his voice trembling as he told how sick his Nell was, how sick +they all were, and then spoke of Alice Johnson. + +"She's the same girl I told you about the day I bought Rocket; some +little kin to me, and that makes it queer why her mother should leave +her to you. I knew she would not be happy at Saratoga, and so we wrote +for her to visit us. She is on the road now, will be here day after +to-morrow, and something must be done. She can't come to us without +great inconvenience to ourselves and serious danger to her. Hugh, my +boy, there's no other way--she must come to Spring Bank," and the old +colonel laid his hand on that of Hugh, who looked at him aghast, but +made no immediate reply. + +"A pretty state of things, and a pretty place to bring a lady," he +muttered, glancing ruefully around the room and enumerating the +different articles he knew were out of place. "Fish worms, fishhooks, +fishlines, bootjack, boot-blacking, and rifle, to say nothing of the +dogs--and me!" + +The last was said in a tone as if the "me" were the most objectionable +part of the whole, as, indeed, Hugh thought it was. + +"I wonder how I do look to persons wholly unprejudiced!" Hugh said, and +turning to Muggins he asked what she thought of him. + +"I thinks you berry nice. I likes you berry much," the child replied, +and Hugh continued: + +"Yes; but how do I look, I mean? What do I look like, a dandy or a +scarecrow?" + +Muggins regarded him for a moment curiously, and then replied: + +"I'se dunno what kind of thing that dandy is, but I 'members dat yer +scarecrow what Claib make out of mas'r's trouse's and coat, an' put up +in de cherry tree. I thinks da look like Mas'r Hugh--yes, very much +like!" + +Hugh laughed long and loud, pinching Mug's dusky cheek, and bidding her +run away. + +"Pretty good," he exclaimed, when he was left alone, "That's Mug's +opinion. Look like a scarecrow. I mean to see for myself," and going +into the sitting-room, where the largest mirror was hung, he scanned +curiously the figure which met his view, even taking a smaller glass, +and holding it so as to get a sight of his back. "Tall, +broad-shouldered, straight, well-built. My form is well enough," he +said. "It's the clothes that bother. I mean to get some new ones. Then, +as to my face," and Hugh turned himself around, "I never thought of it +before; but my features are certainly regular, teeth can't be beaten, +good brown skin, such as a man should have, eyes to match, and a heap of +curly hair. I'll be hanged if I don't think I'm rather good-looking!" +and with his spirits proportionately raised, Hugh whistled merrily as he +went in quest of Aunt Chloe, to whom he imparted the startling +information that on the next day but one, a young lady was coming to +Spring Bank, and that, in the meantime, the house must be cleaned from +garret to cellar, and everything put in order for the expected guest. + +With growing years, Aunt Chloe had become rather cross and less inclined +to work than formerly, frequently sighing for the days when "Mas'r John +didn't want no clarin' up, but kep' things lyin' handy." With her hands +on her fat hips she stood, coolly regarding Hugh, who was evidently too +much in earnest to be opposed. Alice was coming, and the house must be +put in order. + +The cleaning and arranging was finished at last, and everything within +the house was as neat and orderly as Aunt Eunice and Adah could make +it, even Aunt Chloe acknowledging that "things was tiptop," but said, +"it was no use settin' 'em to rights when Mas'r Hugh done onsot 'em so +quick;" but Hugh promised to do better. He would turn over a new leaf, +so by way of commencement, on the morning of Alice's expected arrival he +deliberately rolled up his towel and placed it under his pillow instead +of his nightshirt, which he hung conspicuously over the washstand. His +boots were put behind the fire-board, his every day hat jammed into the +bandbox where 'Lina kept her winter bonnet, and then, satisfied that so +far as his room was concerned, everything was in order, he descended the +stairs and went into the garden to gather fresh flowers with which still +further to adorn Alice's room. Hugh was fond of flowers, and two most +beautiful bouquets were soon arranged and placed in the vases brought +from the parlor mantel, while Muggins, who trotted beside him, watching +his movements and sometimes making suggestions, was told to see that +they were freshly watered, and not allowed to stand where the sun could +shine on them, as they might fade before Miss Johnson came. + +During the excitement of preparing for Alice, the pain in his head had +in a measure been forgotten, but it had come back this morning with +redoubled force, and the veins upon his forehead looked almost like +bursting with their pressure of feverish blood. Hugh had never been sick +in his life, and he did not think it possible for him to be so now, so +he tried hard to forget the giddy, half blinding pain warning him of +danger, and after forcing himself to sip a little coffee in which he +would indulge this morning, he ordered Claib to bring out the covered +buggy, as he was going up to Lexington. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +MEETING OF ALICE AND HUGH + + +Could 'Lina have seen Hugh that morning as he emerged from a fashionable +tailor's shop, she would scarcely have recognized him. The hour passed +rapidly away, and its close found Hugh waiting at the terminus of the +Lexington and Cincinnati Railroad. He did not have to wait there long +ere a wreath of smoke in the distance heralded the approach of the +train, and in a moment the broad platform was swarming with passengers, +conspicuous among whom were an old lady and a young, both entire +strangers, as was evinced by their anxiety to know where to go. + +"There are ours," the young lady said, pointing to a huge pile of +trunks, distinctly marked "A.J.," as she held out her checks in her +ungloved hand. + +Hugh noticed the hand, saw that it was very small and white and fat, but +the face he could not see, and he looked in vain for the magnificent +hair about which even his mother had waxed eloquent, and which was now +put plainly back, so that not a vestige of it was visible. Still Hugh +felt sure that this was Alice Johnson, so sure that when he had +ascertained the hotel where she would wait for the Frankfort train, he +followed on, and entering the back parlor, the door of which was partly +closed, sat down as if he, too, were a traveler, waiting for the train. + +Meantime, in the room adjoining, Alice, for it was she, divested herself +of her dusty wrappings, and taking out her combs and brushes, began to +arrange her hair, talking the while to Densie, reclining on the sofa. + +It would seem that Alice's own luxuriant tresses suggested her first +remark, for she said to Densie: "That Miss Worthington has beautiful +hair, so black, so glossy, and so wavy, too. I wonder she never curls +it. It looks as if she might." + +Densie did not know. It had struck her as singular taste, unless it were +done to conceal a scar, or something of that kind. + +"I did not like that girl," she said, "and still she interested me more +than any person I ever met. I never went near her without experiencing a +strange sensation, neither could I keep from watching her continually, +although I knew as well as you that it annoyed her, Alice," and Densie +lowered her voice almost to a whisper, "I cannot account for it, but I +had queer fancies about that girl. Try now and bring her distinctly to +your mind. Did you ever see any one whom she resembled; any other eyes +like hers?" and Densie's own fierce, wild orbs flashed inquiringly upon +Alice, who could not remember a face like 'Lina Worthington's. + +"I did not like her eyes much," she said; "they were too intensely +black, too much like coals of fire, when they flashed angrily on that +poor Lulu, who evidently was not well posted in the duties of a waiting +maid, auntie," and Alice's voice was lowered, too. "If mother had not so +decided, I should shrink from being an inmate of Mrs. Washington's +family. I like her very much, but 'Lina--I am afraid I shall not get on +with her:" + +"I know you won't. I honor your judgment," was Hugh's mental comment, +while Alice went on: + +"And what she told me of her brother was not calculated to impress me +favorably." + +Nervously Hugh's hands grasped each other, and he could distinctly hear +the beating of his heart as he leaned forward so as not to lose a single +word. + +"She seemed trying to prepare me for him by telling how rough he was; +how little he cared for etiquette; and how constantly he mortified her +with his uncouth manners." + +Alice did not hear the sigh of pain or see the mournful look which stole +over Hugh's face. She did not even suspect his presence, and she went on +to speak of Spring Bank, wondering if Hugh would be there before his +mother returned, half hoping he would not, as she rather dreaded meeting +him, although she meant to like him if she could. + +Alice's long, bright hair, was arranged at last, and the soft curls fell +about her face, giving to it the same look it had worn in childhood--the +look which was graven on Hugh's heart, as with a pencil of fire; the +look he never had forgotten through all the years which had come and +gone since first it shone on him; the look he had never hoped to see +again, so sure was he that it had long been quenched by the waters of +Lake Erie. Alice's face was turned fully toward him. Through the open +window at her back the August sunlight streamed, falling on her chestnut +hair, and tinging it with the yellow gleam which Hugh remembered so +well. For an instant the long lashes shaded the fair round cheek, and +then were uplifted, disclosing the eyes of lustrous blue, which, seen +but once, could never be mistaken, and Hugh was not mistaken. One look +of piercing scrutiny at the face unconsciously confronting him, one +mighty throb, which seemed to bear away his very life, one rapid passage +of his hand before his eyes to sweep away the mist, if mist there were, +and then Hugh knew the grave had given up its dead, mourned for so long +as only he could mourn. She was not lost. Some friendly hand had saved +her; some arm had borne her to the shore. + +Golden Hair had come back to him, but, alas, prejudiced against him. She +hoped he might be gone. She would be happier if he never crossed her +path. "And I never, never will," Hugh thought, as with one farewell +glance at her dazzling beauty, he staggered noiselessly from the room, +and sought a small outer court, whose locality he knew, and where he +could be alone to think. + +"Oh, Adaline," he murmured, "what made you so cruel to me? I would not +have served you so." + +There was a roll of wheels before the door, and Hugh knew by the sound +that it was the carriage for the cars. She was going. They would never +meet again, Hugh said, and she would never know that the youth who saved +her life was the same for whose coming they would wait and watch in vain +at Spring Bank--the Hugh for whom his mother would weep a while; and for +whose dark fate even Ad might feel a little sorry. She was not wholly +depraved--she had some sisterly feeling, and his loss would waken it to +life. They would appreciate him after he was gone, and the poor heart +which had known so little love throbbed joyfully, as Hugh thought of +being loved at last even by the selfish 'Lina. + +Meantime Alice and Densie proceeded on their way to the Big Spring +station, where Colonel Tiffton was waiting for them, according to his +promise. There was a shadow in the colonel's good-humored face, and a +shadow in his heart. His idol, Nellie, was very, very sick, while added +to this was the terrible certainty that he and he alone must pay that +$10,000 note on which he had foolishly put his name, because Harney had +preferred it. He was talking with Harney when the cars came up, and the +villain, while expressing regret that the colonel should be compelled to +pay so much for what he never received, had said, with a relentless +smile: "But it's not my fault, you know. I can't afford to lose it." + +From that moment the colonel felt he was a ruined man, but he would not +allow himself to appear at all discomposed. + +"Wait a while," he said; "do nothing till my Nell lives or dies," and +with a sigh as he thought how much dearer to him was his youngest +daughter than all the farms in Woodford, he went forward to meet Alice, +just appearing upon the platform. + +The colonel explained to Alice why she must go to Spring Bank, adding, +by way of consolation, that she would not be quite as lonely now Hugh +was at home. + +"Hugh at home!" and Alice shrank back in dismay, feeling for a moment +that she could not go there. + +But there was no alternative, and after a few tears, which, she could +not repress, she said, timidly: + +"What is this Hugh? What kind of a man, I mean?" + +She could not expect the colonel to say anything bad of him, but she was +not prepared for his frank response. + +"The likeliest chap in Kentucky. Nothing dandified about him, to be +sure. Wears his trouser legs in his boots as often as any way, and don't +stand about the very latest cut of his coat, but he's got a heart bigger +than an ox--yes, big as ten oxen! I'd trust him with my life, and know +it was just as safe as his own. You'll like Hugh--Nell does." + +The colonel never dreamed of the comfort his words gave Alice, or how +they changed her feelings with regard to one whom she had so dreaded to +meet. + +"There 'tis; we're almost there," the colonel said at last, as they +turned off from the highway, and leaning forward Alice caught sight of +the roofs and dilapidated chimneys of Spring Bank. "'Taint quite as +fixey as Yankee houses, that's a fact, but we that own niggers never do +have things so smarted up," the colonel said, guessing how the contrast +must affect Alice, who felt so desolate and homesick as she drew up in +front of what, for a time at least, was to be her home. + +"Where is Hugh?" Alice asked. + +Aunt Eunice would not say he had gone to Lexington for the sake, +perhaps, of seeing her, so she replied: + +"He went to town this morning, but he'll be back pretty soon. He has +done his best to make it pleasant for you, and I do believe he doted on +your coming after he got a little used to thinking about it. You'll like +Hugh when you get accustomed to him. There, try to go to sleep," and +kind Aunt Eunice bustled from the room just as poor Densie, who had been +entirely overlooked, entered it, together with Aunt Chloe. The old +negress was evidently playing the hostess to Densie, for she was talking +quite loud, and all about "Mas'r Hugh." "Pity he wasn't thar, 'twould +seem so different; 'tain't de same house without him. You'll like Mas'r +Hugh," and she, too, glided from the room. + +Was this the password at Spring Bank, "You'll like Mas'r Hugh?" It would +seem so, for when at last Hannah brought up the waffles and tea, which +Aunt Eunice had prepared, she set down her tray, and after a few +inquiries concerning Alice's head, which was now aching sadly, she, too, +launched forth into a panegyric on Mas'r Hugh, ending, as the rest had +done, "You'll like Mas'r Hugh." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +ALICE AND MUGGINS + + +Had an angel appeared suddenly to the blacks at Spring Bank they would +not have been more surprised or delighted than they were with Alice when +she came down to breakfast, looking so beautiful in her muslin wrapper, +with a simple white blossom and geranium leaf twined among her flowing +curls, and an expression of content upon her childish face, which said +that she had resolved to make the best of the place to which Providence +had so clearly led her for some wise purpose of his own. She had arisen +early and explored the premises in quest of the spots of sunshine which +she knew were there as well as elsewhere, and she had found them, too, +in the grand old elms and maples which shaded the wooden building, in +the clean, grassy lawn and the running brook, in the well-kept garden of +flowers, and in the few choice volumes arranged in the old bookcase at +one end of the hall. Who reads those books, her favorites, every one of +them? Not 'Lina, most assuredly, for Alice's reminiscences of her were +not of the literary kind; nor yet Mrs. Worthington, kind, gentle +creature as she seemed to be. Who then but Hugh could have pored over +those pages? And Alice felt a thrill of joy as she felt there was at +least one bond of sympathy between them. There was no Bible upon the +shelves, no religious book of any kind, if we except a work of infidel +Tom Paine, at sight of which Alice recoiled as from a viper. Could Hugh +believe in Tom Paine? She hoped not, and with a sigh she was turning +from the corner, when the patter of little naked feet was heard upon the +stairs, and a bright mulatto child, apparently seven or eight years old, +appeared, her face expressive of the admiration with which she regarded +Alice, who asked her name. + +Curtseying very low, the child replied: + +"I dunno, missus; I 'spec's I done lost 'em, 'case heap of a while ago, +'fore you're born, I reckon, they call me Leshie, but Mas'r Hugh done +nickname me Muggins, and every folks do that now. You know Mas'r Hugh? +He done rared when he read you's comin'; do this way with his boot, 'By +George, Ad will sell the old hut yet without 'sultin' me,'" and the +little darky's fist came down upon the window sill in apt imitation of +her master. + +A crimson flush overspread Alice's face as she wondered if it were +possible that the arrangements concerning her coming there had been made +without reference to Hugh's wishes. + +"It may be, he was away," she sighed; then feeling an intense desire to +know more, and being only a woman and mortal, she said to Muggins +walking around her in circles, with her fat arms folded upon her bosom. +"Your master did not know I was coming till he returned from New Orleans +and found his mother's letter?" + +"Who tole you dat ar?" and Muggins' face was perfectly comical in its +bewilderment at what she deemed Alice's foreknowledge. "But dat's so, +dat is. I hear Aunt Chloe say so, and how't was right mean in Miss +'Lina. I hate Miss 'Lina! Phew-ew!" and Muggins' face screwed itself +into a look of such perfect disgust that Alice could not forbear +laughing outright. + +"You should not hate any one, my child," she said, while Muggins +rejoined: + +"I can't help it--none of us can; she's so--mean--and so--so--you +mustn't never tell, 'case Aunt Chloe get my rags if you do--but she's so +low-flung, Claib say. She hain't any bizzens orderin' us around nuther, +and I will hate her!" + +"But, Muggins, the Bible teaches us to love those who treat us badly, +who are mean, as you say." + +"Who's he?" and Muggins looked up quickly. "I never hearn tell of him +afore, or, yes I has. Thar's an old wared-out book in Mas'r Hugh's +chest, what he reads in every night, and oncet when I axes him what was +it, he say, 'It's a Bible, Mug.' Dat's what he calls me for short; Mug!" + +"Well," Alice said, "be a good girl, Muggins. God will love you if you +do. Do you ever pray?" + +"More times I do, and more times when I'se sleepy I don't," was Muggins' +reply. + +Here was a spot where Alice might do good; this half-heathen, but +sprightly, African child needed her, and she began already to get an +inkling of her mission to Kentucky. She was pleased with Muggins, and +suffered the little dusky hands to caress her curls as long as they +pleased, while she questioned her of the bookcase and its contents, +whose was it, 'Lina's or Hugh's? + +"Mas'r Hugh's, in course. Miss 'Lina can't read!" was Muggins' reply, +which Alice fully understood. + +'Lina was no reader, while Hugh was, it might be, and she continued to +speak of him. Did he read much, ever evenings to his mother, or did +'Lina play often to them?" + +"More'n we wants, a heap!" and Muggins spoke scornfully. "We can't bar +them rang-tang-em-er-digs she thumps out. Now, we likes Mas'r Hugh's the +best--got good voice, sing Dixie, oh, splendid! Mas'r Hugh loves +flowers, too. Tend all them in the garden." + +"Did he?" and Alice spoke with great animation, for she had supposed +that 'Lina's, or at least Mrs. Worthington's hands had been there. + +But it was Hugh, all Hugh, and in spite of what Muggins had said +concerning his aversion to her coming there, she felt a great desire to +see him. She could understand in part why he should be angry at not +having been consulted, but he was over that, she was sure from what Aunt +Eunice said, and if he were not, it behooved her to try her best to +remove any wrong impression he might have formed of her. "He shall like +me," she thought; "not as he must like that golden-haired maiden whose +existence this sprite of a negro has discovered, but as a friend, or +sister," and a softer light shone in Alice's blue eyes, as she foresaw +in fancy Hugh gradually coming to like her, to be glad that she was +there, and to miss her when she was gone. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +POOR HUGH + + +Could Hugh have known the feelings with which Alice Johnson already +regarded him, and the opinion she had expressed to Muggins, it would +perhaps have stilled the fierce throbbings of his heart, which sent the +hot blood so swiftly through his veins, and made him from the first +delirious. They had found him in the quiet court, just after the +sunsetting, and his uncovered head was already wet with the falling dew, +and with the profuse perspiration induced by his long, heavy sleep. They +could not arouse him to a distinct consciousness as to where he was or +what had happened. He only talked of Ad and the Golden Haired, asking +that they would take him anywhere, where neither could ever see him +again. He was well known at the hotel, and measures were immediately +taken for apprising his family of the sudden illness, and for removing +him to Spring Bank as soon as possible. + +Breakfast was not yet over at Spring Bank, and Aunt Eunice was just +wondering what could have become of Hugh, when from her position near +the window she discovered a horseman riding across the lawn at a rate +which betokened some important errand. Alice spied him, too, and the +same thought flashed over both herself and Aunt Eunice. "Something had +befallen Hugh." + +Alice was the first upon the piazza, where she stood waiting till the +rider came up, his horse covered with foam, and himself flurried and +excited. + +"Are you Miss Worthington?" he asked, doffing his soft hat, and feeling +a thrill of wonder at sight of her marvelous beauty. + +"Miss Worthington is not at home," she said, going down the steps and +advancing closer to him, "but I can take your message. Is anything the +matter with Mr. Worthington?" + +Aunt Eunice had now joined her, and listened breathlessly while the +young man told of Hugh's illness, which threatened to be the prevailing +fever. + +"They were bringing him home," he said--"were now on the way, and he had +ridden in advance to prepare them for his coming." + +Aunt Eunice seemed literally stunned and wholly incapable of action, +while the negroes howled dismally for Mas'r Hugh, who, Chloe said, was +sure to die. + +"She'd felt it all along. She knew dem dogs hadn't howled for nothing, +nor them deathwatches ticked in the wall. Mas'r Hugh was gwine to die, +and all the blacks would be sold--down the river, most likely, if Harney +didn't get 'em," and crouching by the kitchen fire old Chloe bewailed +the calamity she knew was about to befall them. + +Alice alone was calm and capable of action. A room must be prepared, and +somebody must direct, but to find the somebody was a most difficult +matter. Chloe couldn't, Hannah couldn't, Aunt Eunice couldn't, and +consequently it all devolved upon herself. + +They carried Hugh to the room designated by Densie, and into which he +went very unwillingly. + +It was not his den, he said, drawing back with a bewildered look; his +was hot, and close, and dingy, while this was nice and cool--a room such +as women had--there must be a mistake, and he begged of them to take him +away. + +"No, no, my poor boy. This is right; Miss Johnson said you must come +here just because it is cool and nice. You'll get well so much faster," +and Aunt Eunice's tears dropped on Hugh's flushed face. + +"Miss Johnson!" and the wild eyes looked up eagerly at her. "Who is she? +Oh, yes, I know, I know," and a moan came from his lips as he whispered: +"Does she know I've come? Does it make her hate me worse to see me in +such a plight? Ho, Aunt Eunice, put your ear down close while I tell you +something. Ad said--you know Ad--she said I was--I was--I can't tell you +what she said for this buzzing in my head. Am I very sick, Aunt Eunice?" +and about the chin there was a quivering motion, which betokened a ray +of consciousness, as the brown eyes scanned the kind, motherly face +bending over him. + +"Yes, Hugh, you are very sick," and Aunt Eunice's tears dropped upon the +face of her boy, so fearfully changed since yesterday. + +He wiped them away himself, and looked inquiringly at her. + +"Am I so sick that it makes you cry? Is it the fever I've got?" + +"Yes, Hugh, the fever," and Aunt Eunice bowed her face upon his burning +hands. + +For a moment he lay unconscious, then raising himself up, he fixed his +eyes piercingly upon her, and whispered, hoarsely: + +"Aunt Eunice, I shall die! I have never been sick in my life; and the +fever goes hard with such. I shall surely die. It's been days in coming +on, and I thought to fight it off; I don't want to die. I'm not +prepared." + +He was growing terribly excited now, and Aunt Eunice hailed the coming +of the doctor with delight. Hugh knew him, offering his pulse and +putting out his tongue of his own accord. The doctor counted the rapid +pulse, numbering even then 130 per minute, noted the rolling eyeballs +and the dilation of the pupils, felt the fierce throbbing of the swollen +veins upon the temple, and then gravely shook his head. Half conscious, +half delirious, Hugh watched him nervously, until the great fear at his +heart found utterance in words. + +"Must I die?" + +"We hope not. We'll do what we can to save you. Don't think of dying, my +boy," was the physician's reply, as he turned to Aunt Eunice, and gave +out the medicine, which must be most carefully administered. + +Too much agitated to know just what he said, Aunt Eunice listened, as +one who heard not, noticing which, the doctor said: + +"You are not the right one to take these directions. Is there nobody +here less nervous than yourself? Who was that young lady standing by the +door when I came in? The one in white, I mean, with such a quantity of +curls?" + +"Miss Johnson--our visitor. She can't do anything," Aunt Eunice replied, +trying to compose herself enough to know what she was doing. + +But the doctor thought differently. Something of a physiognomist, he had +been struck with the expression of Alice's face, and felt sure that she +would be more efficient aid than Aunt Eunice herself. "I'll speak to +her," he said, stepping to the hall. But Alice was gone. She had stood +by the sickroom door long enough to hear Hugh's impassioned words +concerning his probable death--long enough to hear him ask that she +might pray for him; and then she stole away to where no ear, save that +of God, could hear the earnest prayer that Hugh Worthington might +live--or that dying, there might be given him a space in which to grasp +the faith, without which the grave is dark indeed. + +Meantime, the Hugh for whom the prayer was made had fallen into a heavy +sleep, and Aunt Eunice noiselessly left the room, meeting in the hall +with Alice, who asked permission to go in and sit by him at least until +he awoke. Aunt Eunice consented, and with noiseless footsteps Alice +advanced into the darkened room, and after standing still for a moment +to assure herself that Hugh was really sleeping, stole softly to his +bedside and bent down to look at him, starting quickly at the strong +resemblance to somebody seen before. Who was it? Where was it? she asked +herself, her brain a labyrinth of bewilderment as she tried in vain to +recall the time or place where a face like this reposing upon the pillow +before her had met her view. Suddenly she remembered Irving Stanley, and +that between him and Hugh there was a relationship, and then she knew it +was the likeness to Irving Stanley, which she so plainly traced. Alice +hardly cared to acknowledge it, but as she looked at Hugh she felt that +his was really the handsomer, the more attractive face of the two. It +certainly was, as he lay there asleep, his long eyelashes resting upon +his flushed cheek, his dark hair curling in soft rings about his high, +white brow, his rich, brown beard glistening with perspiration, and his +lips slightly apart, showing a row of even teeth. + +There were others than Alice praying for Hugh that summer afternoon, +for Muggins had gone from the brook to the cornfield, startling Adah +with the story of Hugh's sickness, and then launching out into a glowing +description of the new miss, "with her white gown and curls as long as +Rocket's tail." + +"She talked with God, too," she said, "like what you does, Miss Adah. +She axes Him to make Mas'r Hugh well, and He will, won't He?" + +"I trust so," Adah answered, her own heart going silently up to the +Giver of life and health, asking, if it were possible, that her noble +friend might be spared. + +Old Sam, too, with streaming eyes, stole out to his bethel by the +spring, and prayed for the dear "Massah Hugh" lying so still at Spring +Bank, and insensible to all the prayers going up in his behalf. + +How terrible that deathlike stupor was, and the physician, when later in +the afternoon he came again, shook his head sadly. + +"I'd rather see him rave till it took ten men to hold him," he said, +feeling the wiry pulse, which was now beyond his count. + +"Is there nothing that will arouse him?" Alice asked, "no name of one he +loves more than another?" + +The doctor answered "no; love for womankind, save as he feels it for his +mother or his sister, is unknown to Hugh Worthington." + +Alice said softly, lest she should be heard: + +"Hugh, shall I call Golden Haired?" + +"Yes, yes, oh, yes," and the heavy lids unclosed at once, while the +eyes, in which there was no ray of consciousness, looked wistfully into +the lustrous blue orbs above him. + +"Are you the Golden Haired?" and he laid his hand caressingly over the +shining tresses just within his reach. + +Alice was about to reply, when an exclamation from those near the +window, and the heavy tramp of horse's feet, arrested her attention, and +drew her also to the window, just as a most beautiful gray, saddled but +riderless, came dashing over the gate, and tearing across the yard, +until he stood panting at the door. Rocket had come home for the first +time since his master had led him away! + +Hearing of Hugh's illness, the old colonel had ridden over to inquire +how he was, and fearing lest it might be difficult to get Rocket away if +once he stood in the familiar yard, he had dismounted in the woods, and +fastening him to a tree, walked the remaining distance. But Rocket was +not thus to be cheated. Ever since turning into the well-remembered lane +he had seemed like a new creature, pricking up his ears, and, dancing +and curvetting daintily along, as he had been wont to do on public +occasions when Hugh was his rider instead of the fat colonel. In this +state of feeling it was quite natural that he should resent being tied +to a tree, and as if divining why it was done, he broke his halter the +moment the colonel was out of sight, and went galloping through the +woods like lightning, never for an instant slackening his speed until he +stood at Spring Bank door, calling, as well as he could call, for Hugh, +who heard and recognized that call. + +Throwing his arms wildly over his head, he raised himself in bed, and +exclaimed joyfully: + +"That's he! that's Rocket! I knew he'd come. I've only been waiting for +him to start on that long journey. Ho! Aunt Eunice! Pack my clothes. I'm +going away, where I shan't mortify Ad any more. Hurry up. Rocket is +growing impatient. Don't you hear him pawing the turf? I'm coming, my +boy, I'm coming!" and he attempted to leap upon the floor, but the +doctor's strong arm held him down, while Alice, whose voice alone he +heeded, strove to quiet him. + +"I wouldn't go away to-day," she said soothingly. "Some other time will +do as well, and Rocket can wait." + +"Will you stay with me?" Hugh asked. + +"Yes, I'll stay," was Alice's reply. + +"I'm glad he's roused up," the doctor said, "though I don't like the way +his fever increases," and Alice knew by the expression of his face that +there was but little hope, determining not to leave him during the +night. + +Densie or Aunt Eunice might sleep on the lounge, she said, but the care, +the responsibility shall be hers. To this the doctor willingly acceded, +thinking that Hugh was safer with her than any one else. Exchanging the +white wrapper she had worn through the day for one more suitable, Alice, +after an hour's rest in her own room, returned to Hugh, who had missed +her sadly, and who knew the moment she came back to him, even though his +eyes were closed, and he seemed to be half asleep. + +"Mas'r Hugh won't die," and Muuggins' faith came to the rescue, throwing +a ray of hope into the darkness. "Miss Alice axed God to spar' him, and +so did I; now He will, won't He, miss?" and she turned to Adah, who, +with Sam, had just come up to Spring Bank, and hearing voices in the +kitchen had entered there first. "Say, Miss Adah, won't God cure Mas'r +Hugh--'ca'se I axed Him oncet?" + +"You must pray more than once, child; pray many, many times," was Adah's +reply; whereupon Mug looked aghast, for the idea of praying a second +time had never entered her brain. + +Still, if she must, why, she must, and she stole quietly from the +kitchen. But it was now too dark to go down in the woods by the running +brook, and remembering Alice had said that God was everywhere, she first +cast around her a timid glance, as if fearful she should see Him, and +then kneeling in the grass, wet with the heavy night dew, the little +negro girl prayed again for Master Hugh, starting as she prayed at the +sound which met her ear, and which came from the spot where Rocket still +was standing by the block, waiting for his master. + +Claib had offered him food and offered him drink, but both had been +refused, and opening the stable door so that he could go in whenever he +chose, Claib had left him there alone, solitary watcher of the night, +waiting for poor Hugh. + +Returning to the house, Mug stole upstairs to the door of the sickroom, +where Alice was now alone with Hugh. + +He was awake, and for an instant seemed to know her, for he attempted to +speak, but the rational words died on his lips, and he only moaned, as +if in distress. + +"What is it?" Alice said, bending over him. + +"Are you the Golden Haired?" he asked again, as her curls swept his +face. + +"Who is Golden Hair?" Alice asked, and instantly the great tears +gathered in Hugh's dark eyes as he replied: + +"Don't say who is she, but who was she. I've never told a living being +before. Golden Hair was a bright angel who crossed my path one day, and +then disappeared forever, leaving behind the sweetest memory a mortal +man ever possessed. She's dead, Chestnut Locks," and he twined one of +Alice's curls around his finger. "It's weak for men to cry, but I have +cried many a night for her, when the clouds were crying, too, and I +heard against my window the rain which I knew was falling upon her +little grave." + +He was growing rather excited, and thinking he had talked too much, +Alice was trying to quiet him, when the door opened softly and Adah +herself came in. Bowing politely to Alice she advanced to Hugh's +bedside, and bending over him spoke his name. He knew her, and turning +to Alice said: "This is Adah; you will like each other; you are much +alike." + +For an instant the two young girls gazed at each other as if trying to +account for the familiar look each saw in the other's face. Adah was the +first to remember, and when at last Hugh was asleep she unclasped from +her neck the slender chain she had worn so long, and passing the locket +to Alice, asked if she ever saw it before. + +"Yes, oh, yes, it's I, it's mine, though not a very natural one. I never +knew where I lost it. Where did you find it?" and opening the other side +Alice looked to see if the lock of hair was safe. + +Adah explained how it came into her possession, asking if Alice +remembered the circumstances. + +"Yes, and I thought of you so often, never dreaming that we should meet +here as we have. You were so sick then, and I pitied you so much. Your +husband was gone, you said. Was it long ere he came back?" + +"He never came back," and the great brown eyes filled with tears. + +"Never came? Do you think him dead?" + +"No, no! oh, no! He's--Oh, Miss Johnson, I'll tell you some time. Nobody +here knows but Hugh how I was deceived, but I'll tell you. I can trust +you," and Adah involuntarily laid her head in Alice's lap, sobbing +bitterly. + +In the hall without there was a shuffling step which Adah knew was +Sam's, and remembering the conversation once held with him concerning +that golden locket, whose original Sam was positive he had seen, Alice +waited curious for his entrance. With hobbling steps the old man came +in, scarcely noticing either of them, so intent was he upon the figure +lying so still and helpless before him. + +"Massah Hugh, my poor, dear Massah Hugh," he cried, bending over his +young master. "I wish 'twas Sam had all de pain an' all de aches you +feels. I'd b'ar it willingly, massah, I would. Dear massah, kin you hear +Sam talkin' to you?" + +Sam had turned away from Hugh, and with his usual politeness was about +making his obeisance to Alice, when the words, "Your servant, miss," +were changed into a howl of joy, and falling upon his knees, he clutched +at Alice's dress, exclaiming: + +"Now de Lord be praised, I'se found her again. I'se found Miss Ellis, I +has, an' I feels like singin' 'Glory Hallelujah.' Does ye know me, lady? +Does you 'member shaky ole darky, way down in Virginny? You teached him +de way, an' he's tried to walk dar ever sence. Say, does you know ole +Sam?" and the dim eyes looked eagerly into Alice's face. + +She did remember him, and for a moment seemed speechless with surprise, +then, stooping beside him, she took his shriveled hand and pressed it +between her own, asking how he came there, and if Hugh had always been +his master. + +"You 'splain, Miss Adah. You speaks de dictionary better than Sam," the +old man said, and thus appealed to, Adah told what she knew of Sam's +coming into Hugh's possession. + +"He buy me just for kindness, nothing else, for Sam ain't wo'th a dime, +but Massah Hugh so good. I prays for him every night, and I asks God to +bring you and him together. Miss Ellis will like Massah Hugh much, so +much, and Massah Hugh like Miss Ellis. Oh, I'se happy chile to-night. I +prays wid a big heart, 'case I sees Miss Ellis again," and in his great +joy Sam kissed the hem of Alice's dress, crouching at her feet and +regarding her with a look almost idolatrous. + +They watched together that night, attending Hugh so carefully that when +the morning broke and the physician came, he pronounced the symptoms so +much better that there was much hope, he said, if the faithful nursing +were continued. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +ALICE AND ADAH + + +At Alice's request, Adah and Sam stayed altogether at Spring Bank, but +Alice was the ruling power--Alice, the one whom Chloe and Claib +consulted; one concerning the farm, and the other concerning the +kitchen--Alice, to whom Aunt Eunice looked for counsel, and Densie for +comfort--Alice, who remembered all the doctor's directions, taking the +entire charge of Hugh's medicines herself--and Alice, who wrote to Mrs. +Worthington, apprising her of Hugh's serious illness. They hoped he was +not dangerous, she said, but he was very sick, and Mrs. Worthington +would do well to come at once. She did not mention 'Lina, but the idea +never crossed her mind that a sister could stay away from choice when a +brother was so ill; and it was with unfeigned surprise that she one +morning saw Mrs. Worthington and Lulu alighting at the gate, but no +'Lina with them. + +"She was so happy at Saratoga," Mrs. Worthington said, when a little +over the first flurry of her arrival. "So happy, too, with Mrs. Richards +that she could not tear herself away, unless her mother should find Hugh +positively dangerous, in which case she should, of course, come at +once." + +This was the mother's charitable explanation, made with a bitter sigh as +she recalled 'Lina's heartless anger when the letter was received, as if +Hugh were to blame, as, indeed, 'Lina seemed to think he was. + +Meantime Alice, in her own room, was reading 'Lina's note, containing a +most glowing description of the delightful time she was having at +Saratoga, and how hard it would be to leave. + +"I know dear Hugh is in good hands," she wrote, "and it is so pleasant +here that I really do want to stay a little longer. Pray write to me +just how Hugh is, and if I must come home. What a delightful lady that +Mrs. Richards is--not one bit stiff as I can see. I don't know what +people mean to call her proud. She has promised, if mamma will leave me +here, to be my chaperon, and it's possible we may visit New York +together, so as to be there when the prince arrives. Won't that be +grand? She talks so much of you that sometimes I'm really jealous. +Perhaps I may go to Terrace Hill before I return, but rather hope not, +it makes me fidgety to think of meeting the Misses Richards, though, of +course, I know I shall like them, particularly Anna. Oh, I most forgot! +Irving is here yet, and has a sister, Mrs. Ellsworth, with him now. She +is very elegant, and very much admired. Tell Adah I heard Mrs. Ellsworth +say she wished she could find some young person as governess for her +little girl, and kind of companion for her. I did not speak of Adah, but +I thought of her, knowing she desired some such situation. She might +write to Mrs. Ellsworth here, but I'd rather she should not refer to me +as having known her. You see Mrs. Ellsworth would directly inquire about +her antecedents, and to a stranger it would not sound well that she came +to us one stormy night with that child, whose father we know nothing +about, and if I told the truth, as I always try to do, I should have to +tell this. So it will be better for Adah not to know us, even if she +should come to Mrs. Ellsworth. You will understand me, I am sure, and +believe that I am actuated by the kindest of motives. She can direct to +Mrs. Julia Ellsworth, Union Hall, Saratoga Springs. By the way, tell +mother not to forget that dress. She'll know what you mean. + +"Mr. Stanley seemed quite blue after you went away. I should not be +surprised to hear of his being at Spring Bank some day. Isn't it funny +that you had to go right there? Perhaps it's as well for you that Hugh +is sick. You will got a better impression. _Au revoir_." + +Not a word was there in this letter of the doctor, but Alice understood +it all the same. He was the attraction which kept the selfish girl from +her brother's side. "May she be happy with him, if, indeed, he has a +right to win her," was Alice's mental comment, shuddering as she +recalled the time when she was pleased with the handsome doctor, and +silently thanking God, who had saved her from much sorrow. Hearing Mrs. +Worthington in the hall, and remembering what 'Lina said concerning the +dress, she stepped to the door and delivered the message, wondering that +Mrs. Worthington should seem so confounded, and stammer so, as she +turned to Adah, just coming up the stairs, and said: + +"Have you ever done anything with that old muslin 'Lina gave you?" + +"Never till to-day," Adah replied; "when it occurred to me that if this +hot weather lasted, I might find it comfortable, provided I could fix +it, so I sent Mug for it, and she is ripping the waist." + +Mrs. Worthington was not a good dissembler, and her next question was: + +"Did you find anything in the pocket?" + +"Yes, my letter, written weeks ago. Your daughter must have forgotten +it. I intrusted it to her care the day Miss Tiffton called." + +Adah was just thinking of speaking freely to Alice Johnson concerning +her future course, when Mrs. Worthington met her in the upper hall. + +"I'll go to her now," she said, as Mrs. Worthington left her, and +knocking timidly at Alice's door, she asked permission to enter. + +"Oh, certainly, I have something to tell you," Alice said, motioning her +to a chair, and sitting down beside her. "Miss Worthington sent me a +note in which she speaks of you." + +"Of me?" and Adah colored slightly. "I did not know she ever thought of +me. Why did she not come with her mother?" + +"She is enjoying herself so much is the reason she gives, though I fancy +there is another more powerful one. Perhaps the note will enlighten +you," and Alice passed it to Adah, not so much to show her how heartless +'Lina was, as to see if in what she had said of the Richards family +there was not something which Adah would recognize. + +That look in Willie's face had almost grown to a certainty with Alice, +who saw Anna, or Asenath, or Eudora, and sometimes John himself in every +move of the little fellow. Silently Adah read the note, her paled cheeks +turning scarlet at what 'Lina had said of herself and Mrs. Ellsworth. +The Richards family were nothing to her. She only seized upon and +treasured up the words "with a child about whose father we know +nothing." Slowly the tears gathered in her eyes and finally fell in +torrents as Alice asked: + +"What made her cry?" + +"Oh, Miss Johnson," and Adah hid her face in Alice's lap, "I'm thinking +of George--of Willie's father. Will he never come back, or the world +know that I thought I was a lawful wife? Yes, and I sometimes believe so +now, or I should surely go wild, Miss Johnson," and Adah lifted up her +head, disclosing a face which Alice scarcely recognized, for the strange +expression there. "Miss Johnson, if I knew that George deliberately +planned my ruin under the guise of a mock marriage, and then when it +suited him deserted me as a toy of which he was tired, I should hate +him!--hate him!" + +"I frighten you, Miss Johnson," she said, as she saw how Alice shrank +away from the dark eyes in which there was a fierce, resentful gleam, +unlike sweet Adah Hastings. "I used to frighten myself when I saw in my +eyes the demon which whispered suicide." + +"Oh, Adah," said Alice, "you could not have dreamed that!" + +"I did," and Adah spoke sadly now. "It was kind in God to save me, and +I've tried to love Him better since; but there's something savage in my +nature, something I must have inherited from one of my parents, and +sometimes my heart, which at first was full of love for George, goes out +against him for his base treachery." + +"And yet you love him still?" Alice said, as she smoothed the beautiful +brown hair. + +"I suppose I do. A kind word from him would bring me back, but will it +ever be spoken? Shall we ever meet again?" + +"Where did he go?" Alice asked. + +"He went to Europe, so he said." + +There was a voluntary shudder as Alice recalled the time when Dr. +Richards came home from Europe, and she had been flattered with his +attentions. + +"I may be unjust to him," she thought, then to Adah she said: "As you +have told me your story in part, will you tell me the whole?" + +There was no vindictiveness now in Adah's face, nothing save a calm, +gentle expression such as it was used to wear, and the soft brown eyes +drooped mournfully beneath the heavy lashes as she told the story of her +wrongs. + +"And Hugh?" Alice said. "Why did you come to him? Had you known him +before?" + +"Hugh was the other witness, bribed by my guardian to lend himself a +party to the deception! I never saw him till that night; neither, I +think, did George. My guardian planned the whole." + +"Hugh Worthington is not the man I took him for," and Alice spoke +bitterly. + +"You mistake him," she cried eagerly. "My guardian, Mr. Monroe, was +pleased with the young Kentuckian, and led him easily. He coaxed him to +drink a glass of wine, which Hugh says must have been drugged, for it +took away his power to act as he would otherwise have done, and when in +this condition he consented to whatever Mr. Monroe proposed, keeping +silent while the horrid farce went on. But he has repented so bitterly, +and been so kind to me and Willie." + +"And your guardian," interrupted Alice, "is it not strange that he +should have acted so cruel a part?" + +"Yes, that's the strangest part of all, and he was so kind to me. I +cannot understand it, or where he is, though I've sometimes imagined he +must be dead; or in prison," and Adah thought of what Sam had said +concerning Sullivan, the negro-stealer. + +"What do you mean; why should he be in prison?" Alice asked, and Adah +replied by telling her what Sam had said, and the reason she had for +thinking Sullivan and her guardian, Monroe, one and the same. + +"I too am marked," and with a quick, nervous motion, she touched the +spot where the blue lines were faintly visible. "I know not how I came +by it, but it annoys me terribly. Mr. Monroe knew how I felt about it, +and the day before that marriage he said to me: 'It will disappear with +your children. They will not be marked,' and Willie isn't." + +Just then Willie's voice was heard in the hall, and Alice admitted him +into the room. She kissed his rosy cheek, and said to Adah: "Do you know +I think he looks like Hugh." + +"Yes," and Adah spoke sadly. "I know he does, and I am sorry for Hugh's +sake, as it must annoy him. Neither can I account for it, for I am +certainly nothing to Hugh. But there's another look in Willie's face, +his father's. Oh, Miss Johnson, George was handsome." + +"Can you describe him, or will it be too painful?" Alice asked, and Adah +told how George Hastings looked, while Alice's handy worked nervously +together, for Adah was describing Dr. Richards. + +"And you've never seen him since, nor guessed where his proud mother +lived?" + +"Never, and when only the wrong is remembered, I think I never care to +see or hear from him again. But the noble, self-denying Hugh! I would +almost die for him; I ask God every day to bring him some good fortune +at last. He will, I know He will, and Hugh shall yet--" + +She stopped short, struck with an idea which had never before entered +her mind. Hugh and Alice! Oh, if that could be. + +"Why do you look at me?" Alice asked, as Adah sat drinking in the +dazzling beauty which she wished might one day shine for Hugh. + +"I am thinking how beautiful you are, and wondering if you ever loved +any one; did you?" + +"Not like you," Alice answered frankly. "When a little girl of thirteen +I owed my life to a youth with many characteristics like Hugh +Worthington. I liked him, and wanted so much to find him, but could not. +Then I grew to womanhood, and another crossed my path, well skilled in +finding every avenue to a maiden's heart. I did not love him. I am glad +that I did not, for he was unworthy of my love; but I fancied him a +while, and my heart did ache a little when mother on her deathbed talked +to me against him. It was my money he wanted most, and when he thought I +had none, he left me, saying as I heard, that I 'was a nice-ish kind of +girl, rather good-looking, but too blue for him.'" + +"And the other, the boy like Hugh, have you met him again?" Adah asked, +feeling a little disappointed, when Alice replied: + +"Once, I am very sure." + +Alice heard the faint sigh, and hope died out for Hugh. Poor Hugh! Alice +was thinking of him, too, and said at last: "Was Rocket sold to Colonel +Tiffton for debt?" + +"Yes, for 'Lina's debts, contracted at Harney's. I've heard of his +boasting that Hugh should yet be compelled to see him galloping down the +pike upon his idol." + +"He never shall!" and Alice spoke under her breath, asking further +questions concerning the sale of Colonel Tiffton's house, and now much +Mosside was worth. + +Adah did not know. She was only posted with regard to Rocket, who was +pawned for five hundred dollars. "Once I insanely hoped that I might +help redeem him--that God would find a work for me to do--and my heart +was so happy for a moment." + +"What did you think of doing?" Alice asked, glancing at the delicate +young girl, who looked so unaccustomed to toil of any kind. + +"I thought to be a governess or waiting maid," and Adah's lip began to +quiver. Then she told how her letter had been carelessly forgotten. + +"Do you remember the address?" and Alice waited curiously for the +answer. + +"Yes, 'A.E.R. Snowdon.' You came from Snowdon Miss Johnson, and I've +wanted so much to ask if you knew 'A.E.R.,' but have never dared talk +freely with you till to-day." + +Alice was confounded. Surely the leadings of Providence were too plainly +evident to be unnoticed. There was a reason why Adah Hastings must go to +Anna Richards, and Alice hastened to reply: "'A.E.R.' is no less a +person than Anna Richards whose mother and brother are now at Saratoga." + +"Oh, I can't go there. They are too proud. They would hate me for +Willie, and ask me for his father." + +Very gently Alice talked to her of Snowdon and Anna Richards, whom Adah +was sure to like. + +"I'm so glad for your sake that it has come around at last," she said. +"Will you write to her to-day, or shall I for you? Perhaps I had +better!" + +"Oh, no, I would rather go unannounced--rather Miss Anna should like me +for my self, if I go," and Adah's voice trembled, for she shrank +nervously from the thought of meeting the Richards family. + +If 'Lina liked the old lady, she certainly could not, and the very +thought of these elder sisters, in all their primness, dismayed and +disheartened her. + +While this was passing through her mind, she sat twining Willie's silken +curls around her finger, and apparently listening to what Alice was now +saying of Dr. Richards; but Alice might as well have talked to the winds +for any impression she made. Adah was looking far into the future, +wondering what it had in store for her, as if in Anna Richards she would +indeed find the sympathizing friend which Alice said she would. +Gradually, as she thought of Anna, her heart went out strangely toward +her. + +"I will go to Miss Richards," she said at last; "but I cannot go till +Hugh is better, till he knows and approves. I must take his blessing +with me. Do you think it will be long before he regains his reason?" + +Alice could not tell. + +"Do you correspond with Miss Richards?" Adah suddenly asked. + +"No. I will send a note of introduction by you, though." + +"Please don't," and Adah spoke pleadingly. "I should have to give it if +you did, and I'd rather go by myself. I know it would be better to have +your influence, but it is a fancy of mine not to say that I ever knew +you or any one at Spring Bank." + +Now it was settled that Adah should go, she felt a restless, impatient +desire to be gone, questioning the doctor closely with regard to Hugh, +who, it seemed to her, would never awaken from the state of +unconsciousness into which he had fallen, and from which he only rallied +for an instant, just long enough to recognize his mother, but never +Alice or herself, both of whom watched over him day and night. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +WAKING TO CONSCIOUSNESS + + +The sultry August glided by, and in the warm, still days of late +September Hugh awoke from the sleep which had so long hung over him. +Raising himself upon his elbow, he glanced around the room. There were +the table, the stand, the mirror, the curtains, the vases, and the +flowers, but what--did he see aright, or did his eyes deceive him? and +the perspiration stood thickly about his mouth, as in the bouquet, that +morning arranged, he recognized the gay flowers of autumn, not such as +he had gathered for Alice, delicate summer flowers, but rich and +gorgeous with a later bloom. + +"I must have been sick," he whispered, and pressing his hand to his +still throbbing head, he tried to reveal and form into some definite +shape the events which had seemed, and which seemed to him still, like +so many phantoms of the brain. + +Was it a dream--his mother's tears upon his face, his mother's voice +calling him her Hughey boy, his mother's sobs beside him? Was it, could +it be all a dream that she, the Golden Haired, had been with him +constantly? No that was not a dream. She did not hate him, else she had +not prayed, and words of thanksgiving were going up to Golden Hair's +God, when a footstep in the hall announced the approach of some one. +Alice, perhaps, and Hugh lay very still, with half-shut eyes, until +Muggins, instead of Alice, appeared. + +He was asleep, she said, as, standing on tiptoe, she scanned his face. +He was asleep, and in her own dialect Muggins talked to herself about +him as he lay there so still. + +"Nice Mas'r Hugh--pretty Mas'r Hugh!" and Mug's little black hand was +laid caressingly on the face she admired so much. "I mean to ask God +about him, just like I see Miss Alice do," she continued, and stealing +to the opposite side of the room, Muggins kneeled down, and with her +face turned toward Hugh, she said: "If God is hearin' me, will He please +do all dat Miss Alice ax him 'bout curin' Mas'r Hugh." + +This was too much for Hugh. The sight of that ignorant negro child, +kneeling by the window unmanned him entirely, and hiding his head +beneath the sheets, he sobbed aloud. With a nervous start, Mug arose +from her knees, and stood for an instant gazing in terror at the +trembling of the bedclothes. + +"I'll bet he's in a fit. I mean to screech for Miss Alice," and Muggins +was about darting away, when Hugh's long arm caught and held her fast. +"Oh, de gracious, Mas'r Hugh," she cried, "you skeers me so. Does you +know me, Mas'r Hugh?" and she took a step toward him. + +"Yes, I know you, and I want to talk a little. Where am I, Mug? What +room, I mean?" + +"Why, Miss Alice's, in course. She 'sisted, and 'sisted, till 'em brung +you in here, 'case she say it cool and nice. Oh, Miss Alice so fine." + +"In Miss Johnson's room," and Hugh looked perfectly bewildered. In the +room he had taken so much pains to have in order; it could not be; and +he passed his hand up and down the comfortable mattress, striking it +once with his fist, to see if it would sink in, and then, in a perplexed +whisper, he asked: "This is her room, you say; but, Mug, where are the +two feather beds?" + +In a most aggrieved tone, Mug explained how Miss Adah and Aunt Eunice +had spoiled their handiwork, but could not talk long of anything without +bringing in Miss Alice. + +"Where does Miss Alice pray for me?" he asked, and Muggins replied: + +"Oh here, when she bese alone, and downstairs, and everywhere. You wants +to hear her?" + +Yes, Hugh did. + +"Mug," he said. "I am going to be crazy as a loon. I have not been +rational a bit, and you must not say I have. You must not say anything. +Do you understand?" + +Mug didn't at first, but after a little it came to her that "Mas'r Hugh +was goin' to play 'possum. That Miss Alice and all dem would think him +ravin' and only she would know the truth." It would be rare sport for +Mug, and after giving her promise, she waited anxiously for some one to +come. At last another footstep sounded in the hall. + +"That's her'n," Muggins whispered. "Is you crazy, Mas'r Hugh?" + +"Hush-sh!" came warningly from Hugh, who, the next moment had turned his +head away from the fading light, and with eyes closed, pretended to be +asleep. + +Softly, on tiptoe as it were, Alice approached the bedside, bending so +low to see if he were sleeping that he felt her fragrant breath, and a +most delicious thrill ran through his frame, when a little, soft, warm +hand was laid upon his brow, where the veins were throbbing wildly--so +wildly that the unsuspecting maiden wet the linen napkin used for such a +purpose, and bathed the feverish skin, pushing back, with a +half-caressing motion, the rings of damp, brown hair, and still the +wicked Hugh never moved, nor winked, nor gave the slightest token of the +ecstatic bliss he was enjoying. + +"What a consummate hypocrite I am, to lie here and let her do what +money could not tempt her to do, if she knew that I was conscious, but +hanged if I don't like it," was Hugh's mental comment, while Alice's +was: "Poor Hugh, the doctor said he would probably be better when he +waked from this sleep, better or worse. Oh, what if he should die, and +leave no sign of repentance," and by the rustling movement, Hugh knew +that Alice Johnson was kneeling at his side, and with his hot hands in +hers was praying for him, that he might not die. + +"Spare him for his mother, he is her only boy," he heard her say, and on +the pillow, where his face was lying, the great tear drops fell, as he +thought how unworthy he was that she should pray for him. + +He knew the pillow was wet, and shuddered when Alice attempted to fix +his head, turning it more to the light. She saw the tear stains, and +murmured to herself: "I did not think it was so warm." Then, sitting +down beside him, she fanned him gently, occasionally feeling for his +pulse to see if it were as rapid as ever. Once, as she touched his +wrist, his fingers closed involuntarily around her little hand and held +it a prisoner. He could not help it; the temptation was too strong to be +resisted, and then he reflected that a crazy man was not responsible for +his actions! As rational Hugh, he could never hope to touch that little +soft hand trembling in his like a frightened bird, so he would as crazy +Hugh improve his opportunity; and he did, holding fast the hand, and +when she attempted to draw it away, pressing it tighter and muttering: + +"No, no; mother, no." + +"He thinks I am you," Alice whispered, as Mrs. Worthington came in, and +Hugh's heart gave one great throb of filial love when his mother stooped +over him, and 'mid a shower of tears kissed his forehead and lips, +murmuring: + +"Darling boy, he'll never know how much his poor mother loved him, or +how her heart will break with missing him if he dies." + +It was with the utmost difficulty that Hugh could restrain himself then, +from assuring his mother that the crisis was passed and he was out of +danger. + +"I've gone too far now, the hypocrite that I am," he thought. "Alice +Johnson never would forgive me. I can't retract now, not yet; I'm in a +pretty fix." + +As the twilight gathered in the room he lay, listening while his mother +and Alice talked together, some times of him, sometimes of Colonel +Tiffton, whose embarrassments were now generally known, and again of +'Lina, who, he heard, had chosen to remain at Saratoga, where she was +enjoying herself so much with dear Mrs. Richards. + +It was Alice who sat up that night, and Hugh, as he lay watching her +with half-closed eyes, as in her loose plain wrapper, with her luxuriant +curls, coiled in a large square knot at the back of her head, she moved +noiselessly around the room, felt a pang of remorse at his own +duplicity, one moment resolving to give up the part he was playing and +bid her leave him alone, and seek the rest she needed. But the +temptation to keep her there was strong. He would be very quiet, he said +to himself, and he kept his word, remaining so still and apparently +sleeping so soundly, that Alice lay down upon the lounge on the opposite +side of the room, where she had lain many a night, but never as now, +with Hugh's eyes upon her, watching her so eagerly as she fell away to +sleep, her soft, regular, childlike breathing awaking a thrill in Hugh's +heart, and sending the blood in little, tingling throbs through every +vein. + +The drops and powders on the table remained undisturbed that night, for +the patient was too quiet, and the watcher was so tired, that the latter +never woke until the daylight was breaking, and Adah came to relieve +her. With a frightened start she arose, astonished to find it was +morning. + +"I wonder if he had suffered from my neglect?" she said, stealing up to +Hugh, who had schooled himself to meet her gaze with wide, open eyes, +which certainly had in them no delirium, and which puzzled Alice +somewhat, making her blush and turn away. + +The old doctor, too, was puzzled, when, later in the morning, he came +in, feeling his patient's pulse, examining his tongue, and pronouncing +him decidedly out of danger. The fever had left him, he said--the crisis +was past--Hugh was a heap better, and for his part he could not +understand why the mind should not also come clear, or what it was which +made his hitherto talkative subject so silent. He never had such a +case--he didn't believe his books had one on record; and the befogged +old man hurried home to see if, in all his musty volumes, unopened for +many a year, there was a parallel case to Hugh Worthington's. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +'LINA'S LETTER + + +Wicked Hugh! How he did enjoy it, for days seeing the family come in and +out, talking as freely of him as if he were a log of wood, and how +perfectly happy he was when, one morning Alice came in and sat by him, +placing her tiny gold thimble upon her delicate finger, and bending over +her bit of dainty embroidery, humming occasionally a sweet, mournful +air, which showed that her thoughts were wandering back to the cottage +by the river, where her mother lived and died. While she was sitting +there Mrs. Worthington joined her, and a moment after a letter was +brought in from 'Lina, containing on the corner, "In haste." + +Mrs. Worthington's eyesight had always been poor, and latterly it was +greatly impaired, making glasses indispensable. Unfortunately, she had +that very morning broken one of the eyes, and consequently could not use +them at all. + +"What is that?" she asked, pointing out the words, "In haste," to Alice, +who explained what it was, while Mrs. Worthington, fearing lest +something had befallen her daughter, could scarcely tear open the +envelope. Then, when it was open, she could not read it, for 'Lina's +writing was never very plain, and passing it to Alice, she said, +entreatingly: + +"Please read it for me. There is no secret, I presume." + +Glancing at Hugh, who had purposely turned his face to the wall, Alice +commenced as follows: + + "FIFTH AVENUE HOTEL, NEW YORK, + OCTOBER, 1860." + + "DEAR MOTHER: What a little eternity it is since I heard from you, + and how am I to know that you are not all dead and buried. Were it + not that no news is good news, I should sometimes fancy that Hugh + was worse, and feel terribly for not having gone home when you did. + + "Now, then, to business, and firstly, as Parson Brown, of Elm wood, + used to say, I want Hugh to send me some money, or all is lost. Tell + him he must either beg, borrow, pawn or steal, for the rhino I must + have. Let me explain. + + "Here I am at Fifth Avenue Hotel, as good as any lady, if my purse + is almost empty. Plague on it, why didn't that Mrs. Johnson send + me two thousand instead of one? It would not hurt her, and them I + should get through nicely." + +"Oh, I ought not to read this--I cannot," and Alice threw the letter +from her, and hurried from the room. + +"The way of the transgressor is hard," groaned Hugh, and the groan +caught the ear of his mother. + +"What is it, Hugh?" she asked, coming quickly to his side. "Are you +worse? Do you want anything?" + +"No, I'm better, I reckon--the cobwebs are gone. I am myself again. What +have you here?" and Hugh grasped the closely written sheet. + +In her delight at having her son restored to his reason so suddenly, so +unexpectedly, as the poor, deluded woman believed, Mrs. Worthington +forgot for a moment the pain, and clasped her arms about him, sobbing +like a child. + +"Oh, my boy, I am so glad, so glad!" and her tears dropped fast, as like +a weary child, which wanted to be soothed, she laid her head upon his +bosom, crying quietly. + +And Hugh, stronger now than she, held the poor, tired head there, and +kissed the white forehead, where there were more wrinkles now than when +he last observed it. His mother was growing old with care rather than +with years, and Hugh shuddered, as, for the first time in his life, he +thought how dreadful it would be to have no mother. Folding his weak +arms about her, mother and son wept together in that moment of perfect +understanding and union with each other. Hugh was the first to rally. It +seemed so pleasant to lean on him, to know that he cared so much for +her, that Mrs. Worthington would gladly have rested on his bosom longer, +but Hugh was anxious to know the worst, and brought her back to +something of the old, sad life, by asking if the letter were from 'Lina. + +"Yes; I can't make it out, for one of my glasses is broken, and you know +she writes so blind." + +"It never troubles me," and taking the letter from her unresisting hand, +Hugh asked that another pillow should be placed beneath his head, while +he read it aloud. + + "You see that thousand is almost gone, and as board is two and a + half dollars per day, I can't stay long and shop in Broadway with + old Mrs. Richards, as I am expected to do in my capacity of + heiress. I tell you, Spring Bank, Kentucky--crazy old rat trap as + it is, has done wonders for me in the way of getting me noticed. If + I had any soul, big enough to find with a microscope, I believe I + should hate the North for cringing so to anything from Dixie. Let + the veriest vagabond in all the South, so ignorant that he can + scarcely spell baker correctly, to say nothing of biscuit, let him, + I say, come to any one of the New York hotels, and with something + of a swell write himself from Charleston, or any other Southern + city, and bless me, what deference is paid to my lord! + + "You see I am a pure Southern woman here; nobody but Mrs. Richards + knows that I was born, mercy knows where. But for you, she never + need have known it either, but you must tell that we had not always + lived in Kentucky. + + "But to do Mrs. Richards justice, she never alludes to my birth. + She takes it for granted that I moved, like Douglas, when I was + very young, and you ought to hear her introduce me to some of her + aristocratic friends. 'Mrs. So and So, Miss Worthington, from + Spring Bank, Kentucky,' then in an aside, which I am not supposed + to hear, she adds, 'A great heiress, of a very respectable family. + You may have heard of them.' Somehow, this always makes me + uncomfortable, as it brings up certain cogitations touching that + scamp you were silly enough to marry, thereby giving me to the + world, which my delectable brother no doubt thinks would have been + better off without me. How is Hugh? And how is that Hastings woman? + Are you both as much in love with her as ever? Well, so be it. I do + not know as she ever harmed me, and she did fit my dresses + beautifully. Even Mrs. Richards, who is a judge of such things, + says they display so much taste, attributing it, of course, to my + own directions. I am so glad now that I forgot to send her letter, + as I would not for the world have Adah in the Richards' family. It + would ruin my prospects for becoming Mrs. Dr. Richards sure, and + allow me to say they are not inconsiderable." + +"What does she mean? What letter? Who is Dr. Richards?" Hugh asked, his +face a purplish red, and contrasting strikingly with the one of ashen +hue still resting on his shoulder. + +Mrs. Worthington explained as well as she could, and Hugh went on: + + "Old Mrs. Richards would, of course, question Adah, and as Adah has + some foolish scruples about the truth, she would be very apt to let + the cat out of the bag. + + "We left Saratoga a week ago--old lady Richards wanted to go to + Terrace Hill a while and show me to Anna, who, it seems, is a kind + of family oracle. After counting the little gold eagles in my + purse, I said perhaps I'd go for a few days, though I dreaded it + terribly, for the doctor had not yet bound himself fast, and I did + not know what the result of those three old maid sisters, sitting + on me, would be. Old lady was quite happy in prospect of going + home, when one day a letter came from Anna. I happened to have a + headache, and was lying on madam's bed, when the dinner bell + happened to ring. I just peeped into the letter, feeling like + stealing sheep, but being amply rewarded by the insight I obtained + into the family secrets. + + "They are poorer than I supposed, but that does not matter, + position is what I want, and that they can give me. Anna, it seems, + has an income of her own, and, generous soul that she is, gives it + out to her mother. She sent fifty dollars in the letter, and in + referring to it, said, 'Much as I might enjoy it, dear mother, I + cannot afford to come where you are, I can pay your bills for some + time longer, if you really think the water a benefit, but my + presence would just double the expense. Then, if brother does + marry, I wish to surprise him with a handsome set of pearls for his + bride, and I am economizing to do so.'" (Note by 'Lina)--"Isn't she + a clever old soul? Don't she deserve a better sister-in-law than I + shall make, and won't I find the way to her purse often?" + +Hugh groaned aloud, and the letter dropped from his hand. + +"Mother," he gasped, "it must not be. 'Lina shall not thrust herself +upon them. This Anna shall not be so cruelly deceived. I don't care a +picayune for the doctor or the old lady. They are much like 'Lina, I +reckon, but this Anna awakens my sympathy. I mean to warn her." + +Hugh read on, feeling as if he, too, were guilty, thus to know what +sweet Anna Richards had intended only for her mother's eye. + + "'From some words you have dropped, I fancy you are not quite + satisfied with brother's choice--that Miss Worthington does not + suit you in all respects, and you wish me to see her. Dear mother, + John marries for himself, not for us. I have got so I can drive + myself out in the little pony phaeton which Miss Johnson was so + kind as to leave for my benefit. Darling Alice, how much I miss + her. She always did me good in more ways than one. She found the + germ of faith which I did not know I possessed. She encouraged me + to go on. She told me of Him who will not break the bruised reed. + She left me, as I trust, a better woman than she found me. Precious + Alice! how I loved her. Oh, if she could have fancied John, as at + one time I hoped she would.' + + (Second note by 'Lina.) "How that made me gnash my teeth, for I had + suspected that I was only playing second fiddle for Alice Johnson, + 'darling, precious Alice,' as Anna calls her." + +"Oh, I am so glad Alice didn't read this letter," Mrs. Worthington +cried, while something which sounded much like a bit of an oath dropped +from Hugh's white lips, and then he continued: + + "'When will you come? Asenath has sent the curtains in the north + chamber to the laundress, but will go no farther until we hear for + certain that Miss Worthington is to be our guest. Write + immediately. + + "'Yours affectionately, + + "'ANNA. + + "'Remember me to John and Miss W----. + + "'P.S.--I still continue to be annoyed with women answering that + advertisement. Sometimes I'm half sorry I put it in the paper, + though if the right one ever comes, I shall think there was a + Providence in it.' + + "Mother, I am resolved now to win Dr. Richards at all hazards. Only + let me keep up the appearance of wealth, and the thing is easily + accomplished; but I can't go to Terrace Hill yet, cannot meet this + Anna, for, kindly as she spoke of me, I dread her decision more + than all the rest, inasmuch as I know it would have more weight + with the doctor. + + "But to come back to the madam, showing her point-lace cap at + dinner, and telling Mrs. ex-Governor Somebody how Miss Worthington + had a severe headache. I was fast asleep when she returned. Had not + read Anna's letter, nor anything! You should have seen her face + when I told her I had changed my mind, that I could not go to + Terrace Hill, that mamma (that's you!) did not think it would be + proper, inasmuch as I had no claim upon them. You see, I made her + believe I had written to you on the subject, receiving a reply that + you disapproved of my going, and Brother Hugh, too, I quote him a + heap, making madam laugh till she cried with repeating his odd + speeches, she does so want to see that eccentric Hugh, she says." + +Another groan from Mrs. Worthington, another something like an oath from +that eccentric Hugh, and he went on: + + "I said, brother was afraid it was improper under the circumstances + for me to go, afraid lest people should talk; that I preferred + going at once to New York. So it was finally decided, to the + doctor's relief, I fancied, that we come here, and here we + are--hotel just like a beehive, and my room is in the fifth story. + + "John had come on the day before to secure rooms, so madam and I + were alone, occupying two whole seats, madam and myself on one, + madam's feet, two satchels, two silk umbrellas, one fan, one + bouquet, and a book in the other. Several tired-looking folks + glanced wistfully in that direction, but madam frowned so + majestically that they passed on into another car, leaving us to + our extra seat. At Rhinebeck, however, she found her match in a + very fine-looking man, apparently forty or thereabouts, with a weed + on his hat and a certain air, which savored strongly of psalms and + hymns and extempore praying. In short, I guessed at once that he + was a Presbyterian minister, old school at that. Now, madam, you + know, is true blue--apostolically descended, and cannot tolerate + anything like a dissenter. But I do not give her credit for having + sufficient sagacity to detect the heretic in this handsome, + pleasant-faced stranger, who stood looking this way and that for a + seat. Madam, I saw, grew very red in the face, and finally threw + down her veil, but not till the minister saw it, and half started + forward as if about to speak. The movement showed him one extra + seat, and very politely he laid his hand upon it, saying: + + "'Pardon me, ladies, this, I believe, is unoccupied, and I can find + no other.' + + "Madam's feet came down with a jerk, ditto madam's portion of the + traps, although the stranger insisted that they did not trouble + him, while again his mild but expressive eyes scanned the brown + veil as if he would know whose face was under it. When we reached + New York, he bowed to us again, as if to offer us assistance, but + the doctor himself appeared, so that his services were unnecessary. + + "'Did you see him?' madam whispered to John, who answered: + + "'See who?' + + "'Millbrook! He sat right there!' + + "'What, the parson? Where is he going?' + + "'I don't know. I'm so glad Anna was not here.' + + "All this was in an aside, but I heard it, and here are the + conclusions. Parson Millbrook has been and wants to be again a + lover of Anna Richards, but madam has shut up her bowels of + compassion against him for some reason to this deponent unknown. + Poor Anna, I am sorry for her, and as her sister, may perhaps help + her; but shall I ever be her sister? Ay, there's the rub, and now, + honor bright, I reach the point at last. + + "I am determined to bring the doctor to terms, and so rid you and + Hugh of myself. To do this I must at some rate keep up the + appearance of wealth. Perhaps Hugh never knew that Nell Tiffton + lent me that elegant pearl bracelet, bought by her father at Ball & + Black's. Night before last the doctor took me to hear Charlotte + Cushman as _Meg Merrilies_. I wore all the jewelery for which I + could find a place, Nell's bracelet with the rest. The doctor and + madam have both admired it very much, never dreaming that it was + borrowed. In the jam coming out it must have unclasped and dropped + off, for it's not to be found high nor low, and you can fancy the + muss I am in. Down at Ball & Black's there fortunately is another + exactly like Nell's, and this I must buy at any rate. I can perhaps + pay my board bills four or five weeks longer, but Hugh must send me + fifty dollars with which to replace the bracelet. It must be done. + + "Don't for mercy's sake, let Alice Johnson get a sight of this + letter. I wonder if Dr. Richards did fancy her. Send the money, + send the money. + + "Your distracted + + "'LINA. + + "P.S.--One day later. Rejoice, oh, rejoice! and give ear. The + doctor has actually asked the question, and I blushingly referred + him to mamma, but he seemed to think this unnecessary, took alarm + at once, and pressed the matter until I said yea. Aren't you glad? + But one thing is sure--Hugh must sell a nigger to get me a handsome + outfit. There's Mug, always under foot, doing no one any good. + She'll bring six hundred any day, she's so bright and healthy. Lulu + he must give out and out for a waiting maid. Madam expects it. And + now one word more; if Adah Hastings has not got over her idea of + going to Terrace Hill, she must get over it. Coax, advise, plead + with, threaten, or even throttle her, if necessary--anything to + keep her back. + + "Yours, in ecstatic distress, + + "'LINA" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +FORESHADOWINGS + + +So absorbed were Hugh and his mother in that letter as not to hear the +howl of fear echoing through the hall, as Mug fled in terror from the +dreaded new owner to whom Master Hugh was to sell her. Neither did they +hear the catlike tread with which Lulu glided past the door, taking the +same direction Mug had gone, namely, to Alice Johnson's room. + +Lulu had been sitting by the open window at the end of the hall, and had +heard every word of this letter, while Mug had reached the threshold in +time to hear all that was said about selling her. Instinctively both +turned for protection to Alice, but Mug was the first to reach her. +Throwing herself upon her knees, she sobbed frantically. + +"You buys me, Miss Alice. You give Mar's Hugh six hundred dollars for +me, so't he can get Miss 'Lina's weddin' finery. I'll be good, I will. +I'll learn do Lord's Prar, an' de Possums Creed, ebery word on't; will +you, Miss Alice, say?" + +Alice tried to wrest her muslin dress from the child's grasp, asking +what she meant. + +"I know, I'll tell," and Lulu, scarcely less excited, but far more +capable of restraining herself, advanced into the room, and ere the +bewildered Alice could well understand what it all meant, or make more +than a feeble attempt to stop her, she had repeated rapidly the entire +contents of 'Lina's letter. + +Too much amazed at first to speak, Alice sat motionless, then she said +to Lulu. + +"I am sorry that you told me this. It was wrong in you to listen, and +you must not repeat it to any one else. Will you promise?" + +Lulu gave the required promise, then with terror in every lineament of +her face she said: + +"But, Miss Alice, must I be Miss 'Lina's waiting maid? Will Master Hugh +permit it?" + +Alice did not know Hugh as well as we do, and in her heart there was a +fear lest for the sake of peace he might be overruled, so she replied +evasively. It was no easy task to sooth Muggins, and only Alice's direct +avowal, that if possible she would herself become her purchaser, checked +her cries at all, but the moment this was said her sobbing ceased, and +Alice was able to question Lulu as to whether Hugh had read the letter. + +"He must be rational," she said, "but it is so sudden," and a painful +uneasiness crept over her as she recalled the look which several times +had puzzled her so much. + +"You can go now," Alice said, sitting down to reflect as to her next +best course. + +Adah must go to Terrace Hill at once, and Alice's must be the purse +which defrayed all the expense of fitting her up. If ever Alice felt +thankful to God for having made her rich in this world's goods, it was +that morning. Only the previous night she had heard from Colonel Tiffton +that the day was fixed for the sale of his house and that Nell had +nearly cried herself into a second fever at the thoughts of leaving +Mosside. "Then there's Rocket," the colonel had said, "Hugh cannot buy +him back, and he's so bound up in him too, poor Hugh, poor all of us," +and the colonel had wrung Alice's hand, hurrying off ere she had time to +suggest what all along had been in her mind. + +"It does not matter," she thought. "A surprise will be quite as +pleasant, and then Mr. Liston may object to it as a silly girl's fancy." + +This was the previous night, and now this morning another demand had +come in the shape of Muggins weeping in her lap, of Lulu begging to be +saved from 'Lina Worthington, and from 'Lina herself asking Hugh for the +money Alice knew he had not got. + +"But I have," she whispered, "and I will send it too." + +Just then Adah came up the stairs, and Alice called her in, asking if +she still wished to go to Terrace Hill. + +"Yes, more than ever," Adah replied. "Hugh is rational, I hear, so I can +talk to him about it before long. You must be present, as I'm sure he +will oppose it." + +Meantime in the sickroom there was an anxious consultation between +mother and son touching the fifty dollars which must be raised for +Nellie Tiffton's sake. + +"Were it not that I feel bound by honor to pay that debt, 'Lina might +die before I'd send her a cent," said Hugh, his eyes blazing with anger +as he recalled the contents of 'Lina's letter. + +But how should they raise the fifty? Alice's bills had been paid +regularly thus far, paid so delicately too, so as a matter of right, +that Mrs. Worthington, who knew how sadly it was needed in their present +distress, had accepted it unhesitatingly, but Hugh's face flushed with a +glow of shame when he heard from his mother's lips that Alice was really +paying them her board. + +"It makes me hate myself," he said, groaning aloud, "that I should +suffer a girl like her to pay for the bread she eats. Oh, poverty, +poverty! It is a bitter drug to swallow." Then like a brave man who saw +the evil and was willing to face it, Hugh came back to the original +point, "Where should they get the money?" + +"He might borrow it of Alice, as 'Lina suggested," Mrs. Worthington +said, timidly, while Hugh almost leaped upon the floor. + +"Never, mother, never! Miss Johnson shall not be made to pay our debts. +There's Uncle John's gold watch, left as a kind of heirloom, and very +dear on that account. I've carried it long, but now it must go. There's +a pawnbroker's office opened in Frankfort--take it there this very +afternoon, and get for it what you can. I never shall redeem it. There's +no hope. It was in my vest pocket when I was taken sick." + +"No, Hugh, not that. I know how much you prize it, and it's all the +valuable thing you have. I'll take in washing first," Mrs. Worthington +said. + +But Hugh was in earnest, and his mother brought the watch from the nail +over the mantel, where, all through his sickness it had ticked away the +weary hours, just as it ticked the night its first owner died, with only +Hugh sitting near, and listening as it told the fleeting moments. + +"If I could only ask Alice what it was worth," she thought--and why +couldn't she? Yes, she would ask Alice, and with the old hope strong at +her heart, she went to Alice, whom she found alone. + +"Did you wish to tell me anything? Hugh is better, I hear," Alice said, +observing Mrs. Worthington's agitation, and then the whole came out. + +"'Lina must have fifty dollars. The necessity was imperative, and they +had not fifty to send unless Hugh sold his uncle's watch, but she did +not know what it was worth--could Alice tell her?" + +"Worth more than you will get," Alice said, and then, as delicately as +possible she offered the money from her own purse, advancing so many +reasons why they should take it, that poor Mrs. Worthington began to +feel that in accepting it, she would do Alice a favor. + +"She was willing," she stammered, "but there was Hugh--what could they +do with him?" + +"I'll manage that," Alice said, laughingly. "I'll engage that he eats +neither of us up. Suppose you write to 'Lina now, saying that Hugh is +better, and inclosing the money. I have some New York money still," and +she counted out, not fifty, but seventy-five dollars, thinking within +herself, "she may need it more than I do." + +Easily swayed, Mrs. Worthington took the pen which Alice offered, but +quickly put it from her, saying, with a little rational indignation, as +she remembered 'Lina's heartlessness: + +"I won't write her a word. She don't deserve it. Inclose the amount, and +direct it, please." + +Placing the money in an envelope, Alice directed it as she was bidden, +without one word of Hugh, and without the slightest congratulation +concerning the engagement; nothing but the money, which was to replace +Ellen Tiffton's bracelet. + +Claib was deputed as messenger to take it to the office, together with a +hastily-written note to Mr. Liston, and then Alice sat down to consider +the best means of breaking it to Hugh. Would he prove as gentle as when +delirium was upon him; or would he be greatly changed? And what would he +think of her? Alice would not have confessed it, but this really was the +most important query of all. + +Alice was not well pleased with her looks that morning. She was too +pale, too languid, and the black dress she wore only increased the +difficulty by adding to the marble hue of her complexion. Even her hair +did not curl as well as usual, though Mug, who had dried her tears and +come back to Alice's room, admired her so much, likening her to the +apple blossoms which grew in the lower orchard. + +"Is you gwine to Mas'r Hugh?" she asked, as Alice passed out into the +hall. "I'se jest been dar. He's peart as a new dollar--knows everybody. +How long sense, you 'spec'?" and Mug looked very wise, as she thus +skirted around what she was forbidden to divulge on pain of Hugh's +displeasure. + +But Alice had no suspicions, and bidding Mug go down, she entered Hugh's +presence with a feeling that it was to all intents and purposes their +first meeting with each other. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +TALKING WITH HUGH + + +"This is Miss Johnson," Mrs. Worthington said, as Alice drew near, her +pallor giving place to a bright flush. + +"I fancy I am to a certain degree indebted to Miss Johnson for my life," +Hugh said. "I was not wholly unconscious of your presence," he +continued, still holding her hand. "There were moments when I had a +vague idea of somebody different from those I have always known bending +over me, and I fancied, too, that this somebody was sent to save me from +some great evil. I am glad you were here, Miss Johnson; I shall not +forget your kindness." + +He dropped her hand then, while Alice attempted to stammer out some +reply. + +"Adah, too, had been kind," she said, "quite as kind as herself." + +"Yes, Hugh knew that Adah was a dear, good girl. He was glad they liked +each other." + +Alice thought of Terrace Hill, but this was hardly the time to worry +Hugh with that, so she sat silent a while, until Mrs. Worthington, +growing very fidgety and very anxious to have the money matter adjusted, +said abruptly: + +"You must not be angry, Hugh. I asked Alice what that watch was worth, +and somehow the story of the lost bracelet came out, and--and--she--Alice +would not let me sell the watch. Don't look so black, Hugh, don't--oh, +Miss Johnson, you must pacify him," and in terror poor Mrs. Worthington +fled from the room, leaving Alice and Hugh alone. + +"My mother told you of our difficulties! Has she no discretion, no +sense?" and Hugh's face grew dark with the wrath he dared not manifest +with Alice's eyes upon him. + +"Mr. Worthington," she said, "you have thanked me for caring for you +when you were sick. You have expressed a wish to return in some way +what you were pleased to call a kindness. There is a way, a favor you +can grant me, a favor we women prize so highly; will you grant it? Will +you let me do as I please? that's the favor." + +She looked a very queen born to be obeyed as she talked thus to Hugh. +She did not make him feel small or mean, only submissive, while her +kindness touched a tender chord, which could not vibrate unseen. Hugh +was very weak, very nervous, too, and turning his head away so that she +could not see his face, he let the hot tears drop upon his pillow; +slowly at first they came, but gradually as everything--his embarrassed +condition, Rocket's loss, 'Lina's selfishness, and Alice's generosity, +came rushing over him--they fell in perfect torrents, and Alice felt a +keen pang of pity, as sob after sob smote upon her ear, and she knew the +shame it must be to him thus to give away before her. + +"I did not mean to distress you so. I am sorry if I have done a wrong," +she said to him softly, a sound of tears in her own voice. + +He turned his white, suffering face toward her, and answered with +quivering lip: + +"It is not so much that. It is everything combined. I am weak, I'm sick, +I'm discouraged," and Hugh could not restrain the tears. Soon rallying, +however, he continued: + +"You think me a snivelling coward, no doubt, but believe me, Miss +Johnson, it is not my nature thus to give way. Tears and Hugh +Worthington are usually strangers to each other. I am a man, and I will +prove it to you, when I get well, but now I am not myself, and I grant +the favor you ask, simply because I can't help it. You meant it in +kindness. I take it as such. I thank you, but it must not be repeated. +You have come to be my friend, my sister, you say. God bless you for +that. I need a sister's love so much, and Adah has given it to me. You +like Adah?" and he fixed his eyes inquiringly on Alice, who answered: + +"Yes, very much." + +Now that the money matter was settled Hugh did not care to talk longer +of that or of himself, and eagerly seized upon Adah as a topic +interesting to both, and which would be likely to keep Alice with him +for a while at least, so, after a moment's silence, during which Alice +was revolving the expediency of leaving him lest he should become too +weary, he continued: + +"Miss Johnson, you don't know how much I love Adah Hastings; not as men +generally love," he hastily added, as he caught an expression of +surprise on Alice's face, "not as that villain professed to love her, +but, as it seems to me, a brother might love an only sister. I mean no +disrespect to 'Lina," and his chin quivered a little, "but I have +dreamed of a different, brotherly love from what I feel toward her, and +my heart has beaten so fast when I built castles of what might have been +had we both been different, I, more forbearing, more even tempered, more +like the world in general, and she, more--more"--he knew not what, for +he would not speak against her, so he finally added, "had she known, +just how to take me--just how to make allowances for my rough, uncouth +ways, which, of course, annoy her." + +Poor Hugh! he was trying now to smooth over what 'Lina had told Alice of +himself--trying to apologize for them both, and he did it so skillfully, +that Alice felt an increased respect for the man whose real character +she had so misunderstood. She, knew, however, that it could not be +pleasant for him to speak of 'Lina, and so she led him back to Adah by +saying: + +"I had thought to talk with you of a plan which Mrs. Hastings has in +view, but think, perhaps, I had better wait till you are stronger." + +"I am strong enough now--stronger than you think. Tell me of the plan," +and Hugh urged the request until Alice told him of Terrace Hill and +Adah's wish to go there. + +"I have heard something of this plan before," he said at last. "Ad spoke +of it in her letter. Miss Johnson, you know Dr. Richards, I believe. Do +you like him? Is he a man to be trusted?" + +"Yes, I know Dr. Richards. He is said to be fine looking. I suspect +there is a liking between him and your sister. Suppose for your benefit +I describe him," and without waiting for permission, Alice portrayed the +doctor, feature by feature, watching Hugh narrowly the while, to see if +aught she said harmonized with any likeness he might have in his mind. + +But Hugh was not thinking of that night which ruined Adah, and Alice's +description awakened no suspicion. She saw it did not, and thought once +to tell him frankly all she feared, but was deterred from doing so by a +feeling that possibly she might be wrong in her conjectures. Adah's +presence at Terrace Hill would set that matter right, and she asked if +Hugh did not think it best for her to go. + +Hugh could only talk in a straightforward manner, and after a moment he +answered: + +"Yes, best on some accounts. Her going may do good and prevent a wrong. +Yes, Adah may go." + +He continued: "she surely cannot go alone. Would Sam do? I hear her now. +Call her while I talk with her." + +Adah came at once, and heard from Hugh that he was willing she should +go, provided Spring Bank were still considered her home, the spot to +which she could always turn for shelter as to a brother's house. + +"You seem so like a sister," he said, smoothing her soft brown hair, +"that I shall be sorry to lose you, and shall miss you so much, but Miss +Johnson thinks it right for you to go. Will you take Sam as an escort?" + +"Oh, no, no; I don't want anybody," Adah cried, "Keep Sam with you, and +if in time I should earn enough to buy him, to free him. Oh, will you +sell him to me,--not to keep," she added, quickly, as she saw the +quizzical expression of Hugh's face,--"not to keep. I would not own a +slave--but to free, to tell him he's his own master. Will you, Hugh?" + +He answered with a smile: + +"I thought once as you do, that I would not own my brother, but we get +hardened to these things. I've never sold one yet." + +"But you will. You'll sell me Sam," and Adah, in her eagerness, grasped +his hand. + +"I'll give him to you," Hugh said. "Call him, Miss Johnson." + +Alice obeyed, and Sam came hobbling in, listening in amazement to Hugh's +question. + +"Would you like to be free, my boy?" + +There was a sudden flush on the old man's cheek, and then he answered, +meekly: + +"Thanky', Mas'r Hugh. It comed a'most too late. Years ago, when Sam was +young and peart, de berry smell of freedom make de sap bump through de +veins like trip-hammer. Den, world all before, now world all behind. +Nothing but t'other side of Jordan before. 'Bleeged to you, berry much, +but when mas'r bought ole Sam for pity, ole Sam feel in his bones that +some time he pay Mas'r Hugh; he don't know how, but it be's comin'. Sam +knows it. I'm best off here." + +"But suppose I died, when I was so sick, what then?" Hugh asked, and Sam +replied: + +"I thinks that all over on dem days mas'r so rarin'. I prays many times +that God would spar' young mas'r, and He hears ole Sam. He gives us back +our mas'r." + +There were tears in Hugh's eyes, but he again urged upon him his +freedom, offering to give him either to Adah or Alice, just which he +preferred. + +"I likes 'em both," Sam said, "but I likes Mas'r Hugh de best, 'case, +scuse me, mas'r, he ain't in de way, I feared, and Sam hope to help him +find it. Sam long's to Mas'r Hugh till dat day comes he sees ahead, when +he pays off de debt." + +With another blessing on Mas'r Hugh Sam left the room. + +"What can he mean about a coming day when he can pay his debt?" Hugh +asked, but Alice could not enlighten him. + +Adah, however, after hesitating a moment, replied: + +"During your illness you have lost the newspaper gossip to the effect +that if Lincoln is elected to the presidential chair, civil war is sure +to be the result. Now, what Sam means is this, that in case of a +rebellion or insurrection, which he fully expects, he will in some way +save your life, he don't know how, but he is sure." + +To Alice the word rebellion or insurrection had a dreadful sound, and +her cheek paled with fear, but the feeling quickly passed away, as, like +many other deluded ones she thought how impossible it was that our fair +republic should be compelled to lay her dishonored head low in the dust. + +It was settled finally that Adah should go as soon as the necessary +additions could be made to her own and Willie's wardrobe, and then Alice +adroitly led the conversation to Colonel Tiffton and his embarrassments. +What did Hugh think Mosside worth, and who would probably be most +anxious to secure it? There were livid spots on Hugh's face now, and a +strange gleam in his dark eyes as he answered between his teeth, +"Harney," groaning aloud as he remembered Rocket, and saw him in fancy +the property of his enemy. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE DAY OF THE SALE + + +It was strange Hugh did not improve faster, the old doctor thought. +There was something weighing on his mind, he said, something which kept +him awake, and the kind man set himself to divine the cause. Thinking at +last he had done so, he said to him one day, the last before the sale: + +"My boy, you don't get on for worrying about something. I don't pretend +to second sight, but I b'lieve I've got on the right track. It's my +pesky bill. I know it's big, for I've been here every day this going on +three months, but I'll cut it down to the last cent, see if I don't; and +if it's an object, I'll wait ten years, so chirk up a bit," and wringing +his hand, the well-meaning doctor hurried off, leaving Hugh alone with +his sad thoughts. + +It was not so much the bill which troubled him--it was Rocket, and the +feeling sure that he should never own him again. Heretofore there had at +intervals been a faint hope in his heart that by some means he might +redeem him, but that was over now. The sale of Colonel Tiffton's effects +occurred upon the morrow, and money stood waiting for Rocket, while +Harney, with a fiendish, revengeful disposition, which was determined to +gain its point at last, had been heard to say that "rather than lose the +horse or let it pass back to its former owner, he believed he would give +a thousand dollars." + +That settled it, Hugh had no thousand dollars; he had not even ten, and +with a moan of pain, he tried to shut out Rocket from his mind. And this +it was which kept him so nervous and restless, dreading yet longing for +the eventful day, and feeling glad when at last he could say-- + +"To-morrow is the sale." + +The next morning was cold and chilly, making Hugh shiver as he waited +for the footstep which he had learned to know so well. She had not come +to see him the previous night, and he waited for her anxiously now, +feeling sure that on this day of all others she would stay with him. +How, then, was he disappointed when at last she came to him, cloaked and +hooded as for a ride. + +"Are you going out to-day again?" he asked, his tone that of a pleading +child. + +"It does not seem right to leave you alone, I know," she said, "but poor +Ellen needs me sadly, and I promised to be there." + +"At Mosside, with all those rough men, oh, Alice, don't go!" and Hugh +grasped the little hand. + +"It may appear unladylike, I know, but I think it right to stay by +Ellen. By the way," and Alice spoke rapidly now, "the doctor says +you'll never get well so long as you keep so closely in the house. You +are able to ride, and I promised to coax you out to-morrow, if the day +is fine. I shall not take a refusal," she continued, as he shook his +head. "I am getting quite vain of my horsemanship. I shall feel quite +proud of your escort, even if I have to tease for it; so, remember, you +are mine for a part of to-morrow." + +She drew her hand from his, and with another of her radiant smiles, +swept from the room, leaving him in a maze of blissful bewilderment. +Never till this morning had a hope entered Hugh's heart that Alice +Johnson might be won. Except her, there was not a girl in all the world +who had ever awakened the slightest emotion within his heart, and Alice +had seemed so far removed from him that to dream of her was worse than +useless. She would never esteem him save as a friend, and until this +morning Hugh had fancied he could be satisfied with that, but there was +something in the way her little fingers twined themselves around his, +something in her manner, which prompted the wild hope that in an +unguarded moment she had betrayed herself, had permitted him a glimpse +of what was in her mind, only a glimpse, but enough to make the poor +deluded man giddy with happiness. She, the Golden Haired, could be won, +and should be won. + +"My wife, my Alice, my Golden Hair," he kept repeating to himself, +until, in his weak state, the perspiration dropped from every pore, and +his mother, when she came to him, asked in much alarm what was the +matter. + +He could not tell her of his newly-born joy, so he answered evasively: + +"Rocket is sold to-day. Is not that matter enough?" + +"Poor Hugh, I wish so much that I was rich!" the mother sighed, as she +wiped the sweat drops from his brow, arranged his pillows more +comfortably, and then, sitting down beside him, said, hesitatingly--"I +have another letter from 'Lina. Can you hear it now, or will you read it +for yourself?" + +It was strange how the mention of 'Lina embittered at once Hugh's cup of +bliss, making him answer pettishly: + +"She has waited long enough, I think. Give it to me, please," and taking +the letter that morning received, he read first that 'Lina was much +obliged for the seventy-five dollars, and thought they must be growing +generous, as she only asked for fifty. + +"What seventy-five dollars? What does she mean?" Hugh exclaimed, but +his mother could not tell, unless it were that Alice, unknown to them, +had sent more than 'Lina asked for. + +This seemed probable, and as it was the only solution of the mystery, he +accepted it as the real one, and returned to the letter, learning that +the bracelet was purchased, that it could not be told from the lost one, +that she was sporting it on Broadway every day, that she did not go to +the prince's ball just for the doctor's meanness in not procuring a +ticket when he had one offered to him for eighty dollars! + + * * * * * + +"I don't really suppose he could afford it," she wrote, "but it made me +mad just the same, and I pouted all day. I saw the ladies, though, after +they were dressed, and that did me some good, particularly as the Queen +of the South, Madam Le Vert, asked my opinion of her chaste, beautiful +toilet, just as if she had faith in my judgment. + +"Well, after the fortunate ones were gone, I went to my room to pout, +and directly Mother Richards sent Johnny up to coax me, whereupon there +ensued a bit of a quarrel, I twitting him about that ambrotype of a +young girl, which Nell Tiffton found at the St. Nicholas, and which the +doctor claimed, seeming greatly agitated, and saying it was very dear to +him, because the original was dead. Well, I told him of it, and said if +he loved that girl better than me, he was welcome to have her. 'Lina +Worthington had too may eligible offers to play second fiddle to any +one. + +"''Lina,' he said, 'I will not deceive you, though I meant to do so. I +did love another before ever I heard of you, a fair young girl, as pure, +as innocent as the angels. She is an angel now, for she is dead. Do not +ask further of her. Let it suffice that I loved her, that I lost her. I +shall never tell you more of her sad story. Let her never be named to me +again. It was long ago. I have met you since, have asked and wish you to +be my wife,'--and so we made it up, and I promised not to speak of my +rival. Pleasant predicament, I am in, but I'll worm it out of him yet. +I'll haunt him with her dead body." + + * * * * * + +"Oh, mother," and Hugh gasped for breath. "Is Ad--can she be anything to +us? Is my blood in her veins?" + +"Yes, Hugh, she's your half-sister. Forgive me that I made her so," and +the poor mother wept over the heartless girl. "But go on," she +whispered. "See where 'Lina is now," and Hugh read on, learning that old +Mother Richards had returned home, that Anna had written a sweet, +sisterly note, welcoming her as John's bride to their love, that she had +answered her in the same gracious strain, heightening the effect by +dropping a few drops of water here and there, to answer for tears wrung +out by Anna's sympathy, that Mrs. Ellsworth and her brother, Irving +Stanley, came to the hotel, that Irving had a ticket to the ball offered +him, but declined, just because he did not believe in balls, that having +a little 'axe to grind,' she had done her best to cultivate Mrs. +Ellsworth, presuming a great deal on their courtship, and making herself +so agreeable to her child, a most ugly piece of deformity, that cousin +Carrie, who had hired a furnished house for the winter, had invited her +to spend the season with her, and she was now snugly ensconced in most +delightful quarters on Twenty-second Street, between Fifth and Sixth +Avenues. + + * * * * * + +"Sometimes," she wrote, "I half suspect Mrs. Ellsworth did not think I +would jump at her invitation so quick, but I don't care. The doctor, for +some reason or other, has deferred our marriage until spring, and dear +knows I am not coming back to horrid Spring Bank any sooner than I can +help. + +"By the way, I'm somewhat haunted with the dread that, after all, Adah +may take it into her willful head to go to Terrace Hill, and I would not +have her for the world. How does Alice get on with Hugh? I conclude he +must be well by this time. Does he wear his pants inside his cowhides +yet, or have Alice's blue eyes had a refining effect upon his +pantaloons? Tell him not to set his heart upon her, for, to my certain +knowledge, Irving Stanley, Esq., has an interest in that quarter, while +she is not indifferent. + +"He has his young sister Augusta here now. She has come on to do her +shopping in New York, and is stopping with Mrs. Ellsworth. A fine little +creature, quite stylish, but very puritanical. Through Augusta I have +got acquainted with Lottie Gardner, a kind of stepniece to the doctor, +and excessively aristocratic. You ought to have seen how coolly her big, +proud, black eyes inspected one. I rather like her, though. She and +Augusta Stanley were together at Madam ----'s school in the city. + +"Didn't Adah say she went there once? Again I charge you, don't let her +go to Terrace Hill on any account. + +"And one other thing. I shall buy my bridal trousseau under Mrs. +Ellsworth's supervision. She has exquisite taste, and Hugh must send +the money. As I told him before, he can sell Mug. Harney will buy her. +He likes pretty darkies." + + * * * * * + +"Oh, horror! can Ad be a woman, with womanly feelings?" Hugh exclaimed, +feeling as if he hated his sister. + +But after a moment he was able to listen while his mother asked if it +would not be better to persuade Adah not to go to Terrace Hill. + +"It may interfere with 'Lina's plans," she said, "and now it's gone so +far, it seems a pity to have it broken up. It's--it's very pleasant with +'Lina gone," and with a choking sob, Mrs. Worthington laid her face upon +the pillow, ashamed and sorry that the real sentiments of her heart were +thus laid bare. + +It was terrible for a mother to feel that her home would be happier for +the absence of a child, and that child an only daughter, but she did +feel so, and it made her half willing that Dr. Richards should be +deceived. But Hugh shrank from the dishonorable proceeding. + +Mrs. Worthington always yielded to Hugh, and she did so now, mentally +resolving, however, to say a few words to Adah, relative to her not +divulging anything which could possibly harm 'Lina, such as telling how +poor they were, or anything like that. This done, Mrs. Worthington felt +easier, and as Hugh looked tired and worried, she left him for a time, +having first called Muggins to gather up the fragments of 'Lina's letter +which Hugh had thrown upon the carpet. + +"Yes, burn every trace of it," Hugh said, watching the child as she +picked up piece by piece, and threw them into the grate. + +"I means to save dat ar. I'll play I has a letter for Miss Alice," Mug +thought, as she came upon a bit larger than the others, and unwittingly +she hid in her bosom that portion of the letter referring to herself and +Harney! This done, she too left the room, and Hugh was at last alone. + +He had little hope now that he would ever win Alice, so jealously sure +was he that Irving was preferred before him, and he whispered sadly to +himself: + +"I can live on just the same, I suppose. Life will be no more dreary +than it was before I knew her. No, nor half so dreary, for 'it is better +to have loved and lost than not to have loved at all.' That is what Adah +said once when I asked what she would give never to have met that +villain." + +As it frequently happens that when an individual is talked or thought +about, that individual appears, so Adah now came in, asking how Hugh +was, and if she should not sit a while with him. + +Hugh's face brightened at once, for next to Alice he liked best to have +Adah with him. With 'Lina's letter still fresh in his mind it was very +natural for him to think of what was said of Augusta Stanley, and after +Adah had sat a moment, he asked if she remembered such a person at Madam +Dupont's school, or Lottie Gardner either. + +"Yes, I remember them both," and Adah looked up quickly. "Lottie was +proud and haughty, though quite popular with most of the girls, I +believe; but Augusta--oh, I liked her so much. Do you know her?" + +"No; but Ad, it seems, has ingratiated herself into the good graces of +Mrs. Ellsworth, this Augusta's sister. There's a brother, too'--" + +"Yes, I remember. He came one day with Augusta, and all the girls were +so delighted. I hardly noticed him myself, for my head was full of +George. It was there I met him first, you know." + +There was a shadow now on Adah's face, and she sat silent for some time, +thinking of the past, while Hugh watched the changes of her beautiful +face, wondering what was the mystery which seemed to have shrouded the +whole of her young life. + +"You have done me a great deal of good," he said; "and sometimes I think +it's wrong in me to let you go away, when, if I kept you, you might +teach me how to be a good man--a Christian man, I mean." + +"Oh, if you only would be one," and the light which shone in Adah's eyes +seemed born of Heaven. "I am going, it is true, but there is One who +will stay with you--One who loves you so much." + +He thought she meant Alice, and he grasped her hand, and exclaimed: + +"Loves me, Adah, does she? Say it again! Does Alice Johnson love me, me? +Hugh? Did she tell you so? Adah," and Hugh spoke vehemently, "I have +admitted to you what an hour ago I fancied nothing could wring from me, +but I trust to your discretion not to betray it; certainly not to her, +not to Alice, for, of course, there is no hope. You do not think there +is? You know her better than I," and he looked wistfully at Adah, who +felt constrained to answer: + +"There might have been, I'm sure, if she had seen no one else." + +"Then she has--she does love another?" and Hugh's face was white as +ashes. + +"I do not know that she loves him; she did not say so," Adah replied, +thinking it better for Hugh that he should know the whole. "There was a +boy or youth, who saved her life at the peril of his own, and she +remembered him so long, praying for him daily that God would bring him +to her again, so she could thank him for his kindness." + +Poor Hugh. He saw clearly now how it all was. He had suffered his uncle, +who affected a dislike for "Hugh," to call him "Irving." He had also, +for no reason at all, suffered Alice to think he was a Stanley, and this +was the result. + +"I can live on just as I did before," was again the mental cry of his +wrung heart. + +How changed were all things now, for the certainty that Alice never +would be his had cast a pall over everything, and even the autumnal +sunshine streaming through the window seemed hateful to him. +Involuntarily his mind wandered to the sale and to Rocket, perhaps at +that very moment upon the block. + +"If I could have kept him, it would have been some consolation," he +sighed, just as the sound of hoofs dashing up to the door met his ear. + +It was Claib, and just as Hugh was wondering at his headlong haste, he +burst into the room, exclaiming: + +"Oh, Mas'r Hugh, 'tain't no use now. He'd done sold, Rocket is. I hearn +him knocked down, and then I comed to tell you, an' he looked so +handsome, too,--caperin' like a kitten. They done made me show him off, +for he wouldn't come for nobody else, but the minit he fotched a sight +of dis chile, he flung 'em right and left. I fairly cried to see how he +went on." + +There was no color now in Hugh's face, and his voice trembled as he +asked: + +"Who bought him?" + +"Harney, in course, bought him for five-fifty. I tells you they runs him +up, somebody did, and once, when he stood at four hundred and fifty, and +I thought the auction was going to say 'Gone,' I bids myself." + +"You!" and Hugh stared blankly at him. + +"I know it wan't manners, but it came out 'fore I thought, and Harney, +he hits me a cuff, and tells me to hush my jaw. He got paid, though, for +jes' then a voice I hadn't hearn afore, a wee voice like a girl's, calls +out five hundred, and ole Harney turn black as tar. 'Who's that?' he +said, pushin' inter the crowd, and like a mad dog yelled out five-fifty, +and then he set to cussin' who 'twas biddin' ag'in him. I hearn them +'round me say, 'That fetches it. Rocket's a goner,' when I flung the +halter in Harney's ugly face, and came off home to tell you. Poor Mas'r, +you is gwine to faint," and the well-meaning, but rather impudent Claib, +sprang forward in time to catch and hold his young master, who otherwise +might have fallen to the floor. + +Hugh had borne much that day. The sudden hope that Alice might be won, +followed so soon by the certainty that she could not, had shaken his +nerves and tried his strength cruelly, while the story Claib had told +unmanned him entirely, and this it was which made him grow so cold and +faint, reeling in his chair, and leaning gladly for support against the +sturdy Claib, who led him to the bed, and then went in quest of Adah. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE SALE + + +There was a crowd of people out that day to attend the sale of Colonel +Tiffton's household effects. Even fair ladies, too, came in their +carriages, holding high their aristocratic skirts as they threaded their +way through the rooms where piles of carpeting and furniture of various +kinds lay awaiting the shrill voice and hammer of the auctioneer, a +portly little man, who felt more for the family than his appearance +would indicate. + +There had been a long talk that morning between himself and a young +lady, a stranger to him, whose wondrous beauty had thrilled his heart +just as it did every heart beating beneath a male's attire. The lady had +seemed a little worried, as she talked, casting anxious glances up the +Lexington turnpike, and asking several times when the Lexington cars +were due. + +"It shan't make no difference. I'll take your word," the auctioneer had +said in reply to some doubts expressed by her. "I'd trust your face for +a million," and with a profound bow by way of emphasizing his +compliment, the well-meaning Skinner went out to the group assembled +near Rocket while the lady returned to the upper chamber where Mrs. +Tiffton and Ellen were assembled. + +Once Harney's voice, pitched in its blandest tone, was heard talking to +the ladies, and then Ellen stopped her ears, exclaiming passionately: + +"I hate that man, I hate him. I almost wish that I could kill him." + +"Hush, Ellen; remember! 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the +Lord,'" Alice whispered to the excited girl who answered hastily: + +"Don't preach to me now. I'm too wretched. Wait till you lose everything +by one man's villainy, then see if you won't curse him." + +There was an increased confusion in the yard below, and Alice knew the +sale was about to commence. The white-haired colonel kept watch while +one after another of his household goods were sold. Inferior articles +they were at first, and the crowd were not much disposed to bid, but all +were dear to the old man, who groaned each time an article was knocked +off, and so passed effectually from his possession. + +The crowd grew weary at last--they must have brisker sport than that, if +they would keep warm in that chilly November wind, and cries for the +"horses" were heard. + +"Your crack ones, too. I'm tired of this," growled Harney, and Ellen's +riding pony was led out. The colonel saw the playful animal, and +tottered to Ellen's chamber, saying: + +"They're going to sell Beauty, Nell. Poor Nellie, don't cry," and the +old man laid his hand on his weeping daughter's head. + +"Colonel Tiffton, this way please," and Alice spoke in a whisper. "I +want Beauty. Couldn't you bid for me, bid all you would be willing to +give if you were bidding for Ellen?" + +The colonel looked at her in a kind of dazed, bewildered way, as if not +fully comprehending her, till she repeated her request; then +mechanically he went back to his post on the balcony, and just as +Harney's last bid was about to receive the final "gone," he raised it +twenty dollars, and ere Harney had time to recover his astonishment, +Beauty was disposed of, and the colonel's servant Ham led her in triumph +back to the stable. + +With a fierce scowl of defiance Harney called for Rocket. Suspecting +something wrong the animal refused to come out, and planting his fore +feet firmly upon the floor of the stable, kept them all at bay. With a +fierce oath, the brutal Harney gave him a stinging blow, which made the +tender flesh quiver with pain, but the fiery gleam in the noble animal's +eye warned him not to repeat it. Suddenly among the excited group of +dusky faces he spied that of Claib, and bade him lead out the horse. + +"I can't. Oh, mas'r, for the dear--" Claib began, but Harney's riding +whip silenced him at once, and he went submissively in to Rocket, who +became as gentle beneath his touch as a lamb. + +Did the sagacious creature think then of Hugh, and fancy Claib had come +to lead him home? We cannot tell. We only know how proudly he arched his +graceful neck, as with dancing, mincing steps, he gamboled around Claib, +rubbing his nose against the honest black face, where the tears were +standing, and trying to lick the hands which had fed him so often at +Spring Bank. + +Loud were the cries of admiration which hailed his appearance. + +The bids were very rapid, for Rocket was popular, but Harney bided his +time, standing-silently by, with a look on his face of cool contempt for +those who presumed to think they could be the fortunate ones. He was +prepared to give more than any one else. Nobody would go above his +figure, he had set it so high--higher even than Rocket was really worth. +Five hundred and fifty, if necessary. No one would rise above that, +Harney was sure, and quietly waited until the bids were far between, and +the auctioneer still dwelling upon the last, seemed waiting expectantly +for something. + +"I believe my soul the fellow knows I mean to have that horse," thought +Harney, and with an air which said, "that settles it," he called out in +loud, clear tones, "Four hundred," thus adding fifty at one bid. + +There was a slight movement then in the upper balcony, an opening of the +glass door, and a suppressed whisper ran through the crowd, as Alice +came out and stood by the colonel's aide. + +The bidding went on briskly now, each bidder raising a few dollars, till +four hundred and fifty was reached, and then there came a pause, broken +only by the voice of the excited Claib, who, as he confessed to Hugh, +had ventured to speak for himself, and was rewarded for his temerity by +a blow from Harney. With that blow still tingling about his ears and +confusing his senses, Claib could not well tell whence or from whom came +that silvery, half-tremulous voice, which passed so like an electric +shock through the eager crowd, and rousing Harney to a perfect fury. + +"Five hundred." + +There was no mistaking the words, and with a muttered curse at the fair +bidder shrinking behind the colonel, and blushing, as if in shame, +Harney yelled out his big price, all he had meant to give. He was mad +with rage, for he knew well for whom that fair Northern girl was +interested. He had heard much of Alice Johnson--had seen her +occasionally in the Spring Bank carriage as she stopped in Frankfort; +and once she had stopped before his store, asking, with such a pretty +grace, that the piece of goods she wished to look at might be brought to +her for inspection, that he had determined to take it himself, but +remembered his dignity as half millionaire, and sent his head clerk +instead. + +Beneath Harney's coarse nature there was a strange susceptibility to +female beauty, and neither the lustrous blue of Alice's large eyes, nor +yet the singular sweetness of her voice, as she thanked the clerk for +his trouble, had been forgotten. He had heard that she was rich--how +rich he did not know--but fancied she might possibly be worth a few +paltry thousands, not more, and so, of course, she was not prepared to +compete with him, who counted his gold by hundreds of thousands. Five +hundred was all she would give for Rocket. How, then was he surprised +and chagrined when, with a coolness equal to his own, she kept steadily +on, scarcely allowing the auctioneer to repeat his bid before she +increased it, and once, womanlike, raising on her own. + +"Fie, Harney! Shame to go against a girl! Better give it up, for don't +you see she's resolved to have him? She's worth half Massachusetts, too, +they say." + +These and like expressions met Harney on every side, until at last, as +he paused to answer some of them, growing heated in the altercation, and +for the instant forgetting Rocket, the auctioneer brought the hammer +down with a click which made Harney leap from the ground, for by that +sound he knew that Rocket was sold to Alice Johnson for six hundred +dollars! + +Meantime Alice had sought the friendly shelter of Ellen's room, where +the tension of nerve endured so long gave way, and sinking upon the sofa +she fainted, just as down the Lexington turnpike came the man looked for +so long in the earlier part of the day. She could not err, in Mr. +Liston's estimation, and Alice grew calm again, and in a hurried +consultation explained to him more definitely than her letter had done, +what her wishes were--Colonel Tiffton must not be homeless in his old +age. There were ten thousand dollars lying in the ---- Bank in +Massachusetts, so she would have Mosside purchased in her name for +Colonel Tiffton, not as a gift, for he would not accept it, but as a +loan, to be paid at his convenience. This was Alice's plan, and Mr. +Liston acted upon it at once. Taking his place in the motley assemblage, +he bid quietly, steadily, until at last Mosside, with its appurtenances, +belonged ostensibly to him, and the half-glad, half-disappointed people +wondered greatly who Mr. Jacob Liston could be, or from what quarter of +the globe he had suddenly dropped into their midst. + +Colonel Tiffton knew that nearly everything had been purchased by him, +and felt glad that a stranger rather than a neighbor was to occupy what +had been so dear to him, and that his servants would not be separated. +With Ellen it was different. A neighbor might allow them to remain there +a time, she said, while a stranger would not, and she was weeping +bitterly, when, as the sound of voices and the tread of feet gradually +died away from the yard below, Alice came to her side, and bending over +her, said softly, "Could you bear some good news now--bear to know who +is to inhabit Mosside?" + +"Good news?" and Ellen looked up wonderingly. + +"Yes, good news, I think you will call it," and then as deliberately as +possible Alice told what had been done, and that the colonel was still +to occupy his old home, "As my tenant, if you like," she said to him, +when he began to demur. + +When at last it was clear to the old man, he laid his hand upon the head +of the young girl and whispered huskily, "I cannot thank you as I would, +or tell you what's in my heart, God bless you, Alice Johnson." + +Alice longed to say a word to him of the God to whom he had thus paid +tribute, but she felt the time was hardly then, and after a few more +assurances to Ellen started for Spring Bank, where Mrs. Worthington and +Adah were waiting for her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +THE RIDE + + +They had kept it all from Hugh, telling him only that a stranger had +purchased Mosside. He had not asked for Rocket, or even mentioned him, +though his pet was really uppermost in his mind, and when he awoke next +morning from his feverish sleep and remembered Alice's proposal to ride, +he said to himself, "I cannot go, much as I might enjoy it. No other +horse would carry me as gently as Rocket. Oh! Rocket!" + +It was a bright, balmy morning, and Hugh, as he walked slowly to the +window and inhaled the fragrant air, felt that it would do him good, +"But I shan't go," he said, and when, after breakfast was over, Alice +came, reminding him of the ride, he began an excuse, but his resolution +quickly gave way before her sprightly arguments, and he finally +assented, saying, however: "You must not expect a gay cavalier, for I am +still too weak, and I have no horse fit to ride with you, at least." + +"Yes, I know," and Alice ran gayly to her room and donned her riding +dress, wondering what Hugh would say and how Rocket would act. + +He was out in the back yard now, pawing and curvetting, and rubbing his +nose against all who came near him, while Claib was holding him by his +new bridle and talking to him of Mas'r Hugh. + +Even an ugly woman is improved by a riding costume, and Alice, beautiful +though she was, looked still more beautiful in her closely-fitting +habit. + +"There, I'm ready," she said, running down to Hugh. + +At sight of her his face flushed, while a half sigh escaped him as he +thought how proud he would once have been to ride with her; but that was +in the days of Rocket, when rider and horse were called the best in the +county. + +"Where's Jim?" Hugh asked, glancing around in quest of the huge animal +he expected to mount, and which he had frequently likened to a stone +wall. + +"Claib has your horse. He's coming," and with great apparent unconcern +Alice worked industriously at one of her fairy gantlets. + +Suddenly Adah flew to Hugh's side, and said, eagerly: + +"Hugh, please whistle once, just as you used to do for Rocket--just +once, and let Miss Johnson hear you." + +Hugh felt as if she were mocking him, but he yielded, while like a gleam +of lightning the shadow of a suspicion flitted across his mind. It was a +loud, shrill whistle, penetrating even to the woods, and the instant the +old familiar sound fell on Rocket's ear he went tearing around the +house, answering that call with the neigh he had been wont to give when +summoned by his master. Utterly speechless, Hugh stood gazing at him as +he came up, his neck arched proudly, and his silken mane flowing as +gracefully as on the day when he was led away to Colonel Tiffton's +stall. + +"Won't somebody tell me what it means?" Hugh gasped, stretching out his +hands toward Rocket, who even attempted to lick them. + +At this point Alice stepped forward, and taking Rocket's bridle, laid it +across Hugh's lap, saying, softly: + +"It means that Rocket is yours, purchased by a friend, saved from +Harney, for you. Mount him, and see if he rides as easily as ever. I am +impatient to be off." + +But had Hugh's life depended upon it, he could not have mounted Rocket +then. He knew the friend was Alice, and the magnitude of the act +overpowered him. + +"Oh, Miss Johnson," he cried, "what made you do it? It must not be. I +cannot suffer it." + +"Not to please me?" and Alice's face wore its most winning look. "It's +been my fixed determination ever since I heard of Rocket, and knew how +much you loved him. I was never so happy doing an act in my life, and +now you must not spoil it all by refusing." + +"As a loan, then, not as a gift," Hugh whispered. "It shall not be a +gift." + +"It need not," Alice rejoined, as a sudden plan for carrying out another +project crossed her mind. "You shall pay for Rocket if you like, and +I'll tell you how on our ride. Shall we go?" + +Once out upon the highway, where there were no mud holes to shun, no +gates to open and shut, Hugh broached the subject of Rocket again, when +Alice told him unhesitatingly how he could, if he would, pay for him and +leave her greatly his debtor. The scrap of paper, which Muggins had +saved from the letter thrown by Hugh upon the carpet, had been placed by +the queer little child in an old envelope, which she called her letter +to Miss Alice. Handing it to her that morning with the utmost gravity, +she had asked her to read "Mug's letter," and Alice had read the brief +lines written by 'Lina: "Hugh must send the money, as I told him before. +He can sell Mug; Harney likes pretty darkies." There was a cold, sick +feeling at Alice's heart, a shrinking with horror from 'Lina +Worthington, and then she came to a decision. Mug should be hers, and +so, as skillfully as she could she brought it around, that having taken +a great fancy both to Lulu and Muggins, she wished to buy them both, +giving whatever Hugh honestly thought they were worth. Rocket, if he +pleased, should be taken as part or whole payment for Mug, and so cease +to be a gift. + +"I have no mercenary motives in the matter," she said, "With me they +will be free, and this, I am sure, will be an inducement for you to +consent to my proposal." + +A slave master can love his bond servant, and Hugh loved the little Mug +so much that the idea of parting with her as he surely must at some +future time if he assented to Alice's plan, made him hesitate. But he +decided at last, influenced not so much by need of money as by knowing +how much real good the exchange of ownership would be to the two young +girls. In return for Rocket, Alice should have Muggins, while for Lulu +she might give what she liked. + +"Heaven knows," he added, "it is not my nature to hold any one in +bondage, and I shall gladly hail the day which sees the negro free. But +our slaves are our property. Take them from us and we are ruined wholly. +Miss Johnson, do you honestly believe that one in forty of those +Northern abolitionists would deliberately give up ten--twenty--fifty +thousand dollars, just because the thing valued at that was man and not +beast? No, indeed. Southern people, born and brought up in the midst of +slavery, can't see it as the North does, and there's where the mischief +lies." + +He had wandered from Lulu and Muggins to the subject which then, far +more than the North believed, was agitating the Southern mind. Then they +talked of 'Lina, Hugh telling Alice of her intention to pass the winter +with Mrs. Ellsworth, and speaking also of Irving Stanley. + +"By the way, Ad writes that Irving was interested in you, and you in +him," Hugh said, rather abruptly, stealing a glance at Alice, who +answered frankly: + +"I can hardly say that I know much of him, though once, long ago--" + +She paused here, and Hugh waited anxiously for what she would say next. +But Alice, changing her mind, only added: + +"I esteem Mr. Stanley very highly. He is a gentleman, a scholar and a +Christian." + +"You like him better for that, I suppose--better for being a Christian, +I mean," Hugh replied, a little bitterly. + +"Oh, yes, so much better," and reining her horse closer to Hugh, Alice +rode very slowly, while in earnest tones she urged on Hugh the one great +thing he needed. "You are not offended?" she asked, as he continued +silent. + +"No, oh, no. I never had any religious teaching, only once; an angel +flitted across my path, leaving a track of glorious sunshine, but the +clouds have been there since, and the sunshine is most all gone." + +Alice knew he referred to the maiden of whose existence Mug had told +her, and she longed to ask him of her. Who was she, and where was she +now? Alas, that she should have been so deceived, or that Hugh, when she +finally did ask, "Who was the angel that crossed his path?" should +answer evasively. + +Just before turning into the Spring Bank fields, a horseman came dashing +down the pike, checking his steed a moment as he drew near, and then, +with a savage frown, spurring on his foam-covered horse, muttering +between his teeth a curse on Hugh Worthington. + +"That was Harney?" Alice said, stopping a moment outside the gate to +look after him as he went tearing down the pike. + +"Yes, that was Harney," Hugh replied. "There's a political meeting of +some kind in Versailles to-day, and I suppose he is going there to raise +his voice with those who are denouncing the Republicans so bitterly, and +threatening vengeance if they succeed." + +"The South will hardly be foolish enough to secede. Why, the North would +crush them at once," returned Alice, still looking after Harney, as if +she knew she were gazing after one destined to figure conspicuously in +the fast approaching rebellion, his very name a terror and dread to the +loyal, peace-loving citizens of Kentucky. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +HUGH AND ALICE + + +Three weeks had passed away since that memorable ride. Mr. Liston, after +paying to the proper recipients the money due for Mosside, had returned +to Boston, leaving the neighborhood to gossip of Alice's generosity, +and to wonder how much she was worth. It was a secret yet that Lulu and +Muggins were hers, but the story of Rocket was known, and numerous were +the surmises as to what would be the result of her daily, familiar +intercourse with Hugh. Already was the effect of her presence visible in +his improved appearance, his gentleness of manner, his care to observe +all the little points of etiquette never practiced by him before, and +his attention to his own personal appearance. His trousers were no +longer worn inside his boots, or his soft hat jammed into every +conceivable shape, while Ellen Tiffton, who came often to Spring Bank, +and was supposed to be good authority, pronounced him almost as stylish +looking as any man in Woodford. + +To Hugh, Alice was everything, and he did not know himself how much he +loved her, save when he thought of Irving Stanley, and then the keen, +sharp pang of jealous pain which wrung his heart told him how strong was +the love he bore her. And Alice, in her infatuation concerning the +mysterious Golden Hair, did much to feed the flame. He was to her like a +beloved brother; indeed, she had one day playfully entered into a +compact with him that she should be his sister, and never dreaming of +the mischief she was doing, she treated him with all the familiarity of +a pure, loving sister. It was Alice who rode with him almost daily. It +was Alice who sang his favorite songs. It was Alice who brought his +armchair in the evening when his day's work was over; Alice who worked +his slippers; Alice who brushed his coat when he was going to town; +Alice who sometimes tied his cravat, standing on tiptoe, with her fair +face so fearfully near to his that all his powers of self-denial were +needed to keep from touching his lips to the smooth brow gleaming so +white and fair before his eyes. + +Sometimes the wild thought crossed his mind that possibly he might win +her for himself, but it was repudiated as soon as formed, and so, +between hope and a kind of blissful despair, blissful so long as Alice +stayed with him as she was now, Hugh lived on, until at last the evening +came when Adah was to leave Spring Bank on the morrow. She had intended +going immediately after the sale at Mosside, but Willie had been ailing +ever since, and that had detained her. Everything which Alice could do +for her had been done. Old Sam, at thoughts of parting with his little +charge, had cried his dim eyes dimmer yet. Mrs. Worthington, too, had +wept herself nearly sick, for now that the parting drew near she began +to feel how dear to her was the young girl who had come to them so +strangely. + +"More like a daughter you seem to me," she had said to Adah, in speaking +of her going; "and once I had a wild--" here she stopped, leaving the +sentence unfinished, for she did not care to tell Adah of the shock it +had given her when Hugh first pointed out to her the faint mark on +Adah's forehead. + +It was fainter now even than then, for with increasing color and health +it seemed to disappear, and Mrs. Worthington could scarcely see it, when +with a caressing movement of her hand she put the silken hair back from +Adah's brow and kissed the bluish veins. + +"There is none there. It was all a fancy," she murmured to herself, and +then thinking of 'Lina, she said to Adah what she had all along meant to +say, that if the Richards' family should question her of 'Lina, she was +to divulge nothing to her disparagement, whether she were rich or poor, +high or low. "You must not, of course, tell any untruths. I do not ask +that, but I--oh, I sometimes wish they need not know that you came from +here, as that would save all trouble, and 'Lina is so--so--" + +Mrs. Worthington did not finish the sentence, for Adah instantly +silenced her by answering frankly: + +"I do not intend they shall know, not at present certainly." + +Adah retired early, as did both Mrs. Worthington and Densie, for all +were unusually tired; only Hugh, as he supposed, was up, and he sat by +the parlor fire where they had passed the evening. He was very sorry +Adah was going, but it was not so much of her he was thinking as of +Alice. Had she dreamed of his real feelings, she never would have done +what she did, but she was wholly unconscious of it, and so, when, late +that night, she returned to the parlor in quest of something she had +left, and found him sitting there alone, she paused a moment on the +threshold, wondering if she had better join him or go away. His back was +toward her, and he did not hear her light step, so intently was he +gazing into the burning grate, and trying to frame the words he should +say if ever he dared tell Alice Johnson of his love. + +There was much girlish playfulness in Alice's nature, and sliding across +the carpet, she clasped both her hands before his eyes, and exclaimed: + +"A penny for your thoughts." + +Hugh started as suddenly as if some apparition had appeared before him, +and blushing guiltily, clasped and held upon his face the little soft, +warm hands which did not tremble, but lay still beneath his own. It was +Providence which sent her there, he thought; Providence indicating that +he might speak, and he would. + +"I am glad you have come. I wish to talk with you," he said, drawing her +down into a chair beside him, and placing his arm lightly across its +back. "What sent you here, Alice? I supposed you had retired," he +continued, bending upon her a look which made her slightly +uncomfortable. + +But she soon recovered, and answered laughingly: + +"I, too, supposed you had retired. I came for my scissors, and finding +you here alone, thought I would startle you, but you have not told me +yet of what you were thinking." + +"Of the present, past and future," he replied; then, letting his hand +drop from the back of the chair upon her shoulder, he continued: "May I +talk freely with you? May I tell you of myself, what I was, what I am, +what I hope to be?" + +Her cheeks burned dreadfully, and her voice was not quite steady, as, +rising from her seat, she said: + +"I like a stool better than this chair. I'll bring it and sit at your +feet. There, now I am ready," and seating herself at a safe distance +from him, Alice waited for him to commence. + +She grew tired of waiting, and turning her lustrous eyes upon him, said +gently: + +"You seem unhappy about something. Is it because Adah leaves to-morrow? +I am sorry, too; sorry for me, sorry for you; but, Hugh, I will do what +I can to fill her place. I will be the sister you need so much. Don't +look so wretched; it makes me feel badly to see you." + +Alice's sympathy was getting the better of her again, and she moved her +stool a little nearer to Hugh, while she involuntarily laid her hand +upon his knee. That decided him; and while his heart throbbed almost to +bursting, he began by saying: + +"I am in rather a gloomy mood to-night, I'll admit. I do feel Adah's +leaving us very much; but that is not all. I have wished to talk with +you a long time--wished to tell you how I feel. May I, Alice?--may I +open to you my whole heart, and show you what is there?" + +For a moment Alice felt a thrill of fear--a dread of what the opening +of his heart to her might disclose. Then she remembered Golden Hair, +whose name she had never heard him breathe, save as it passed his +delirious lips. It was of her he would talk; he would tell her of that +hidden love whose existence she felt sure was not known at Spring Bank. +Alice would rather not have had this confidence, for the deep love-life +of such as Hugh Worthington seemed to her a sacred thing; but he looked +so white, so careworn, so much as if it would be a relief, that Alice +answered at last: + +"Yes, Hugh, you may tell, and I will listen." + +He began by telling Alice first of his early boyhood, uncheered by a +single word of sympathy save as it came from dear Aunt Eunice, who alone +understood the wayward boy whom people thought so bad. + +"Even she did not quite understand me," he said; "she did not dream of +that hidden recess in my heart which yearned so terribly for a human +love--for something or somebody to check the evil passions so rapidly +gaining the ascendant. Neither did she know how often, in the silent +night, the boy they thought so flinty, so averse to womankind, wept for +the love he had no hope of gaining. + +"Then mother and Ad came to Spring Bank, and that opened to me a new +era. In my odd way, I loved my mother so much--so much; but Ad--say, +Alice, is it wicked in me if I can't love Ad?" + +"She is your sister," was Alice's reply; and Hugh rejoined: + +"Yes--my sister. I'm sorry for it, even, if it's wicked to be sorry. She +gave me back only scorn and bitter words, until my heart closed up +against her, and I harshly judged all others by her--all but one!" and +Hugh's voice grew very low and tender in its tone, while Alice felt that +now he was nearing the Golden Hair. + +"Away off in New England, among the Yankee hills, there was a pure, +white blossom growing; a blossom so pure, so fair, that few, very few, +were worthy even so much as to look upon it, as day by day it unfolded +some new beauty. There was nothing to support this flower but a single +frail parent stalk, which snapped asunder one day, and Blossom was left +alone. It was a strange idea, transplanting it to another soil; for the +atmosphere of Spring Bank was not suited to such as she. But she came, +and, as by magic, the whole atmosphere was changed--changed at least to +one--the bad, wayward Hugh, who dared to love this fair young girl with +a love stronger than his life. For her he would do anything, and +beneath her influence he did improve rapidly. He was conscious of it +himself--conscious of a greater degree of self-respect--a desire to be +what she would like to have him. + +"She was very, very beautiful; more so than anything Hugh had ever +looked upon. Her face was like an angel's face, and her hair--much like +yours, Alice;" and he laid his hand on the bright head, now bent down, +so that he could not see that face so like an angel's. + +The little hand, too, had slid from his knee, and, fastlocked within the +other, was buried in Alice's lap, as she listened with throbbing heart +to the story Hugh was telling. + +"In all the world there was nothing so dear to Hugh as this young girl. +He thought of her by day and dreamed of her by night, seeing always in +the darkness her face, with its eyes of blue bending over him--hearing +the music of her voice, like the falling of distant water, and even +feeling the soft touch of her hands as he fancied them laid upon his +brow. She was good, too, as beautiful; and it was this very goodness +which won on Hugh so fast, making him pray often that he might be worthy +of her--for, Alice, he came at last to dream that he could win her; she +was so kind to him--she spoke to him so softly, and, by a thousand +little acts, endearing herself to him more and more. + +"Heaven forgive her if she misled him all this while; but she did not. +It were worse than death to think she did--to know I've told you this in +vain--have offered you my heart only to have it thrust back upon me as +something you do not want. Speak, Alice! in mercy, speak! Can it be that +I'm mistaken?" + +Alice saw how she had unwittingly led him on, and her white lips +quivered with pain. Lifting up her head at last, she exclaimed: + +"You don't mean me, Hugh! Oh, you don't mean me?" + +"Yes, darling," and he clasped in his own the hand raised imploringly +toward him. "Yes, darling, I mean you. Will you be my wife?" + +Alice had never before heard a voice so earnest, so full of meaning, as +the one now pleading with her to be what she could not be. She must do +something, and sliding from her stool she sank upon her knees--her +proper attitude--upon her knees before Hugh, whom she had wronged so +terribly, and burying her face in Hugh's own hands, she sobbed: + +"Oh, Hugh, Hugh! you don't know what you ask. I love you dearly, but +only as my brother--believe me, Hugh, only as a brother. I wanted one so +much--one of my own, I mean; but God denied that wish, and gave me you +instead. I'm sorry I ever came here, but I cannot go away. I've learned +to love my Kentucky home. Let me stay just the same. Let me really be +what I thought I was, your sister. You will not send me away?" + +She looked up at him now, but quickly turned away, for the expression of +his white, haggard face was more than she could bear, and she knew there +was a pang, keener even than any she had felt, a pang which must be +terrible, to crush a strong man as Hugh was crushed. + +"Forgive me, Hugh," she said, as he did not speak, but sat gazing at her +in a kind of stunned bewilderment. "You would not have me for your wife, +if I did not love you?" + +"Never, Alice, never!" he answered. "But it is not any easier to bear. I +don't know why I asked you, why I dared hope that you could think of me. +I might have known you could not. Nobody does. I cannot win their love. +I don't know how." + +Alice neither looked up nor moved, only sobbed piteously, and this more +than aught else helped Hugh to choke down his own sorrow for the sake of +comforting her. The sight of her distress moved him greatly, for he knew +it was grief that she had so cruelly misled him. + +"Alice, darling," he said again, this time as a mother would soothe her +child. "Alice, darling, it hurts me more to see you thus than your +refusal did. I am not wholly selfish in my love. I'd rather you should +be happy than to be happy myself. I would not for the world take to my +bosom an unwilling wife. I should be jealous even of my own caresses, +jealous lest the very act disgusted her more and more. You did not mean +to deceive me. It was I that deceived myself. I forgive you fully, and +ask you to forget that to-night has ever been. It cut me sorely at +first, Alice, to hear you tell me so, but I shall get over it; the wound +will heal." + +"Oh, Hugh, don't; you break my heart. I'd rather you should scorn, or +even hate me, for the sorrow I have brought. Such unselfish kindness +will kill me," Alice sobbed, for never had she been so touched as by +this insight into the real character of the man she had refused. + +He would not hold her long in his arms, though it were bliss to do so, +and putting her gently in the chair, he leaned his own poor sick head +upon the mantel, while Alice watched him with streaming eyes and an +aching heart, which even then half longed to give itself into his +keeping. At last it was her turn to speak, hers the task to comfort. The +prayer she had inwardly breathed for guidance to act aright had not been +unheard, and with a strange calmness she arose, and laying her hand on +Hugh's arm, bade him be seated, while she told him what she had to say. +He obeyed her, sinking into the offered chair, and then standing before +him, she began: + +"You do not wish me to go away, you say. I have no desire to go, except +it should be better for you. Even though I may not be your wife, I can, +perhaps, minister to your happiness; and, Hugh, we will forget to-night, +forget what has occurred, and be to each other what we were before, +brother and sister. There must be no particular perceptible change of +manner, lest others should suspect what has passed between us. Do you +agree to this?" + +He bowed his head, and Alice drew a step nearer to him, hesitating a +moment ere she continued: + +"You speak of a rival. I do not know that you have one. Sure it is I am +bound to no one by any pledge, or promise, or tie, unless it be a tie of +gratitude." + +Hugh glanced up quickly now, and the words, "You are mistaken; it was +not Irving Stanley," trembled on his lips, but his strong will fought +them back, and Alice went on. + +"I will be frank with you, and say that I have seen one who pleased me, +both for the noble qualities he possessed, and because I had thought so +much of meeting him, of expressing to him my thanks for a great favor +done when I was only a child. There's a look in your face like his; you +remind me of him often; and, Hugh--" the little hand pressed more +closely on Hugh's shoulder, while Alice's breath came heavily, "And, +Hugh, it may be, that in time I can conscientiously give you a different +answer from what I did to-night. I may love as your wife should love +you; and--and, Hugh, if I do, I'll tell you so at the proper time." + +There was a gleam of sunshine now to illumine the thick darkness, and, +in the first moments of his joy Hugh wound his arm around the slight +form, and tried to bring it nearer to him. But Alice stepped back and +answered: + +"No, Hugh, that would be wrong. It may be I shall never come to love +you save as I love you now, but I'll try--I will try," and unmindful of +her charge to him, Alice parted the damp curls clustering around his +forehead, and looked into his face with an expression which made his +heart bound and throb with the sudden hope that even now she loved him +better than she supposed. + +It was growing very late, and the clock in the adjoining room struck one +ere Alice bade Hugh good-night, saying to him: + +"No one must know of this. We'll be just the same to each other as we +have been." + +"Yes, just the same, if that can be," Hugh answered, and so they parted. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +ADAH'S JOURNEY + + +The night express from Rochester to Albany was crowded. Every car was +full, or seemed to be, and the clamorous bell rang out its first summons +for all to get on board, just as a pale, frightened-looking woman, +bearing in her slender arms a sleeping boy, whose little face showed +signs of suffering, stepped upon the platform of the rear carriage, and +looked wistfully in at the long, dark line of passengers filling every +seat. Wearily, anxiously, she had passed through every car, beginning at +the first, her tired eyes scanning each occupant, as if mutely begging +some one to have pity on her ere exhausted nature failed entirely, and +she sank fainting to the floor. None had heeded that silent appeal, +though many had marked the pallor of her girlish face, and the extreme +beauty of the baby features nestling in her bosom. She could not hold +out much longer, and when she reached the last car and saw that, too, +was full, the delicate chin quivered perceptibly, and a tear glistened +in the long eyelashes, sweeping the colorless cheek. + +Slowly she passed up the aisle until she came to where there was indeed +a vacant seat, only a gentleman's shawl was piled upon it, and he, the +gentleman, looking so unconcernedly from the window, and apparently +oblivious of her close proximity to him, would not surely object to her +sitting there. How the tired woman did wish he would turn toward her, +would give some token that she was welcome, would remove his heavy +plaid, and say to her courteously, "Sit here, madam." But no, his eyes +were only intent on the darkness without; he had no care for her, Adah, +though he knew she was there. + +The oil lamp was burning dimly, and the girl's white face was lost in +the shadow, when the young man first glanced at her, so he had no +suspicion of the truth, though a most indefinable sensation crept over +him as he heard the timid footfall, and the rustling of female garments +as Adah Hastings drew near with her boy in her arms. He knew she stopped +before him; he knew, too, why she stopped, and for a brief instant his +better nature bade him be a man and offer her what he knew she wanted. +But only for an instant, and then his selfishness prevailed. "He would +not seem to see her, he would not be bothered by a woman with a brat. If +there was anything he hated it was a woman traveling with a young one, a +squalling young one. They would never catch his wife, when he had one, +doing a thing so unladylike. A car was no place for children. He hated +the whole of them." + +Adah passed on, her weary sigh falling distinctly on his ear, but +falling to awaken a feeling of remorse for his unmanly conduct. + +"I'm glad she's gone. I can't be bothered," was his mental comment as he +settled himself more comfortably, feeling a glow of satisfaction when +the train began to move, and he knew no more women with their babies +would be likely to trouble him. + +With that first heavy strain of the machinery Adah lost her balance, and +would have fallen headlong but for the friendly hand put forth to save +the fall. + +"Take my seat, miss. It is not very convenient, but it is better than +none. I can find another." + +It was the friendliest voice imaginable which said these words to Adah, +and the kind tone in which they were uttered wrung the hot tears at once +from her eyes. She did not look up at him. She only knew that some one, +a gentleman, had arisen and was bending over her; that a hand, large, +white and warm, was laid upon her shoulder, putting her gently into the +narrow seat next the saloon; that the same hand took from her and hung +above her head the little satchel which was so much in her way, and that +the manly voice, so sympathetic in its tone, asked if she would be too +warm so near the fire. + +She did not know there was a fire. She only knew that she had found a +friend, and with the delicious feeling of safety which the knowledge +brought, the tension of her nerves gave way, and burying her head on +Willie's face she wept for a moment silently. Then, lifting it up, she +tried to thank her benefactor, looking now at him for the first time, +and feeling half overawed to find him so tall, so stylish, so +exceedingly refined and aristocratic in every look and action. + +Irving Stanley was a passenger on that train, bound for Albany. Like Dr. +Richards, he had hoped to enjoy a whole seat, even though it were not a +very comfortable one, but when he saw how pale and tired Adah was, he +arose at once to offer his seat. He heard her sweet, low voice as she +tried to thank him. He saw, too, the little, soft, white hands, holding +so fast to Willie. Was he her brother or her son? She was young to be +his mother. Perhaps she was his sister; but, no, there was no mistaking +the mother-love shining out from the brown eyes turned so quickly upon +the boy when he moaned, as if in pain, and seemed about to waken. + +"He's been sick most all the way," she said. "There's something the +matter with his ear, I think, as he complains of that. Do children ever +die with the earache?" + +Irving Stanley hardly thought they did. At all events, he never heard of +such a case, and then, after suggesting a remedy, should the pain +return, he left his new acquaintance. + +"A part of your seat, sir, if you please," and Irving's voice was rather +authoritative than otherwise, as he claimed the half of what the doctor +was monopolizing. + +It was of no use for Dr. Richards to pretend he was asleep, for Irving +spoke so like a man who knew what he was doing, that the doctor was +compelled to yield, and turning about, recognized his Saratoga +acquaintance. The recognition was mutual, and after a few natural +remarks, Irving explained how he had given his seat to a lady, who +seemed ready to drop with fatigue and anxiety concerning her little +child, who was suffering from the earache. + +"By the way, doctor," he added, "you ought to know the remedy for such +ailments. Suppose you prescribe in case it returns. I do pity that young +woman." + +Dr. Richards stared at him in astonishment. + +"I know but little about babies or their aches," he answered at last, +just as a scream of pain reached his ear, accompanied by a suppressed +effort on the mother's part to soothe her suffering child. + +The pain must have been intolerable, for the little fellow, in his +agony, writhed from Adah's lap and sank upon the floor, his waxen hand +pressed convulsively to his ear, and his whole form quivering with +anguish as he cried, "Oh, ma! ma! ma! ma!" + +The hardest heart could scarce withstand that scene, and many now +gathered near, offering advice and help, while even Dr. Richards turned +toward the group gathering by the door, experiencing a most +unaccountable sensation as that baby cry smote on his ear. Foremost +among those who offered aid was Irving Stanley. His was the voice which +breathed comfort to the weeping Adah, his the hand extended to take up +little Willie, his the arms which held and soothed the struggling boy, +his the mind which thought of everything available that could possibly +bring ease. + +"Who'll give me a cigar? I do not use them myself. Ask him," he said, +pointing to the doctor, who mechanically took a fine Havana from the +case and half-grudgingly handed it to the lady, who hurried back with it +to Irving Stanley. + +To break it up and place it in Willie's ear was the work of a moment, +and ere long the fierce outcries ceased as Willie grew easier and lay +quietly in Irving Stanley's arms. + +"I'll take him now," and Adah put out her hands; but Willie refused to +go, and clung closer to Mr. Stanley, who said, laughingly: "You see that +I am preferred. He is too heavy for you to hold. Please trust him to me, +while you get the rest you need." + +And Adah yielded to that voice as if it were one which had a right to +say what she must do, and leaning back against the window, rested her +tired head upon her hand, while Irving carried Willie to his seat beside +the doctor! There was a slight sneer on the doctor's face as he saw the +little boy. + +"You don't like children, I reckon," Irving said, as the doctor drew +back from the little feet which unconsciously touched his lap. + +"No, I hate them," was the answer, spoken half-savagely, for at that +moment a tiny hand was deliberately laid on his, as Willie showed a +disposition to be friendly. "I hate them," and the little hand was +pushed rudely off. + +Wonderingly the soft, large eyes of the child looked up to his. +Something in their expression riveted the doctor's gaze as by a spell. +There were tears in the baby's eyes, and the pretty lip began to quiver +at the harsh indignity. The doctor's finer feelings, if he had any, were +touched, and muttering to himself, "I'm a brute," he slouched his riding +cap still lower down upon his forehead, and turning away to the window, +relapsed into a gloomy reverie. + +As they drew near to Albany, another piercing shriek from Willie arose +even above the noise of the train. The paroxysms of pain had returned +with such severity that the poor infant's face became a livid purple, +while Adah's tears dropped upon it like rain. Again the sympathetic +women gathered around, again Dr. Richards, aroused from his uneasy +sleep, muttered invectives against children in general and this one in +particular, while again Irving Stanley hastened to the rescue, his the +ruling mind which overmastered the others, planning what should be done, +and seeing that his plans were executed. + +"You cannot go on this morning. Your little boy must have rest and +medical advice," he said to Adah, when at last the train stopped in +Albany. "I have a few moments to spare. I will see that you are +comfortable. You are going to Snowdon, I think you said. There is an +acquaintance of mine on board who is also bound for Snowdon. I might--" + +Irving Stanley paused here, for certain doubts arose in his mind, +touching the doctor's willingness to be troubled with strangers. + +"Oh, I'd rather go on alone," Adah exclaimed, as she guessed what he had +intended saying. + +"It's quite as well, I reckon," was Mr. Stanley's reply, and taking +Willie in his arms, he conducted Adah to the nearest hotel. + +"If you please, you will not engage a very expensive room for me. I +can't afford it," Adah said, timidly, as she followed her conductor into +the parlor of the Delavan. + +She was poor, then. Irving would hardly have guessed it from her +appearance, but this frank avowal which many would not have made, only +increased his respect for her, while he wished so much that she might +have one of the handsome sitting-rooms, of whose locality he knew so +well. + +It was a cozy, pleasant little chamber into which she was finally +ushered, too nice, Adah feared, half trembling for the bill when she +should ask for it, and never dreaming that just one-half the price had +been paid by Irving, whose kind heart prompted him to the generous act. + + +There were but a few moments now ere he must leave, and standing by her +side, with her little hand in his, he said: + +"The meeting with you has been to me a pleasant incident, and I shall +not soon forget it. I trust we may meet again. There is my card. I am +acquainted North, South, East and West. Perhaps I know your husband. You +have one?" he added quickly, as he saw the hot blood stain her face and +neck to a most unnatural color. + +He had not the remotest suspicion that she had never been a wife; he +only thought from her agitation that she possibly was a widow, and +unconsciously to himself the idea was fraught with a vague feeling of +gladness, for, to most men, it is pleasanter knowing they have been +polite to a pretty girl, or even a pretty widow, than to a wife, whose +lord might object, and Irving was not an exception. Was she a widow, and +had he unwittingly touched the half-healed wound? He wished he knew, and +he stood waiting for her answer to his question, "You have a husband?" + +At a glance Adah had read the name upon the card, knowing now who had +befriended her. It was Irving Stanley, Augusta's brother, second cousin +to Hugh, and 'Lina was with his sister in New York. He was going there, +he might speak of her, and if she told her name, her miserable story +would be known to more than it was already. It was a false pride which +kept Adah silent when she knew that Irving Stanley was waiting for her +to speak, wondering at her agitated manner. He was looking at her eyes, +her large brown eyes, which dared not meet his, and as he looked a +terrible suspicion crept over him. Involuntarily he felt for her third +finger. It was ringless, and he dropped it suddenly, but with a feeling +that he might be unjust, that all were not of his church and creed, he +took it again, and said his parting words. Then, turning to Willie, he +smoothed the silken curls, praised the beauty of the sleeping child, and +left the room. + +Adah knew that he was gone, that she should not see him again, and that, +at the very last, there had arisen some misunderstanding, she hardly +knew what, for the shock of finding who he was had prevented her from +fully comprehending the fact that he had asked her for her husband. She +never dreamed of the suspicion which, for an instant, had a lodgment in +his breast, or she would almost have died where she stood, gazing at the +door through which he had disappeared. + +"I ought to have told him my name, but I could not," she sighed, as the +sound of his rapid footsteps died upon the stairs. + +They ceased at last, and with a feeling of utter desolation, as if she +were now indeed alone, Adah sank upon her knees, and covering her face +with her hands, wept bitterly. Anon, however, holier, calmer feelings +swept over her. She was not alone. They who love God can never be alone, +however black the darkness be around them. And Adah did love Him, +thanking Him at last for raising her up this friend in her sore need, +for putting it into Irving Stanley's heart to care for her, a stranger, +as he had done. And as she prayed, the wish arose that George had been, +more like him. He would not then have deserted her, she sobbed, while +again her lips breathed a prayer for Irving Stanley, thoughts of whom +even then made her once broken heart beat as she had never expected it +to beat again. + +So absorbed was Adah that she did not hear the returning footsteps as +Irving came across the hall. He had remembered some directions he would +give her, and at the risk of being left, had come back a moment. She did +not hear the turning of the knob, the opening of the door, or know that +he for whom she prayed was standing so near to her that he heard +distinctly what she said, kneeling there by the chair where he had sat, +her fair head bent down and her face concealed from view. + +"God in heaven bless and keep the noble Irving Stanley." + + * * * * * + +In the office below, Dr. Richards, who had purposely stopped for the day +in Albany, smoked his expensive cigars, ordered oysters and wine sent to +his room--the very one adjoining Adah's--made two or three calls, wrote +an explanatory note to 'Lina--feeling half tempted to leave out the +"Dear," with which he felt constrained to preface it--thought again of +Lily--poor Lily, as he always called her--thought once of the strange +woman and the little boy, in whom Irving Stanley had been so interested, +wondered where they were going, and who it was the boy looked a little +like--thought somehow of Anna in connection with that boy; and then, +late in the afternoon, sauntered down to the Boston depot, and took his +seat in the car, which, at about ten o'clock that night would deposit +him at Snowdon. There were no "squalling brats" to disturb him, for +Adah, unconscious of his proximity, was in the rear car--pale, weary, +and nervous with the dread which her near approach to Terrace Hill +inspired. What, if after all, Anna, should not want her? And this was a +possible contingency, notwithstanding Alice had been no sanguine. + +Darkly the December night closed in, and still the train kept on, until +at last Danville was reached, and she must alight, as the express did +not stop again until it reached Worcester. With a chill sense of +loneliness, and a vague, confused wish for the one cheering voice which +had greeted her ear since leaving Spring Bank, Adah stood upon the +snow-covered platform, holding Willie in her arms, and pointing out her +trunk to the civil baggage man, who, in answer to her inquiries as to +the best means of reaching Terrace Hill, replied: "You can't go there +to-night; it is too late. You'll have to stay in the tavern kept right +over the depot, though if you'd kept on the train there might have been +a chance, for I see the young Dr. Richards aboard; and as he didn't get +out, I guess he's coaxed or hired the conductor to leave him at +Snowdon." + +The baggage man was right in his conjecture, for the doctor had +persuaded the polite conductor, whom he knew personally, to stop the +train at Snowdon; and while Adah, shivering with cold, found her way up +the narrow stairs into the rather comfortless quarters where she must +spend the night, the doctor was kicking the snow from his feet and +talking to Jim, the coachman from Terrace Hill. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +THE CONVICT + + +It was a sad morning at Spring Bank, that morning of Adah's leaving, and +many a tear was shed as the last good-by was spoken. Mrs. Worthington, +Alice and Hugh accompanied Adah to Frankfort, and Alice had never seemed +in better spirits than on that winter's morning. She would be gay; it +was a duty she owed Hugh, and Adah, too. So she talked and laughed as if +there was no load upon her heart, and no cloud on Adah's spirits. +Outwardly Mrs. Worthington suffered most, wondering why she should cling +so to Adah, and why this parting was so painful. All the farewell words +had been spoken, for Adah would not leave them to the chance of a last +moment. She seemed almost too pretty to send on that long journey alone, +and Hugh felt that he might be doing wrong in suffering her to depart +without an escort. But Adah only laughed at his fears. Willie was her +protector, she said, and then, as the train came up she turned to Mrs. +Worthington, who, haunted with the dread lest something should happen to +prevent 'Lina's marriage, said softly: + +"You'll be careful about 'Lina?" + +Yes, Adah would be careful, and to Alice she whispered: + +"I'll write after I get there, but you must not answer it at least not +till I say you may. Good-by." + + * * * * * + +"Come, mother, we are waiting for you," Hugh said. + +At the sound of Hugh's voice she started and replied: + +"Oh, yes, I remember--we are to visit the penitentiary. Dear me," and in +a kind of absent way, Mrs. Worthington took Hugh's arm, and the party +proceeded on their way to the huge building known as the Frankfort +Penitentiary. Hugh was well acquainted with the keeper, who admitted +them cheerfully, and ushered them at once into the spacious yard. + +Pleased with Alice's enthusiastic interest in everything he said, the +keeper was quite communicative, pointing out the cells of any noted +felons, repeating little incidents of daring attempts to escape, and +making the visit far more entertaining than the party had expected. + +"This," he said, opening a narrow door, "this belongs to the negro +stealer, Sullivan. You know him, Mrs. Worthington. He ran off the old +darky you now own, old Sam, I mean." + +"I'd like to see Mr. Sullivan," Alice said. "I saw old Sam when he was +in Virginia." + +"We'll find him on the ropewalk. We put our hardest customers there. Not +that he gives us trouble, for he does not, and I rather like the chap, +but we have a spite against these Yankee negro stealers," was the +keeper's reply, as he led the way to the long low room, where groups of +men walked up and down--up and down--holding the long line of hemp, +which, as far as they were concerned, would never come to an end until +the day of their release. + +"That's he," the keeper whispered to Alice, who had fallen behind Hugh +and his mother. "That's he, just turning this way--the one to the +right." + +Alice nodded in token that she understood, and then stood watching while +he came up. Mrs. Worthington and Hugh were watching too, not him +particularly, for they did not even know which was Sullivan, but stood +waiting for the whole long line advancing slowly toward them, their eyes +cast down with conscious shame, as if they shrank from being seen. One +of them, however, was wholly unabashed. He thought it probable the +keeper would point him out; he knew they used to do so when he first +came there, but he did not care; he rather liked the notoriety, and when +he saw that Alice seemed waiting for him, he fixed his keen eyes on her, +starting at the sight of so much beauty, end never even glancing at the +other visitors, at Mrs. Worthington and Hugh, who, a little apart from +each other, saw him at the same moment, both turning cold and faint, the +one with surprise, and the other with a horrid, terrible fear. + +It needed but a glance to assure Hugh that he stood in the presence of +the man who with strangely winning powers had tempted him to sin--the +villain who had planned poor Adah's marriage--Monroe, her guardian, +whose sudden disappearance had been so mysterious. Hugh never knew how +he controlled himself from leaping into that walk and compelling the +bold wretch to tell if he knew aught of the base deserter, Willie +Hastings' father. He did, indeed, take one forward step while his fist +clinched involuntarily, but the next moment fell powerless at his side +as a low wail of pain reached his ear and he turned in time to save his +fainting mother from falling to the floor. + +She, too, had seen the ropemaker, glancing at him twice ere sure she saw +aright, and then, as if a corpse buried years ago had arisen to her +view, the blood curdled about her heart which after one mighty throe lay +heavy and still as lead. He was not dead; that paragraph in the paper +telling her so was false; he did not die, such as he could not die; he +was alive--alive--a convict within those prison walls; a living, +breathing man with that same look she remembered so well, shuddering as +she remembered it, 'Lina's father and her own husband! + +"It was the heat, or the smell, or the parting with Adah, or something," +she said, when she came back to consciousness, eagerly scanning Hugh's +face to see if he knew too, and then glancing timidly around as if in +quest of the phantom which had so affected her. + +"Let's go home, I'm sorry I came to Frankfort," she whispered, while her +teeth chattered and her eyes wore a look of terror for which Hugh could +not account. + +He never thought of associating her illness with the man who had so +affected himself. It was overexertion, he said. His mother could not +bear much, and with all the tenderness of an affectionate son he wrapped +her shawl about her and led her gantry from the spot which held for her +so great a terror. It was not physical fear; she had never been afraid +of bodily harm, even when fully in his power. It was rather the olden +horror stealing back upon her, the pain which comes from the slow +grinding out of one's entire will and spirit. She had forgotten the +feeling, it was so long since it had been experienced, but one sight of +him brought it back, and all the way from Frankfort to Spring Bank she +lay upon Hugh's shoulder quiet, but sick and faint, with a shrinking +from what the future might possibly have in store for her. + +In this state of mind she reached Spring Bank, where by some strange +coincidence, if coincidence it can be called, old Densie Densmore was +the first to greet her, asking, with much concern, what was the matter. +It was a rare thing for Densie to be at all demonstrative, but in the +suffering expression of Mrs. Worthington's face she recognized something +familiar, and attached herself at once to the weak, nervous woman, who +sought her bed, and burying her face in the pillow cried herself to +sleep, while Densie, like some white-haired ghost, sat watching her +silently. + +"The poor thing has had trouble," she whispered, "trouble in her day, +and it has left deep furrows in her forehead, but it cannot have been +like mine. She surely, was never betrayed, or deserted, or had her only +child stolen from her. The wretch! I cursed him once, when my heart was +harder than it is now. I have forgiven him since, for well as I could, I +loved him." + +There was a moaning sound in the winter wind howling about Spring Bank +that night, but it suited Densie's mood, and helped to quiet her +spirits, as, until a late hour, she sat by Mrs. Worthington, who aroused +up at intervals, saying, in answer to Densie's inquiries, she was not +sick, she was only tired--that sleep would do her good. + +And while they were thus together a convict sought his darkened cell and +laid him down to rest upon the narrow couch which had been his bed so +long. Drearily to him the morning broke, and with the struggling in of +the daylight he found upon his floor the handkerchief dropped +inadvertently by Mrs. Worthington, and unseen till now. He knew it was +not unusual for strangers to visit the cells, and so he readily guessed +how it came there, holding it a little more to the light to see the name +written so plainly upon it. + +"Eliza Worthington." That was what the convict read, a blur before his +eyes, and a strange sensation at his heart. "Eliza Worthington." + +How came she there, and when? Suddenly he remembered the event of +yesterday, the woman who fainted, the tall man who carried her out, the +beautiful girl who had looked at him so pityingly, and then, while every +nerve quivered with intense excitement, he whispered: + +"That was my wife! I did not see her face, but she saw me, fainting at +the sight." + +Hard, and villainous, and sinful as that man had been, there was a +tender chord beneath the villain exterior, and it quivered painfully as +he said "fainted at the sight." This was the keenest pang of the whole, +for as Densie Densmore had moaned the previous night, "I loved him +once," so he now, rocking to and fro on his narrow bed, with that +handkerchief pressed to his throbbing heart, murmured hoarsely: + +"I loved Eliza once, though she would not believe it." + +Then the image of the young man and the girl came up before him, making +him start again, for he guessed that man was Hugh, his stepson, while +the girl--oh, could that beautiful creature--be--his--daughter! + +"Not Adaline, assuredly," he whispered, "nor Adah, my poor darling Adah. +Oh, where is she this morning? I did love Adah," and the convict +moistened Eliza Worthington's handkerchief with the tears he shed for +sweet Adah Hastings. + +Outwardly, that day the so-called Sullivan was the same, as he paced up +and down the walk, but never since first he began the weary march, had +his brain been the seat of thoughts so tumultuous as those stirring +within him, the day succeeding Mrs. Worthington's visit. Where were his +victims now? Were they all alive? And would he meet them yet? Would +Eliza Worthington ever come there again, or Hugh, and would he see them +if they did? Perhaps not, but some time, a few months hence, he would +find them, would find Hugh at least, and ask if he knew aught of +Adah--Adah, more terribly wronged than even the wife had been. + +And while he thus resolved, poor Mrs. Worthington at home moved +nervously around the house, casting uneasy glances backward, forward, +and sideways, as if she were expecting some goblin shape to rise +suddenly before her and claim her for its own. They were wretched, +uneasy days which followed that visit to Frankfort--days of racking +headache to Mrs. Worthington, and days of anxious thought to Hugh, who +thus was led in a measure to forget the pain he would otherwise have +felt at the memory of Alice's refusal. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +ADAH AT TERRACE HILL + + +The next morning was cold and frosty, as winter mornings in New England +are wont to be, and Adah, accustomed to the more genial climate of +Kentucky, shivered involuntarily as from her uncurtained window she +looked out upon the bare woods and the frozen fields covered with the +snow of yesterday. + +Across the track, near to a dilapidated board fence, a family carriage +was standing, the driver unnecessarily, as it seemed to Adah--holding +the heads of the horses, who neither sheered nor jumped, nor gave other +tokens that they feared the hissing engine. She had not seen that +carriage when it drove up before the door, nor yet the young man who had +alighted from it; but as she stood there, a loud laugh reached her ear, +making her start suddenly, it was so like his--like George's. + +"It could not be George," she said; that were impossible, and yet she +crept softly out into the hall, and leaning over the banister, listened +eagerly to the sounds from the room below, where a crowd of men were +assembled. + +The laugh was not repeated, and with a dim feeling of disappointment she +went back to the window where on Willie's neck she wept the tears which +always flowed when she thought of George's desertion. There was a knock +at the door, and the baggageman appeared. + +"If you please, ma'am," he began, "the Terrace Hill carriage is here. I +told the driver how't you wanted to go there. Shall I give him your +trunk?" + +Adah answered in the affirmative, and then hastened to wrap up Willie, +glancing again at the carriage, which, now that it was associated with +the gentle Anna, looked far better to her than it had at first. She was +ready in a moment and descended to the room where Jim, the driver, stood +waiting for her. + +"A lady," was his mental comment, and with as much politeness as if she +had been Madam Richards herself, he opened the carriage door and held +Willie while she entered, asking if she were comfortable, and peering a +little curiously in Willie's face, which puzzled him somewhat. "A near +connection, I guess, and mighty pretty too. Them old maids will raise +hob with the boy,--nice little shaver," thought the kind-hearted Jim. + +Once, as Adah caught his good-humored eye, she ventured to say to him: + +"Has Miss Anna procured a waiting maid yet?" + +There was a comical gleam in Jim's eye now, for Adah was not the first +applicant he had taken up to Terrace Hill. He never suspected that this +was Adah's business, and he answered frankly: + +"No, that's about played out. Madam turned the last one out doors." + +"Turned her out doors?" and Adah's face was as white as the snow rifts +they were passing. + +The driver felt that he had gossiped too much, and relapsed into +silence, while Adah, in a paroxysm of terror, sat with clasped hands and +closed eyes. Leaning forward, at last she said, huskily: + +"Driver, driver, do you think she'll turn me off, too?" + +"Turn you off!" and in his surprise at the sudden suspicion which for +the first time darted across his mind, Jim brought his horses to a full +stop, while he held a parley with the pale, frightened creature, asking +so eagerly if Mrs. Richards would turn her off. "Why should she? You +ain't going there for that, be you?" + +"Not to be turned out of doors, no," Adah answered; "but I--I--I want +that place so much. I read Miss Anna's advertisement; but please turn +back, or let me get out and walk. I can't go there now. Is Miss Anna +like the rest?" + +"Miss Anna's an angel," he answered. "If you get her ear, you're all +right; the plague is to get it with them two she-cats ready to tear your +eyes out. If I'se you, I'd ask to see her. I wouldn't tell my arrent +either, till I did. She's sick upstairs; but I'll see if Pamely can't +manage it. That's my woman--Pamely; been mine for four years, and we've +had two pair of twins, all dead; so I feel tender toward the little +ones," and Jim glanced kindly at Willie, who had succeeded in making +Adah notice the house standing out so prominently against the winter +sky, and looking to the poor woman-girl more like a prison than a home. + +It might be pleasant there in the summer, Adah thought; but now, with +snow on the roof, snow on the walk, snow on the trees, snow everywhere, +it presented a cheerless aspect. Only one part of it seemed +inviting--the two crimson-curtained windows opening upon a veranda, from +which a flight of steps led down into what must be a flower garden. + +"Miss Anna's room," the driver said, pointing toward it; and Adah looked +wistfully out, vainly hoping for a glimpse of the sweet face she had in +her mind as Anna's. + +But only Asenath's grim, angular visage was seen, as it looked from +Anna's window, wondering whom Jim could be bringing home. + +"It's a handsome trunk--covered, too. Can it be Lottie?" and mentally +hoping it was not, she busied herself again with bathing poor Anna's +head, which was aching sadly to-day, owing to the excitement of her +brother's visit and the harsh words which passed between him and his +sisters, he telling them, jokingly at first, that he was tired of +getting married, and half resolved to give it up; while they, in return, +had abused him for fickleness, taunted him with their poverty, and +sharply reproached him for his unwillingness to lighten their burden, by +taking a rich wife when he could get one. + +All this John had repeated to Anna in the dim twilight of the morning, +as he stood by her bedside to bid her good-by; and she, as usual, had +soothed him into quiet, speaking kindly of his bride-elect, and saying +she should like her. + +He had not told her all of Lily's story, as he meant to do. There was no +necessity for that, for the matter was fixed. 'Lina should be his wife, +and he need not trouble Anna further; so he had bidden her adieu, and +was gone again, the carriage which bore him away bringing back Adah and +her boy. + +Jim opened the wide door for her, and showing her first into the parlor, +but finding that dark and cold, he ushered her next into a little +reception-room, where the Misses Richards received their morning calls. + +Willie seemed perfectly at home, seating himself upon a little stool, +covered with some of Miss Eudora's choicest worsted embroidery, a piece +of work of which she was very proud, never allowing anything to touch +it lest the roses should be jammed, or the raised leaves defaced. But +Willie cared neither for leaves, nor roses, nor yet for Miss Eudora, and +drawing the stool to his mother's side, he sat kicking his little heels +into a worn place of the carpet, which no child had kicked since the +doctor's days of babyhood. The tender threads were fast giving way to +the vigorous strokes, when two doors opposite each other opened +simultaneously, and both Mrs. Richards and Eudora appeared. + +"Are you--ah, yes--you are the lady who Jim said wished to see me," Mrs. +Richards began, bowing politely to Adah, who had not yet dared to look +up, and who when at last she did raise her eyes, withdrew them at once, +more abashed, more frightened, more bewildered than ever, for the face +she saw fully warranted her ideas of a woman who could turn a waiting +maid from her door just because she was a waiting maid. + +Something seemed choking Adah and preventing her utterance, for she did +not speak until Mrs. Richards said again, this time with a little less +suavity and a little more hauteur of manner, "Have I had the honor of +meeting you before?"--then with a low gasp, a mental petition for help, +Adah rose up and lifting to Mrs. Richards' cold, haughty face, her soft, +brown eyes, where tears were almost visible, answered faintly: "We have +not met before. Excuse me, madam, but my business is with Miss Anna, can +I see her please?" + +There was something supplicating in the tone with which Adah made this +request, and it struck Mrs. Richards unpleasantly. She answered +haughtily, though still politely, "My daughter is sick. She does not see +visitors. It will be impossible to admit you to her chamber, but I will +take your name and your errand." + +Adah felt as if she should sink beneath the cold, cruel scrutiny to +which she knew she was subjected by the woman on her right and the woman +on her left. Too much confused to remember anything distinctly, Adah +forgot Jim's injunction; forgot that Pamelia was to arrange it somehow; +forgot everything, except that Mrs. Richards was waiting for her to +speak. An ominous cough from Eudora decided her, and then it came out, +her reason for being there. She had seen Miss Anna's advertisement, she +wanted a place, and she had come so far to get it; had left a happy home +that she might not be dependent but earn, her bread for herself and her +little boy, for Willie. Would they take her message to Anna? Would they +let her stay? + +"You say you left a happy home," and the thin, sneering lips of Eudora +were pressed so tightly together that the words could scarcely find +egress. "May I ask, if it was so happy, why you left it?" + +There was a flush on Adah's cheek as she replied, "Because it was a home +granted at first from charity. It was not mine. The people were poor, +and I would not longer be a burden to them." + +"And your husband--where is he?" + +This was the hardest question of all, and Adah's distress was visible as +she replied, "I will be frank with you. Willie's father left me, and I +don't know where he is." + +An incredulous, provoking smile flitted over Eudora's face as she +returned, "We hardly care to have a deserted wife in our family--it +might be unpleasant." + +"Yes," and the old lady took up the argument, "Anna is well enough +without a maid. I don't know why she put that foolish advertisement in +the paper, in answer, I believe, to one equally foolish which she saw +about 'an unfortunate woman with a child.'" + +"I am that woman. I wrote that advertisement when my heart was heavier +than it is now, and God took care of it. He pointed it out to Miss Anna. +He caused her to answer it. He sent me here, and you will let me see +her. Think if it were your own daughter, pleading thus with some one." + +"That is impossible. Neither my daughter, nor my daughter-in-law, if I +had one, could ever come to a servant's position," Mrs. Richards +replied, not harshly, for there was something in Adah's manner and in +Adah's eyes which rode down her resentful pride; and she might have +yielded, but for Eudora, whose hands had so ached to shake the little +child, now innocently picking at a bud. + +How she did long to box his ears, and while her mother talked, she had +taken a step forward more than once, but stopped as often, held in check +by the little face and soft blue eyes, turned so trustingly upon her, +the pretty lips once actually putting themselves toward her, as if +expecting a kiss. Frosty old maid as she was, Eudora could not harm that +child sitting on her embroidery as coolly as if he had a right; but she +could prevent her mother from granting the stranger's request; so when +she saw signs of yielding, she said, decidedly, "She cannot see Anna, +mother. You know how foolish she is, and there's no telling what fancy +she might take." + +"Eudora," said Mrs. Richards in a low tone, "it might be well for Anna +to have a maid, and this one is certainly different from the others who +have applied." + +"But the child. We can't be bothered with a child. Evidently he is not +governed at all, and brother's wife coming by and by." + +This last caught Adah's ear and changed the whole current of her +thoughts and wishes. Greatly to Mrs. Richards' surprise, she said +abruptly, "If I cannot see Miss Anna, I need not trouble you longer. +When does the next train go west?" + +Adah's voice never faltered, though her heart seemed bursting from her +throat, for she had not the most remote idea as to where the next train +going west would take her. She had reached a point when she no longer +thought or reasoned; she would leave Terrace Hill; that was all she +knew, except that in her mind there was a vague fancy or hope that she +might meet Irving Stanley again. Not George, she did not even think of +him, as she stood before Dr. Richards' mother, who looked at her in +surprise, marveling that she had given up so quietly what she had +apparently so much desired. + +Very civilly she told her when the next train went west, and then added +kindly, "You cannot walk. You must stay here till car-time, when Jim +will carry you back." + +At this unexpected kindness Adah's calmness gave way, and sitting down +by the table, she laid her face upon it and sobbed almost convulsively. + +"Mamma tie, mam-ma tie," and he pulled Mrs. Richards' skirts vigorously +indicating that she must do something for mamma. + +Just then the doorbell rang. It was the doctor, come to visit Anna, and +both Mrs. Richards and Eudora left the room at once. + +"Oh, why did I come here, and where shall I go?" Adah moaned, as a sense +of her lonely condition came over her. + +"Will my Father in heaven direct me? will He tell me what to do?" she +murmured brokenly, praying softly to herself that a way might be opened +for her, a path which she could tread. + +She could not tell how it was, but a quiet peace stole over her, a +feeling which had no thought or care for the future, and it had been +many nights since she had slept as sweetly or soundly as she did for +one half hour with her head upon the table in that little room at +Terrace Hill, Dr. Richards' home and Anna's. She did not see the +good-humored face which looked in at her a moment, nor hear the +whispering in the hall; neither did she know when Willie, nothing loath, +was coaxed from the room and carried up the stairs into the upper hall, +where he was purposely left to himself, while Pamelia, the mother of +Jim's two pairs of twins, went to Anna's room, where she was to sit for +an hour or so, while the ladies had their lunch. Anna's head was better; +the paroxysms of pain were leas frequent than in the morning, and she +lay upon her pillow, her eyes closed wearily, and her thoughts with +Charlie Millbrook. Why had he never written?--why never come to see her? + +So intently was she thinking of Charlie that she did not hear the patter +of little feet in the hall without. Tired of staying by himself, and +spying the open door, Willie hastened toward it, pausing a moment on the +threshold as if to reconnoiter. Something in Anna's attitude, as she lay +with her long hair falling over the pillow, must have reminded him of +Alice, for, with a cry of delight, he ran forward, and patting the white +cheek with his soft baby hand, lisped out the word "Arn-tee, arn-tee," +making Anna start suddenly and gaze at him in wondering surprise. + +"Who is he?" she said, drawing him to her at once and pressing a kiss +upon his rosy face. + +Pamelia told her what she knew of the stranger waiting in the +reception-room, adding in conclusion: "I believe they said you did not +want her, and Jim is to take her to the depot when it's time. She's very +young and pretty, and looks so sorry, Jim told me." + +"Said I did not want her! How did they know?" and something of the +Richards' spirit flashed from Anna's eyes. "The child is so beautiful, +and he called me 'Auntie,' too! He must have an auntie somewhere. Little +dear! how she must love him! Lift him up, Pamelia." + +"I must see his mother," Anna said. "She must be above the ordinary +waiting maids. Perhaps I should like her. At all events I will hear what +she has to say. Show her up, Pamelia; but first smooth my hair a little +and arrange my pillows." + +Pamelia complied with her request; then leaving Willie with Anna, she +repaired to the reception-room, and arousing the sleeping Adah, said to +her hurriedly: + +"Please, miss, come quick; Miss Anna wants to see you. The little boy is +up there with her." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +ANNA AND ADAH + + +For a moment Anna was inclined to think that Pamelia had made a mistake. +That beautiful face, that refined, ladylike manner, did not suit well a +waiting maid, and Anna's doubts were increasing, when little Willie set +her right by patting her cheek again, while he called out: "Mamma, +arntee." + +The look of interest which Anna cast upon him emboldened Adah to say: + +"Excuse him, Miss Richards; he must have mistaken you for a dear friend +at home, whom he calls 'Auntie,' I'll take him down; he troubles you." + +"No, no," and Anna passed her arm around him. "I love children so much. +I ought to have been a wife and mother, my brother says, instead of a +useless old maid." + +Anna smiled faintly as she said this, while thoughts of Charlie +Millbrook flashed across her mind. Adah was too much a stranger to +disclaim against Anna's calling herself old, so she paid no attention to +the remark, but plunged at once into the matter which had brought her +there. Presuming they would rather be alone, Pamelia had purposely left +the room, meeting in the lower hall with Mrs. Richards and her daughter, +who, in much affright, were searching for the recent occupants of the +reception-room. Pamelia quieted them by saying: "The lady was in Miss +Anna's room." + +"How came she there? She must be a bold piece, upon my word!" she said, +angrily, while Pamelia replied: + +"The little boy got upstairs, and walked right into Miss Anna's room. +She was taken with him at once, and asked who he was. I told her and she +sent for the lady. That's how it happened." + +Mrs. Richards hurried up to Anna's chamber, where Willie still was +perched by Anna's pillow, while Adah, with her bonnet in her lap, sat a +little apart, traces of tears and agitation upon her cheeks, but a look +of happiness in the brown eyes fixed so wistfully on Anna's fair, sweet +face. + +"Please, mother," said Anna, motioning her away, "leave us alone a +while. Shut the door, and see that no one comes near." + +Mrs. Richards obeyed, and Anna, waiting until she was out of hearing, +resumed the conversation just where it had been interrupted. + +"And so you are the one who wrote that advertisement which I read. Let +me see--the very night my brother came home from Europe. I remember he +laughed because I was so interested, and he accidentally tore off the +name to light his cigar, so I forgot it entirely. What shall I call you, +please?" + +Adah was tempted to answer her at once, "Adah Hastings"--it seemed so +wrong to impose in any way on that frank, sweet woman; but she +remembered Mrs. Worthington's injunction, and for her sake she +refrained, keeping silent a moment, and then breaking out impetuously: +"Please, Miss Richards, don't ask my real name, for I'd rather not give +it now. I will tell you of the past, though I did not ever mean to do +that; but something about you makes me know I can trust you." And then, +amid a shower of tears, in which Anna's, too, were mingled, Adah told +her sad story. + +"But why do you wish to conceal?" she asked, after Adah had finished. +"Is there any reason?" + +"At first there was none in particular, save a fancy I had, but there +came one afterward--the request of one who had been, kind to me as a +dear mother. Is it wrong not to tell the whole?" + +"I think not. You have dealt honestly with me so far, but what shall I +call you? You must have a name." + +"Oh, may I stay?" Adah asked eagerly, forgetting her late terror of +'Lina. + +"Of course you may. Did you think I would turn you away?" was Anna's +reply; and laying her head upon the white counterpane of the bed, Adah +cried passionately; not a wild, bitter cry, but a delicious kind of cry +which did her good, even though her whole frame quivered and her low, +choking sobs fell distinctly on Anna's ear. + +"Poor child!" the latter said, laying her soft hand on the bowed head. +"You have suffered much, but with me you shall find rest. I want you for +a companion, rather than a maid. I, too, have had my heart troubles; +not like yours, but heavy enough to make me wish I could die." + +It was seldom that Anna alluded to herself in this way, and to do so to +a stranger was utterly foreign to the Richards' nature. But Anna could +not help it. There was something about Adah which interested her +greatly. She could not wholly shield her from her mother's and sisters' +pride, but she would do what she could. + +"Oh, pride, pride," she whispered to herself, "of how much pain hast +thou been the cause." + +Pride had sent her Charlie over the sea without her; pride had separated +her brother from the Lily she was sure he loved, as he could never love +the maiden to whom he was betrothed; and pride, it seemed, had been at +the root of all this young girl's sorrow. Blessed Anna Richards--the +world has few like her--so gentle, so kind, so lovely, and as no one +could long be with her and not feel her influence, so Adah, by the touch +of the fingers still caressing her, was soothed into peaceful quiet. + +When she had grown quite calm, Anna continued: "You have not told me yet +what name to give you, or shall I choose one for you?" + +"Oh, if you only would!" and Adah looked up quickly. + +Anna began to enjoy this mystery, wondering what name she should choose. +Adah should be Rose Markham, and she repeated it aloud, asking Adah how +it sounded. + +"If it did not seem so much like deceiving," Adah said. "You'll tell +your family it is not my real name, won't you?" + +Anna readily agreed to Adah's proposal, and then, remembering that all +this time she had been sitting in her cloak and fur, she bade her lay +them aside. "Or, stay," she added, "touch that bell, if you please, and +ring Pamelia up. There's a little room adjoining this. I mean to give +you that. You will be so near me, and so retired, too, when you like. +John--that's my brother--occupied it when a boy. I think it will answer +nicely for you." + +Obedient to the ring, Pamelia came, manifesting no surprise when told by +Anna to unlock the door and see if the little room was in order for +"Mrs. Markham." + +Pamelia cast a rapid glance at Adah, who winced as she heard the new +name, and felt glad when Anna added: "Pamelia, I can trust you not to +gossip out of the house. This young woman's name is not Markham, but I +choose to have her called so." + +Another glance at Adah, more curious than the first, and then Pamelia +did as she was bidden, opening the door and saying, as she did so: "I +know the room is in order. There's a fire, too; Miss Anna has forgot +that Dr. John slept here last night." + +"I do remember now," Anna replied. "Mrs. Markham can go in at once. +Pamelia, send lunch to her room, and tell your husband to bring up her +trunk." + +Again Pamelia bowed and departed to do her young mistress' bidding, +while Adah entered the pleasant room where Dr. Richards had slept the +previous night. + +On the marble hearth the remains of a cheerful fire were blazing, while +on the mantel over the hearth was a portrait of a boy, apparently ten or +twelve years of age, and a young girl, who seemed a few years older. The +girl was Anna. But the boy, the handsome, smooth-cheeked boy, in his +fancy jacket, with that expression of vanity plainly visible about his +mouth. Who was he? Had Adah any knowledge of him? Had they met before? +Never that she knew of. Dr. Richards was a stranger to her, for she +guessed this was the doctor, 'Lina's betrothed, scrutinizing him +closely, and wondering if the man retained the look of the boy. And as +she gazed, the features seemed to grow familiar. Surely she had met a +face like this, but where she could not guess, and turning from him she +inspected the rest of the room, wondering if Alice Johnson were ever in +this room. + +With thoughts of Alice came memories of Spring Bank, and the wish that +they knew all this. How thankful they would be, and how thankful she was +for this resting place in the protection of sweet Anna Richards. It was +better than she had even dared to hope for, and sinking down by the +snowy-covered bed, she murmured inaudibly the prayer of thanksgiving she +felt compelled to make to Him who had led her to Terrace Hill. It was +thus that Pamelia found her when she came up again, and it did much to +establish the profound respect she ever manifested toward the new +waiting maid, Rose Markham. + +"Your lunch will be here directly," she said to Adah, who little dreamed +of the parley which had taken place between Asenath and Dixson, the +cook, concerning this same lunch. + +Asenath was too proud to discuss the matter with a servant, but when she +saw the slices of cold chicken which Dixson was deliberately cutting up, +and the little pot of jelly which Pamelia placed upon the salver, she +forgot her dignity, and angrily demanded what they were doing. + +"Miss Anna ordered lunch, and I'm a-gettin' it," was Dixson's reply. + +"Yes, but such a lunch for a waiting woman; and going to send it up. I'd +like to know if she's too big a lady to come into the kitchen," and +Asenath's sharp shoulders jerked savagely. + +"I must say, I think you very foolish indeed, to take a person about +whom you know nothing," she said to Anna, as soon as she saw her, but +stopped short as Willie ran out from the adjoining room and stood +looking at her. + +As well as she was capable of doing, Asenath had loved her brother John +when a baby; and when he became a prattling active child, like the one +standing before her, she had almost worshiped him, thinking there was +never a face so pretty or manner so engaging as his. There had come no +baby after him, and she remembered him so well, starting now with +surprise as she saw reflected in Willie's face the look she never had +forgotten. + +"Who is he, Anna? Not her child, the waiting woman's, surely." + +"Hush--sh," came warningly from Anna, as she glanced toward the open +door, and that brought Asenath back from her dream of the past. + +It was the waiting woman's child. There was no look like John now. She +had been mistaken, and rather rudely pushing him away, she said: "I +think you might have consulted us, at least. What are we to do with a +child in this house? Here, here, young man," and Asenath started forward +just in time to frighten Willie and make him drop and break the goblet +he was trying to reach from the stand, "to dink," as he said. + +Asenath's purple silk was deluged with the water, and her temper was +considerably ruffled as she exclaimed: "You see the mischief he has +done, and it was cut glass, too. I hope you'll deduct it from her +wages!" + +"Asenath," and Anna's voice betrayed her astonishment that her sister +should speak so in Adah's presence. + +She had hurried out at Asenath's alarm, but the latter did not at first +observe her, and when she did, she was actually startled into an apology +for her speech. + +"I'm sorry Willie was so careless. I'll pay for the goblet cheerfully," +Adah said, not to Asenath, but to Anna, who answered kindly: "No matter; +it was already cracked across the bottom--don't mind." + +But Adah did mind; and once alone in her room, her tears fell in +torrents. She had heard the whole about Willie's mischief, heard of the +buds torn to pieces, and of the hole kicked in the carpet. She would +like to see that hole, and after Willie was asleep, she stole down to +the reception-room to see the damage for herself. She found the hole, or +what was intended for it, smiling as she examined the few loose threads; +and then she hunted for the stool, finding it under the curtain where +Eudora had placed it, and finding, too, that letter dropped by Jim. The +others were gone, appropriated by Mrs. Richards, who always watched for +the western mail and looked it over herself. + + MISS ANNIE RICHARDS, + SNOWDOWN, + MASS. + +That was the direction, and the envelope was faced with black. Adah +noticed this, together with the heavy seal of wax stamped with an +initial; and she was taking the lost epistle to its rightful owner when +Mrs. Richards met her, asking what she had. + +"I found this beneath the curtain," Adah replied. "It's for Miss Anna; +I'll take it to her, shall I?" + +"Yes, yes--yes, yes; for Anna," and madam snatched eagerly at that +letter from Charlie Millbrook. + +Soon recovering herself, she said naturally: "I'll take it myself. Say, +girl, what is your name, now that you are to work here? You won't mind +righting up the parlors, I presume--sweeping and dusting them, before +you go upstairs again?" + +It was new business for Adah, sweeping parlors as a servant, but she did +it without a murmur; and then, when her task was completed, stopped for +a moment by a window, and looked out upon the town, wondering where +Alice Johnson's home had been. The house where she once lived would seem +like an old friend, she thought, just as Pamelia came in and joined her. +At the same moment Adah's eye caught the cottage by the river, and her +heart beat rapidly, for that seemed to answer Alice's description of her +Snowdon home. + +"Whose pretty place is that?" she asked, pointing it out to Pamelia, who +replied: + +"It was a Mrs. Johnson's, but she's dead, and Miss Alice has gone a +long ways off. I wish you could see Miss Alice, the most beautiful and +the best lady in the world. She and Miss Anna were great friends. She +used to be up here every day, and the village folks talked some that she +came to see the doctor. But my," and Pamelia's face was very expressive +of contempt, "she wouldn't have him, by a great sight. He's going to be +married, though, to a Kentucky belle, with a hundred or more negroes, +they say, and mighty big feelin'. But she needn't bring none of her a'rs +nor her darkies here!" + +"When does she come?" Adah asked, and Pamelia answered: + +"In the spring; so you needn't begin to dread her. Why, your face is +white as paper," and rather familiarly Pamelia pinched Adah's marble +cheek. + +Adah did not mean to be proud, but still she could not help shrinking +from the familiarity, drawing back so quickly that Pamelia saw the +implied rebuke. She did not ask pardon, but she became at once more +respectful. + +A moment after Anna's bell was heard, but Adah paid no heed, till +Pamelia said: + +"That was Miss Anna's bell, and it means for you to come." + +Adah colored, and hastily left the room, while Pamelia muttered to +herself: + +"Ain't no more a maid than Miss Anna herself. But why has she come here? +That's the mystery. She's been unfortunate." + +This was the solution in Pamelia's mind; but the thought went no further +than to her better half. + +Adah's feelings at being called just as Lulu and Muggins were at home, +had been in a measure shared by Anna, who hesitated several minutes ere +touching the bell. + +"If she is to be my maid, it will be better for us both not to act under +restraint," she thought, and so rang out the summons which brought Adah +to her room. + +It was an awkward business, requiring a menial's service of that +ladylike creature, and Anna would have been exceedingly perplexed had +not Adah's good sense come to the rescue, prompting her to do things +unasked in such a way that Anna was at once relieved from embarrassment, +and felt that in Rose Markham she had found a treasure. She did not join +the family in the evening, but kept her room instead, talking with Adah +and caressing and playing with little Willie, who persisted in calling +her "Arntee," in spite of all Adah could say. + +"Never mind," Anna answered, laughingly; "I rather like to hear him. No +one has ever called me by that name, and maybe never will, though my +brother is engaged to be married in the spring. I have a picture of his +betrothed there on my bureau. Would you like to see it?" + +Adah nodded, and was soon gazing on the dark, haughty face she knew so +well, and which, even from the casing, seemed to smile disdainfully +upon, her, just as the original had often done. + +"What do you think of her?" Anna asked. + +Adah must say something, and she replied: + +"I dare say people think her pretty." + +"Yes; but what do you think? I asked your opinion," persisted Anna; and +thus beset Adah replied at last: + +"I think her too showily dressed for a picture. She displays too much +jewelry." + +Anna began to defend her future sister. + +"There's rather too much of ornament, I'll admit, but she's a great +beauty, and attracts much attention. Why, one of her pictures hangs in +Brady's Gallery." + +"At Brady's!" and Adah spoke quickly. "I should not suppose your brother +would like to have it there where so many can look at it." + +Anna tried to shield the heartless 'Lina, never dreaming how much more +than herself Adah knew of 'Lina Worthington. + +It seemed to Adah like a miserable deceit, sitting there and listening +while Anna talked of 'Lina, and she was glad when at last she showed +signs of weariness, and expressed a desire to retire for the night. + +"Would you mind reading to me from the Bible?" Anna asked. + +"Oh, no, I'd like it so much," and Adah read her favorite chapter. + +And Anna listening to the sweet, silvery tones reading: "Let not your +heart be troubled," felt her own sorrow grow less. + +"If you please," Adah said timidly, bending over the sweet face resting +on the pillow, "if you please, may I say the 'Lord's Prayer' here with +you?" + +Anna answered by grasping Adah's hand, and whispering to her: + +"Yes, say it, do." + +Then Adah knelt beside her, and Anna's fair hand rested as if in +blessing on her head as they said together, "Our Father." + +Adah's sleep was sweet that night in her little room at Terrace +Hill--sweet, not because she knew whose home it was, nor yet because +only the previous night he had tossed wearily upon the self-same pillow +where she was resting so quietly, but because of a heart at peace with +God, a feeling that she had at last found a haven of shelter for herself +and her child, a home with Anna Richards, whose low breathings could be +distinctly heard, and who once as the night wore on moaned so loudly in +her sleep that it awakened Adah, and brought her to the bedside. But +Anna was only dreaming and Adah heard her murmur the name of Charlie. + +"I will not awaken her," she said, and gliding back to her own room, she +wondered who was Anna's Charlie, associating him somehow with the letter +she had given, into the care of Mrs. Richards. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +ROSE MARKHAM + + +To Mrs. Richards and her elder daughters Rose Markham was an object of +suspicious curiosity, while the villagers merely thought of Rose Markham +as one far above her position, saying not very complimentary things of +madam and her older daughters when it was known that Rose had been +banished from the family pew to the side seat near the door, where +honest Jim said his prayers, with Pamelia at his side. + +For only one Sabbath had Adah graced the Richards' pew, and then it was +all Jim's work. He had driven his wife and Adah first to church, as the +day was stormy, and ere returning for the ladies, had escorted Adah up +the aisle and turned her into the family pew, where she sat unconscious +of the admiring looks cast upon her by those already assembled, or of +the indignant astonishment of Miss Asenath and Eudora when they found +that for one half day at least they must he disgraced by sitting with +their servant. Very haughtily the scandalized ladies swept up the aisle, +stopping suddenly at the pew door as if waiting for Adah to leave; but +she only drew back further into the corner, while Willie held up to +Asenath the picture he had found in her velvet-bound prayer book. + +Alas! for the quiet hour Adah had hoped to spend, hallowed by thoughts +that the dear ones at Spring Bank were mingling in the same service. +She could not even join in the responses at first for the bitterness at +her heart, the knowing how much she was despised by the proud ladies +beside her. + +Very close she kept Willie at her side, allowing him occasionally as he +grew tired to stand upon the cushion, a proceeding highly offensive to +the Misses Richards and highly gratifying to the row of tittering +schoolgirls in the seat behind him. Willie always attracted attention, +and numerous were the compliments paid to his infantile beauty by the +younger portion of the congregation, while the older ones, they who +remembered the doctor when a boy, declared that Willie Markham was +exactly like him, when standing in the seat he kept the children in +continual excitement by his restless movements and pretty baby ways. + +The fire burned brightly in Anna's room when Adah returned from church, +and Anna herself was waiting for her, welcoming her back with a smile +which went far toward removing the pain still heavy at her heart. Anna +saw something was the matter, but it was her sisters who enlightened her +as together they ate their Sunday dinner in the little breakfast room +where Anna joined them. + +"Such impudence," Eudora said. "She had not heard one word of Mr. +Howard's sermon, for keeping her book and dress and fur away from that +little torment." + +Then followed the story in detail, how "Markham had sat in their seat, +parading herself up there just for show, while Willie had kissed the +picture of little Samuel in Asenath'a book and left thereon the print of +his lips. If Anna would have a maid, they did wish she would get one not +quite so affected as Markham, one who did not try to attract attention +by assuming the airs of a lady," and with this the secret was out. + +Adah was too pretty, too stylish, to suit the prim Eudora, who felt +keenly how she must suffer by comparison with her sister's waiting maid. +Even unsuspicious Anna saw the point, and smiling archly asked "what she +could do to make Rose less attractive." + +In some things Anna could not have her way, and when her mother and +sisters insisted that they would not keep a separate table for Markham, +as they called Adah, she yielded, secretly bidding Pamelia see that +everything was comfortable and nice for Mrs. Markham and her little boy. +There was hardly need for this injunction, for in the kitchen Adah was +regarded as far superior to those who would have trampled her down, and +her presence among the servants was not without its influence, softening +Jim's rough, loud ways, and making both Dixson and Pamelia more careful +of their words and manners when she was with them. Much, too, they grew +to love and pet the little Willie, who, accustomed to the free range of +Spring Bank, asserted the same right at Terrace Hill, going where he +pleased, putting himself so often in Mrs. Richards' way, that she began +at last to notice him, and if no one was near, to caress the handsome +boy. Asenath and Eudora held out longer, but even they were not proof +against Willie's winning ways. + +It was many weeks ere Adah wrote to Alice Johnson, and when at last she +did, she said of Terrace Hill: + +"I am happier here than I at first supposed it possible. The older +ladies were so proud, so cold, so domineering, that it made me very +wretched, in spite of sweet Anna's kindness. But there has come a +perceptible change, and they now treat me civilly, if nothing more, +while I do believe they are fond of Willie, and would miss him if he +were gone." + +Adah was right in this conjecture; for had it now been optional with the +Misses Richards whether Willie should go or stay, they would have kept +him there from choice, so cheery and pleasant he made the house. Adah +was still too pretty, too stylish, to suit their ideas of a servant; but +when, as time passed on, they found she did not presume at all on her +good looks, but meekly kept her place as Anna's maid or companion, they +dropped the haughty manner they had at first assumed, and treated her +with civility, if not with kindness. + +With Anna it was different. Won by Adah's gentleness and purity, she +came at last to love her almost as much as if she had been a younger +sister. Adah was not a servant to her, but a companion, a friend, with +whom she daily held familiar converse, learning from her much that was +good, and prizing her more and more as the winter weeks went swiftly by. + +Since the morning when Adah confided to her a part of her history, she +had never alluded to it or intimated a desire to hear more; but she +thought much about it, revolving in her mind various expedients for +finding and bringing back to his allegiance the recreant lover. + +"If I were not bound to secrecy," she thought one day, as she sat +waiting for Adah's return from the post office, "if I were not bound to +secrecy, I would tell Brother John, and perhaps he might think of +something. Men's wits are sometimes better than women's. When she comes +back from the office I mean to see what she'll say." + +Adah did not join Anna at once, but went instead to her own room, where +she could read and cry alone over the nice long letter from Alice +Johnson, telling how much they missed her, how old Sam pined for Willie, +how Mrs. Worthington and Hugh mourned for Adah, and how she, Alice, +prayed for the dear friend, never so dear as now that she was gone. Many +and minute were Alice's inquiries as to whether Adah had yet seen Dr. +Richards, when was he expected home, and so forth. + +Adah placed her letter in her pocket, and then went to sit with Anna, +whose face lighted up at once, for Adah's society was like sunshine to +her monotonous life. + +"Rose," she said, after an interval of silence had elapsed, "I have been +thinking about you all day, and wishing I might do you good. You have +never told me the city where you met Willie's father, and I fancied it +might be Boston, until I remembered that your advertisement was in the +_Herald_. Was it Boston?" + +It was a direct question, and Adah answered frankly. + +"It was in New York," while Anna quickly rejoined. + +"Oh, I'm so glad! for now you'll let me tell Brother John. He has lived +there so much he must know everybody, or at all events he may find that +man and bring him back. You will have to give his name, of course." + +Adah's face was white as ashes, as she replied: + +"No, no--oh, no. He could not find him. Nobody can but God. I am willing +to wait His time. Don't tell your brother, Miss Anna--don't." + +She spoke so earnestly, and seemed so distressed, that Anna answered at +once: + +"I will not without your permission, though I'd like to so much. He is +coming home by-and-by. His wedding day is fixed for April ----, and he +will visit us before that time, to see about our preparations for +receiving 'Lina. We somehow expected a letter to-day. Did you get one?" + +"Yes, one for your mother--from the doctor, I think," Adah replied, +without telling how faint the sight of the handwriting had made her, it +was so like George's--not exactly like his, either, but enough so to +make her heart beat painfully as she recalled the only letter she ever +received from him, the fatal note which broke her heart. + +"It is so very long since I had a letter all to myself, that I wonder +how it would seem," Anna rejoined. "I have not had one since--since--" + +"The day I came there was one for you," said Adah, while Anna looked +wonderingly at her, saying, "You are mistaken, I'm sure. I've no +remembrance of it. A letter from whom?" + +Adah did not know from whom or where. She only knew there was one, and +by way of refreshing Anna's memory, she said: + +"Jim put it with the others on the table, and it fell behind the +curtain, where I found it in the afternoon. I was bringing it to you +myself, but your mother took it from me and said she would carry it up +while I swept the parlor. Surely you remember now." + +No, Anna did not, and she looked so puzzled that Adah, anxious to set +the matter right, continued: + +"I remember it particularly, because it was spelled A-n-n-i-e instead of +Anna." + +Adah was not prepared for the sudden start, the look almost of terror in +Anna's eyes, or for the color which stained the usually colorless face. +In all the world there was but one person who ever called her Annie, or +wrote it so, and that person was Charlie. Had he written at last, and if +so, why had she never known it? Could it be her proud mother had +withheld what would have been life to her slowly dying daughter? It was +terrible to suspect such a thing, and Anna struggled to cast the thought +aside, saying to Adah. "Was there anything else peculiar about it?" + +"Nothing, except that 'twas inclosed in a mourning envelope, sealed with +wax, and the letter on the seal was--was--" + +"Oh, pray think quick. You have not forgotten. You must not forget," and +Anna's soft blue eyes grew dark with intense excitement as Adah tried to +recall the initial on that seal. + +"She had not noticed particularly, she did not suppose it was important. +She was not certain, but she believed--yes, she was nearly sure--the +letter was 'M.'" + +"Oh, you do not know how much good you have done me," Anna cried, and +laying her throbbing head on Adah's neck, she wept a torrent of tears, +wrung out by the knowing that Charlie had not forgotten her quite. He +had written, and that of itself was joy, even though he loved another. + +"The initial was 'M.'--you are sure, you are sure," she kept whispering, +while Adah soothed the poor head, wondering at Anna's agitation, and in +a measure guessing the truth, the old story, love, whose course had not +run smoothly. + +"And mother took it," Anna said at last, growing more composed. + +"Yes, she said she would bring it to you," was Adah's reply. + +For several minutes Anna sat looking out upon the snowy landscape, her +usually smooth brow wrinkled with thought, and her eyes gleaming with a +strange, new light. There was a shadow on her fair face, a grieved, +injured expression, as if her mother's treachery had hurt her cruelly. +She knew the letter was withheld, and her first impulse was to demand it +at once. But Anna dreaded a scene, and dreaded her mother, too, and +after a moment's reflection that her Charlie would write again, and +Adah, who now went regularly to the office, would get it and bring it to +her, she said: + +"Does mother always look over the letters?" + +"Not at first," was Adah's reply, "but now she meets me at the door, and +takes them from my hand." + +Anna was puzzled. Turning again to Adah, she said: + +"I wish you to go always to the office, and if there comes another +letter for me, bring it up at once. It's mine." + +Anna had no desire now to talk with Adah of the recreant lover, or ask +that John should hear the story. Her mind was too much disturbed, and +for more than half an hour she sat, looking intently into the fire, +seeing there visions of what might be in case Charlie loved her still, +and wished her to be his wife. The mere knowing that he had written made +her so happy that she could not even be angry with her mother, though a +shadow flitted over her face, when her reverie was broken by the +entrance of Madam Richards, who had come to see what she thought of +fitting up the west chambers for John's wife, instead of the north ones. + +"I have a letter from him," she said. "They are to be married the ---- +day of April, which leaves us only five weeks more, as they will start +at once for Terrace Hill. Do, Anna, look interested," she continued, +rather pettishly, as Anna did not seem very attentive. "I am so +bothered. I want to see you alone," and she cast a furtive glance at +Adah, who left the room, while madam plunged at once into the matter +agitating her so much. + +She had fully intended going to Kentucky with her son, but 'Lina had +objected, and the doctor had written, saying she must not go. + +"I have not the money myself," he wrote, "and I'll have to get trusted +for my wedding suit, so you must appeal to Anna's good nature for the +wherewithal with which to fix the rooms. She may stay with you longer +than you anticipate. It is too expensive living here, as she would +expect to live. Nothing but Fifth Avenue Hotel would suit her, and I +cannot ask her for funds at once. I'd rather come to it gradually." + +And this it was which so disturbed Mrs. Richards' peace of mind. She +could not go to Kentucky, and she might as well have saved the money she +had expended in getting her black silk velvet dress fixed for the +occasion, while, worst of all, she must have John's wife there for +months, perhaps, whether she liked it or not, and she must also fit up +the rooms with paper and paint and carpets, notwithstanding that she'd +nothing to do it with, unless Anna generously gave the necessary sum +from her own yearly income. Anna assented to that, and said she would +try to spare the money. Rose could make the carpets, and that would save +a little. + +"I wish, too, mother," she added, "that you would let her arrange the +rooms altogether. She has exquisite taste, besides the faculty of making +the most of things. Our house never looked so well as it has since she +came. Somehow Eudora and Asenath have such a stiff set way of putting +the furniture." + +So it was Anna who selected the tasteful carpet for 'Lina's boudoir, and +the bedchamber beyond it, but it was Adah who made it, Adah who, with +Willie playing on the floor, bent so patiently over the heavy fabric, +sometimes wiping away the bitter tears as she thought of the days +preceding her own bridal, and of her happiness, even though no fingers +were busy for her in the home where they were too proud to receive her. +Where was that home? Was it North or South, East or West, and what was +it like? She had no idea, though, sometimes fancy had whispered that it +might have been like Terrace Hill, that George's haughty mother, who had +threatened to turn her from the door, was a second Mrs. Richards, and +then an involuntary prayer of thanksgiving escaped her lips for the +trial she had escaped. + +Frequently doubts crossed her mind as to the future, when it might be +known that she came from Spring Bank, and knew the expected bride. Would +she not be blamed as a party in the deception? Ought she not to tell +Anna frankly that she knew her brother's betrothed? She did not know, +and the harassing anxiety wore upon her faster than all the work she had +to do. + +Anna seemed very happy. Excitement was what she needed, and never since +her girlish days had she been so bright and active as she was now, +assisting Adah in her labors, and watching the progress of affairs. The +new carpets looked beautiful when upon the floor, and gave to the rooms +a new and cozy aspect. The muslin curtains, done up by the laundress so +carefully, lest they should drop to pieces, looked almost as good as +new, and no one would have suspected that the pretty cornice had been +made from odds and ends found by Adah in an ancient box up in the +lumber-room. The white satin bows which looped the curtains back, were +tied by Adah's hands. + +And during all this while came there to Adah's heart no suspicion for +whom and whose she was thus laboring? No strange interest in the +bridegroom, the handsome doctor, so doted upon by mother and sisters? +None whatever. She scarcely remembered him, or if she did, it was as one +toward whom she was utterly indifferent. He would not notice her. He +might not notice Willie, though yes, she rather thought he would like +her boy; everybody did, and the young mother bent down to kiss her +child, and so hide the blush called up by a remembrance of Irving +Stanley's kindness on that sad journey to Terrace Hill. + +Rapidly the few days went by, bringing at last the very morning when he +was expected. Brightly, warmly the April sun looked in upon Adah, +wondering at the load upon her spirits. She did not associate it with +the doctor, nor with anything in particular. She did not know for +certain that she should even see him. She might and she might not, but +if she did perchance stumble upon him, she would a little rather he +should see that she was not like ordinary waiting-maids. She would make +a good impression! + +And so she wore the pretty dark French calico which Anna had given to +her, fastened the neat linen collar with a chaste little pin, buttoned +her snow-white cuffs, thrust a clean handkerchief into the dainty pocket +on the outside of her skirt, and then descended to the drawing-room to +see that the fires were burning briskly, for spite of the cheerful +sunshine pouring in, the morning was cold and frosty. They had delayed +their breakfast until the doctor should come, and in the dining-room the +table was laid with unusual care. Everything was in its place, and still +Adah fluttered around it like a restless bird, lingering by what she +knew was the doctor's chair, taking up his knife, examining his napkin +ring, and wondering what he would think of the cheap bone rings used at +Spring Bank. + +In the midst of her cogitations, the door bell rang, and she heard the +tramp of horses' feet as Jim drove around to the stable. The doctor had +come and she must go, but where was Willie? + +"Willie, Willie," she called, but Willie paid no heed, and as Eudora had +said, was directly under foot when she unlocked the door, his the first +form distinctly seen, his the first face which met the doctor's view, +and his fearless baby laugh the first sound, which welcomed the doctor +home! + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +THE RESULT + + +It was not a disagreeable picture--that chubby, rose-cheeked little boy. +Willie had run to the door because he heard the bell. He had not +expected to see a stranger, and at sight of the tall figure he drew back +timidly and half hid himself behind Mrs. Richards, whom he knew to be +the warmest ally he had in the hall. + +As the doctor had said to Irving Stanley, he disliked children, but he +could not help noticing Willie, and after the first greetings were over +he asked, "Who have we here? Whose child is this?" + +Eudora and Asenath tried to frown, but the expression of their faces +softened perceptibly as they glanced at Willie, who had followed them +into the parlor, and who, with one little foot thrown forward, and his +fat hands pressed together, stood upon the hearth rug, gazing at the +doctor with that strange look which had so often puzzled, bewildered and +fascinated the entire Richards' family. + +"Anna wrote you that the maid she so much wanted had come to her at +last--a very ladylike person, who has evidently seen better days, and +this is her child, Willie Markham. He is such a queer little fellow +that we allow him more liberties than we ought." + +It was Mrs. Richards who volunteered this explanation, while her son +stood looking down at Willie, wondering what it was about the child +which seemed familiar. Anna had casually mentioned Rose Markham in her +letter, had said how much she liked her, and had spoken of her boy, but +the doctor was too much absorbed in his own affairs to care for Rose +Markham; so he had not thought of her since, notwithstanding that 'Lina +had tried many times to make him speak of Anna's maid, so as to +calculate her own safety. The sight of Willie, however, set the doctor +to thinking, and finally carried him back to the crowded car, the +shrieking child, and the young woman to whom Irving Stanley had been so +kind. + +"I hope I shall not be obliged to see her," he thought, and then he +answered his mother's speech concerning Willie. "So you've taken to +petting a servant's child, for want of something better. Just wait until +my boy comes here." + +Eudora tried to blush, Asenath looked unconscious, while Mrs. Richards +replied: "If I ever have a grandson one half as pretty or as bright as +Willie, I shall be satisfied." + +The doctor did not know how rapidly a lively, affectionate child will +win one's love, and he thought his proud mother grown almost demented; +but still, in spite of himself, he more than once raised his hand to lay +it on Willie's head, pausing occasionally in his conversation to watch +the gambols of the playful child sporting on the carpet. + +"Willie, Willie," called Adah from a distant room, where she was looking +for him. "Willie, Willie," and as the silvery tone fell on the doctor's +ears he started suddenly. + +"Who is that?" he asked, his heart throbs growing fainter as his mother +replied: "That is Mrs. Markham. Singularly sweet voice for a person in +humble life, don't you think so?" + +The doctor's reply was cut short by the entrance of Anna, and in his joy +at meeting his favorite sister and the excitement at the breakfast which +followed immediately, the doctor forgot Rose Markham, who had succeeded +in capturing Willie and borne him to her own room. After breakfast was +over he went with Anna to inspect the rooms which Adah had fitted for +his bride. They were very pleasant, and fastidious as he was he could +find fault with nothing. The carpet, the curtains, the new light +furniture, the armchair by the window where 'Lina was expected to sit, +the fanciful workbasket standing near, and his chair not far away, all +were in perfect taste, and passing his arm caressingly about Anna's +waist he said: "It's very nice, and I thank my little sister so much; of +course, I am wholly indebted to you." + +"Not of course. I furnished means, it is true, but another than myself +planned and executed the effect," and sitting down in 'Lina's chair, +Anna told her brother of Rose Markham, so beautiful, so refined, and so +perfectly ladylike. "You must see her, and judge for yourself. Can't I +think of some excuse for sending for her?" she said. + +It was some evil genius truly which prompted the doctor's reply. + +"Never mind. I'm not partial to smart waiting maids. I'd rather talk +with you." + +And so the golden moment was lost, and Adah was not sent for, while in +his bridal rooms the doctor sat, trying to be interested in all that +Anna was saying, trying to believe he should be happy when 'Lina was his +wife, and trying, oh, so hard, to shut out the vision of another, who +should have been there in his own home, instead of lying in some +lonesome grave, as he believed she was, with her baby on her bosom. Poor +Lily! + +It was a great mistake he made when he cast Lily off, but it could not +now be helped. No tears, no regrets, could bring back the dear little +form laid away beneath the grassy sod, and so he would not waste his +time in idle mourning. He would do the best he could with 'Lina. He did +believe she loved him. He was almost sure of it, and as a means of +redressing Lily's wrongs he would be kind to her. + +And where all this while was Adah? Had she no curiosity, no desire to +see the man about whom she had heard so much? Doubtless she had, and +would have sought an occasion for gratifying it, had not the rather too +talkative Pamelia accidentally overheard the doctor's remark concerning +"smart waiting maids," and repeated it to her, with sundry little +embellishments in tone and manner. Piqued more than she cared to +acknowledge, Adah decided not to trouble him if she could help it, and +so kept out of his way, by staying mostly in her own room, where she was +busy with sewing for Anna. + +Once, as the afternoon was drawing to a close, she felt the hot blood +stain her face and prickle the very roots of her hair, as a step, +heavier than a woman's, came along the soft, carpeted hall, and seemed +to pause opposite her door, which stood partially ajar. She was sitting +with her back that way, and so the doctor only saw the outline of her +graceful form bending over her work, confessing to himself how graceful, +how pliant, how girlish it was. He noted, too, the braids of silken hair +drooping behind the well-shaped ears, just as Lily used to wear hers. +Dear Lily! Her hair was much like Rose Markham's, not quite so dark, +perhaps, or so luxuriant, for seldom had he seen locks so abundant and +glossy as those adorning Rose Markham's head. + +Slowly the twilight shadows were creeping over Terrace Hill and into the +little room, where, with doors securely shut, Adah was preparing for her +accustomed walk to the office. But what was it which fell like a +thunderbolt on her ear, riveting her to the spot, where she stood, rigid +and immovable as a block of granite cut from the solid rock? Between the +closet and Anna's room there was only a thin partition, and when the +door was open every sound was distinctly heard. The doctor had just come +in, and it was his voice, heard for the first time, which sent the blood +throbbing so madly through Adah's veins and made the sparks of fire +dance before her eyes. She was not deceived--the tones were too +distinct, too full, too well remembered to be mistaken, and stretching +out her hands in the dim darkness, she moaned faintly: "George! 'tis +George!" and she sank upon the floor. She could hear him now saying to +Anna, as her moan fell on his ear, "What was that Anna? Are we not +alone? I wish to speak my farewell words in private." + +"Yes, all alone," Anna replied, "unless--" and stepping to Adah's door +she called twice for Rose Markham. + +But Adah, though she tried to do so, could neither move nor speak, and +Anna failed to see the figure crouching in the darkness, poor, crushed, +wretched Adah, who could not dispute her when returning to her brother +she said, "There is no one there; Rose has gone to the post office. I +heard her as she went out. We are all alone. Was it anything particular +you wished to tell me?" + +Again the familiar tones thrilled on Adah's ears as Dr. Richards +replied: "Nothing very particular. I only wished to say a few words, +'Lina. I want you to like her, to make up, if possible, for the love I +ought to give her." + +"Ought to give her! Oh, brother, are you taking 'Lina without love? +Better never make the vow than break it after it is made." + +Anna spoke earnestly, and the doctor, who always tried to retain her +good opinion, replied evasively: "I suppose I do love her as well as +half the world love their wives before marriage, but she is different +from any ladies I have known; so different from what poor Lily was. +Anna, let me talk with you again of Lily. I never told you all--but what +is that?" he continued, as he indistinctly heard the choking, gasping, +stifled sob which Adah gave at the sound of the dear pet name. Anna +answered: "It's only the rising wind. It sounds so always when it's in +the east. We surely are alone. What of Lily? Do you wish you were going +after her instead of 'Lina?" + +Oh, why did the doctor hesitate a moment? Why did he suffer his dread of +losing Anna's respect to triumph over every other feeling? He had meant +to tell her all, how he did love the gentle girl, the little more than +child, who confided herself to him--how he loved even her memory now far +more than he loved 'Lina, but something kept the full confession back, +and he answered: + +"I don't know. We must have money, and 'Lina is rich, while Lily was +very poor, and the only friend or relation she knew was one with whom I +would not dare have you come in contact, so wicked and reckless he was." + +This was what the doctor said, and into the brown eyes, now bloodshot +and dim with anguish, there came the hard, fierce look, before which +Alice Johnson once had shuddered, when Adah Hastings said: + +"I should hate him! Yes, I should hate him!" + +And in that dark hour of agony Adah felt that she did hate him. She knew +now that what she before would not believe was true. He had not made her +a lawful wife, else he had never dared to take another. + +She did not hear him now, for with that prayer, all consciousness +forsook her, and she lay on her face insensible, while at the very last +he did confess to Anna that Lily was his wife. He did not say unlawfully +so. He could not tell her that. He said: + +"I married her privately. I would bring her back if I could, but I +cannot, and I shall marry 'Lina." + +"But," and Anna grasped his hand nervously. "I thought you told me once, +that you won her love, and then, when mother's harsh letters came, left +her without a word. Was that story false?" + +The doctor was wading out in deep water, and in desperation he added +lie to lie, saying: + +"Yes, that was false. I tell you I married her, and she died. Was I to +blame for that?" + +"No, no. I'd far rather it were so. I respect you more than if you had +left her. I am glad, not that she died, but that you are not so bad as I +feared. Sweet Lily," and Anna's tears flowed fast. + +There was a knock at the door, and Jim appeared, inquiring if the doctor +would have the carriage brought around. It was nearly time to go, and +with the whispered words to Anna, "I have told you what no one else must +ever know," the doctor descended with his sister to the parlor, where +his mother was waiting for him. The opening and shutting of the door +caused a draught of air, which, falling on the fainting Adah, restored +her to consciousness, and struggling to her feet, she tried to think +what it was that had happened. + +"Oh, George! George!" she gasped. "You are worse than I believed. You +have made me an outcast, and Willie--" + +George was a greater villain than she had imagined a man could be, and +again her white lips essayed to curse him, but the rash act was stayed +by the low words whispered in her ear, "Forgive as we would be +forgiven." + +"If it were not for Willie, I might, but, oh! my boy, my boy disgraced," +was the rebellious spirit's answer, when again the voice whispered, "And +who art thou to contend against thy God? Know you not that I am the +Father of the fatherless?" + +There were tears now in Adah's eyes, the first which she had shed. + +"I'll try," she murmured, "try to forgive the wrong, but the strength +must all be Thine," and then, though there came no sound or motion, her +heart went out in agonizing prayer, that she might forgive even as she +hoped to be forgiven. + +"God tell me what to do with Willie?" she sobbed, starting suddenly as +the answer to her prayer seemed to come at once. "Oh, can I do that?" +she moaned; "can I leave him here?" + +At first her whole soul recoiled from it, but when she remembered Anna, +and how much she loved the child, her feelings began to change. Anna +would love him more when she knew he was poor Lily's and her own +brother's. She would be kind to him for his father's sake, and for the +sake of the girl she had professed to like. Mrs. Richards, too, would +not cast him off. She thought too much of the Richards' blood, and there +was surely enough in Willie's veins to wipe out all taint of hers. +Willie should be bequeathed to Anna. It would break her heart to leave +him, were it not already broken, but it was better so. It would be +better in the end. He would forget her in time, forget the girlish woman +he had called mamma, unless sweet Anna told him of her, as perhaps she +might. Dear Anna, how Adah longed to fold her arms about her once and +call her sister, but she must not. It might not be well received, for +Anna had some pride, as her waiting maid had learned. + +"A waiting maid!" Adah repeated the name, smiling bitterly as she +thought. "A waiting maid in his own home! Who would have dreamed that I +should ever come to this, when he painted the future so grandly?" + +Then there came over her the wild, yearning desire to see his face once +more, to know if he had changed, and why couldn't she? They supposed her +gone to the office, and she would go there now, taking the depot on the +way. + + * * * * * + +Apart in the ladies' room at Snowdon depot, a veiled figure sat--Dr. +Richards' deserted wife--waiting for him, waiting to look on his face +once more ere she fled she knew not whither. He came at last, Jim's +voice speaking to his horses heralding his approach. + +The group of rough-looking men gathered about the office did not suit +his mood, and so he came on to the ladies' apartment, just as Adah knew +he would. Pausing for a moment on the threshold, he looked hastily in, +his glance falling upon the veiled figure sitting there so lonely and +motionless. She did not care for him, she would not object to his +presence, so he came nearer to the stove, poising his patent leathers +upon the hearth, thrusting both hands into his pockets, and even humming +to himself snatches of a song, which Lily used to sing up the three +flights of stairs in that New York boarding house. + +Poor Adah! How white and cold she grew, listening to that air, and +gazing upon the face she had loved so well. It was changed since the +night when with his kiss warm on her lips he left her forever, changed, +and for the worse. There was a harder, a more reckless, determined +expression there, a look which better than words could have done, told +that self alone was the god he worshiped. + +Once, as he walked up and down the room, passing so near to her that she +might have touched him with her hand, she felt an almost irresistible +desire to thrust her thick brown veil aside, and confronting him to his +face, claim from him what she had a right to claim, his name and a +position as his wife--only for Willie's sake, however; for herself she +did not wish it. + +It was a relief when at last the roll of the cars was heard, and +buttoning his coat still closer around him, he turned toward the door, +half looking back to see if the veiled figure too had risen. It had, and +was standing close beside him, its outside garments sweeping his as the +crowd increased, pressing her nearer to him, but Adah passed back into +the ladies' room, and opening the rear door was out in the street again +almost before the train had left the station. George was gone--lost to +her forever! and with a piteous moan for her ruined life, Adah kept on +her way till the post office was reached. + +There were four letters in the box--one for Mrs. Richards, from an +absent brother; one for Eudora, from Lottie Gardner; one for Asenath, +from an old friend, and at the bottom, last of all, one for Annie +Richards, faced with black, and bearing the initial "M." upon the seal +of wax. + +Adah saw all this, but it conveyed no meaning to her mind except a vague +remembrance that at some time or other, very, very long years it seemed, +Anna had bidden her keep from her mother any letter directed to herself +in a mourning envelope. Adah retained just sense enough to do this, and +separating the letter from the others, thrust it into her pocket, and +then took her way back to Terrace Hill. + +Willie was asleep; and as Pamelia, who brought him up, had thoughtfully +undressed and placed him in bed, there was nothing for Adah to do but +think. She should go away, of course; she could not stay there longer; +but how should she tell them why she went, and who would be her medium +for communication? + +"Anna, of course," she whispered; and lighting her little lamp, she sat +down to write the letter which would tell Anna Richards who was the +waiting maid to whom she had been so kind. + +"Dear Anna," she wrote. "Forgive me for calling you so this once, for +indeed I cannot help it. You have been so kind to me that if my heart +could ache, it would ache terribly at leaving you and knowing it was +forever. I am going away from you, Anna; and when, in the morning, you +wait for me to come as usual, I shall not be here, I could not stay and +meet your brother when he returns. Oh, Anna, Anna, how shall I begin to +tell you what I know will grieve and shock your pure nature so +dreadfully? + +"Anna!--I love to call you Anna now, for you seem, near to me; and +believe me, while I write this to you, I am conscious of no feeling of +inferiority to any one bearing your proud name. I am, or should have +been, your equal, your sister; and Willie!--oh, my boy, when I think of +him, the feeling comes and I almost seem to be going mad! + +"Cannot you guess?--don't you know now who I am? God forgive your +brother, as I asked him to do, kneeling there by the very chair where he +sat an hour since, talking to you of Lily. I heard him, and the sound of +his voice took power and strength away. I could not move to let you know +I was there, for I was, and I lay upon the floor till consciousness +forsook me; and then, when I awoke again, you both were gone. + +"I went to the depot, I saw him in his face to make assurance sure, and +Anna, I--oh, I don't know what I am. The world would not call me a wife, +though I believed I was; but they cannot deal thus cruelly by Willie, or +wash from his veins his father's blood, for I--I, who write this, I who +have been a servant in the house where I should have been the mistress, +am Lily--wronged, deserted Lily--and Willie is your brother's child! His +father's look is in his face. I see it there so plainly now, and know +why that boy portrait of your brother has puzzled me so much. But when I +came here I had no suspicion, for he won me, not as a Richards--George +Hastings, that was the name by which I knew him, and I was Adah Gordon. +If you do not believe me, ask him when he comes back if ever in his +wanderings he met with Adah Gordon, or her guardian, Mr. Monroe. Ask if +he was ever present at a marriage where this same Adah gave her heart to +one for whom she would then have lost her life, erring in that she loved +the gift more than the giver; but God punished idolatry, and He has +punished me, so sorely, oh so sorely; that sometimes my fainting soul +cries out, ''Tis more than I can bear,'" + +Then followed more particulars so that there should be no doubt, and +then the half-crazed Adah took up the theme nearest to her heart, her +boy, her beautiful Willie. She could not take him with her. She knew not +where she was going, and Willie must not suffer. Would Anna take the +child? + +"I do not ask that the new bride should ever call him hers," she wrote; +"I'd rather she would not. I ask that you should give him a mother's +care, and if his father will sometimes speak kindly to him for the sake +of the older time when he did love the mother, tell him--Willie's +father, I mean--tell him, oh I know not what to bid you tell him, except +that I forgive him, though at first it was so hard, and the words +refused to come; I trusted him so much, loved him so much, and until I +had it from his own lips, believed I was his wife. But that cured me; +that killed the love, if any still existed, and now, if I could, I would +not be his, unless it were for Willie's sake. + +"And now farewell. God deal with you, dear Anna, as you deal with my +boy." + +Calmly, steadily, Adah folded up the missive, and laying it with the +mourning envelope, busied herself next in making the necessary +preparations for her flight. Anna had been liberal with her in point of +wages, paying her every week, and paying more than at first agreed upon; +and as she had scarcely spent a penny during her three months' sojourn +at Terrace Hill, she had, including what Alice had given to her, nearly +forty dollars. She was trying so hard to make it a hundred, and so send +it to Hugh some day; but she needed it most herself, and she placed it +carefully in her little purse, sighing over the golden coin which Anna +had paid her last, little dreaming for what purpose it would be used. +She would not change her dress until Anna had retired, as that might +excite suspicion; so with the same rigid apathy of manner she sat down +by Willie's side and waited till Anna was heard moving in her room. The +lamp was burning dimly on the bureau, and so Anna failed to see the +frightful expression of Adah's face, as she performed her accustomed +duties, brushing Anna's hair, and letting her hands linger caressingly +amid the locks she might never touch again. + +It did strike Anna that something was the matter; for when Adah spoke to +her, the voice was husky and unnatural. Still, she paid no attention +until the chapter was read as usual and "Our Father" said; then, as Adah +lingered a moment, still kneeling by the bed, she laid her soft hand on +the young head, and asked, kindly, "if it ached." + +"No, not my head, not my head," and Adah continued impetuously; "Anna, +tell me, have I pleased you?--do you like me? would you, could you love +me if I were your equal--love me as I do you?" + +Anna noticed that the "Miss" was dropped from her name, that her maid +was treating her more familiarly than she had ever done before; and for +an instant a flush showed on her cheek, for pride was Anna's besetting +sin, the one from which she daily prayed to be delivered. There was an +inward struggle, a momentary conflict, such as every Christian warrior +has felt at times, and then the flush was gone from the white cheek, and +her hand still lay on Adah's head, as she replied: "I do not understand +why you question me thus, but I will answer just the same. I do like you +very much, and you have always seemed to me much like an equal. I could +hardly do without you now." + +"And Willie? If I should die, or anything happen to me, would you care +for Willie?" + +There was something very earnest in Adah's tone as she pleaded for her +boy, and had Anna been at all suspicious, she must have guessed there +was something wrong. As it was, she merely thought Adah tired and +nervous. She had been thinking, perhaps, of the deserted, and she +smoothed her hair pityingly as she replied: "Of course I'd care for +Willie. He has won a large place in my heart." + +"Bless you for that. It has made me very happy," Adah whispered, arising +to her feet and adding: "You may think me bold, but I must kiss you +once--only once--for it will be pleasant to remember that I kissed Anna +Richards." + +There was nothing cringing or even pleading in the tone. Adah seemed to +ask it as her right, and ere Anna could answer she had pressed one +burning kiss upon the smooth, white forehead which a menial's lips had +never touched before, and was gone from the room. + +"Was she crazy, or what was it that ailed her?" Anna asked herself, +wondering more and more, the more she thought of the strange conduct, +and lying awake long after the usual hour for sleep. + +But wakeful as she was, there was one who kept the vigils with her, +knowing exactly when she fell away at last into a slumber all the +deeper for the restlessness which had preceded it. Anna slept very +soundly as Adah knew she would, and when toward morning a light footstep +glided across her threshold she did not hear it. The bolt was drawn, the +key was turned, and just as the clock struck three, Adah stood outside +the yard, leaning on the gate and gazing back at the huge building +looming up so dark and grand beneath the starry sky. One more prayer for +Willie and the mother-auntie to whose care she had left him, one more +straining glance at the window of the little room where he lay sleeping, +and she resolutely turned away, nor stopped again until the Danville +depot was reached the station where in less than five minutes after her +arrival the night express stood for an instant, and then went thundering +on, bearing with it another passenger, bound for--she knew not, cared +not whither. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +EXCITEMENT + + +They were not early risers at Terrace Hill, and the morning following +Adah's flight Anna slept later than usual; nor was it until Willie's +baby cry, calling for mamma, was heard, that she awoke, and thinking +Adah had gone down for something, she bade Willie come to her. Putting +out her arms she lifted him carefully into her own bed, and in doing so +brushed from her pillow the letters left for her. But it did not matter +then, and for a full half hour she lay waiting for Adah's return. +Growing impatient at last, she stepped upon the floor, her bare feet +touching something cold, something which made her look down and find +that she was stepping on a letter--not one, but two--and in wondering +surprise she turned them to the light, half fainting with excitement, +when on the back of the first one examined she saw the old familiar +handwriting, and knew that Charlie had written again! + +Anna had hardly been human had she waited an instant ere she tore open +the envelope and learned how many times and with how little success +Charlie Millbrook had written to her since his return from India. He had +not forgotten her. The love of his early manhood had increased with his +maturer years, and he could not be satisfied until he heard from her +that he was remembered and still beloved. + +This was Charlie's letter, this what Anna read, feeling far too happy to +be angry at her mother, and delicious tears of joy flowed over her +beautiful face, as, pressing the paper to her lips, she murmured: + +"Dear Charlie! darling Charlie! I knew he was not false, and I thank the +kind Father for bringing him at last to me." + +Hiding it in her bosom, Anna took the other letter then, and throwing +her shawl around her, for she was beginning to shiver with cold, sat +down by the window and read it through--read it once, read it twice, +read it thrice, and then--sure never were the inmates of Terrace Hill +thrown into so much astonishment and alarm as they were that April +morning, when, in her cambric night robe, her long hair falling unbound +about her shoulders, and her bare feet, gleaming white and cold upon the +floor, Miss Anna went screaming from room to room, and asking her +wonder-stricken mother and sisters if they had any idea who it was that +had been an inmate of their house for so many weeks. + +"Come with me, then," she almost screamed, and dragging her mother to +her room, where Willie sat up in bed, looking curiously about him and +uncertain whether to cry or to laugh, she exclaimed, "Look at him, +mother, and you, too, Asenath and Eudora!" turning to her sisters, who +had followed. "Tell me who is he like? He is John's child. And Rose was +Lily, the young girl whom you forbade him to marry! Listen, mother, you +shall listen to what your pride has done!" and grasping the bewildered +Mrs. Richards by the arm, Anna held her fast while she read aloud the +letter left by Adah. + +Mrs. Richards fainted. She soon recovered, however, and listened eagerly +while Anna repeated all her brother had ever told her of Lily. + +Poor Willie! He was there in the bed, looking curiously at the four +women, none of whom seemed quite willing to own him save Anna. Her heart +took him in at once. He had been given to her. She would be faithful to +the trust, and folding him in her arms, she cried softly over him, +kissing his little face and calling him her darling. + +"Anna, how can you fondle such as he?" Eudora asked, rather sharply. + +"He is our brother's child. Mother, you will not turn from your +grandson," and Anna held the boy toward her mother, who did not refuse +to take him. + +Asenath always went with her mother, and at once showed signs of +relenting by laying her hand on Willie's head and calling him "poor +boy." Eudora held out longer, but Anna knew she would yield in time, +and satisfied with Willie's reception so far, went on to speak of Adah. +Where was she, did they suppose, and what were the best means of finding +her. + +At this Mrs. Richards demurred, as did Asenath with her. + +"Adah was gone, and they had better let her go quietly. She was nothing +to them, nothing whatever, and if they took Willie in, doing their best +with him as one of the Richards' line, it was all that could be required +of them. Had Adah been John's wife, it would of course be different, but +she was not, and his marriage with 'Lina must not now be prevented." + +This was Mrs. Richards' reasoning, but Anna's was different. + +"John had distinctly said, 'I married Lily and she died.' Adah was +mistaken about the marriage being unlawful. It was a falsehood he told +her. She was his wife, and he must not be permitted to commit bigamy. +She would tell John in private. They need not try to dissuade her, for +she should go." + +This was what Anna said, and all in vain were her mother's entreaties to +let matters take their course. Anna only replied by going deliberately +on with the preparations for her sudden journey. She was going to find +Rose, and blessing her for this kindness to one whom they had liked so +much, Dixson and Pamelia helped to get her ready, both promising the +best care to Willie in her absence, both asking where she was going +first and both receiving the same answer, "To Albany." + +Mrs. Richards was too much stunned clearly to comprehend what had +happened or what would be the result; and in a kind of apathetic maze +she bade Anna good-by, and then went back to where Willie sat upon the +sofa, examining and occasionally tearing the costly book of foreign +prints which had been given him to keep him still and make him cease his +piteous wail for "mamma." It seemed like a dream to the three ladies +sitting at home that night and talking about Anna, wondering that a +person of her weak nerves and feeble health should suddenly become so +active, so energetic, so decided, and of her own accord start off on a +long journey alone and unprotected. + +And Anna wondered at herself when the excitement of leaving was past and +the train was bearing her swiftly along on her mission of duty. She had +written a few lines to Charlie Millbrook, telling him of her unaltered +love and bidding him come to her in three weeks' time, when she would be +ready to see him. + +It was very dark and rainy, and the passengers jostled each other +rudely as they passed from the cars in Albany and hurried to the boat. +It was new business to Anna, traveling alone and in the night, and a +feeling akin to fear was creeping over her as she wondered where she +should find the eastern train. + +"Follow the crowd," seemed yelled out for her benefit, though it was +really intended for a timid, deaf old lady, who had anxiously asked what +to do of one whose laconic reply was: "Follow the crowd." And Anna did +follow the crowd which led her safely to the waiting cars. Snugly +ensconced in a seat all to herself, she vainly imagined there was no +more trouble until Cleveland or Buffalo at least was reached. How, then, +was she disappointed when, alighting for a moment at Rochester, she +found herself in a worse babel, if possible, than had existed at Albany. +Where were all these folks going, and which was the train? "I ought not +to have alighted at all," she thought; "I might have known I never could +find my way back." Never, sure, was poor, little woman so confused and +bewildered as Anna, and it is not strange that she stood directly upon +the track, unmindful of the increasing din and roar as the train from +Niagara Falls came thundering into the depot. It was in vain that the +cabman nearest to her helloed to warn her of the impending danger. She +never dreamed that they meant her, or suspected her great peril, until +from out of the group waiting to take that very train, a tall figure +sprang, and grasping her light form around the waist, bore her to a +place of safety--not because he guessed that it was Annie, but because +it was a human being whom he would save from a fearful death. + +"Excuse me, madam," he began, but whatever she might have said was lost +in the low, thrilling scream of joy with which Anna recognized him. + +"Charlie, Charlie! oh, Charlie!" she cried, burying her face in his +bosom and sobbing like a child. + +There was no time to waste in explanations; scarcely time, indeed, for +Charlie to ask where she was going, and if the necessity to go on were +imperative. + +"You won't leave me," Anna whispered. + +"Leave you, darling? No," and pressing the little fingers twining so +lovingly about his own, Charlie replied: "Whither thou goest I will go. +I shall not leave you again." + +He needed no words to tell him of the letters never received; he knew +the truth, and satisfied to have her at last he drew her closely to him, +and laying her tired head upon his bosom, gazed fondly at the face he +had not seen in many, many years. Curious, tittering maidens, of whom +there are usually one or two in every car, looked at that couple near +the door and whispered to their companions: + +"Bride and groom. Just see how he hugs her. Some widower, I know, +married to a young wife." + +But neither Charlie nor Anna cared for the speculations to which they +were giving rise. They had found each other, and the happiness enjoyed +during the two hours which elapsed ere Buffalo was reached more than +made amends for all the lonely years of wretchedness they had spent +apart from each other. Charlie had told Anna briefly of his life in +India--had spoken feelingly, affectionately of his gentle Hattie, who +had died, blessing him with her last breath for the kindness he had ever +shown to her; of baby Annie's grave, by the side of which he buried the +young mother; of his loneliness after that, his failing health, his +yearning for a sight of home, his embarkation for America, his hope +through all that she might still be won; his letters and her mother's +reply, which awakened his suspicions, and his last letter which she +received. + +Sweetly she chided him, amid her tears, for not coming to her at once, +telling how she had waited and watched with an anxious heart, ever since +she heard of his return; and then she told him next where she was going, +and why, sparing her brother as much as possible, and dwelling long upon +poor Lily's gentleness and beauty. + +So it was settled that Charlie should go with her, and his presence made +her far less impatient than she would otherwise have been, when, owing +to some accident, they were delayed so long that the Cleveland train was +gone, and there was no alternative but to wait in Buffalo. At Cincinnati +there was another detention, and it was not until the very day appointed +for the wedding that, with Charlie still beside her, Anna entered the +carriage hired at Lexington, and started for Spring Bank, whither for a +little we will precede her, taking up the narrative prior to this day, +and about the time when 'Lina first returned from New York, laden with +arrogance and airs. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +MATTERS AT SPRING BANK + + +It had been a bright, pleasant day in March, when 'Lina was expected +home, and in honor of her arrival the house at Spring Bank wore its most +cheery aspect; not that any one was particularly pleased because she was +coming, unless it were the mother; but it was still an event of some +importance, and so the negroes cleaned and scrubbed and scoured, +wondering if "Miss 'Lina done fotch 'em anything," while Alice arranged +and re-arranged the plainly-furnished rooms, feeling beforehand how the +contrast between them and the elegancies to which 'Lina had recently +been accustomed would affect her. + +Hugh had thought of the same thing, and much as it hurt him to do it, he +sold one of his pet colts, and giving the proceeds to Alice, bade her +use it as she saw fit. + +Spring Bank had never looked one-half so well before, and the negroes +were positive there was nowhere to be found so handsome a room as the +large airy parlor, with its new Brussels carpet and curtains of worsted +brocatelle. + +Even Hugh was somewhat of the same opinion, but then he only looked at +the room with Alice standing in its center, or stooping in some corner +to drive again a refractory nail, so it is not strange that he should +judge it favorably. Ad would be pleased, he knew, and he gave orders +that the carriage and harness should be thoroughly cleaned, and the +horses well groomed, for he would make a good impression upon his +sister. + +Alas, she was not worth the trouble, the proud, selfish creature, who, +all the way from Lexington to the Big Spring station had been hoping +Hugh would not take it into his head to meet her, or if he did, that he +would not have on his homespun suit of gray, with his pants tucked in +his boots, and so disgrace her in the eyes of Mr. and Mrs. Ford, her +traveling companions, who would see him from the window. Yes, there he +was, standing expectantly upon the platform, and she turned her head the +other way pretending not to see him until the train moved on and Hugh +compelled her notice by grasping her hand and calling her "Sister +'Lina." + +She had acquired a certain city air by her sojourn in New York, and in +her fashionably made traveling dress and hat was far more stylish +looking than when Hugh last parted from her. But nothing abashed he held +her hand a moment while he inquired about her journey, and then +playfully added: + +"Upon my word, Ad, you have improved a heap, in looks I mean. Of course +I don't know about the temper. Spunky as ever, eh?" and he tried to +pinch her glowing cheek. + +"Pray don't be foolish," was 'Lina's impatient reply, as she drew away +from him, and turned, with her blandest smile, to a sprig of a lawyer +from Frankfort, who chanced to be there too. + +Chilled by her manner, Hugh ordered the carriage, and told her they were +ready. Once inside the carriage, and alone with him, 'Lina's tongue was +loosened, and she poured out numberless questions, the first of which +was, what they heard from Adah, and if it were true, as her mother had +written, that she was at Terrace Hill as Rose Markham, and that no one +there knew of her acquaintance with Spring Bank? + +Yes, he supposed it was, and he did not like it either. "Ad," and he +turned his honest face full toward her, "does that doctor still believe +you rich?" + +"How do I know?" 'Lina replied, frowning gloomily. "I'm not to blame if +he does. I never told him I was." + +"But your actions implied as much, which amounts to the same thing. It's +all wrong, Ad, all wrong. Even if he loves you, and it is to be hoped he +does, he will respect you less when he knows how you deceived him." + +"Hadn't you better interfere and set the matter right?" asked 'Lina, now +really aroused. + +"I did think of doing so once," Hugh rejoined, but ere he could say +more, 'Lina grasped his arm fiercely, her face dark with passion as she +exclaimed: + +"Hugh, if you meddle, you'll rue the day. It's my own affair, and I know +what I'm doing." + +"I do not intend to meddle, though I encouraged Adah in her wild plan of +going to Terrace Hill, because I thought they would learn from her just +how rich we are. But Adah has foolishly taken another name, and says +nothing of Spring Bank. I don't like it, neither does Miss Johnson. +Indeed, I sometimes think she is more anxious than I am." + +"Miss Johnson," and 'Lina spoke disdainfully, "I'd thank her to mind her +own business. Hugh, you are getting a ministerial kind of look, and you +have not sworn at me once since we met. I guess Alice has converted you. +Well, I only hope you'll not backslide." + +'Lina laughed hatefully, and evidently expected an outburst of passion, +but though Hugh turned very white, he made her no reply, and they +proceeded on in silence, until they came in sight of Spring Bank, when +'Lina broke out afresh. + +Such a tumble-down shanty as that. It was not fit for decent people to +live in, and mercy knew she was glad her sojourn there was to be short. + +"You are not alone in that feeling," came dryly from Hugh. + +'Lina said he was a very affectionate brother; that she was glad there +were those who appreciated her, even if he did not, and then the +carriage stopped at Spring Bank. Mrs. Worthington was hearty in her +welcome, for her mother heart went out warmly toward her daughter. Oh, +what airs 'Lina did put on, offering the tips of her fingers to good +Aunt Eunice, trying to patronize Alice herself, and only noticing Densie +Densmore with a haughty stare. + +Old Densie had for the last few days been much in 'Lina's mind. She had +disliked her at Saratoga, and somehow it made her feel uncomfortable +every time she thought of finding her at Spring Bank. Densie had never +forgotten 'Lina, and many a time had she recalled the peculiar +expression of her black eyes, shuddering as she remembered how much they +were like another pair of eyes whose gleams of passion had once thrilled +her with terror. + +"Upon my word," 'Lina began, as she entered the pleasant parlor, "this +is better than I expected. Somebody has been very kind for my sake. Miss +Johnson, I'm sure it's you I have to thank," and with a little flash of +gratitude she turned to Alice, who replied in a low tone: + +"Thank your brother. He made a sacrifice for the sake of surprising +you." + +Whether it was with a desire to appear amiable in Alice's eyes, or +because she really was touched with Hugh's generosity, 'Lina +involuntarily threw her arm around his neck, and gave to him a kiss +which he remembered for many, many years. At the nicely prepared dinner +served soon after her arrival, a cloud lowered on 'Lina's brow, induced +by the fact that Densie Densmore was permitted a seat at the table, a +proceeding sadly at variance with 'Lina's lately acquired ideas of +aristocracy. + +Accordingly that very day she sought an opportunity to speak with her +mother when she knew that Densie was in an adjoining room. + +"Mother," she began, "why do you suffer that woman to come to the table? +Is it a whim of Alice's, or what?" + +"Oh, you allude to Mrs. Densmore. I couldn't at first imagine whom you +meant," Mrs. Worthington replied, going on to say how foolish it was for +'Lina to assume such airs, that Densie was as good as anybody, or at all +events was a quiet, well-behaved woman, worthy of respect, and that Hugh +would as soon stay away himself as banish her from the table because she +had once been a servant. + +"Yes, but consider Dr. Richards when he comes. What must he think of us? +At the North they recognize white niggers as well as black. I tell you I +won't have it, and unless you speak to her, I shall." + +'Lina ate her supper exultingly, free from Densie's presence, caring +little for the lonely old woman whose lip quivered and whose tears +started every time that she remembered the slighting words accidentally +overheard. + +Swiftly the days went by, bringing callers to see 'Lina; Ellen Tiffton, +who received back her jewelry, never guessing that the bracelet she +clasped upon her arm was not the same lent so many months ago. Ellen was +to be bridesmaid, inasmuch as Alice preferred to be more at liberty, and +see that matters went on properly. This brought Ellen often to Spring +Bank, and as 'Lina was much with her, Alice was left more time to think. +Adah's continued silence with regard to Dr. Richards had troubled her at +first, but now she felt relieved. 'Lina had stated distinctly that ere +coming to Kentucky, he was going to Terrace Hill, and Adah's last letter +had said the same. She would see him then, and if--if he were +George--alas! for the unsuspecting girl who fluttered gayly in the midst +of her bridal finery, and wished the time would come when she could +"escape from that hole, and go back to dear, delightful Fifth Avenue +Hotel." + +The time which hung so heavily upon her hands was flying rapidly, and at +last only one week intervened ere the eventful day. Hugh had gone down +to Frankfort on some errand for 'Lina, and as he passed the +penitentiary, he thought, as he always did now, of the convict Sullivan. +Was he there still, and if so, why could he not see him face to face, +and question him of the past? + +Three hours later and Hugh Worthington was confronting the famous negro +stealer, who gave him back glance for glance, and stood as unflinchingly +before him as if there were upon his conscience no Adah Hastings, who, +by his connivance, had been so terribly wronged. At the mention of her +name, however, his bold assurance left him. There was a quivering of +the muscles about his mouth, and his whole manner was indicative of +strong emotion as he asked if Hugh knew aught of her since that fatal +night, and then listened while Hugh told what he knew and where she had +gone. + +"To Terrace Hill--into the Richards family; this was no chance +arrangement?" and the convict spoke huskily, asking next for the doctor; +and still Hugh did not suspect the magnitude of the plot, and answered +by telling how Dr. Richards was coming soon to make 'Lina his wife. + +Hugh was not looking at his companion then, or he would have been +appalled by the livid, fearful expression which for an instant flashed +on his face. Accustomed to conceal his feelings, the convict did so now; +and asked calmly when the wedding would take place. Hugh named the day +and hour, and then asked if Sullivan knew aught of Adah's husband. + +"Yes, everything," and the convict said vehemently, "Young man, I cannot +tell you now--there is not time, but wait a little and you shall know +the whole. You are interested in Adah. The wedding, you say, is Thursday +night. My time expires on Tuesday. Don't think me impudent if I ask a +list of the invited guests. Will you give it to me?" + +Surely there was some deep mystery here, and he made no reply till +Sullivan again asked for the list. The original paper on which Hugh had +first written the few names of those to be invited chanced to be in his +vest pocket, and mechanically taking it out he passed it to the convict, +who expressed his thanks, and added: "Don't say that you have seen me, +or that I shall be present at that wedding. I shall only come for good, +but I shall surely be there." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +THE DAY OF THE WEDDING + + +Dr. Richards had arrived at Spring Bank. Hugh was the first to meet him. +For a moment he scrutinized the stranger's face earnestly, and then +asked if they had never met before. + +"Not to my knowledge," the doctor replied in perfect good faith, for he +had no suspicion that the man eying him so closely was the one witness +of his marriage with Adah, the stranger whom he scarcely noticed, and +whose name he had forgotten. + +Once fully in the light, where Hugh could discern the features plainer, +he began to be less sure of having met his guest before, for that +immense mustache and those well-trimmed whiskers had changed the +doctor's physiognomy materially. + +'Lina was glad to see the doctor. She had even cried at his delay, and +though no one knew it, had sat up nearly the whole preceding night, +waiting and listening by her open window for any sound to herald his +approach. + +As the result of this long vigil, her head ached dreadfully the next +day, and even the doctor noticed her burning cheeks and watery eyes, and +feeling her rapid pulse asked if she were ill. + +She was not, she said; she had only been troubled because he did not +come, and then for once in her life she did a womanly act. She laid her +head in the doctor's lap and cried, just as she had done the previous +night. He understood the cause of her tears at last, and touched with a +greater degree of tenderness for her than he had ever before +experienced, he smoothed her glossy black hair, and asked: + +"Would you be very sorry to lose me?" + +Selfish and hard as she was, 'Lina loved the doctor, and with a shudder +as she thought of the deception imposed on him, and a half regret that +she had so deceived him, she replied: + +"I am not worthy of you. I do love you very much, and it would kill me +to lose you now. Promise that when you find, as you will, how bad I am, +you will not hate me!" + +It was an attempt at confession, but the doctor did not so construe it. +Poor 'Lina. It is not often we have seen her thus--gentle, softened, +womanly; so we will make the most of it, and remember it in the future. + +The bright sunlight of the next morning was very exhilarating, and +though the doctor, who had risen early, was disappointed in Spring Bank, +he was not at all suspicious, and greeted his bride-elect kindly, +noticing, while he did so, how her cheeks alternately paled, and then +grew red, while she seemed to be chilly and cold. 'Lina had passed a +wretched night, tossing from side to side, bathing her throbbing head +and rubbing her aching limbs. The severe cold taken in the wet yard was +making itself visible, and she came to the breakfast table jaded, +wretched and sick, a striking contrast to Alice Johnson, who seemed to +the doctor more beautiful than ever. She was unusually gay this morning, +for while talking to Dr. Richards, whom she had met in the parlor, she +had, among other things concerning Snowdon, said to him, casually, as it +seemed: + +"Anna has a waiting maid at last. You saw her, of course?" + +Somehow the doctor fancied Alice wished him to say yes, and as he had +seen Adah's back, he replied at once: + +"Oh, yes, I saw her. Fine looking for a servant. Her little boy is +splendid." + +Alice was satisfied. The shadow lifted from her spirits. Dr. Richards +was not George Hastings. He was not the villain she had feared, and +'Lina might have him now. Poor 'Lina. Alice felt almost as if she had +done her a wrong by suspecting the doctor, and was very kind to her that +day. Poor 'Lina, we say it again, for hard, and wicked, and treacherous, +and unfilial, as she had ever been, she had need for pity on this her +wedding day. Retribution, terrible and crushing, was at hand, hurrying +on in the carriage bringing Anna Richards to Spring Bank, and on the +fleet-footed steed bearing the convict swiftly up the Frankfort pike. + +'Lina could not tell what ailed her. Her _hauteur_ of manner was all +gone, and Mug, who had come into the room to see "the finery," was not +chidden or told to let them alone, while Densie, who, at Alice's +suggestion, brought her a glass of wine, was kindly thanked, and even +asked to stay if she liked while the dressing went on. But Densie did +not care to, and she left the room just as the mud-bespattered vehicle +containing Anna Richards drove up, Mr. Millbrook having purposely +stopped in Versailles, thinking it better that Anna should go on alone. + +It was Ellen of course, 'Lina said, and so the dressing continued, and +she was all unsuspicious of the scene enacting below, in the room where +Anna met her brother alone. She had not given Hugh her name. She simply +asked for Dr. Richards, and conducting her into the parlor, hung with +bridal decorations, Hugh went for the doctor, amusing himself on the +back piazza with the sprightly Mug, who when asked if she were not sorry +Miss 'Lina was going off, had naively answered: + +"No-o--sir, 'case she done jaw so much, and pull my har. I tell you, +she's a peeler. Is you glad she's gwine?" + +The doctor was not quite certain, but answered: "Yes, very glad," just +as Hugh announced "a lady who wished to see him." + +Mechanically the doctor took his way to the parlor, while Hugh resumed +his seat by the window, where for the last hour he had watched for the +coming of one who had said, "I will be there." + +Half an hour later, had he looked into the parlor, he would have seen a +frightened, white-faced man crouching at Anna Richards' side and +whispering to her as if all life, all strength, all power to act for +himself were gone: + +"What must I do? Tell me what to do." + +This was a puzzle to Anna, and she replied by asking him another +question. "Do you love 'Lina Worthington?" + +"I--I--no, I guess I don't; but she's rich, and--" + +With a motion of disgust Anna cut him short, saying: "Don't make me +despise you more than I do. Until your lips confessed it, I had faith +that Lily was mistaken, that your marriage was honorable, at least, even +if you tired of it afterward. You are worse than I suppose and now you +speak of money. What shall you do? Get up and not sit whining at my feet +like a puppy. Find Lily, of course, and if she will stoop to listen a +second time to your suit, make her your wife, working to support her +until your hands are blistered, if need be." + +Anna hardly knew herself in this phase of her character, and her brother +certainly did not. + +"Don't be hard on me, Anna," he said, looking at her in a kind of +dogged, uncertain way. "I'll do what you say, only don't be hard. It's +come so sudden, that my head is like a whirlpool. Lily, Willie, Willie. +The child I saw, you mean--yes, the child--I--saw--did it say +he--was--my--boy?" + +The words were thick and far apart. The head drooped lower and lower, +the color all left the lips, and in spite of Anna's vigorous shakes, or +still more vigorous hartshorn, overtaxed nature gave way, and the doctor +fainted at last. It was Anna's turn now to wonder what she should do, +and she was about summoning aid from some quarter when the door opened +suddenly, and Hugh ushered in a stranger--the convict, who had kept his +word, and came to tell what he knew of this complicated mystery, about +which every invited guest was talking, and which was keeping Ellen +Tiffton at home in a fever of excitement to know what it all meant. + + "There will be no bridal at Spring Bank to-night, and if the invited + guests have any respect for the family, they will remain quietly at + home, restraining their curiosity until another day. + + "ONE WHO HAS AUTHORITY" + +Such were the contents of the ten different notes left at ten different +houses in the neighborhood of Spring Bank that April day, by a strange +horseman, who carried them all himself and saw that they were delivered. + +The rider kept on his way, reining his panting steed at last before the +door of Spring Bank, and casting about him anxious glances as he sprang +up the steps. There was nobody in sight but Hugh, who was expecting him, +and who, in reply to his inquiries for the doctor, told where he was, +and that a stranger was with him. There was a low, hurried conversation +between the two, a partial revelation of the business which had brought +Sullivan to the house where were congregated so many of his victims; and +at its close Hugh's face was deadly white, for he knew now that he had +met Dr. Richards before, and that 'Lina could not be his wife. + +"The villain!" he muttered, involuntarily clinching his fist as if to +smite the dastard as he followed Sullivan into the parlor, starting back +when he saw the prostrate form upon the floor, and heard the lady say: +"My brother, sir, has fainted." + +She was Anna, then; and Hugh guessed rightly why she was there. + +"Madam," he began, but ere another word was uttered, there fell upon his +ear a shriek which seemed to cleave the very air and made even the +fainting man move in his unconsciousness. + +It was Mrs. Worthington, who, with hands outstretched as if to keep him +off, stood upon the threshold, gazing in mute terror at the horror of +her life, whispering incoherently: "What is it, Hugh? How came he here? +Save me, save me from him!" + +A look, half of sorrow, half of contempt, flitted across the stranger's +face as he answered for Hugh kindly, gently: "Is the very sight of me so +terrible to you, Eliza? I am only here to set matters right. Here for +our daughter's sake. Eliza, where is our child?" + +He had drawn nearer to her as he said this last, but she intuitively +turned to Hugh, who started suddenly, growing white and faint as a +suspicion of the truth flashed upon him. + +"Mother?" he began, interrogatively, winding his arm about her, for she +was the weaker of the two. + +She knew what he would ask, and with her eye still upon the man who +fascinated her gaze, she answered, sadly: "Forgive me, Hugh. He was--my +husband; he is--'Lina's father, not yours, Hugh--oh! Heaven be praised, +not yours!" and she clung closely to her boy, as if glad one child, at +least, was not tainted with the Murdock blood. + +The convict smiled bitterly, and said to Hugh himself: + +"Your mother is right. She was once my wife, but the law set her free +from the galling chain. Will some one call Densie Densmore in? I may +need her testimony." + +No one volunteered to go for Densie Densmore, and he was about repeating +his request, when Alice came tripping down the stairs, and pausing at +the parlor door, looked in. + +"Anna!" she exclaimed, but uttered no other sound for the terror of +something terrible, which kept her silent. + +She stood looking from one to the other, until the convict said: + +"Young lady, will you call in Densie Densmore? And stay, let the bride +know. She is wanted, too. I may as well confront all my victims at +once." + +Alice never knew what she said to Densie, or 'Lina either. She was only +conscious of following them both down the stairs and into that dreadful +room. No one had said that she was wanted, but she could not keep away. +She must go, and she did, keeping close to Densie, who took but one +step, then with a delirious laugh, she darted upon the stranger like a +tigress, and seizing his arm, said, between a shriek and hiss: + +"David Murdock, why are you here, a wolf in the sheepfold? Tell me, +where is my stolen daughter?" + +For an instant the convict regarded the raving woman, and then, as if in +answer to her question, with a half nod, his glance rested on 'Lina, +who, too much terrified to speak, had crept near to her affianced +husband, now returning to consciousness. Hugh alone saw the nod, and it +brought him at once to 'Lina, where, with his arm upon her chair, he +stood as if he would protect her. Noble Hugh! 'Lina never knew one-half +how good and generous he was until just as she was losing him. + +"Densie," the convict said, trying in vain to shake off the hand which +held him so firmly: "Densie, be calm, and wait, as you see the others +doing. They all, save one, are interested in me." + +"But my daughter, my stolen daughter. I'll have her, or your life!" was +Densie's fierce reply. + +"Auntie," and Alice glided to Densie's side. + +She alone could control that strange being, roused now as she had not +been roused in years. At the sound of her voice, and the touch of her +fingers on her hand, Densie released her hold and suffered herself to +be led to a chair, while Alice knelt beside her. + +There was a moment's hesitancy, and his face flushed and paled +alternately ere the convict could summon courage to begin. + +"Take this seat, sir, you need it," Hugh said, bringing him a chair and +then resuming his watch over 'Lina, who involuntarily leaned her +throbbing head upon his arm, and with the others listened to that +strange tale of sin. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +THE CONVICT'S STORY + + +"It is not an easy task to confess how bad one has been," the stranger +said, "and once no power could have tempted me to do it; but several +years of prison life have taught me some wholesome lessons, and I am not +the same man I was when, Densie Densmore"--and his glance turned toward +her--"when I met you, and won your love. Against you first I sinned. You +are my oldest victim, and it's meet I should begin with you." + +"Yes, with me--me first, and tell me quick of my stolen baby," she +faintly moaned. + +Her ferocity of manner all was gone, and the poor, white-haired creature +sat quietly where Alice had put her, while the story proceeded: + +"You know, Densie, but these do not, how I won your love with promises +of marriage, and then deserted you just when you needed me most. I had +found new prey by that time--was on the eve of marriage with one who was +too good for me. I left you and married Mrs. Eliza Worthington. I--" + +The story was interrupted at this point by a cry from 'Lina, who moaned: + +"No, no, oh no! He is not my father; is he, Hugh? Tell me no. John, Dr. +Richards, pray look at me and say it's all a dream, a dreadful dream! +Oh, Hugh!" and to the brother, scorned so often, poor 'Lina turned for +sympathy, while the stranger continued: + +"It would be useless for me to say now that I loved her, Eliza, but I +did, and when I heard soon after my marriage that I was a father, I +said: 'Densie will never rest now until she finds me, and she must not +come between me and Eliza," so I feigned an excuse and left my new wife +for a few weeks. Eliza, you remember I said I had business in New York, +and so I had. I went to Densie Densmore. I professed sorrow for the +past. I made her believe me, and then laid a most diabolical plan. Money +will do anything, and I had more than people supposed. I had a mother, +too, at that time, a woman old and infirm, and good, even if I was her +son. To her I went with a tale, half false, half true. There was a +little child, I said, a little girl, whose mother was not my wife. I +would have made her so, I said, but she died at the child's birth. Would +my mother take that baby for my sake? She did not refuse, so I named a +day when I would bring it. 'Twas that day, Densie, when I took you to +the museum, and on pretense of a little business I must transact at a +house in Park Row, I left you for an hour, but never went back again." + +"No, never back again--never. I waited so long, waited till I almost +thought I heard my baby cry, and then went home; but baby was gone. +Alice, do you hear me?--baby was gone;" and the poor, mumbling creature, +rocking to and fro, buried her bony fingers in Alice's fair hair. + +"Poor Densie! poor auntie!" was all Alice said, as she regarded with +horror the man, who went on: + +"Yes, baby was gone--gone to my mother's, in a part of the city where +there was no probability of its being found and I was gone, too. You are +shocked, fair maiden, and well you may be," the convict said. + +"In course of time there was a daughter born to me and to Eliza; a sweet +little, brown-haired, brown-eyed girl, whom we named Adaline." + +Instinctively every one in that room glanced at the black eyes and hair +of 'Lina, marveling at the change. + +"I loved this little girl, as it was natural I should, more than I loved +the other, whose mother was a servant. Besides that, she was not so +deeply branded as the other; see--" and pushing back the thick locks +from his forehead, he disclosed his birthmark, while 'Lina suddenly put +her hand where she knew there was another like it. + +"At last there came a separation. Eliza would not live with me longer +and I went away, but pined so for my child that I contrived to steal +her, and carried her to my mother, where was the other one. 'Twas there +you tracked me, Densie. You came one day, enacting a fearful scene, and +frightening my children until they fled in terror and hid away from your +sight." + +"I remember, I remember now. That's where I heard the name," 'Lina said, +while the convict continued: + +"I said you were a mad woman. I made mother believe it; but she never +recovered from the shock, and six weeks after your visit, I was alone +with my two girls, Densie and Adaline. I could not attend to them both, +and so I sent one to Eliza and kept the other myself, hiring a +housekeeper, and to prevent being dogged by Densie again, I passed as +Mr. Monroe Gordon, guardian to the little child whom I loved so much." + +"That was Adah," fell in the whisper from the doctor's lips, but caught +the ear of no one. + +All were too intent upon the story, which proceeded: + +"She grew, and grew in beauty, my fair, lovely child, and I was +wondrously proud of her, giving her every advantage in my power. I sent +her to the best of schools, and even looked forward to the day when she +should take the position she was so well fitted to fill. After she was +grown to girlhood we boarded, she as the ward, I as the guardian still, +and then one unlucky day I stumbled upon you, Dr. John, but not until +you had first stumbled upon my daughter, and been charmed with her +beauty, passing yourself as some one else--as George Hastings, I +believe--lest your fashionable associates should know how the +aristocratic Dr. Richards was in love with a poor, unknown orphan, +boarding up two flights of stairs." + +"Who is he talking about, Hugh? Does he mean me? My head throbs so, I +don't quite understand," 'Lina said, piteously, while Hugh held the poor +aching head against his bosom, crushing the orange blossoms, and +whispering softly: + +"He means Adah." + +"Yes, Adah," the convict rejoined. "John Richards fancied Adah Gordon, +as she was called, but loved his pride and position more. I'll do you +justice, though, young man, I believe at one time you really and truly +loved my child, and but for your mother's letters might have married her +honorably. But you were afraid of that mother. Your pride was stronger +than your love; and as I was determined that you should have my +daughter, I proposed a mock marriage." + +"Monster! You, her father, planned that fiendish act!" and Alice's blue +eyes flashed indignantly upon him, while Hugh, forgetting that the idea +was not new to him, walked up before the "monster," as if to lay him at +his feet. + +"Listen, while I explain, and you will see the monster had an object," +returned the stranger, speaking to Alice, instead of Hugh. "There were +several reasons why I wished Adah to marry Dr. Richards, and as one of +them concerns this scar upon my forehead, I will tell you here its +history. You, madam," addressing himself to Anna, "have probably heard +how your greatgrandfather died." + +"It happened almost a century of years ago, when there was not the +difference of position between the proud Richards line and the humble +Murdocks that there is now. Your greatgrandfather and mine were friends, +boon companions, but one fatal night, when more wine than usual had been +drunk, there arose a fearful quarrel between the two, and with a knife +snatched from a sideboard standing near, Murdock gave his comrade a blow +which resulted in his death. Sobered at once, and nearly beside himself +with terror, he rushed frantically to the chamber of his sleeping wife, +and laying his blood-wet hands upon her brow, screamed for her to rise, +which she did immediately, nearly fainting, it is said, when by the +light of the lamp her husband bore, she saw the bloody print upon her +forehead. Three months afterward my grandfather was born, and over his +left temple was the hated mark which has clung to us ever since, and +which a noted clairvoyant predicted would never disappear until the +feudal parties came together, and a Murdock wedding with a Richards. The +offspring of such union would be without taint or blemish, he said, and +I am told, sir, your boy is fair as alabaster." + +Dr. Richards, to whom this appeal was made, only stared blankly at him, +like one who hears in a dream, but 'Lina, catching at everything +pertaining to the doctor, said, quickly: + +"His boy! Where is his boy? Oh, what does it all mean?" + +"Poor girl!" and the convict spoke sorrowfully. "I did not think she +would take it so hard, but the worst is not yet told, and I must hasten. +I ingratiated myself at once into John Richards' good graces and when I +knew it would answer, I suggested a mock marriage. First, however, I +would know something definite of his family as they were then, and so, +as a Mr. Morris, who wished to purchase a country seat, I went to +Snowdon, and after some inquiries in the village, forced my way to +Terrace Hill. The lady listening to me was the only one I saw, and I +felt sure she at least would be kind to Adah. On my return to New York, +I urged the marriage more pertinaciously than at first, saying, by way +of excusing myself, that as I was only Adah's guardian, I could not, of +course, feel toward her as a near relative would feel--that as I had +already expended large sums of money on her, I was getting tired of it, +and would be glad to be released, hinting, by way of smoothing the +fiendish proposition, my belief that, from constant association, he +would come to love her so much that at last he would really and truly +make her his wife. He did hesitate--he did seem shocked, and if I +remember rightly, called me a brute, an unnatural guardian, and all +that; but little by little I gained ground, until at last he consented, +and I hurried the matter at once, lest he should repent. + +"I had an acquaintance, I said, who lived a few miles from the city--a +man who, for money, would do anything, and who, as a feigned justice of +the peace, would go through with the ceremony, and ever after keep his +own counsel. I wonder the doctor did not make some inquiries concerning +this so-called justice, but I think I am right in saying that he is not +remarkably clear-headed, and this weakness saved me much trouble, and +after a long time I arranged the matter with my friend, who was a lawful +justice, staying with his brother, at that time absent in Europe. This +being done, I decided upon Hugh Worthington for a witness, as being the +person, of all the world, who should be present at Adah's bridal. He had +recently come to New York. I had accidentally made his acquaintance, +acquiring so strong an influence over him that I could almost mold him +to my will. I did not tell him what I wanted until I had tempted him +with drugged wine, and he did not realize what he was doing. He knew +enough, however, to sign his name and to salute the bride, who really +was a bride, as lawful a one as any who ever turned from the altar where +she had registered her vows." + +"Oh, joy, joy!" and Alice sprang at once to her feet, and hastening to +the doctor's side, said to him, authoritatively: + +"You hear, you understand, Adah is your wife, your very own, and you +must go back to her at once. She's in your own home as Rose Markham. She +went from here, Adah Hastings, whose husband's name was George. You do +understand me?" and Alice grew very earnest as the doctor failed to +rouse up, as she thought he ought to do. + +Appealing next to Anna, she continued: + +"Pray, make him comprehend that his wife is at Terrace Hill." + +Very gently Anna answered: + +"She was there, but she has gone. He knows it; I came to tell him, but +she fled immediately after recognizing my brother, and left a letter +revealing the whole." + +It had come to 'Lina by this time that Dr. Richards could never be her +husband, and with a bitter cry, she covered her face with her hands, and +went shivering to the corner where Mrs. Worthington sat, as if a +mother's sympathy were needed now, and coveted as it had never been +before. + +"Oh, mother," she sobbed, laying her head in Mrs. Worthington's lap, "I +wish I had never been born." + +Sadly her wail of disappointment rang through the room, and then the +convict went on with his interrupted narrative. + +"When the marriage was over, Mr. Hastings took his wife to another part +of the city, hiding her from his fashionable associates, staying with +her most of the time, and appearing to love her so much that I thought +it would not be long before I should venture to tell him the truth. I +went South on a little business which a companion and myself had planned +together--the very laudable business of stealing negroes from one State +and selling them in another. Some of you know that I was caught in my +traffic, and that the negro stealer Sullivan, was safely lodged in +prison, from which he was released but two days since. Fearing there +might be some mistake, I wrote from my prison home to Adah herself, but +suppose it did not reach New York till after she had left it. My poor, +dear little girl, thoughts of her have helped to make me a better man +than I ever was before. I am not perfect now, but I certainly am not as +hard, as wicked, or bad as when I first wore the felon's dress." + +A casual observer would have said that Densie Densmore had heard less of +that strange story than any one else, but her hearing faculties had been +sharpened, and not a word was missed by her--not a link lost in the +entire narrative, and when the narrator expressed his love for his +daughter, she darted upon him again, shrieking wildly: + +"And that child whom you loved was the baby you stole, and I shall see +her again--shall hear that blessed name of mother from her own sweet +lips." + +A little apart from the others, his eyes fixed earnestly upon the +convict, stood Hugh. His mind, too, had gathered in every fact, but he +had reached a widely different conclusion from what poor Densie had. + +"Answer her," he said, gravely, as the convict did not reply. "Tell her +if Adah be her child, or--'Lina--which?" + +Had a clap of thunder cleft the air around her, 'Lina could not have +started up sooner than she did. The convict took his eyes away from her, +pitying her so much, while Densie's bony hand was raised as if to thrust +her off, and Densie's voice exclaimed: "Not this, not this. She despises +me, a white nigger. I will not be her mother. The other one--Densie, I +named her--she is mine--" + +The convict shook his head. "No, Densie, not Adah, I kept her, my lawful +child, and sent the other back. It was a bold move, and I wonder it was +not questioned, but Adaline's eyes were not so black then as they are +now, and though six months older than the other, she was small for her +age, and cannot now be so tall as Adah. The mark, too, must have +strengthened the deception, as I knew it would, and eighteen months +sometimes changes a child materially; so Eliza took it for granted that +the girl she received as Adaline, and whose real name was Densie, was +her own; but Adah Hastings is her daughter and Hugh's half-sister, while +this young woman is--the child of myself and Densie Densmore!" + +Alice, Anna, and the doctor looked aghast, while Mrs. Worthington +murmured audibly: "Adah, Adah, darling Adah, she always seemed near to +me; and Willie, precious Willie--oh, I want them here now!" + +One mother had claimed her own, but alas, the fond cry of welcome to +sweet Adah Hastings was a death knell to 'Lina, for it seemed to shut +her out of that gentle woman's heart. There was no place for her, and in +her terrible desolation she stood alone, her eyes wandering wistfully +from one to another, but turning very quickly when they fell on the +white-haired Densie, her mother. She would not have it so; she could not +own the woman she had affected to despise, that servant for her mother, +that villain for her father, and worse--oh, infinitely worse than +all--she had no right to be born! A child of sin and shame, disgraced, +disowned, forsaken. It was a terrible blow, and the proud girl staggered +beneath it. + +"Will no one speak to me?" she said, at last; "no one break this +dreadful silence? Has everybody forsaken me? Do you all loathe and hate +the offspring of such parents? Won't somebody pity and care for me?" + +"Yes, 'Lina," and Hugh--the one from whom she had the least right to +expect pity--Hugh came to her side; and winding his arm around her, +said, with a choking voice: "I will not forsake you, 'Lina; I will care +for you the same as ever, and so long as I have a home you shall have +one, too." + +"Oh, Hugh, I don't deserve this from you!" was 'Lina's faint response, +as she laid her head upon his bosom, whispering: "Take me away--from +them all--upstairs--on the bed I am so sick, and my head is bursting +open!" + +Hugh was strong as a young giant, and lifting gently the yielding form, +he bore it from the room--the bridal room, which she would never enter +again, until he brought her back--and laid her softly down beneath the +windows, dropping tears upon her white, still face, and whispering: + +"Poor 'Lina!" + +As Hugh passed out with his burden in his arms, the bewildered company +seemed to rally; but the convict was the first to act. Turning to Mrs. +Worthington he said: + +"Eliza, I am here to-night for my children's sake; and now that I have +done what I came to do, I shall leave you, only asking that you continue +to be a mother to the poor girl who is really the only sufferer. The +rest have cause for joy; you in particular," turning to the doctor, who +suddenly seemed to break the spell which had bound him, and springing to +his feet, exclaimed: + +"Yes, Lily shall he found, Lily shall be found; but I must see my boy +first. Anna, can't we go now, to-night?" + +That was impossible, Alice said; and as hers was the only clear head in +the household, she set herself at once to plan for everybody. To the +convict and the doctor she paid no heed; but the tired Anna was +conducted at once to her own room, and made to take the rest she so much +needed. Densie too was cared for kindly, soothingly; for the poor old +woman was nearly crushed with all she had heard; and Alice, as she left +her upon the bed, heard her muttering deliriously to herself: + +"She wouldn't let her own mother eat with her. She compared me to a +white nigger; and can I receive her now? No, no; and she don't wish it. +Yet I pitied her when her heart snapped to pieces there in the middle of +the room; poor girl, poor girl!" + +When Alice returned again to the parlor, the convict had gone. There had +been a short consultation between himself and the doctor, an engagement +to meet in Cincinnati to arrange their plan of search; and then he had +turned again to his once wife, still sitting in her corner, motionless, +white, and paralyzed with nervous terror. + +"You need not fear me, Eliza," he said, kindly, "I shall probably never +trouble you again; and though you have no cause to believe my word, I +tell you solemnly that I will never rest until I have found our +daughter, and sent her back to you. Be kind to Densie Densmore; she was +more sinned against than sinning. Good-by, Eliza, good-by." + +He did not offer her his hand; he knew she would not touch it; but with +one farewell look of contrition and regret, he left her, and mounting +the horse which had brought him there, he dashed away from Spring Bank, +just as Colonel Tiffton reined up to the gate. + +Nell would give him no peace until he went over to see what it all meant +and if there really was to be no wedding. It was Alice who met him in +the hall, explaining to him as much as she thought necessary, and asking +him, on his return, to wait a little by the field gate, and turn back +any other guest who might be on the road. + +The colonel promised compliance with her request, and thus were kept +away two carriage loads of people whose curiosity had prompted them to +disregard the contents of the note brought to them so mysteriously. + +Spring Bank was not honored with wedding guests that night; and when the +clock struck eight, the appointed hour for the bridal, only the +bridegroom sat in the dreary parlor, his head bent down upon the sofa +arm, and his chest heaving with the sobs he could not repress as he +thought of all poor Lily had suffered since he left her so cruelly. Hugh +had told him what he did not understand before. He had come into the +room for his mother, whom 'Lina was pleading to see; and after leading +her to the chamber of the half-delirious girl, he had returned to the +doctor, and related to him all he knew of Adah, dwelling long upon her +gentleness and beauty, which had won from him a brother's love, even +though he knew not she was his Sister. + +"I was a wretch, a villain!" the doctor groaned. Then looking wistfully +at Hugh, he said: "Do you think she loves me still? Listen to what she +says in her farewell to Anna," and with faltering voice, he read: "That +killed the love and now, if I could, I would not be his except for +Willie's sake.' Do you think she meant it?" + +"I have no doubt of it, sir. How could her love outlive everything? +Curses and blows might not have killed it, but when you thought to ruin +her good name, to deny your child, she would be less than woman could +she forgive. Why, I hate and despise you myself for the wrong you have +done my sister," and Hugh's tall form seemed to take on an increased +height as he stood, gazing down on one who could not meet his eye, but +cowered and hid his face. + +It was the first time Hugh had called Adah "my sister," and it seemed to +fill every nook and corner of his great heart with unutterable love for +the absent girl. "Sister, sister," he kept repeating to himself, and as +he did so, his resentful indignation grew toward the man who had so +cruelly deceived her, until at last he abruptly left the room, lest his +hot temper should get the mastery, and he knock down his dastardly +brother-in-law, as he greatly wished to do. + +It was a sad house at Spring Bank that night, and only the negroes were +capable of any enjoyment. Terrified at first at what by dint of +listening they saw and heard, they assembled in the kitchen, and +together rehearsed the strange story, wondering if none of the tempting +supper prepared with so much care would be touched by the whites. If +not, they, of course, had the next best right, and when about midnight +Mrs. Worthington passed hurriedly through the dining-room, the table +gave evidence that somebody had partaken of the marriage feast, and not +very sparingly either. But she did not care, her thoughts were divided +between the distant Adah, her daughter--her own--the little brown-eyed +child she had been so proud of years ago, and the moaning, wretched girl +upstairs, 'Lina, tossing distractedly from side to side; now holding her +throbbing head, and now thrusting out her hot, dry hands, as if to keep +off some fancied form, whose hair, she said, was white as snow, and who +claimed to be her mother. + +The shock had been a terrible one to 'Lina--terrible in more senses than +one. She did love Dr. Richards; and the losing him was enough of itself +to drive her mad; but worse even than this, and far more humiliating to +her pride, was the discovery of her parentage, the knowing that a +convict was her father, a common servant her mother, and that no +marriage tie had hallowed her birth. + +"Oh, I can't bear it!" she cried. "I can't. I wish I might die! Will +nobody kill me? Hugh, you will, I know!" + +But Hugh was away for the family physician, for he would not trust a +gossiping servant to do the errand. Once before that doctor had stood by +'Lina's bedside, and felt her feverish pulse, but his face then was not +as anxious as now. He did not speak of danger, but Hugh, who watched him +narrowly, read it in his face, and following him down the stairs, asked +to be told the truth. + +"She is going to be very sick. She may get well, but I have little to +hope from symptoms like hers." + +That was the doctor's reply, and with a sigh Hugh went back to the sick +girl, who had given him little else than sarcasm and scorn. + + + + +CHAPTER XL + +POOR 'LINA + + +Drearily the morning dawned, but there were no bridal slumbers to be +broken, no bridal farewells said. There were indeed good-byes to be +spoken, for Anna was impatient to be gone. But for Adah, who must be +found, and Willie, who must be cared for, and Charlie, who was waiting +for her, she would have tarried longer, and helped to nurse the girl +whom she pitied so much. But even Alice said she had better go, and so +at an early hour she was ready to leave the house she had entered under +so unpleasant circumstances. + +"I would like to see 'Lina," she said to Alice, who carried the request +to the sick room. + +But 'Lina refused. "I can't," she said; "she hates, she despises me, and +she has reason. Tell her I was not worthy to be her sister; tell her +anything you like; but the doctor--oh, Alice, do you think he'll come, +just for a minute, before he goes?" + +It was not a pleasant thing for the doctor to meet 'Lina now face to +face, for of course she wished to reproach him for his treachery. But +she did not--she thought only of herself; and when at last, urged on by +Anna and Alice, he entered into her presence, she only offered him her +hand at first, without a single word. He was shocked to find her so +sick, for a few hours had worked a marvelous change in her, and he +shrank from the bright eyes fixed so eagerly on his face. + +"Oh Dr. Richards," she began at last, "if I loved you less it would not +be so hard to tell you what I must. I did love you, bad as I am, but I +meant to deceive you. It was for me that Adah kept silence at Terrace +Hill. Adah, I almost hate her for having crossed my path." + +There was a fearfully vindictive gleam in the bright eyes now, and the +doctor shudderingly looked away, while 'Lina, with a soft tone, +continued: "You believed me rich, and whether you loved me afterward or +not, you sought me first for my money. I kept up the delusion, for in no +other way could I have won you. Dr. Richards, if I die, as perhaps I +may, I shall have one less sin for which to atone, if I confess to you +that instead of the heiress you imagined me to be, I had scarcely money +enough to pay my board at that hotel. Hugh, who himself is poor, +furnished what means I had, and most of my jewelry was borrowed. Do you +hear that? Do you know what you have escaped?" + +She almost shrieked at the last. + +"Go," she continued, "find your Adah. It's nothing but Adah now. I see +her name in everything. Hugh thinks of nothing else, and why should he? +She's his sister, and I--oh! I'm nobody but a beggarly servant's brat. I +wish I was dead! I wish I was dead! and I will be pretty soon." + +This was their parting, and the doctor left her room a soberer, sadder +man than he had entered it. Half an hour later, and he, with Anna, was +fast nearing Versailles, where they were joined by Mr. Millbrook, and +together the three started on their homeward route. + +Rapidly the tidings flew, told in a thousand different ways, and the +neighborhood was all on fire with the strange gossip. But little cared +they at Spring Bank for the storm outside, so fierce a one was beating +at their doors, that even the fall of Sumter failed to elicit more than +a casual remark from Hugh, who read without the slightest emotion the +President's call for seventy-five thousand men. Tenderer than a brother +was Hugh to the sick girl upstairs, staying by her so patiently that +none save Alice ever guessed how he longed to be free and join in the +search for Adah. To her it had been revealed by a few words accidentally +overheard. "Oh, Adah, sister, I know that I could find you, but my duty +is here." + +This was what he said, and Alice felt her heart throb with increased +respect for the unselfish man, who gave no other token of his impatience +to be gone, but stayed home hour after hour in that close, feverish +room, ministering to all of 'Lina's fancies, and treating her as if no +word of disagreement had ever passed between them. Night after night, +day after day, 'Lina grew worse, until at last, there was no hope, and +the council of physicians summoned to her side said that she would die. +Then Densie softened again, but did not go near the dying one. She could +not be sent away a second time, so she stayed in her own room, which +witnessed many a scene of agonizing prayer, for the poor girl passing so +surely to another world. + +"God save her at the last. God let her into heaven," was the burden of +shattered Densie's prayer, while Alice's was much like it, and Hugh, +too, more than once bowed his head upon the burning hands he held, and +asked that space might be given her for repentance, shuddering as he +recalled the time when, like her, he lay at death's door, unprepared to +enter in. Was he prepared now? Had he made a proper use of life and +health restored? Alas! that the answer conscience forced upon him should +have wrung out so sharp a groan. "But I will be," he said, and laying +his own face by 'Lina's, he promised that if God would bring her reason +back, so they could tell her of the untried world her feet were nearing, +he would henceforth be a better man, and try to serve the God who heard +and answered that earnest prayer. + +It was many days ere the fever abated, but there came a morning in early +May when the eyes were not so fearfully bright as they had been, while +the wild ravings were hushed, and 'Lina lay quietly upon her pillow. + +"Do you know me?" Alice asked, bending gently over her, while Hugh, from +the other side of the bed, leaned eagerly forward for the reply. + +"Yes, Alice, but where am I? This is not New York--not my room. Have +I--am I sick, very sick?" and 'Lina's eyes took a terrified expression +as she read the truth in Alice's face. "I am not going to die, am I?" +she continued, casting upon Alice a look which would have wrung out the +truth, even if Alice had been disposed to withhold it, which she was +not. + +"You are very sick," she answered, "and though we hope for the best, the +doctor does not encourage us much. Are you willing to die, 'Lina?" + +Neither Hugh nor Alice ever forgot the tone of 'Lina's voice as she +replied: + +"Willing? No!" or the expression of her face, as she turned it to the +wall, and motioned them to leave her. + +For two days after that she neither spoke nor gave other token of +interest in anything passing around her, but at the expiration of that +time, as Alice sat by her, she suddenly exclaimed: + +"Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. +I wish He had said that some other way, for if that means we cannot be +forgiven until we forgive everybody, there's no hope for me, for I +cannot, I will not forgive Densie Densmore for being my mother, neither +will I forgive Adah Hastings for having crossed my path. If she had +never seen the doctor I should have been his wife, and never have known +who or what I was. I hate them both, Densie and Adah, so you need not +pray for me. I heard you last night, and even Hugh has taken it up, but +it's no use. I can't forgive." + +'Lina was very much excited--so much indeed, that Alice could not talk +with her then; and for days this was the burden of her remarks. She +could not forgive Densie and Adah, and until she did, there was no use +for her or any one else to pray. But the prayers she could not say for +herself were said for her by others, while Alice omitted no proper +occasion for talking with her personally on the subject she felt to be +all-important. Nor were these efforts without their effect; the bitter +tone when speaking of Densie ceased at last, and Alice was one day +surprised at 'Lina's asking to see her, together with Mrs. Worthington. +Timidly, Densie approached the bed from which she had once been so +angrily dismissed. But there was nothing to fear now from the white, +wasted girl, whose large eyes fastened themselves a moment on the +wrinkled face; then with a shudder, closed tightly, while the lip +quivered with a grieved, suffering expression. She did not say to poor +old Densie that she acknowledged her as a mother, or that she felt for +her the slightest thrill of love. She was through with deception; and +when, at last, she spoke to the anxiously waiting woman, it was only to +say: + +"I wanted to tell you that I have forgiven you; but I cannot call you +mother. You must not expect it. I know no mother but this one," and the +white hand reached itself toward Mrs. Worthington, who took it +unhesitatingly and held it between her own, while 'Lina continued: "I've +given you little cause to love me, and I know how glad you must be that +another, and not I, is your real daughter. I did not know what made me +so bad, but I understand it now. I saw myself so plainly in that man's +eyes; it was his nature in me which made me so hateful to Hugh. Oh, +Hugh! the memory of what I've been to him is the hardest part of all," +and covering her face with the sheet, 'Lina wept bitterly; while Hugh, +who was standing behind her, laid his warm hand on her head, smoothing +her hair caressingly, as he said: + +"Never mind that, 'Lina; I, too, was bad to you. If 'Lina can forgive +me, I surely can forgive 'Lina." + +There was the sound of convulsive sobbing; and then, uncovering her +face, 'Lina raised herself up, and laying her hand on Hugh's bosom, +answered through her tears: + +"I wish I had always felt as I do now. Hugh, you don't know how bad I've +been. Why, I used to be ashamed to call you brother, if any fine people +were near." + +There was a sparkle of indignation in Alice's blue eyes. + +"You have no cause to be ashamed of Hugh," she said, quickly, the tone +of her voice coming like a revelation to 'Lina, who scanned her face +eagerly, and then, turning, looked curiously up to Hugh. + +"I'm glad, I'm glad," she whispered, "for I know now you are worthy even +of her." + +"You are mistaken, 'Lina," Hugh said, huskily, while 'Lina continued; +"And, Hugh, I must tell you more, how bad I've been. You remember the +money you sent to Adah last summer in mother's letter. I kept the whole. +I burned the letter, and mother never saw it. I bought jewelry with +Adah's money. I did so many things, I--I--it goes from me now. I can't +remember all. Oh, must I confess the whole, everything, before I can +say, 'Forgive us our trespasses?'" + +"No, 'Lina. Unless you can repair some wrong, you are not bound to tell +every little thing. Confession is due to God alone," Alice whispered to +the agitated girl, who looked bewildered, as she answered back: "But +God knows all now, and you do not; besides, I can't feel sorry toward +Him as I do toward others. I try and try, but the feeling is not +there--the sorry feeling, I mean, as sorry as I want to feel." + +"God, who knows our feebleness, accepts our purposes to do better, and +gives us strength to carry them out," Alice whispered, again bending +over 'Lina, on whose pallid, distressed face a ray of hope for a moment +shone. + +"I have good purposes," she murmured; "but I can't, I can't. I don't +know as they are real; maybe, if I get well, they would not last, and +it's all so dark, so desolate--nothing to make life desirable--no home, +no name, no friends--and death is so terrible. Oh, Hugh, Hugh! don't let +me go. You are strong; you can hold me back, even from Death himself; +and I can be good to you; I can feel on that point, and I tell you truly +that, standing as I am with the world behind and death before, I see +nothing to make life desirable, but you, Hugh, my noble, my abused +brother. To make you love me, as I hope I might, is worth living for. +You would stand by me, Hugh--you, if no one else, and I wish I could +tell you how fast the great throbs of love keep coming to my heart. Dear +Hugh, Hugh, Brother Hugh, don't let me die--hold me fast." + +With an icy shiver, she clung closer to Hugh, as if he could indeed do +battle with the king of terror stealing slowly into that room. + +"Somebody say 'Our Father,'" she whispered, "I can't remember how it +goes." + +"Do you forgive and love everybody?" Alice asked, sighing as she saw the +bitter expression flash for an instant over the pinched features, while +the white lips answered: "Not Adah, no, not Adah." + +Alice could not pray after that, not aloud at least, and a deep silence +fell upon the group assembled around the deathbed. 'Lina slept at last, +slept quietly on Hugh's strong arm, and gradually the hard expression on +the face relaxed, giving way to one of quiet peace, and Densie, watching +her anxiously, whispered beneath her breath: "See, the Murdock is all +gone, and her face is like a baby's face. Maybe she would call me mother +now." + +Poor Densie! Eagerly she waited for the close of that long sleep, her +eye the first to note that it was ended, and 'Lina awake again. Still +the silence remained unbroken, while 'Lina seemed lost to all else save +the thoughts burning at her breast--thoughts which brought a quiver to +her lips, and forced out upon her brow great drops of sweat, which +Densie wiped away, unnoticed, it may be, or at least unrebuked. The +noonday sun of May was shining broadly into the room, but to 'Lina it +was night, and she said to Alice, now kneeling at her side: "It's +growing dark; they'll light the street lamps pretty soon, and the band +will play in the yard, but I shall not hear them. New York and Saratoga +are a great ways off, and so is Terrace Hill. Tell him I meant to +deceive him, but I did love him. Tell Adah I do forgive her, and I would +like to see her, for she is my half-sister. The bitter is all gone. I am +in charity with everybody, everybody. May I say 'Our Father' now? It +goes and comes, goes and comes, forgive our trespasses, my trespasses; +how is it, Hugh? Say it with me once, and you, too, mother." + +She did not look toward Densie, but her hand fell off that way, and +Densie, with a low cry began with Hugh the soothing prayer in which +'Lina joined feebly, throwing in ejaculatory sentences of her own. + +"I forgive Densie Densmore; I forgive Adah, Adah, everybody. Forgive my +trespasses then as I forgive those that trespass against me. Bless Hugh, +dear Hugh, noble Hugh. Forgive us our trespasses, forgive us our +trespasses, our trespasses, forgive my trespasses, me, forgive, +forgive." + +It was the last word which ever passed 'Lina's lips, "Forgive, forgive," +and Hugh, with his ear close to the lips, heard the faint murmur even +after the hands had fallen from his neck where in the last struggle they +had been clasped, and after the look which comes but once to all had +settled on her face. That was the last of 'Lina, with that cry for +pardon she passed away, and though it was but a deathbed repentance, +and she, the departed, had much need for pardon, Alice and the +half-acknowledged mother clung to it as to a ray of hope, knowing how +tender and full of compassion was the blessed Savior, even to those who +turn not to Him until the river of death is bearing them away. Very +gently Hugh laid the dead girl back upon the pillow, and leaving one +kiss on her white forehead, hurried away to his own room, where, unseen +to mortal eye, he could ask for knowledge to give himself aright to the +God who had come so near to them. + +There were no noisy outbursts among the negroes when told their young +mistress was dead, for 'Lina had not been greatly loved. The sight of +Alice's swollen eyes and tear-stained face affected Mug, it is true, but +even she could not cry until she had coaxed old Uncle Sam to repeat to +her, for the twentieth time, the story of Bethlehem's little children +slain, by order of the cruel Herod. This story, told in old Sam's +peculiar way, had the desired effect, and the tears which refused to +start even at the sight of 'Lina dead, flowed freely for the little ones +over whom Rachel wept, refusing to be comforted. + +"I can cry dreffully now, Miss Alice, I'se sorry, Miss 'Lina is dead, +very sorry. She never can come back any more, can she?" Mug sobbed, +running up to Alice, and hiding her face in her dress. + +And this was about as real as any grief expressed by the blacks for +'Lina. Poor 'Lina, she had taken no pains to win affection while she was +living, and she could not expect to be missed much when she was gone. +Hugh mourned for her the most, more even than his mother or Densie +Densmore--the latter of whom seemed crazier than ever, shutting herself +entirely in her room, and refusing to be present at the funeral. 'Lina +had been ashamed of her, she said, and she would not disgrace her by +claiming relationship now that she was dead, so with eyes whose +blackness was dimmed by tears, she watched from her window the +procession moving from the yard, across the fields, and out to the +hillside, where the Spring Bank dead were buried, and where on the last +day of blooming, beautiful May, they laid 'Lina to rest, forgetting all +her faults, and speaking only kindly words of her as they went slowly +back to the house, from which she had gone forever. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI + +TIDINGS + + +A few days after 'Lina's burial, there came three letters to Spring +Bank, one to Mrs. Worthington from Murdock, as he now chose to be +called, saying that though he had looked, and was still looking +everywhere for the missing Adah, he could only trace her, and that but +vaguely, to the Greenbush depot, where he lost sight of her entirely, no +one after that having seen a person bearing the least resemblance to +her. After a consultation with the doctor, he had advertised for her, +and he inclosed a copy of the advertisement, as it appeared in the +different papers of Boston, Albany, and New York. + +"If A---- H---- will let her whereabouts be known to her friends, she +will hear of something to her advantage." + +This was the purport of Murdock's letter, if we except a kind of inquiry +after 'Lina, of whose death he had not heard. + +The second, for Alice, was from Anna Richards, who was also ignorant as +yet of 'Lina's decease. After inquiring kindly for the unfortunate girl, +she wrote: + +"I have great hopes of my erring brother, now that I know how his whole +heart goes toward his beautiful boy, our darling Willie. I wish poor, +dear Lily could have seen him when, on his arrival at Terrace Hill, he +not only bent over, but knelt by the crib of his sleeping child, waking +him at once, and hugging him to his bosom, while his tears dropped like +rain. I am sure she would have chosen to be his wife, for her own sake +as well as Willie's. + +"You know how proud my mother and sisters are, and it would surprise +you, as it does me, to see them pet, and spoil, and fondle Willie, who +rules the entire household, mother even allowing him to bring +wheelbarrow, drum, and trumpet into the parlor, declaring that she likes +the noise, as it stirs up her blood. Willie has made a vast change in +our once quiet home, and I fear I shall meet with much opposition when I +take him away, as I expect to do next month, for Lily gave him to me, +and brother John has said that I may have him until the mother is found, +while Charlie is perfectly willing; and thus, you see, my cup of joy is +full. + +"Brother is away now, hunting for Adah, and I am wicked enough not to +miss him, so busy am I in the few preparations needed by the wife of a +poor missionary." + +Then, in a postscript. Anna added: "I forgot to tell you that Charlie +and I are to be married some time in July, that the Presbyterian Society +of Snowdon has given him a call to be their pastor, that he has +accepted, and what is best of all, has actually rented your old home for +us to live in. I don't know how it will seem to stop on Sundays at the +meeting house instead of keeping on to our dear, old St. Luke's. I love +the service dearly, but I love my Charlie more, notwithstanding that he +calls me his little heretic, and accuses me of proselytizing intentions +towards himself. I have never confessed it before, but, seriously, I +have strong hopes of seeing him yet in surplice and gown; but till that +time comes, I shall be a real good Presbyterian, or orthodox, as they +are called here in Massachusetts. + +"Perhaps you may have heard that mother was once much opposed to +Charlie. I must say, however, that she has done well at the last, for +when I told her I had found him, and that we were to be married, she +said she was glad on the whole, as it relieved her of a load, and she +hoped I would be happy." + +Anna did not explain to Alice that the load of which her mother was +relieved was mostly Charlie's hidden letters, given up with a full +confession of the pains taken to conceal them, and a frank +acknowledgment of wrong to Anna, who, as her letter indicated, was far +too happy to be angry for a single moment. With a smile, Alice finished +the childlike letter, so much like Anna. Then feeling that Hugh would be +glad to hear from Willie, she went in quest of him, finding him at the +end of the long piazza, where he sat gazing vacantly at the open letter +in his hand--Irving Stanley's letter, which he passed at once to Alice +in exchange for Anna's given to him. + +Glancing at the name at the bottom of the page, Alice blushed painfully, +feeling rather than seeing that Hugh was watching her, and guessing of +what he was thinking. Irving did not know of 'Lina's death. From Dr. +Richards, whom he had accidentally met on Broadway, he had heard of her +sudden illness, and apparently accepted that as the reason why the +marriage was not consummated. Intuitively, however, he felt that there +must be something behind, but he was far too well-bred to ask any idle +questions, and in his letter he merely inquired after 'Lina, as after +any sick friend, playfully hoping that for the sake of the doctor, who +looked very blue, she would soon recover and make him the happiest man +alive. Then followed some allusions to the relationship existing between +himself and Hugh, with regrets that more had not been made of it, and +then he said that having decided to accompany his sister and Mrs. +Ellsworth on her tour to Europe, whither she would go the latter part of +July, and having nothing in particular to occupy him in the interim, he +would, with Hugh's permission, spend a few days at Spring Bank. He did +not say he was coming to see Alice Johnson, but Hugh understood it just +the same, feeling confident that his sole object in visiting Kentucky +was to take Alice back with him, and carry her off to Europe. + +Some such idea flitted across Alice's mind as she read that letter, and +for a single instant her eyes sparkled with delight at the thought of +wandering over Europe in company with Mrs. Ellsworth and Irving Stanley; +but when she looked at Hugh, the bright vision faded, and with it all +desire to go with Irving Stanley, even should he ask her. Hugh needed +her more than Irving Stanley. He was, if possible, more worthy of her. +His noble, unselfish devotion to 'Lina had finished the work begun on +that memorable night, when she said to him: "I may learn to love you," +and from the moment when to 'Lina's passionate cry, "Will no one pity +me?" he had answered, "Yes, 'Lina, I will care for you," her heart had +been all his own, and more than once as she watched with him by 'Lina's +bedside, she had been tempted to wind her arm around his neck and +whisper in his ear: + +"Hugh, I love you now, I will be your wife." + +But propriety had held her back and made her far more reserved toward +him than she had ever been before. Terribly jealous where she was +concerned, Hugh was quick to notice the change, and the gloomy shadow on +his face was not caused wholly by 'Lina's sad death, as many had +supposed. Hugh was very unhappy. Instead of learning to love him, as he +had sometimes hoped she might, Alice had come to dislike him, shunning +his society, and always making some pretense to get away if, by chance, +they were left alone; and now, as the closing act in the sad drama, +Irving Stanley was coming to carry her off forever. + +Hugh's heart was very sore as he sat there waiting for Alice to finish +that letter, and speak to him about it. What a long, long time it took +her to read it through--longer than it needed, he was sure, for the +handwriting was very plain and the letter very brief. + +Alice knew he was waiting for her, and after hesitating a while, she +went up to him, and laying her hand on his shoulder, as she had not done +in weeks, she said: + +"You will be glad to see your cousin?" + +"Yes; I suppose so. Shall you?" + +He turned partly around, so he could look at her; and this it was which +brought the blood so quickly to her face, making her stammer as she +replied: + +"Of course I shall be glad. I like him very much; but--" + +Here she stopped, for she did not know how to tell Hugh that she was not +glad in the way which he supposed. + +"But what?" he asked, "What were you going to say?" and in his eyes +there was a look which drove Alice's courage away, and made her answer: + +"It's queer the doctor did not tell him anything except that 'Lina was +sick." + +"There are a great many queer people in this world," Hugh replied, +rather testily, while Alice mildly rejoined. + +"The letter has been delayed, and he will be here day after to-morrow. +Did you notice?" + +"Yes; and as I am impatient to go for Adah, the sooner he comes the +better, for the sooner it will leave me at liberty. Would it be very +impolite for me to go at once, and leave you to entertain him?" + +"Of course it would," said Alice. "Adah's claim is a strong one, I'll +admit; but the doctor and Mr. Murdock are doing their best; and I ask, +as a favor, that you remain at home to meet Mr. Stanley." + +Now Hugh knew that nothing could have tempted him to leave Spring Bank +so long as Irving Stanley was there; but as he was just in a mood to be +unreasonable, he replied that, "if Alice wished it, he should remain at +home until Mr. Stanley's visit was ended." + +Alice felt exceedingly uncomfortable, for never had Hugh been so +provokingly distant and cool, and she was really glad when at last a +carriage appeared across the fields, and she knew the "city cousin," as +Hugh called him, was coming. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII + +IRVING STANLEY + + +He had come, and up in the chamber where 'Lina died, was making the +toilet necessary after his hot dusty ride. Hugh, heartily ashamed of his +conduct for the last two days, had received him most cordially, meeting +him at the gate, and holding him by the hand, as they walked together to +the house, where Mrs. Worthington stood waiting for him, her lips +quivering, and tears dimming her eyes, as she said to him: "Yes, 'Lina +is dead." + +Irving had heard as much at the depot, and heard, too, a strange story, +the truth of which he greatly doubted. Mrs. Worthington had been 'Lina's +mother, he believed, and his sympathy went out toward her at once, +making him forget that Alice was not there to meet him, as he half +expected she would be, although they were really comparative strangers. + +It was not until a rather late hour that Alice joined him, sitting upon +the cool piazza, with Hugh as his companion. In summer Alice always wore +white, and now, as she came tripping down the long piazza, her muslin +dress floating about her like a snowy mist, her fair hair falling softly +about her face and on her neck, a few geranium leaves twined among the +glossy curls, and her lustrous eyes sparkling with excitement, both +Irving Stanley and Hugh held their breath and watched her as she came, +the one jealously and half angry that she was so beautiful, the other +admiringly and with a feeling of wonder at the beauty he had never seen +surpassed. + +Alice was perfectly self-possessed, and greeted Mr. Stanley as she would +have greeted any friend--and she was glad to see him--spoke of Saratoga, +and then inquired for Mrs. Ellsworth about whom poor 'Lina had talked so +much. + +Mrs. Ellsworth was well, Irving said, though very busy with her +preparations for going to Europe, adding "it was not so much pleasure +which was taking her there as by the hope that by some of the Paris +physicians her little deformed Jennie might be benefited. She had +secured a gem of a governess for her daughter, a young lady whom he had +not yet seen, but over whose beauty and accomplishments his staid sister +Carrie had really waxed eloquent." + +Hugh cared nothing for that governess, and after a little, thinking he +was not wanted, stole quietly away, and being moodily inclined, rambled +off to 'Lina's grave, half wishing, as he stood there in the moonlight, +that he, too, was lying beside it. + +"Were I sure of heaven, it would be a blessed thing to die," he thought, +"for this world has little in it to make me happy. Oh, Alice, Golden +Hair, I could almost wish we had never met, though, as I told her once, +I would rather have loved and lost her than never have loved her at +all." + +Poor Hugh! He was mistaken with regard to Alice. She was not listening +to love words. She was telling Irving Stanley as much of 'Lina's sad +story as she thought necessary, and Irving, though really interested, +was, we must confess, too intent on watching the changing expressions of +her beautiful face to comprehend it clearly in all its complicated +parts. + +He understood that 'Lina was not, and that a certain Adah Hastings was, +Mrs. Worthington's child; understood, too, that Adah was the wife of Dr. +Richards--that she had at some time, not quite clear to him, been at +Terrace Hill, but he somehow received the impression that she eventually +fled from Spring Bank after recognizing the doctor, and never once +thought of associating her with the young woman to whom, many months +previously, he had been so kind in the crowded car, and whose sad, brown +eyes had haunted him at intervals ever since. + +Irving Stanley was not what could well be called fickle. He admired +ladies indiscriminately, respected them all, liked some very much, and +next to Alice was more attracted by and pleased with Adah's face than +any he had ever seen save that of "the Brownie," which seemed to him +much like it. He had thought of Adah often, but had as often associated +her with some tall, bewhiskered man, who loved her and her little boy as +she deserved to be loved. With this idea constantly before him, Adah had +gradually faded from his mind, leaving there only the image of one who +had made the strongest impression upon him of any whom he yet had met. +Alice Johnson, she was the star he followed now, hers the presence which +would make that projected tour through Europe all sunshine. Irving had +decided to be married; his mother said he ought; Augusta said he ought; +Mrs. Ellsworth said he ought; and so, as Hugh suspected, he had come to +Kentucky for the sole purpose of asking Alice to be his wife. At sight, +however, of Hugh, so much improved, so gentlemanly, and so fine looking, +his heart began to misgive him, and Hugh would have been surprised could +he have known that Irving Stanley was as jealous of him as he was of +Irving Stanley. Yet, such was the fact, and it was a hard matter to tell +which was the more miserable of the two, Irving or Hugh, when at last +the latter returned from 'Lina's grave, and seated himself upon the +moon-lighted piazza, a little apart from the lovers, as he believed +Irving and Alice to be. + +By mutual consent the conversation turned upon the war, and Alice could +scarcely forbear laying her hand in Hugh's in token of approbation as +she watched the glow of enthusiasm kindling in his cheek, and the fire +of patriotism flashing from his dark, handsome eyes. + +"I wonder, with your strong desire to punish the South, that you are not +in the field," Irving said, a little dryly, for though not a sympathizer +with the rebellion, he was a Baltimorean, and not yet quite as much +aroused as Hugh, who replied at once: + +"And so I should have been, but for circumstances I could not control. I +shall soon start in quest of my sister, and when she is found I shall +volunteer at once, fighting like a blood-hound, until some ball strikes +me down." + +This he said savagely, and partly for Alice's benefit; never, however, +glancing at her, and so he failed to see the sudden pallor on her cheek, +as she heard, in fancy, the whizzing of the ball which was to lay that +stalwart form in the dust. + +"No, sir," Hugh continued fiercely, "it's not for lack of will that I am +not with them to-day; and, I assure you, nothing could take me to Europe +at such a time as this, unless I went to be rid of the trouble," and +springing from his chair, Hugh strode up and down the piazza, chafing +like a caged lion, while Irving Stanley's face flushed faintly at the +insinuation he could not help understand, and Alice looked surprised +that Hugh should so far have forgotten his position as host. + +The same thought came to Hugh at last, and turning suddenly in his walk, +he confronted Irving Stanley, and offering him his hand, said: + +"Forgive me, sir, for my rudeness. When I get upon the war, I grow too +much excited. I knew you were from Baltimore, and I was fearful you +might uphold that infernal mob which murdered the brave Massachusetts +boys. I could lay that city in ashes." + +Irving took the offered hand, and answered, good humoredly: + +"That would punish the innocent as well as the guilty, so I am not with +you there, though, like you, I recoil in horror from the perpetration of +that fiendish attack upon peaceable troops. I was there myself, and did +what I could to quiet the tumult, receiving more than one brickbat for +my interference. One word more, Cousin Hugh, I am not going to Europe to +be rid of the trouble, or for pleasure either, but as my sister's +escort. I do not yet see that my country needs me; when I do I shall +come home and join the Union army. We may meet yet on some battlefield, +and if we do you will see I am no coward or traitor either." + +Alice's face was white now as marble, and her breath came hurriedly. The +war, before so far off, seemed very near--a terrible reality, when those +two young men talked of standing side by side on some field of carnage. +Hugh noticed her now, and attributing her emotions wholly to her fears +for Irving Stanley, wrung the hand of the latter and then walked away, +half wishing that the leafy woods beyond the distant fields were so many +human beings and he was one of them, marching on to duty. + +In this quiet way two days went by, Irving Stanley, quiet, pleasant, +gentlemanly, and winning all hearts by his extreme suavity of manner; +Hugh, silent, fitful, moody; Alice, artificially gay, and even merry, +trying so hard to make up Hugh's deficiencies, that she led poor Irving +astray, and made him honestly believe she might be won. It was on the +morning of the third day that he resolved to end the uncertainty, and +know just how she regarded him. Hugh had gone to Frankfort, he supposed; +Mrs. Worthington was suffering from a nervous headache, while Densie, as +usual, sat in her own room, mostly silent, but occasionally whispering +to herself, "White nigger, white nigger--that's me!" Apparently it was +the best opportunity he could have, and joining Alice in the large, cool +parlor, he seated himself beside her, and with the thought that nothing +was gained by waiting, plunged at once into his subject. + +"Alice," he began, "I must leave here to-morrow, and the business on +which I came is not yet transacted. Can't you guess what it is? Has not +my manner told you why I came to Kentucky?" + +Alice was far too truthful to affect ignorance, and though it cost her a +most painful effort to do so, she answered, frankly: "I think I can +guess." + +"And you will not tell me no?" Irving said, involuntarily winding his +arm around her, and drawing her drooping head nearer to him. + +Just then a shadow fell upon them, but neither noticed it, or dreamed of +the tall form passing the window and pausing long enough to see Irving +Stanley's arm around Alice's neck, to hear Irving Stanley as he +continued: "Darling Alice, you will be my wife?" + +The rest was lost to Hugh, who had not yet started for Frankfort, as +Irving supposed. With every faculty paralyzed save that of locomotion, +he hurried away to where Rocket stood waiting for him, and mounting his +pet, went dashing across the fields, conscious of nothing save that +Golden Hair was lost forever. In his rapid walk down the piazza he had +not observed Old Sam, seated in the door, nor heard the mumbled words, +"Poor Massa Hugh! I'se berry sorry for him, berry! I kinder thought, +'fore t'other chap comed, Miss Ellis was hankerin' after him a little. +Poor Massa Hugh!" + +Old Sam, like Hugh, had heard Irving Stanley's impassioned words, for +the window nearby was opened wide; he had seen, too, the deadly pallor +on Hugh's face, and how for an instant he staggered, as from a blow, +covering his eyes with his hands and whispering as he passed the negro, +"Oh, Alice, Golden Hair!" + +All this Sam had witnessed, and in his sympathy for "Massa Hugh" he +failed to hear the rest of Irving's wooing, or Alice's low-spoken +answer. She could not be Irving Stanley's wife. She made him understand +that, and then added, sadly: "I am sorry I cannot love you as I ought, +for I well know the meed of gratitude I owe to one who saved my life, +and I have wanted so much to thank you, only you did not seem to +remember me at all." + +In blank amazement Mr. Stanley asked her what she meant, while Alice, +equally amazed, replied: "Surely, you have not forgotten me? Can I be +mistaken? I am the little girl whom Irving Stanley rescued from +drowning, when the _St. Helena_ took fire, several years ago." + +"I was never on a burning boat, never saw the _St. Helena_," was Mr. +Stanley's reply; and then for a moment the two regarded each other +intently, but Irving was the first to speak. + +"It was Hugh," he said. "It must have been Hugh, for I remember now that +when he was a lad, or youth, his uncle sometimes called him Irving, +which is, I think, his middle name." + +"Yes, Yes, H.I. Worthington. I've seen it written thus, but never +thought to ask what 'I.' was for. It was Hugh, and I mistook that old +man for his father. I understand it now," and Alice spoke hurriedly, her +fair face coloring with excitement as the truth flashed upon her that +she was Golden Hair. + +Then the bright color faded away, and alarmed at the pallor which +succeeded it, Irving Stanley passed his arm supportingly around her, +asking if she were faint. Old Sam, moving away from the door, saw her as +she sat thus, but did not hear her reply: "It takes me so by surprise. +Poor Hugh, how he must have suffered." + +She said this last more to herself than to Irving Stanley, who, +nevertheless, saw in it a meaning; and looking her earnestly in the +face, said to her: "Alice, you cannot be my wife, because your heart is +given to Hugh Worthington. Is it not so?" + +Alice would not deceive him, and she answered, frankly: "It is," while +Irving replied: "I approve your choice, although it makes me very +wretched. You will be happy with him. Heaven bless you both." + +He dared not trust himself to say another word, but hurrying from her +presence, sought the shelter of the woods, where alone he could school +himself to bear this terrible disappointment. + +Hugh did not return until evening, and the first object he saw +distinctly as he galloped to the house, was Alice, sitting near to +Irving upon the pleasant piazza, just as it was natural that she should +sit. He did not observe that his mother was there with them; he did not +think of anything as he rode past them with nod and smile, save that +life henceforth was but a dreary, hopeless blank to him. + +Leaving Rocket in Claib's care, he sauntered to the back piazza, where +Sam was sitting, and taking a seat beside him startled him by saying +that he should start on the morrow in quest of his missing sister. + +"Yes, massah," was Sam's quiet reply, for he understood the reason of +this sudden journey. + +Old Sam pitied Hugh, and after a moment's silence his pity expressed +itself in words. Laying his dark hand on Hugh's bowed head, he said: + +"Poor Massah Hugh. Sam kin feel for you ef he is black. Niggers kin love +like the white folks does." + +"What do you mean? What do you know?" Hugh asked, a little haughtily, +while Sam fearlessly replied: + +"'Scuse me, massah, but I hears dem dis mornin'--hears de city chap +sparkin' Miss Ellis, and seen his arm spang round her, too, with her +sweet face, white as wool, lyin' in his buzzum." + +"You saw this after I was gone?" Hugh asked, eagerly, and Sam replied: + +"Yes, massah, strue as preachin', and I'se sorry for massah. I prays +that he may somewhar find anodder Miss Ellis, only not quite so nice, +'cause he can't." + +Hugh smiled bitterly, as he rejoined: + +"Pray rather that I may find Adah, that is the object now for which I +live; and, Sam, keep what you have seen to yourself. Be faithful to Miss +Johnson and kind to mother. There's no telling when I shall return. I +may join the Federal Army, but not a word of this to any one." + +"Oh, massah," Sam began, but Hugh left him ere he finished, and +compelled himself to join the group on the front side of the building, +startling them as he had Sam by announcing his determination to start on +the morrow for New York. + +Alice's exclamation of surprise was lost as Irving rejoined: + +"Then we may travel together, as I, too, leave in the morning." + +Hugh gave him a rapid, searching glance, and then his eye fell on Alice, +whose white face he jealously fancied was caused by the prospect of +parting so soon with her affianced husband. He could not guess whether +she were going to Europe or not. A few weeks seemed so short a time in +which to prepare, that he half believed she might induce Mr. Stanley to +defer the trip till autumn. But he would not ask. She would surely tell +him at the last, he thought. She ought, at least, to trust him as a +brother, and say to him: + +"Hugh, I am engaged to Mr. Stanley, and when you return, if you are long +gone, I shall probably not be here." + +But she said to him no such thing, and only the whiteness of her face +and the occasional quivering of her long eyelashes, showed that she felt +at all, as at an early hour next morning she presided at the breakfast +prepared for the travelers. There was no tremor in her voice, no +hesitancy in her manner, and a stranger could not have told which of the +young men before her held her heart in his possession, or which had kept +her wakeful the entire night, revolving the propriety of telling him ere +he left that the Golden Hair he loved so much was willing to be his. + +"Perhaps he will speak to me. I'll wait," was the final decision, as, +rising from her sleepless pillow, she sat down in the gray dawn of the +morning and penned a hasty note, which she thrust into his hand at +parting, little dreaming how long a time would intervene ere they would +meet again. + +He had not said to her or to his mother that he might join the army, +gathering so fast from every Northern city and hamlet; only Sam knew +this, and so the mother longing for her daughter was pleased rather than +surprised at his abrupt departure, bidding him Godspeed, and lading him +with messages of love for Adah and the little boy. Alice, too, tried to +smile as she said good-by, but it died upon her lips and a tear trembled +on her cheek, when Hugh dropped the little hand he never expected to +hold again just as he held it then. + +Feeling intuitively that Irving and Alice would rather say their parting +words alone, Hugh drew his mother with him as he advanced into the midst +of the sobbing, howling negroes assembled to see him off. But Alice had +nothing to say which she would not have said in his presence. Irving +Stanley understood better than Hugh, and he merely raised her cold hand +to his lips, saying as he did so: + +"Just this once; I shall never kiss it again." + +He was in the carriage when Hugh came up, and Alice stood leaning +against one of the tall pillars, a deep flush now upon her cheek, and +tears filling her soft blue eyes. In another moment the carriage was +rolling from the yard, neither Irving nor Hugh venturing to look back, +and both as by mutual consent avoiding the mention of Alice, whose name +was not spoken once during their journey together to Cincinnati, where +they parted company, Irving continuing his homeward route, while Hugh +stopped in the city to arrange a matter of business with his banker +there. It was not until Irving was gone and he alone in his room that he +opened the little note given him by Alice, the note which would tell him +of her approaching marriage, he believed. How then was he surprised when +he read: + + "DEAR HUGH: I have at last discovered the mistake under which, for + so many years, I have been laboring. It was not Irving Stanley who + saved me from the water, but your own noble self, and you have + generously kept silent all this time, permitting me to expend upon + another the gratitude due to you. + + "Dear Hugh, I wish I had known earlier, or that you did not leave + us so soon. It seems so cold, thanking you on paper, but I have no + other opportunity, and must do it here. + + "Heaven bless you, Hugh. My mother prayed often for the preserver + of her child, and need I tell you that I, too, shall never forget + to pray for you? The Lord keep you in all your ways, and lead you + safely to your sister. + + "ALICE" + +Many times Hugh read this note, then pressing it to his lips thrust it +into his bosom, but failed to see what Alice had hoped he might see, +that the love he once asked for was his, and his alone. He was too sure +that another was preferred before him to reason clearly, and the only +emotions he experienced from reading her note were feelings of pleasure +that she had been set right at last, and that Irving had not withheld +from her the truth. + +"That ends the drama," he said. "I don't quite believe she is going with +him to Europe, but she will be his when he returns; and henceforth my +duty must be to forget, if possible, that ever I knew I loved her. Oh, +Golden Hair, why did I ever meet, or meeting you, why was I suffered to +love her so devotedly, if I must lose her at the last!" + +There were great drops of sweat about Hugh's lips and on his forehead, +as, burying his face in his hands, he laid both upon the table, and +battled manfully with his love for Alice Johnson, a love which refused +at once to surrender its object, even though there seemed no longer a +shadow of hope in which to take refuge. + +"God, help me in my sorrow," was the prayer which fell from the +quivering lips, but did not break the silence of that little room, where +none, save God, witnessed the conflict, the last Hugh ever fought for +Alice Johnson. + +He could give her up at length; could think, without a shudder, of the +time when another than himself would call her his wife; and when, late +that afternoon, he took the evening train for Cleveland, not one in the +crowded car would have guessed how sore was the heart of the young man +who plunged so energetically into the spirited war argument in progress +between a Northern and Southern politician. It was a splendid escape +valve for his pent-up feelings, and Hugh carried everything before him, +taking by turns both sides of the question, and effectually silencing +the two combatants, who said to each other in parting: "We shall hear +from that Kentuckian again, though whether in Rebeldom or Yankeeland we +cannot tell." + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII + +LETTERS FROM HUGH AND IRVING STANLEY + + +Claib had brought two letters from the office, one for Mrs. Worthington +from Hugh, and one for Alice from Irving Stanley. This last had been +long delayed, and as she broke the seal a little nervously, reading that +his trip to Europe had been deferred on account of the illness of his +sister's governess, but that he was going on board the ship that day, +July tenth, and that his sister was there with him and the governess, "A +modest, sweet-faced body," he wrote, "who looks very girl-like from the +fact that her soft, brown hair is worn short in her neck." + +Alice had a tolerably clear insight into Irving Stanley's character, and +immediately her mind conjured up visions of what might be the result of +a sea voyage and months of intimate companionship with that sweet-faced +governess, "who wore her soft, brown hair short in her neck." + +"I hope it may be so," she thought; and folding up her letter, she was +about going out to the rustic seat beneath a tall maple where Mug sat, +whispering over the primer she was trying so hard to read, when a cry +from Mrs. Worthington arrested her attention and brought her at once to +the side of the half-fainting woman. + +"What is it?" Alice asked, in much alarm, and Mrs. Worthington replied: +"Oh, Hugh, Hugh, my boy! he's enlisted, joined the army! I shall never +see him again!" + +Could Hugh have seen Alice then he would not for a moment have doubted +the nature of her feelings toward himself. She did not cry out, nor +faint, but her face turned white as the dress she wore, while her hands +pressed so tightly together, that her long, taper nails left the impress +in her flesh. + +"God keep him from danger and death," she murmured; then, winding her +arms around the stricken mother, she wiped her tears away; and to her +moaning cry that she was left alone, replied: "Let me be your child till +he returns, or, if he never does--" + +She could get no further, for the very idea was overwhelming, and +sinking down beside Hugh's mother, she laid her head on her lap, and +wept bitterly. Alas, that scenes like this should be so common in our +once happy land, but so it is. Mothers start with terror and grow faint +over the boy just enlisted for the war; then follow him with prayers +and yearning love to the distant battlefield; then wait and watch for +tidings from him; and then too often read with streaming eyes and hearts +swelling with agony, the fatal message which says their boy is dead. + +It was a sad day at Spring Bank when first the news of Hugh's enlistment +came, sadder even than when 'Lina died, for Hugh seemed as really dead +as if they all had heard the hissing shell or whizzing ball which was to +bear his young life away. It was nearly two months since he left home, +and he could find no trace of Adah, though searching faithfully for her, +in conjunction with Murdock and Dr. Richards, both of whom had joined +him in New York. + +"If Murdock cannot find her," he wrote, "I am convinced no one can, and +I leave the matter now to him, feeling that another duty calls me, the +duty of fighting for my country." + +It was just after the disastrous battle of Bull Run, when people were +wild with excitement, and Hugh was thus borne with the tide, until at +last he found himself enrolled as a private in a regiment of cavalry +gathering in one of the Northern States. There had been an instant's +hesitation, a clinging of the heart to the dear old home at Spring Bank, +where his mother and Alice were; a thought of Irving Stanley, and then, +with an eagerness which made his whole frame tremble, he had seized the +pen and written down his name, amid deafening cheers for the brave +Kentuckian. This done, there was no turning back; nor did he desire it. +It seemed as if he were made for war, so eagerly he longed to join the +fray. Only one thing was wanting, and that was Rocket. He had tried the +"Yankee horses," as he called them, but found them far inferior to his +pet. Rocket he must have, and in his letter to his mother he made +arrangements for her to send him northward by a Versailles merchant, +who, he knew, was coming to New York. + +Hugh and Rocket, they would make a splendid match, and so Alice thought, +as, on the day when Rocket was led away, she stood with her arms around +his graceful neck, whispering to him the words of love she would fain +have sent his master. She had recovered from the first shock of Hugh's +enlistment. She could think of him now calmly as a soldier; could pray +that God would keep him, and even feel a throb of pride that one who had +lived so many years in Kentucky, then poising almost equally in the +scale, should come out so bravely for the right, though by that act he +called down curses on his head from those at home who favored rebellion, +and who, if they fought at all, would cast in their lot with the +seceding States. She had written to Hugh a kind, sisterly letter, +telling him how proud she was of him, and how her sympathy and prayers +would follow him everywhere. "And if," she had added, in concluding, +"you are sick, or wounded, I will come to you as a sister might do. I +will find you wherever you are." + +She had sent this letter to him three weeks before, and now she stood +caressing the beautiful Rocket, who sometimes proudly arched his long +neck, and then looked wistfully at the sad group gathered around him, as +if he knew that was no ordinary parting. Colonel Tiffton, who had heard +what was going on, had ridden over to expostulate with Mrs. Worthington +against sending Rocket North. "Better keep him at home," he said, "and +tell Hugh to come back, and let those who had raised the muss settle +their own difficulty." + +The old colonel, who was a native of Virginia, did not know exactly +where he stood. "He was very patriotic," he said, "very, but hanged if +he knew which side to take--both were wrong. He didn't go Nell's +doctrine, for Nell was a rabid Secesh; neither did he swallow Abe +Lincoln, and he'd advise Alice to keep a little more quiet, for there +was no knowing what the hotheads might do. He'd heard of Harney's +threatening vengeance on all Unionists, and now that Hugh was gone he +might pounce on Spring Bank any night." + +"Let him!" and Alice's blue eyes flashed brightly, while her girlish +figure seemed to expand and grow higher as she continued: "he will find +no cowards here. I never touched a revolver in my life. I am quite as +much afraid of one that is not loaded as of one that is, but I'll +conquer the weakness. I'll begin to-day. I'll learn to handle firearms. +I'll practice shooting at a mark, and if Hugh is killed I'll--oh, Hugh! +Hugh--" + +She could not tell what she would do, for the woman conquered all other +feelings, and laying her face on Rocket's silken mane, she sobbed aloud. + +"There's pluck, by George!" muttered the old colonel. "I most wish Nell +was that way of thinking." + +It was time now for Rocket to go, and 'mid the deafening howls of the +negroes and the tears of Mrs. Worthington and Alice he was led away, the +latter watching him until he was lost to sight beyond the distant hill, +then, falling on her knees, she prayed, as many a one has done, that +God would be with our brave soldiers, giving them the victory, and +keeping one of them, at least, from falling. + +Sadly, gloomily the autumn days came on, and the land was rife with war +and rumors of war. In the vicinity of Spring Bank were many patriots, +but there were hot Secessionists there also, and bitter contentions +ensued. Old friends were estranged, families were divided, neighbors +watched each other jealously, while all seemed waiting anxiously for the +result. Toward Spring Bank the aspersions of the Confederate adherents +were particularly directed. That Hugh should go North and join the +Federal army was taken as an insult, while Mrs. Worthington and Alice +were closely watched, and all their sayings eagerly repeated. But Alice +did not care. Fully convinced of the right, and that she had yet a work +to do, she carried out her plan so boldly announced to Colonel Tiffton, +and all through the autumn months the frequent clash of firearms was +heard in the Spring Bank woods, where Alice, with Mug at her side, like +her constant shadow, "shot at her marks," hitting once Colonel Tiffton's +dog, and coming pretty near hitting the old colonel himself as he rode +leisurely through the woods. + +After that Alice confided her experiments to the open fields, where she +could see whatever was in danger, and Harney, galloping up and down the +pike, stirring up dissension and scattering his opinions broadcast +through the country, saw her more than once at her occupation, smiling +grimly as he muttered to himself: "It's possible I may try a hand with +you at shooting some day, my fair Yankee miss." + +Blacker, and darker, and thicker the war clouds gathered on our horizon, +but our story has little to do with that first year of carnage, when +human blood was poured as freely as water, from the Cumberland to the +Potomac. Over all that we pass, and open the scene again in the summer +of '62, when people were gradually waking to the fact that Richmond was +not so easily taken, or the South so easily conquered. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV + +THE DESERTER + + +There had been a desertion from a regiment on the Potomac. An officer +of inferior rank, but whose position had been such as to make him the +possessor of much valuable information, and whose perfect loyalty had +been for some time suspected, was missing from his command one morning, +and under such circumstances as to leave little doubt that his intention +was to reach the enemy's lines if possible. Long and loud were the +invectives against the traitor, and none were deeper in their +denunciations than Captain Hugh Worthington, as, seated on his fiery war +horse, Rocket, he heard from Irving Stanley the story of Dr. Richards' +disgrace. + +"He should be pursued, brought back, and shot!" he said, emphatically, +feeling that he would like much to be one of the pursuers, already on +the track of the treacherous doctor, who skillfully eluded them all, and +just at the close of a warm summer day, when afar, in his New England +home, his Sister Anna was reading, with an aching heart, the story of +his disgrace, he sat in the shadow of the Virginia woods, weary, +footsore and faint with the pain caused from his ankle, sprained by a +recent fall. + +He had hunted for Adah until entirely discouraged, and partly as a +panacea for the remorse preying so constantly upon him, and partly in +compliance with Anna's entreaties, he had at last joined the Federal +army, and been sworn in with the full expectation of some lucrative +office. But his unlucky star was in the ascendant. Stories derogatory to +his character were set afloat, and the final result of the whole was +that he found himself enrolled in a company where he knew he was +disliked, and under a captain whom he thoroughly detested, for the fraud +practiced upon himself. In this condition he was sent to the Potomac, +and while on duty as a picket, grew to be on the most friendly terms +with more than one of the enemy, planning at last to desert, and +effecting his escape one stormy night, when the watch were off their +guard. Owing to some mistake, the aid promised by his Rebel friends had +not been extended, and as best he could he was making his way to +Richmond, when, worn out with hunger, watchfulness and fatigue, he sank +down to die, as he believed, at the entrance of some beautiful woods +which skirted the borders of a well-kept farm in Virginia. Before him, +at the distance of nearly a quarter of a mile, a large, handsome house +was visible, and by the wreath of smoke curling from the rear chimney, +he knew it was inhabited, and thought once to go there, and beg for the +food he craved so terribly. But fear kept him back--the people might be +Unionists, and might detain him a prisoner until the officers upon his +track came up. Dr. Richards was cowardly, and so with a groan, he laid +his head upon the grass, and half wished that he had died ere he came to +be the miserable wretch he was. The pain in his ankle was by this time +intolerable, and the limb was swelling so fast that to walk on the +morrow was impossible, and if he found a shelter at all, it must be +found that night. + +Midway between himself and the house was a comfortable-looking barn, +whither he resolved to go. But the journey was a tedious one, and +brought to his flushed forehead great drops of sweat, wrung out by the +agony it caused him to step upon his foot. At last, when he could bear +his weight upon it no longer, he sank upon the ground, and crawling +slowly upon his hands and knees, reached the barn just as it was growing +dark, and the shadows creeping into the corners made him half shrink +with terror lest they were the bayonets of those whose coming he was +constantly expecting. He could not climb to the scaffolding, and so he +sought a friendly pile of hay, and crouching down behind it, ere long +fell asleep for the first time in three long days and nights. + +The early June sun was just shining through the cracks between the +boards when he awoke, sore, stiff, feverish, burning with thirst, and +utterly unable to use the poor, swollen foot, which lay so helplessly +upon the hay. + +"Oh, for Anna now," he moaned; "if she were only here; or Lily, dear +Lily, she would pity and forgive, could she see me now." + +But hark, what sound is it which falls upon his ear, making him quake +with fear, and, in spite of his aching ankle, creep farther behind the +hay? It is a footstep--a light, tripping step, and it comes that way, +nearer, nearer, until a shadow falls between the open chinks and the +bright sunshine without. Then it moves on, around the corner, pausing +for a moment, while the hidden coward holds his breath, and listens +anxiously, hoping nothing is coming there. But there is, and it enters +the same door through which he came the previous night--a girlish +figure, with a basket on her arm--a basket in which she puts the eggs +she knows just where to find. Not behind the hay, where a poor wretch +was almost dead with terror. There was no nest there, and so she failed +to see the ghastly face, pinched with hunger and pain, the glassy eyes, +the uncombed hair, and soiled tattered garments of him who once was +known as one of fashion's most fastidious dandies. + +She had secured her eggs for the morning meal, and the doctor hoped she +was about to leave, when there was a rustling of the hay, and he almost +uttered a scream of fear. But the sound died on his lips, as he heard +the voice of prayer--heard that young girl as she prayed, and the words +she uttered stopped, for an instant, the pulsations of his heart, and +partly took his senses away. First for her baby boy she prayed, asking +that God would be to him father and mother both, and keep him from +temptation. Then for her country, her distracted, bleeding country, and +the doctor, listening to her, knew it was no Rebel tongue calling so +earnestly on God to save the Union, praying so touchingly for the poor, +suffering soldiers, and coming at last even to him, the miserable +outcast, whose bloodshot eyes grew blind, and whose brain grew giddy and +wild, as he heard again Lily's voice, pleading for George, wherever he +might be. She did not say: "God send him back to me, who loves him +still." She only asked forgiveness for the father of her boy, but this +was proof to the listener that she did not hate him, and forgetful of +his pain he raised himself upon his elbow, and looking over the pile of +hay, saw her where she knelt. Lily, Adah, his wife, her fair face +covered by her hands, and her soft, brown hair cut short and curling in +her neck. + +Twice he essayed to speak, but his tongue refused to move, and he sank +back exhausted, just as Adah arose from her knees and turned to leave +the barn. He could not let her go. He should die before she came again; +he was half dying now, and it would be so sweet to breathe out his life +upon her bosom, with perhaps her forgiving kiss upon his lips. + +"Adah!" he tried to say; but the quivering lips made no sound, and Adah +passed out, leaving him there alone. "Adah, Lily, Anna," he gasped, +hardly knowing himself whose name he called in his despair. + +She heard that sound, and started suddenly, for she thought it was her +old, familiar name which no one knew there at Sunny Mead. For a moment +she paused; but it came not again, and so she turned the corner, and her +shadow fell a second time on the haggard face pressed against that +crevice in the wall, the opening large enough to thrust the long fingers +through, in the wild hope of detaining her as she passed. + +"Adah!" + +It was a gasping, bitter cry; but it reached her, and looking back, she +saw the pale hand beckoning, the fingers motioning feebly, as if begging +her to return. There was a moment's hesitation, and then conquering her +timidity, Adah went back, shuddering as she passed the still beckoning +hand, and caught a glimpse of the wild eyes peering at her through the +crevice. + +"Adah!" + +She heard it distinctly now, and with it came thoughts of Hugh. It must +be he; and her feet scarcely touched the ground in her eagerness to find +him. Over the threshold, across the floor, and behind the hay she +bounded; but stood aghast at the spectacle before her. He had struggled +to his knees; and with his sprained limb coiled under him, his ashen +lips apart, and his arms stretched out, he was waiting for her. But Adah +did not spring into those trembling arms, as once she would have done. +She would never willingly rest in their embrace again; and utter, +overwhelming surprise was the only emotion on her face as she recognized +him, not so much by his looks as by the name he gave her. + +"George, oh, George, how came you here?" she asked, drawing backward +from the arm reached out to touch her. + +He felt that he was repulsed, and, with a wail which smote painfully on +Adah's heart, he fell forward on his face, sobbing: "Oh, Adah, Lily, +pity me, pity me, if you can't forgive! I have slept for three nights in +the woods, without once tasting food! My ankle is sprained, my strength +is gone, and I wish that I were dead!" + +She had drawn nearer to him, while he spoke, near enough to recognize +her country's uniform, all soiled and tattered though it was. He was a +soldier, then--Liberty's loyal son--and that fact awoke a throb of pity. + +"George," she said, kneeling down beside him, and laying her hand upon +his ragged coat, "tell me how came you here, and where is your company?" + +He would not deceive her, though tempted to do so, and he answered her +truthfully: "Lily, I am a deserter. I am trying to join the enemy!" + +He did not see the indignant flash of her eyes, or the look of scorn +upon her face, but he felt the reproach her silence implied, and dared +not look up. + +"George," she began at last, sternly, very sternly, "but for Him who +bade us forgive seventy times seven, I should feel inclined to leave you +here to die; but when I remember how much He is tried with one, I feel +that I am to be no one's judge. Tell me, then, why you have deserted; +and tell me, too--oh, George, in mercy--tell me if you know aught of +Willie?" + +The mother had forgotten all the wrongs heaped upon the wife, and Adah +drew nearer to him now, so near, indeed, that his arm encircled her at +last, and held her close; but the ragged, dirty, fallen creature did not +dare to kiss her, and could only press her convulsively to his breast, +as he attempted an answer to her question. + +"You must be quick," she said, suddenly remembering herself; "it is +growing late, Mrs. Ellsworth will be waiting for her breakfast; and +since the stampede of her servants, two old negroes and myself are all +there are left to care for the house. Stay," she added, as a new thought +seemed to strike her; "I must go, or they will look for me; but after +breakfast I will return, and do for you what I can. Lie down again upon +the hay." + +She spoke kindly to him, but he felt it was as she would have spoken to +any one in distress, and not as once she had addressed him. But he knew +that he deserved it, and he suffered her to leave him, watching her with +streaming eyes as she hurried along the path, and counting the minutes, +which seemed to him like hours, ere he saw her returning. She was very +white when she came back, and he noticed that she frequently glanced +toward the house, as if haunted by some terror. Constantly expecting +detection, he grasped her arm, as she bent to bathe his swollen foot, +and whispered huskily: "Adah, there's something on your mind--some evil +you fear. Tell me, is any one after me!" + +Adah nodded; while, like a frightened child, the tall man clung to her +neck, saying, piteously: "Don't give me up! Don't tell; they would hang +me, perhaps!" + +"They ought to do so," trembled on Adah's lips, but she suppressed the +words, and went on bandaging up the ankle, and handling it as carefully +as if it had not belonged to a deserter. + +He did not feel pain now in his anxiety, as he asked: "Who is it, Adah? +who's after me?" but he started when she replied, with downcast eyes and +a flush upon her cheek: "Major Irving Stanley. You were in his +regiment, the ----th New York Volunteers." + +Dr. Richards drew a relieved breath. "I'd rather it were he than Captain +Worthington, who hates me so cordially. Adah, you must hide me; I have +so much to tell. I know your parents, your brother, your husband; and I +am he. It was not a mock marriage. It has been proved real. It was a +genuine justice who married us, and you are my lawful wife. Oh, pray, +please don't hurt me so." He uttered a scream of pain as Adah's hands +pressed heavily now upon the hard, purple flesh. + +She scarcely knew what she was doing as she listened to his words and +heard that she was indeed his wife. Two years before, such news would +have overwhelmed her with delight, but now for a single instant a fierce +and almost resentful pang shot through her heart as she thought of being +bound for life to one for whom she had no love, and whose very caresses +made her loathe him more and more. But when she thought of Willie, and +how the stain upon his birth was washed away, the hard look left her +eyes, and her hot tears dropped upon the ankle she was bandaging. + +"You are glad?" he asked, looking at her curiously, for her manner +puzzled him. + +"Yes, very glad for Willie," she replied, keeping her face bent down so +he could not see its expression. + +Then when her task was done, she seemed to nerve herself for some +powerful task, and sitting down upon the hay, out of reach of his arms, +she said: + +"Tell me now all that has happened since I left Terrace Hill; but first +of Willie. You say Anna has him?" + +"Yes, Anna--Mrs. Millbrook," he replied, and was about to say more, when +Adah interrupted him with: + +"It may spare you some pain if I tell you first what I know of the +tragedy at Spring Bank. I know that 'Lina is dead, and that the fact of +my existence prevented the marriage. So much I heard Mr. Stanley tell +his sister. I had just come to her then. She was prouder toward me than +she is now, and with a look silenced him from talking in my presence, so +that was all I ever knew, as I dared not question her lest I should be +suspected. Go on, you spoke of my parents, my brother. Who are they?" + +Her manner perplexed him greatly, but he controlled himself, while he +repeated rapidly the story known already to our readers, the story +which made Adah reel where she sat, and turn so white that he attempted +to reach her, and so keep her from falling. But just the touch of his +hand had power to arouse her, and drawing back she laid her face in the +hay, and moaned: + +"That gentle woman, my mother; that noble Hugh, my brother! it's more +than I ever hoped. Oh, Heavenly Father, accept my thanks for this great +happiness. A mother and a brother found." + +"And husband, too," chimed in the doctor, eagerly, "thank Him for me, +Adah. You are glad to find me?" + +There was pleading in his tone--earnest pleading, for the terrible +conviction was fastening itself upon him, that not as they once parted +had he and Adah met. For full five minutes Adah lay upon the hay, her +whole soul going out in a prayer of thankfulness for her great joy, and +for strength to bear the bitterness mingling with her joy. Her face was +very white when she lifted it up at last, but her manner was composed, +and she questioned the doctor calmly of Spring Bank, of Alice, of Hugh, +of Anna, but could not trust herself to say much to him of Willie, lest +her calmness should give way, and a feeling spring up in her heart of +something like affection for Willie's father. Alas, for the miserable +man. He had found his wife, his Adah, but there was between them a gulf +which his own act had built, and which he never more might pass. He +began to suspect it, and ere she had finished the story of her +wanderings, which at his request she told, he knew there was no +pulsation of her heart which beat for him. He asked her where she had +been since she fled from Terrace Hill, and how she came to be in Mrs. +Ellsworth's family. + +There was a moment's hesitancy, as if she were deciding how much to tell +him of the past, and then resolving to keep nothing back which he might +know, she told him how, with a stunned heart and giddy brain, she had +gone to Albany, and mingling with the crowd had mechanically followed +them down to a boat just starting for New York. That, by some means, she +never knew how, she found herself in the saloon, and seated next to a +feeble, deformed little girl, who lay upon the sofa, and whose sweet, +childish voice said to her pityingly: + +"Does your head ache, lady, or what makes you so white?" + +She had responded to that appeal, talking kindly to the little girl, +between whom and herself the friendliest of relations were established +and whose name she learned was Jenny Ellsworth. The mother she did not +then see, as, during the journey down the river she was suffering from a +nervous headache, and kept her room. From the child and child's nurse, +however, she heard that Mrs. Ellsworth was going ere long to Europe, and +was anxious to secure some young and competent person to act in the +capacity of Jenny's governess. Instantly Adah's decision was made. Once +in New York she would by letter apply for the situation, for nothing +then could so well suit her state of mind as a tour to Europe, where she +would be far away from all she had ever known. Very adroitly she +ascertained Mrs. Ellsworth's address, wrote to her a note the day +following her arrival in New York, and the day following that, found her +in Mrs. Ellsworth's parlor at the Brevoort House, where for a few days +she was stopping. She had been greatly troubled to know what name to +give, but finally resolved to take her own, the one by which she was +known ere George Hastings crossed her path. Adah Maria Gordon was, as +she supposed, her real name, so in her note to Mrs. Ellsworth she signed +herself "Maria Gordon," omitting the Adah, which might lead to her being +recognized. From her little girl Mrs. Ellsworth had heard much of the +sweet young lady, who was so kind to her on the boat, and was thus +already prepossessed in her favor. + +Adah did not tell Dr. Richards, and perhaps she did not herself know how +surprised and delighted Mrs. Ellsworth was with the fair, girlish +creature, announced to her as Miss Gordon, and who won her heart before +five minutes were gone, making her think it of no consequence to inquire +concerning her at Madam ----'s school, where she said she had been a +pupil. + +"My sister must have been there at the same time," Mrs. Ellsworth had +said. "Perhaps you remember her, Augusta Stanley?" + +Yes, Miss Gordon remembered her well, but added modestly: + +"She may have forgotten me, as I was only a day scholar, and--not--not +quite her circle. I was poor." + +Charmed with her frankness, Mrs. Ellsworth decided in her own mind to +take her, but, for form's sake, she would write to her sister Augusta, +recently married, and living in Milwaukee. + +"Your first name is Maria," she said, taking out her pencil to write it +down. + +Adah could not tell a lie, and she replied unhesitatingly: + +"No, ma'am; my name is Adah Maria, but I prefer being called Maria." + +Mrs. Ellsworth nodded, wrote down "Adah Maria Gordon," but in the letter +sent that day to Augusta, merely spoke of her governess in prospect as a +Miss Gordon, who had been at the same school with Augusta, asking if she +remembered her. + +Yes, Augusta remembered Miss Gordon, well, a brown-eyed, sweet-faced, +conscientious little creature whom she liked so much, and whose services +her sister had better secure. + +Mrs. Ellsworth hesitated no longer, and ten days after the receipt of +this letter, Adah was duly installed as governess to the delighted +little Jennie, who learned to love her gentle teacher with a love almost +amounting to idolatry. + +"You were in Europe then, and that is the reason why we could not find +you," Dr. Richards said, adding, after a moment: "And Irving Stanley +went with you--was your companion all the while?" + +"Yes, all the while," and Adah's cold fingers worked nervously at the +wisp of hay she was twisting in her hand. "I had seen him before--he was +in the cars when Willie and I were on our way to Terrace Hill. Willie +had the earache, and he was so kind to us both." + +Adah looked fixedly now at the craven doctor, who could not meet her +glance, for well he remembered the dastardly part he had played in that +scene, where his own child was screaming with pain, and he sat selfishly +idle. + +"She don't know I was there, though," he thought, and that gave him some +comfort. + +But Adah did know, and she meant he should know she did. Keeping her +calm brown eyes still fixed upon him, she continued: + +"I heard Mr. Stanley talking of you once to his sister, and among other +things he spoke of your dislike for children, and referred to an +occasion in the cars, when a little boy, for whom his heart ached, was +suffering acutely, and for whom you evinced no interest, except to call +him a brat, and wonder why his mother did not stay at home. I never knew +till then that you were so near to me." + +"It's true, it's true," the doctor cried, tears rolling down his soiled +face; "but I never guessed it was you. Lily, I supposed it some ordinary +woman." + +"So did Irving Stanley," was Adah's quiet, cutting answer; "but his +heart was open to sympathy, even for an ordinary woman." + +The doctor could only moan, with his face still hidden in his hands, +until a sudden thought like a revelation flashed upon him, and +forgetting his wounded foot, he sprang like a tiger to the spot where +Adah sat, and winding his arm firmly around her, whispered hoarsely: + +"Adah, Lily, tell me you love this Irving Stanley. My wife loves another +than her husband." + +Adah did not struggle to release herself from his close grasp. It was +punishment she ought to bear, she thought, but her whole soul loathed +that close embrace, and the loathing expressed itself in the tone of her +voice, as she replied: + +"Until within an hour I did not suppose you were my husband. You said +you were not in that letter; I have it yet; the one in which you told me +it was a mock marriage, as, by your own confession, it seems you meant +it should be." + +"Oh, darling, you kill me, yet I deserve it all; but, Adah, I have +suffered enough to atone for the dreadful past; and I tried so hard to +find you. Forgive me, Lily, forgive," and falling again on his knees, +the wretched man poured forth a torrent of entreaties for her +forgiveness, her love, without which he should die. + +Holding fast her cold hands, he pleaded with all his eloquence, until, +maddened by her silence, he even taunted her with loving another, while +her own husband was living. + +Then Adah started, and pushing him away, sprang to her feet, while the +hot blood stained her face and neck, and a resentful fire gleamed from +her brown eyes. + +"It is not well for you to reproach me with faithlessness," she said, +"you, who have dealt so treacherously by me; you, who deliberately +planned my ruin, and would have effected it but for the deeper-laid +scheme of one you say is my father. No thanks to you that I am a lawful +wife. You did not make me so of your own free will. You did to me the +greatest wrong a man can do a woman, then cruelly deserted me, and now +you would chide me for respecting another more than I do you." + +"Not respecting him, Adah, no, not for respecting him. You should do +that. He's worthier than I; but, oh, Adah, Lily, wife, mother of my boy, +do you love Irving Stanley?" + +He was sobbing bitterly, and the words came between the sobs, while he +tried to clutch her dress. Staggering backward against the wooden beam, +Adah leaned there for support, while she replied: + +"You would not understand if I should tell you the terrible struggle it +was for me to be thrown each day in the society of one as noble, as good +as Irving Stanley, and not come at last to feel for him as a poor +governess ought never to feel for the handsome, gifted brother of her +employer. Oh, George, I prayed against it so much, prayed to be kept +from the sin, if it were a sin, to have Irving Stanley mingled with +every thought. But the more I prayed, the more the temptation seemed +thrust upon me. The kinder, gentler, more attentive, grew his manners +toward me. He never treated me as a mere governess. It was more like an +equal at first, and then like a younger sister, so that few strangers +took me for a subordinate, so kind were both Mrs. Ellsworth and her +brother." + +"And he," the doctor gasped, looking wistfully in her face, "does he--do +you think he loves you?" + +Adah colored crimson, but answered frankly: + +"He never told me so; never said to me a word which a husband should not +hear; but--sometimes I've fancied, I've feared, I've left him abruptly +lest he should speak, for that I know would bring the crisis I so +dreaded. I must tell him the whole then, and by my dread of doing this, +I knew he was more than a friend to me. I was fearful at first that he +might recognise me, but I was much thinner than when I saw him in the +cars, while my hair, purposely worn short, and curling in my neck, +changed my looks materially, so that he only wondered whom I was so much +like, but never suspected the truth." + +There was silence, a moment, and then the doctor asked: "How is all this +to end?" + +The question brought into Adah's eyes a fearful look of anguish, but she +did not answer, and the doctor spoke again. + +"Have I found Lily only to lose her?" + +Still there was no reply, and the doctor continued: "You are my wife, +Adah. No power can undo that, save death, and you are my child's mother. +For Willie's sake, oh, Adah, for Willie's sake, forgive." + +When he appealed to her as his wife, Adah seemed turning into stone; but +the mention of Willie touched the mother within that girlish woman, and +the iceberg melted at once. + +"For Willie, my boy," she gasped, "I could do almost anything; I could +die so willingly but--but--oh, George, that ever we should come to this. +You a deserter, a traitor to your country--lamed, disabled, wholly in +my power, and begging of me, your outcast wife, for the love which +surely is dead--dead. No, George, I do forgive, but never, never more +can I be to you a wife." + +There was a rising resentment now in the doctor's manner, as he answered +reproachfully: "Then surrender me at once to the lover hunting for me. +Let him take me back where I can be shot and that will leave you free." + +Adah raised her hand deprecatingly, and when he had finished, rejoined: +"You mistake Major Stanley, if you think he would marry me, knowing what +I should tell him. It's not for him that I refuse. It's for myself. I +could not bear it. I--" + +"Stay, Adah, Lily, don't say you should hate me;" and the doctor's voice +was so full of anguish that Adah involuntarily advanced toward him, +standing quite near, while he begged of her to say if the past could not +be forgotten. His family were ready, were anxious to receive her. Sweet +Anna Millbrook already loved her as a sister, while he, her husband, +words could not tell his love for her. He would do whatever she +required; go back to the Federal army if she said so; seek for the +pardon he was sure to gain; fight for his country like a hero, periling +life and limb, if she would only give him the shadow of a hope. + +"I must have time to think. I cannot decide alone," Adah answered, while +the doctor clutched her dress, half shrieking with terror: + +"You surely will not consult him, Major Stanley?" + +"No," and Adah spoke reverently, "there's a mightier friend than he. One +who has never failed me in my need. He will tell me what to do." + +The doctor knew now what she meant, and with a moan he laid his head +again upon the hay, wishing, oh, so much, that the lessons taught him +when in that little attic chamber, years ago, he knelt by Adah's side, +and said with her, "Our Father," had not been all forgotten. When he +lifted up his face again, Adah was gone, but he knew she would return, +and waited patiently while just outside the door, with her fair face +buried in the sweet Virginia grass, and the warm summer sunshine falling +softly upon her, poor half-crazed Adah fought and won the fiercest +battle she had ever known, coming off conqueror over self, and feeling +sure that God had heard her earnest cry for help, and told her what to +do. There was no wavering now; her step was firm; her voice steady, as +she went back to the doctor's side, and bending over him, said: + +"I will nurse you, my husband, till you are well; then you must go back +whence you came, confess your fault, rejoin your regiment, and by your +faithfulness wipe out the stain of desertion. Then, when the war is +over, or you are honorably discharged, I will--be your wife. I may not +love you at first as once I did, but I shall try, and He, who counsels +me to tell you this, will help me, I am sure." + +It was almost pitiful now to see the doctor, as, spaniel-like, he +crouched at Adah's feet, kissing her hands and blessing her 'mid his +tears. "He would be worthy of her, and they should yet be so happy." + +Adah suffered him to caress her for a moment, and then told him she must +go, for Mrs. Ellsworth would wonder at her long absence, and possibly +institute a search. Pressing one more kiss upon her hand the doctor +crept back to his hiding place, while Adah went slowly to the house +where she knew Irving Stanley was anxiously waiting for her. She dared +not meet him alone now, for latterly each time they had so met, she knew +she had kept at bay the declaration trembling on his lips, and which now +must never be listened to. So she stayed away from the pleasant parlor +where all the morning he sat chatting with his sister, who guessed how +much he loved the beautiful and accomplished girl, whom, by way of his +sister Augusta he now knew as the Brownie he had once seen at Madam ----'s +school, in New York. + +Right-minded and high-principled, Mrs. Ellsworth had conquered any pride +she might at first have felt--any reluctance to her brother's marrying +her governess, and now like him was anxious to have it settled. But Adah +gave him no chance that day, and late in the afternoon he rode back to +his regiment, wondering at the change in Miss Gordon, and why her face +was so deadly white, and her voice so husky, as she bade him good-by. + +Poor Adah! Hers was now a path of suffering, such as she had never known +before. But she did her duty to the doctor faithfully, nursing him with +the utmost care; but never expressing to him the affection she did not +feel. It was impossible to keep his presence there a secret from the two +old negroes, and knowing she could trust them, she told them of the +wounded Union soldier, enlisting their sympathies for him, and thus +procuring for him the care of older and more experienced people than +herself. + +He was able at length to return, and one pleasant summer night, just +three weeks after his arrival at Sunnymead, Adah walked with him to the +woods, and kneeling with him by a running stream, whose waters farther +away would yet be crimson with the blood of our slaughtered brothers, +she commended him to God. Through the leafy branches the moonbeams were +shining, and they showed to Adah the expression of the doctor's wasted +face as he said to her at parting: "I have kissed you many times, my +darling, but you have never returned it. Please do so once, dear Lily, +for the sake of the olden time. It will make me a better soldier." + +She kissed him once for the sake of the olden time, and when he +whispered, "Again for Willie's sake," she kissed him twice, and then she +bade him leave her, herself buttoning about him the soldier coat which +her own hands had cleaned and mended and made respectable. She was glad +afterward that she had done so; glad, too, that she had kissed him and +waited by the tree, where, looking backward, he could see the flutter of +her white dress until a turn in the forest path hid her from his view. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV + +THE SECOND BATTLE OF BULL RUN + + +The second disastrous battle at Bull Run was over, and the shadow of a +summer night wrapped the field of carnage in darkness. Thickly upon the +battlefield lay the dead and dying, the sharp, bitter cries of the +latter rising on the night wind, and adding tenfold to the horror of the +scene. In the woods, not very far away, more than one brave soldier was +weltering in his lifeblood, just where, in his rapid flight, he had +fallen, the grass his pillow, and the leafy branches of the forest trees +his only covering. + +Side by side, and near to a running brook, two wounded men were lying, +or rather one was supporting the other and trying to stanch the purple +gore, pouring darkly from a fearful bullet wound in the region of the +heart. The stronger of the two, he who wore a major's uniform, had come +accidentally upon the other, writhing in agony, and muttering at +intervals snatches of the prayer with which he once had been familiar, +and which seemed to bring Lily back to him again, just as she was when +in the attic chamber she made him kneel by her, and say "Our Father." He +tried to say it now, and the whispered words caught the ear of Irving +Stanley, arresting his steps at once. + +"Poor fellow! it's gone hard with you," he said, kneeling by the +sufferer, whom he recognized as the deserter, Dr. Richards, who had +returned to his allegiance, had craved forgiveness for his sins, and +been restored to the ranks, discharging his duties faithfully, and +fighting that day with a zeal and energy which did much in reinstating +him in the good opinion of those who witnessed his daring bravery. + +But the doctor's work was done, and never from his lips would Lily know +how well his promise had been kept. Giddy with pain and weak from the +loss of blood, he had groped his way through the woods, fighting back +the horrid certainty that to-morrow's sun would not rise for him, and +sinking at length exhausted upon the grass, whose freshness was now +defaced by the blood which poured so freely from his wound. + +It was thus that Irving Stanley found him, starting at first as from a +hissing shell, and involuntarily clasping his hand over the place where +lay a little note, received a few days before, a reply to the earnest +declaration of love he had at last written to his sister's governess, +Maria Gordon. There was but one alternative, and Adah met it resolutely, +though every fiber of her heart throbbed with keen agony as she told to +Irving Stanley the story of her life. She was a wife, a mother, the +sister of Hugh Worthington, they said, the Adah for whom Dr. Richards +had sought so long in vain, and for whom Murdock, the wicked father, was +seeking still for aught she knew to the contrary. Even the story of the +doctor's secretion in the barn at Sunnymead was confessed. Nothing was +withheld except the fact that even as he professed to love her, so she +in turn loved him, or had done so before she knew it was a sin. Surprise +had, for a few moments, stifled every other emotion, and Irving Stanley +had sat like one suddenly bereft of motion, when he read who Maria +Gordon was. Then came the bitter thought that he had lost her, mingled +with a deep feeling of resentment toward the man who had so cruelly +wronged the gentle girl, and who alone stood between him and happiness. +For Irving Stanley could overlook all the rest. His great warm heart, +so full of kindly sympathy and generous charity for all mankind could +take to its embrace the fair, sweet woman he had learned to love so +much, and be a father to her little boy, as if it had been his own. But +this might not be. There was a mighty obstacle in the way, and feeling +that it mattered little now whether he ever came from the field alive, +Irving Stanley, with a whispered prayer for strength to bear and do +right, had hidden the letter in his bosom, and then, when the hour of +conflict came, plunged into the thickest of the fight with a +fearlessness born of keen and recent disappointment, which made life +less valuable than it had been before. + +It is not strange, then, that he should start and stagger backward when +he came so suddenly upon the doctor, or that the first impulse of weak +human nature was to leave the fallen man, but the second, the Christian +impulse, bade him stay, and forgetting his own slight but painful wound, +he bent over Adah's husband, and did what he could to alleviate the +anguish he saw was so hard to bear. At the sound of his voice, a spasm +of pain passed over the doctor's pallid face, and the flash of a sudden +fire gleamed for a moment in his eye, as he, too, remembered Adah, and +thought of what might be when the grass was growing over his untimely +grave. + +The doctor knew that he was dying, and yet his first question was: + +"Do you think I can live? Did any one ever recover with such a wound as +this?" + +Eagerly the dim eyes sought the face above them, the kind, good face of +one who would not deceive him. Irving shook his head as he felt the +pulse, and answered frankly: + +"I believe you will die." + +There was a bitter moan, as all his misspent life came up before him, +followed closely by the dark future, where there shone no ray of hope, +and then with the desperate thought, "It's too late now for regrets. +I'll meet it like a man," he said: + +"It may as well be I as any one, though it's hard even for me to die; +harder than you imagine;" then, growing excited as he talked, he raised +himself upon his elbow, and continued: "Major Stanley, tell me truly, do +you love the woman you know as Maria Gordon?" + +"I did love her once, before I knew I must not--but now--I--yes, Dr. +Richards, my heart tells me that never was she so dear to me as now when +her husband lies dying at my side." + +Irving Stanley hardly knew what he was saying, but the doctor--the +husband, understood, and almost shrieked out the words: + +"You know then that she is Adah, a wife, a mother, and that I am her +lawful husband?" + +"I know the whole," was the reply, as with his hand Irving dipped water +from the brook and laved the feverish brow of the dying man, who went on +to speak of Adah as she was when he first knew her, and of the few happy +months spent with her in those humble lodgings. + +"You don't know my darling," he whispered. "She's an angel, and I might +have been so happy with her. Oh, if I could only live, but that can't be +now, and it is well. Come close to me, Major Stanley, and listen while I +tell you that Adah promised if I would do my duty to my country +faithfully, she would live with me again, and all the while she +promised, her heart was breaking, for she did not love me. It had all +died out for me. It had been given to another; can you guess to whom?" + +Irving made no reply, except to chafe the hands which clasped his so +tightly, and the doctor continued: + +"I am surely dying--I shall never see her more, or my boy, my beautiful +boy. I was a brute in the cars; you remember the time. That was Adah, +and those little feet resting on my lap were Willie's, baby Willie's, +Adah's baby." + +The doctor's mind was wandering now, and he kept on disconnectedly: + +"She's been to Europe with him. She's changed from the shy girl into a +queenly woman. Even the Richards line might be proud of her bearing, and +when I'm gone, tell her I said you might have Willie, and--and--it grows +very dark; the noise of the battle drowns my voice, but come nearer to +me, nearer--tell her--tell Adah, you may have her. She needn't mourn, +nor wait; but carry me back to Snowdon. There's no soldier's grave there +yet. I never thought mine would be the first. Anna will cry, and mother +and Asenath and Eudora; but Adah, oh Lily, darling. She's coming to me +now. Don't you hear that rustle in the grass?" and the doctor listened +intently to a sound which also caught Irving's ear, a sound of a horse's +neigh in the distance, followed by the tramp of feet. + +"Hush-sh," he whispered. "It may be the enemy," but his words were not +regarded, or understood. + +The doctor was in Lily's presence, and in fancy it was her hand, not +Irving's which wiped the death-sweat from his brow, and he murmured +words of love and fond endearment, as to a living, breathing form. +Fainter and fainter grew the pulse, weaker and weaker the trembling +voice, until at last Irving could only comprehend that some one was +bidden to pray--to say "Our Father." + +Reverently, as for a departing brother, he prayed over the dying man, +asking that all the past might be forgiven, and that the erring might +rest at last in peace. + +"Say Amen for me, I'm too weak," the doctor whispered; then, as reason +asserted her sway again, he continued: "I see it now; Lily's gone, and I +am dying here in the woods, in the dark, in the night, on the ground; +cared for by you who will be Lily's husband. You may, you may tell her I +said so; tell her kiss my boy; love him, Major Stanley; love him as your +own, even though others shall call you father. Tell her--I tried--to +pray--" + +He never spoke again; and when next the thick, black, clotted blood +oozed up from the gaping wound, it brought with it all there was of +life; and there in those Virginia woods, in the darkness of the night, +Irving Stanley sat alone with the dead. And yet not alone, for away to +his right, and where the neigh of a horse had been heard, another +wounded soldier lay--his soft, brown locks moist with dew, and his +captain's uniform wet with the blood which dripped from the terrible +gash in the fleshy part of the neck, where a murderous ball had been. +One arm, the right one, was broken, and lay disabled upon the grass; +while the hand of the other clutched occasionally at the damp grass, and +then lifting itself, stroked caressingly the powerful limbs of the +faithful creature standing guard over the prostrate form of his master. + +Hugh and Rocket! They had been in many battles, and neither shot nor +shell had harmed them until to-day, when Hugh had received the charge +which sent him reeling from his horse, breaking his arm in the field, +and scarcely conscious that two of his comrades were leading him from +the field. How or by what means he afterward reached the woods, he did +not know, but reach them he had, and unable to travel farther, he had +fallen to the ground, where he lay, until Rocket came galloping near, +riderless, frightened, and looking for his master. With a cry of joy +the noble brute answered that master's faint whistle, bounding at once +to his side, and by many mute but meaning signs, signifying his desire +that Hugh should mount as heretofore. + +But Hugh was too weak for that, and after several ineffectual efforts to +rise, fell back half fainting on the turf; while Rocket took his stand +directly over him, a powerful and efficient guard until help from some +quarter should arrive. Patiently, faithfully he stood, waiting as +quietly as if he knew that aid was coming, not far away, in the form of +an old man, whose hair was white as snow, and whose steps were feeble +with age, but who had the advantage of knowing every inch of that +ground, for he had trodden it many a time, with a homesick heart which +pined for "old Kentuck," whence he had been stolen. + +Uncle Sam! He it was whose uncertain steps made Rocket prick up his ears +and listen, neighing at last a neigh of welcome, by which he, too, was +recognized. + +"De dear Father be praised if that be'nt Rocket hisself. I've found him, +I've found my Massah Hugh. I tole Miss Ellis I should, 'case I knows all +de way. Dear Massuh Hugh, I'se Sam, I is," and with a convulsive sob the +old negro knelt beside the white-faced man, who but for this timely aid +could hardly have survived that fearful night. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI + +HOW SAM CAME THERE + + +It is more than a year now since last we looked upon the inmates of +Spring Bank, and during that time Kentucky had been the scene of +violence, murder, and bloodshed. The roar of artillery had been heard +upon its hills. Soldiers wearing the Federal uniform had marched up and +down its beaten paths, encamping for a brief season in its capital, and +then departing to other points where their services were needed more. + +Morgan, with his fierce band of guerillas, had carried terror, dismay, +and sometimes death, to many a peaceful home; while Harney, too, +disdaining open, honorable warfare, had joined himself, it was said, to +a horde of savage marauders, gathered, some from Texas, some from +Mississippi, and a few from Tennessee; but none, to her credit be it +said, none from Kentucky, save their chief, the Rebel Harney, who +despised and dreaded almost equally by Unionist and Confederates, kept +the country between Louisville and Lexington in a constant state of +excitement. + +At Spring Bank, well known as the home of stanch Unionists, nothing as +yet had been harmed, thanks to Alice's courage and vigilance, and the +skill with which she had not only taught herself to handle firearms, but +also taught the negroes, who, instead of running away, as the Wendell +Phillips men of the North seem to believe all negroes will do, only give +them the chance, remained firmly at their post, and nightly took turns +in guarding the house against any attack from the guerillas. + +Toward Spring Bank Harney had a peculiar spite, and his threats of +violence had more than once reached the ears of Alice, who wisely kept +them from the nervous, timid Mrs. Worthington. At her instigation, Aunt +Eunice had left her home in the cornfield, and come to Spring Bank, so +that the little garrison numbered four white women, including crazy +Densie, and twelve negro servants. + +As the storm grew blacker, it had seemed necessary for Colonel Tiffton +openly to avow his sentiments, and not "sneak between two fires, for +fear of being burned," as Harney wolfishly told him one day, taunting +him with being a "villainous Yankee," and hinting darkly of the +punishment preparing for all such. + +The colonel was not cowardly, but as was natural he did lean to the +Confederacy. "Peaceful separation, if possible," was his creed; and +fully believing the South destined to triumph, he took that side at +last, greatly to the delight of his high-spirited Nell, who had been a +Rebel from the first. The inmates of Spring Bank, however, were not +forgotten by the colonel, and regularly each morning he rode over to see +if all were safe, sometimes sending there at night one or two of his own +field hands as body guard to Alice, whose courage and intrepidity in +defending her side of the question he greatly admired. + +One night, near the middle of summer, Jake, a burly negro, came earlier +than usual, and seeking Alice, thrust into her hand a note from Colonel +Tiffton. It read as follows: + + "DEAR ALICE: I have a suspicion that the villainous scamps, headed + by Harney, mean to steal horses from Spring Bank to-night, hoping + by that means to engage you in a bit of a fight. In short, Harney + was heard to say, 'I'll have every horse from Spring Bank before + to-morrow morning; and if that Yankee miss appears to dispute my + claim, as I trust she will, I'll have her, too;' and then the bully + laid a wager that 'Major Alice,' as he called you, would be his + prisoner in less than forty-eight hours. + + "I hope it is not true, but if he does come, please keep quietly in + the house, and let him take every mother's son of a horse. I shall + be around watching, but hanged if it will do to identify myself + with you as I wish to do. They'd shoot me like a dog." + +To say that Alice felt no fear would be false. There was a paling of the +cheek and a sinking of the heart as she thought of what the fast-falling +night might bring. But her trust was not in her own strength, and +dismissing Jake from her presence, she bent her face upon the piano lid +and prayed most earnestly to be delivered from the approaching peril, to +know just what to do, and how to act; then summoning the entire +household to the large sitting-room, she explained to them what she had +heard, and asked what they must do. + +"Shall we lock ourselves inside the house and let them have the horses, +or shall we try to keep them?" + +It took a few minutes for the negroes to recover from their fright, and +when they had done so Claib was the first to speak. + +"Please, Miss Ellis, Massa Hugh's last words to me was: 'Mind, boy, you +takes good keer of de hosses.' Massa Hugh sot store by dem. He not stay +quiet in de chimbly corner and let Sudden 'Federacy stole 'em." + +"Dem's my theology, Miss Ellis," chimed in Uncle Sam, rising and +standing in the midst of the dark group assembled near the door. "I'se +for savin' de horses." + +"An' I'se for shootin' Harney," interrupted the little Mug, her eyes +flashing, and her nostrils dilating as she continued: "I knows it's +wicked, but I hates him, an' I never tole you how I seen him in de woods +one day, an' he axes me 'bout my Miss and Mars'r Hugh--did they writ +often, an' was they kinder sparkin'? I told him none of his bizness, and +cut and run, but he bawl after me and say how't he steal Miss Ellis some +night and make her be his wife. I flung a rock at him, big rock, too, +and cut again. Ugh!" + +Mug's face, expressive as it was, only reflected the feelings of the +others and Alice's decision was taken. They would protect Hugh's horses. +But how? That was a perplexing question until Mug suggested that they be +brought into the kitchen, which adjoined the house, and was much larger +than Southern kitchens usually are. It was a novel idea, but seemed the +only feasible one, and was acted upon at once. The kitchen, however, +would not accommodate the dozen noble animals, Claib's special pride, +and so the carpet was taken from the dining-room floor, and before the +clock struck ten every horse was stabled in the house, where they stood +as quietly as if they, too, felt the awe, the expectancy of something +terrible brooding over the household. + +It was Alice who managed everything, giving directions where each one of +her subordinates was to stay, and what they were to do in case of an +attack. Every door and window was barricaded, every possible precaution +taken, and then, with an unflinching nerve, Alice stole up the stairs, +and unfastening a trapdoor which led out upon the roof, stood there +behind a huge chimney top, scanning wistfully the darkness of the woods, +waiting, watching for a foe, whose very name was in itself sufficient to +blanch a woman's cheek with fear. + +"Oh, what would Hugh say, if he could see me now?" she murmured, a tear +starting to her eye as she thought of the dear soldier afar in the +tented field, and wondered if he had forgotten his love for her, as she +sometimes feared, or why, in his many letters, he never breathed a word +of aught save brotherly affection. + +She was his mother's amanuensis, and as she could not follow her +epistles, and see how, ere breaking the seal, Hugh's lips were always +pressed to the place where her fingers had traced his name, she did not +guess how precious they were to him, or how her words of counsel and +sympathy kept him often from temptations, and were molding him so fast +into the truly consistent Christian man she so much wished him to be. He +had in one letter, expressed his surprise that she did not go to Europe, +while she had replied to him: "I never thought of going;" and this was +all the allusion either had made to Irving Stanley since the day that +Hugh left Spring Bank. Gradually, however, the conviction had crept over +Hugh that in his jealousy he acted hastily, that Irving Stanley had sued +for Alice's hand in vain, but he would not seek an explanation yet; he +would do his duty as a soldier, and when that duty was done, he might, +perhaps, be more worthy of Alice's love. He would have had no doubt of +it now could he have seen her that summer night, and known her thoughts +as she stood patiently at her post, now starting with a sudden flutter +of fear, as what she had at first taken for the distant trees seemed to +assume a tangible form; and again laughing at her own weakness, as the +bristling bayonets subsided into sleeping shadows beneath the forest +boughs. + +"Miss Ellis, did you hear dat ar?" came in a whisper from the opening of +the roof, and with a suppressed scream Alice recognized Muggins, who had +followed her young mistress, and for the last half hour had been poising +herself, first on one foot and then upon the other, as she stood upon +the topmost narrow stairs, with her woolly head protruding just above +the roof, and her cat-like ears listening for some sound. + +"How came you here?" Alice asked, and Mug replied: + +"I thinks dis the best place to fire at Mas'r Harney. Mug's gwine to +take aim, fire, bang, so," and the queer child illustrated by holding up +a revolver which she had used more than once under Alice's supervision, +and with which she had armed herself. + +Alice could not forbear a smile, but it froze on her lips, as clutching +her dress Mug whispered: + +"Dar they comes," pointing at the same time toward the woods where a +band of men was distinctly visible, marching directly upon Spring Bank. + +"Will I bang 'em now?" Mug asked, but Alice stopped her with a sign, and +leaning against the chimney, stood watching the advancing foe, who, led +by Harney, made straight for the stables, their suppressed voices +reaching her where she stood, as did their oaths and imprecations when +they found their booty gone. + +There was a moment's consultation and then Harney, dismounting, came +into the yard and seemed to be inspecting the dark, silent building, +which gave no sign of life. + +"We'll try the cabins first. We'll make the negroes tell where the +horses are," Alice heard him say, but the cabins were as empty as the +stalls, and in some perplexity Harney gave orders for them to see, "if +the old rookery were vacant too." + +"Mr. Harney, may I ask why you are here?" + +The clear, silvery tones rang out on the still night and startled that +guerilla band almost as much as would a shell dropped suddenly in their +midst. Looking in the direction whence the voice had come they saw the +girlish figure clearly defined upon the housetop, and one, a burly, +brutal Texan, raised his gun, but Harney struck it down, and +involuntarily lifting his cap, replied: + +"We are here for horses, Miss Johnson. We know Mr. Worthington keeps the +best in the country, and as we need some, we have come to take +possession, peaceably if possible, forcibly if need be. Can you tell us +where they are?" + +"I can," and Alice's voice did not tremble a particle. "They are safely +housed in the kitchen and dining-room and the doors are barred." + +"The fair Alice will please unbar them," was Harney's sneering reply, to +which came back the answer: "The horses are not yours; they are Captain +Worthington's, and we will defend them, if need be, with our lives!" + +"Gritty, by George! I didn't know as Yankee gals, had such splendid +pluck," muttered one of the men, while Harney continued: "You say 'we.' +May I ask the number of your forces?" + +Ere Alice could speak old Sam's voice was heard parleying with the +marauders. + +"That's a nigger, shoot him!" growled one, but the white head was +withdrawn from view just in time to escape the ball aimed at it. + +There was a rush, now for the kitchen door, a horrid sound of fearful +oaths, mingled with the cries of the negroes, the furious yells of +Rover, whom Lulu had let loose, and the neighing of the frightened +steeds. But amid it all Alice retained her self-possession. She had +descended from her post on the housetop, and persuading Mrs. +Worthington, Aunt Eunice, and Densie to remain quietly in her own room, +joined the negroes below, cheering them by her presence, and by her +apparent fearlessness keeping up their sinking courage. + +"We's better gin dem de hosses, Miss Ellis," Claib said, entreatingly, +as blow after blow fell upon the yielding door--"'cause dey's boun' to +hab 'em." + +"I'll try argument first with their leader," Alice replied, and ere +Claib suspected her intention she was undoing the fastenings of a side +door, bidding him bolt it after her as soon as she was safely through +it." + +"Is Miss Ellis crazy?" shrieked Sam. "Dem men has no 'spect for female +wimmen," and he was forcibly detaining her, when the sharp ring of a +revolver was heard, accompanied by a demoniacal shriek as a tall body +leaped high in the air and then fell, weltering in its blood. + +A moment more and a little dusky figure came flying down the stairs, and +hiding itself behind the astonished Alice, sobbed hysterically: "I'se +done it, I has! I'se shooted old Harney!" and Mug, overcome with +excitement, rolled upon the floor like an India rubber ball. + +It was true, as Mug had said. Secreted by the huge chimney she had +watched the proceedings below, keeping her eye fixed on him she knew to +be Harney; and, at last, when a favorable opportunity occurred, had sent +the ball which carried death to him and dismay to his adherents, who +crowded around their fallen leader, forgetful now of the prey for which +they had come, and anxious only for flight. Possibly, too, their desire +to be off was augmented by the fact that from the woods came the sound +of voices and the tramp of horses' feet--Colonel Tiffton, who, with a +few of his neighbors, was coming to the rescue of Spring Bank. But their +services were not needed to drive away the foe, for ere they reached the +gate, the yard was free from the invaders, who, bearing their wounded +leader, Harney, in their midst, disappeared behind the hill, one of +them, the brutal Texan, who had raised his gun at Alice, lingering +behind the rest, and looking back to see the result of his infernal +deed. Secretly, when no one knew it, he had kindled a fire at the rear +of the wooden building, which being old and dry caught readily, and +burned like tinder. + +Alice was the first to discover it, and "Fire! fire!" was echoed +frantically from one to the other, while all did their best to subdue +it. But their efforts were in vain; nothing could stay its progress, and +when the next morning's sun arose it shone on the blackened, smoking +ruins of Spring Bank, and on the tearful group standing near to what had +been their happy home. The furniture mostly had been saved, and was +scattered about the yard just where it had been deposited. There had +been some parley between the negroes as to which should be left to burn, +the old secretary at the end of the upper hall, or a bureau which stood +in an adjoining and otherwise empty room. + +"Massah done keep his papers here. We'll take dis," Claib had said, and +so, assisted by other negroes and Mug, he had carried the old worm-eaten +thing down the stairs, and bearing it across the yard, had dropped it +rather suddenly, for it was wondrously heavy, and the sweat stood in +great drops on the faces of the blacks, as they deposited the load and +turned away so quickly as not to see the rotten bottom splintering to +pieces, or the yellow coin dropping upon the grass. + +Making the circuit of the yard in company with Colonel Tiffton, Alice's +eye was caught by the flashing of something beneath the bookcase, and +stooping down she uttered a cry of surprise as she picked up and held to +view a golden guinea. Another, and another, and another--they were thick +as berries on the hills, and in utter amazement she turned to the +equally astonished colonel for an explanation. It cams to him after a +little. That bookcase, with its false bottom and secret drawers, had +been the hiding place of the miserly John Stanley's gold. In his will, +he had spoken of that particularly, bidding Hugh be careful of it, as it +had come to him from his grandfather, and this was the result. What had +been a mystery to the colonel was explained. He knew what John Stanley +had done with all his money, and that Hugh Worthington's poverty was now +a thing of the past. + +"I'm glad of it--the boy deserves this streak of luck, if ever a fellow +did," he said, as he made his rapid explanations to Alice, who listened +like one bewildered, while all the time she was gathering up the golden +coin, which kept dropping from the sides and chinks of the bookcase. + +There was quite a little fortune, and Alice suggested that it should be +kept a secret for the present from all save Mrs. Worthington, a plan to +which the colonel assented, helping Alice to recover and secrete her +treasure, and then going with her to Mrs. Worthington, who sat weeping +silently over the ruins of her home. + +"Poor Hugh, we are beggars now," she moaned, refusing at first to listen +to Alice's attempts at consolation. + +They told her at last what they had found, proving their words by +occular demonstration, and proposing to her that the story should go no +further until Hugh had been consulted. + +"You'll go home with me, of course," the colonel said, "and then we'll +see what must be done." + +This seemed the only feasible arrangement, and the family carriage was +brought around to take the ladies to Mosside--the negroes, whose cabins +had not been burned, staying at Spring-Bank to watch the fire, and see +that it spread no farther. But Alice could not remain in quietness at +Mosside, and early the next morning she rode down to Spring Bank, where +the negroes greeted her with loud cries of welcome, asking her +numberless questions as to what they were to do, and who would go after +"Massah Hugh." + +It seemed to be the prevailing opinion that he must come home, and Alice +thought so, too. + +"What do you think, Uncle Sam?" she asked, turning to the old man, who +replied: + +"I thinks a heap of things, and if Miss Ellis comes dis way where so +many can't be listen in', I tella her my mind." + +Alice followed him to a respectable distance from the others, and +sitting down upon a chair standing there, waited for Sam to begin. + +Twirling his old straw hat awkwardly for a moment, he stammered out: + +"What for did Massah Hugh jine de army?" + +"Because he thought it his duty," was Alice's reply, and Sam continued: + +"Yes, but dar is anodder reason. 'Scuse me, miss, but I can't keep still +an' see it all agwine wrong. 'Seuse me 'gin, miss, but is you ever gwine +to hev that chap what comed here oncet a sparkin'--Massah Irving, I +means?" + +Alice's blue eyes turned inquiringly upon him, as she replied: "Never, +Uncle Sam. I never intended to marry him. Why do you ask?" + +"'Cause, miss, when a young gal lets her head lay spang on a fellow's +buzzum, and he a kissin' her, it looks mighty like somethin'. Yes, berry +like;" and in his own way Sam confessed what he had seen more than a +year ago, and told, too, how Hugh had overheard the words of love +breathed by Irving Stanley, imitating, as far as possible, his master's +manner as he turned away, and walked hurriedly down the piazza. + +Then he confessed what, in the evening, he had repeated to Hugh, telling +Alice how "poor massah groan, wid face in his hands, and how next day he +went off, never to come back again." + +In mute silence, Alice listened to a story which explained much that had +been strange to her before, and as she listened, her resolve was made. + +"Sam," she said, when he had finished, "I wish I had known this before. +It might have saved your master much anxiety. I am going North--going to +Snowdon first, and then to Washington, in hopes of finding him." + +In a moment Sam was on his knees, begging to go with her. + +"Don't leave me, Miss Ellis. Take me 'long. Please take me to Massah +Hugh. I'se quite peart now, and kin look after Miss Ellis a heap." + +Alice could not promise till she had talked with Mrs. Worthington, whose +anxiety to go North was even greater than her own. They would be nearer +to Hugh, and by going to Washington would probably see him, she said, +while it seemed that she should by some means be brought near to her +daughter, of whom no tidings had been received as yet. So it was +arranged that Mrs. Worthington, Alice and Densie, together with Lulu and +Sam, should start at once for Snowdon, where Alice would leave a part of +her charge, herself and Mrs. Worthington going on to Washington in hopes +of meeting or hearing directly from Hugh. Aunt Eunice and Mug were to +remain with Colonel Tiffton, who promised to look after the Spring Bank +negroes. + +Accordingly, one week after the fire, Alice found herself at the same +station in Lexington where once Hugh Worthington, to her unknown, had +waited for her coming. The morning papers were just out, and securing +one for herself, she entered the car and read the following +announcement: + + "DIED, at his country residence, from the effect of a shot received + while dastardly attacking a house belonging to Unionists, Robert + Harney, Esq., aged thirty-three." + +With a shudder Alice pointed out the paragraph to Mrs. Worthington, and +laying her head upon her hand prayed silently that there might come a +speedy end to the horrors entailed by the cruel war. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII + +FINDING HUGH + + +Sweet Anna Millbrook's eyes were dim with tears, and her heart was sore +with pain when told that Alice Johnson, was waiting for her in the +parlor below. Only the day before had she heard of her brother's +disgrace, feeling as she heard it, how much rather she would that he +had died ere there were so many stains upon his name. But Alice would +comfort her, and she hastened to meet her. Sitting down beside her, she +talked with her long of all that had transpired since last they met; +talked, too, of Adah, and then of Willie, who was sent for, and at +Alice's request taken by her to the hotel, where Mrs. Worthington was +stopping. He had grown to be a most beautiful and engaging child, and +Mrs. Worthington justly felt a thrill of pride as she clasped him to her +bosom, weeping over him passionately. She could scarcely bear to lose +him from her sight, and when later in the day Anna came down for him, +she begged hard for him to stay. But Willie was rather shy of his new +grandmother, and preferred returning with Mrs. Millbrook, who promised +that he should come every day so long as Mrs. Worthington remained at +the hotel. + +As soon as Mrs. Richards learned that Mrs. Worthington and Alice were in +town, she insisted upon their coming to Terrace Hill. There was room +enough, she said, and her friends were welcome there for as long a time +as they chose to stay. There were the pleasant chambers fitted up for +'Lina, they had never been occupied, and Mrs. Worthington could have +them as well as not; or better yet--could take Anna's old chamber, with +the little room adjoining, where Adah used to sleep. Mrs. Worthington +preferred the latter, and removed with Alice at Terrace Hill, while at +Anna's request Densie went to the Riverside Cottage, where she used to +live, and where she was much happier than she would have been with +strangers. + +Not long could Mrs. Worthington stay contentedly at Snowdon, and after a +time Alice started with her and Lulu for Washington, taking Sam also, +partly because he begged so hard to go, and partly because she did not +care to trouble her friends with the old man, who seemed a perfect child +in his delight at the prospect of seeing "Massah Hugh." But to see him +was not so easy a matter. Indeed, he seemed farther off at Washington +than he had done at Spring Bank, and Alice sometimes questioned the +propriety of having left Kentucky at all. They were not very comfortable +at Washington, and as Mrs. Worthington pined for the pure country air, +Alice managed at last to procure board for herself, Mrs. Worthington, +Lulu and Sam, at the house of a friend whose acquaintance she had made +at the time of her visit to Virginia. It was some distance from +Washington, and so near to Bull Run that when at last the second +disastrous battle was fought in that vicinity, the roar of the artillery +was distinctly heard, and they who listened to the noise of that bloody +conflict knew just when the battle ceased, and thought with tearful +anguish of the poor, maimed, suffering wretches left to bleed and die +alone. They knew Hugh must have been in the battle, and Mrs. +Washington's anxiety amounted almost to insanity, while Alice, with +blanched cheek and compressed lip, could only pray silently that he +might be spared, and might yet come back to them. Only Sam thought of +acting. + +"Now is the time," he said to Alice, as they stood talking together of +Hugh, and wondering if he were safe. "Something tell me Massah Hugh is +hurted somewhar, and I'se gwine to find him. I knows all de way, an' +every tree around dat place. I can hide from de 'Federacy. Dem Rebels +let ole white-har'd nigger look for young massah, and I'se gwine. P'raps +I not find him, but I does somebody some good. I helps somebody's Massah +Hugh." + +It seemed a crazy project, letting that old man start off on so strange +an errand, but Sam was determined. + +He had a "'sentiment," as he said, that Hugh was wounded, and he must go +to him. + +In his presentiment Alice had no faith; but she did not oppose him, and +at parting she said to him, hesitatingly: + +"Sam, if you do find your master wounded, and you think him dying, you +may tell him--tell him--that I said--I loved him; and had he ever come +back, I would have been his wife." + +"I tells him, and that raises Massah Hugh from de very jaws of death," +was Sam's reply, as he departed on his errand of mercy, which proved not +to be a fruitless one, for he did find his master, and falling on his +knees beside him, uttered the joyful words we have before repeated. + +To the faint, half-dying Hugh, it seemed more like a dream than a +reality--that familiar voice from home, and that dusky form bending over +him so pityingly. He could not comprehend how Sam came there, or what he +was saying to him. Something he heard of burning houses, and ole miss +and Snowdon, and Washington; but nothing was real until he caught the +name of Alice, and thought Sam said she was there. + +"Where, Sam--where?" he asked, trying to raise himself upon his elbow. +"Is Alice here, did you say?" + +"No, massah; not 'zactly here--but on de road. If massah could ride, Sam +hold him on, like massah oncet held on ole Sam, and we'll get to her +directly. They's kind o' Secesh folks whar she is, but mighty good to +her. She knowed 'em 'fore, 'case way down here is whar Sam was sold dat +time Miss Ellis comed and show him de road to Can'an. Miss Ellis tell me +somethin' nice for Massah Hugh, ef he's dyin'--suffin make him so glad. +Is you dyin', massah?" + +"I hardly think I am as bad as that. Can't you tell unless I am near to +death?" Hugh said; and Sam replied: + +"No, massah; dem's my orders. 'Ef he's dyin', Sam, tell him I'--dat's +what she say. Maybe you is dyin', massah. Feel and see!" + +"It's possible," and something like his old mischievous smile played +around Hugh's white lips as he asked how a chap felt when he was dying. + +"I'se got mizzable mem'ry, and I don't justly 'member," was Sam's +answer; "but I reckons he feel berry queer and choky--berry." + +"That's exactly my case, so you may venture to tell," Hugh said; and +getting his face close to that of the young man, Sam whispered: "She +say, 'Tell Massah Hugh--I--I--' You's sure you's dyin'?" + +"I'm sure I feel as you said I must," Hugh, continued, and Sam went on: +"'Tell him I loves him; and ef he lives I'll be his wife.' Dem's her +very words, nigh as I can 'member--but what is massah goin' to do?" he +continued in some surprise, as Hugh attempted to rise. + +"Do? I'm going to Alice," was Hugh's reply, as with a moan he sank back +again, too weak to rise alone. + +"Then you be'nt dyin', after all," was Sam's rueful comment, as he +suggested: "Ef massah only clamber onto Rocket." + +This was easier proposed than done, but after several trials Hugh +succeeded; and, with Sam steadying him, while he half lay on Rocket's +neck, Hugh proceeded slowly and safely through the woods, meeting at +last with some Unionists, who gave him what aid they could, and did not +leave him until they saw him safely deposited in an ambulance, which, in +spite of his entreaties, took him direct to Georgetown. It was a bitter +disappointment to Hugh, so bitter, indeed, that he scarcely felt the +pain when his broken arm was set; and when, at last, he was left alone +in his narrow hospital bed, he turned his face to the wall and cried, +just as many a poor, homesick soldier had done before him, and will do +again. + +Twenty-four hours had passed, and in Hugh's room it was growing dark +again. All the day he had watched anxiously the door through which +visitors would enter, asking repeatedly if no one had called for him; +but just as the sun was going down he fell away to sleep, dreaming at +last that Golden Hair was there--that her soft, white hands were on his +brow, her sweet lips pressed to his, while her dear voice murmured +softly: "Darling Hugh!" + +There was a cry of pain from a distant corner, and Hugh awoke to +consciousness--awoke to know it was no dream--the soft hands on his +brow, the kiss upon his lips--for Golden Hair was there; and by the +tears she dropped upon his face, and the mute caresses she gave him, he +knew that Sam had told him truly. For several minutes there was silence +between them, while the eyes looked into each other with a deeper +meaning than words could have expressed; then, smoothing back his damp +brown hair, and letting her fingers still rest upon his forehead, Alice +whispered to him: "Why did you distrust me, Hugh? But for that we need +not have been separated so long." + +Winding his well arm around her neck, and drawing her nearer to him, +Hugh answered: + +"It was best just as it is. Had I been sure of your love, I should have +found it harder to leave home. My country needed me. I am glad I have +done what I could to defend it. Glad that I joined the army, for Alice, +darling, Golden Hair, in my lonely tent reading that little Bible you +gave me so long ago, the Savior found me, and now, whether I live or +not, it is well, for if I die, I am sure you will be mine in heaven; and +if I live--" + +Alice finished the sentence for him. + +"If you live, God willing, I shall be your wife. Dear Hugh, I bless the +Good Father, first for bringing you to Himself, and then restoring you +to me, darling Hugh." + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII + +GOING HOME + + +The Village hearse was waiting at Snowdon depot, and close beside it +stood the carriage from Terrace Hill; the one sent there for Adah, the +other for her husband, whose lifeblood, so freely shed, had wiped away +all stains upon his memory, and enshrined him in the hearts of Snowdon's +people as a martyr. He was the first dead soldier returned to them, his +the first soldier's grave in their churchyard; and so a goodly throng +were there, with plaintive fife and muffled drum, to do him honor. His +major was coming with him, it was said--Major Stanley, who had himself +been found, in a half-fainting condition watching by the dead--Major +Stanley, who had seen that the body was embalmed, had written to the +wife, and had attended to everything, even to coming on himself by way +of showing his respect. Death is a great softener of errors; and the +village people, who could not remember a time when they had not disliked +John Richards, forgot his faults now that he was dead. + +It seemed a long-time-waiting for the train, but it came at last, and +the crowd involuntarily made a movement forward, and then drew back as a +tall figure appeared upon the platform, his stylish uniform betokening +an officer of rank, and his manner showing plainly that he was master of +ceremonies. + +"Major Stanley," ran in a whisper through the crowd, whose wonder +increased when another, and, if possible, a finer-looking man, emerged +into view, his right arm in a sling, and his face pale and worn, from +the effects of recent illness. He had not been expected, and many +curious glances were cast at him as, slowly descending the steps, he +gave his well hand to the lady following close behind, Mrs. Worthington; +they knew her, and recognized also the two young ladies, Alice and Adah, +as they sprang from the car. Poor Adah! how she shrank from the public +gaze, shuddering as on her way to the carriage she passed the long box +the men were handling so carefully. + +Summoned by Irving Stanley, she had come on to Washington to meet, not a +living husband, but a husband dead, and while there had learned that +Mrs. Worthington, Hugh, and Alice were all in Georgetown, whither she +hastened at once, eager to meet the mother whom she had never yet met as +such. Immediately after the discovery of her parentage, she had written +to Kentucky, but the letter had not reached its destination, +consequently no one but Hugh knew how near she was; and he had only +learned it a few days before the battle, when he had, by accident, a few +moments' conversation with Dr. Richards, whom he had purposely avoided. +He was talking of Adah, and the practicability of sending for her, when +she arrived at the private boarding house to which he had been removed. + + +The particulars of that interview between the mother and her daughter we +cannot describe, as no one witnessed it save God; but Adah's face was +radiant with happiness, and her soft, brown eyes beaming with joy when +it was ended, and she went next to where Hugh was waiting for her. + +"Oh, Hugh, my noble brother!" was all she could say, as she wound her +arms around his neck and pressed her fair cheek against his own, +forgetting, in those moments of perfect bliss, all the sorrow, all the +anguish of the past. + +Nor was it until Hugh said to her: "The doctor was in that battle. Did +he escaped unharmed?" that a shadow dimmed the sunshine flooding her +pathway that autumn morning. + +At the mention of him the muscles about her mouth grew rigid, and a look +of pain flitted across her face, showing that there was yet much of +bitterness mingled in her cup of joy. Composing herself as soon as +possible she told Hugh that she was a widow, but uttered no word of +complaint against the dead, and Hugh, knowing that she could not sorrow +as other women have sorrowed over the loved ones slain in battle, drew +her nearer to him, and after speaking a few words of poor 'Lina, told +her of the golden fortune which had so unexpectedly come to him, and +added: "And you shall share it with me. Your home shall be with me and +Golden Hair--Alice--who has promised to be my wife. We will live very +happily together yet, my sister." + +Then he asked what Major Stanley's plan was concerning the body of her +husband, and upon learning that it was to bury the doctor at home, he +announced his determination to accompany them, as he knew he should be +able to do so. + +Hugh had no suspicion of the truth, but Alice guessed it readily, and +could scarcely forbear throwing her arms around Adah's neck and +whispering to her how glad she was. She had said to her softly: "I am to +be your sister, Adah--are you willing to receive me?" and Adah had only +answered by a warm pressure of the hand she held in hers and by the +tears which shone in her brown eyes. + +It was a great trial to Adah to face the crowd they found assembled at +the depot, but Irving, Hugh, and Alice all helped to screen her from +observation, and almost before she was aware of it she found herself +safe in the carriage which effectually hid her from view. Slowly the +procession moved through the village, the foot passengers keeping time +to the muffled drum, whose solemn beats had never till that morning been +heard in the quiet streets. The wide gate which led into the grounds of +Terrace Hill was opened wide, and the black hearse passed in, followed +by the other carriages, which wound around the hill and up to the huge +building where badges of mourning were hung out--mourning for the only +son, the youngest born, the once pride and pet of the stately woman who +watched the coming of that group with tear-dimmed eyes, holding upon her +lap the little boy whose father they were bringing in, dead, coffined +for the grave. Not for the world would that high-bred woman have been +guilty of an impropriety, and so she sat in her own room, while Charlie +Millbrook met the bearers in the hall and told them where to deposit +their burden. + +In the same room where we first saw him on the night of his return from +Europe, they left him, and went their way, while to Dixson and Pamelia +was accorded the honor of first welcoming Adah, whom they treated with +as much deference as if she had never been with them in any capacity +save that of mistress. She had changed since they last saw her--was +wonderfully improved, they said to each other as they left her at the +door of the room, where Mrs. Richards, with her two older daughters, was +waiting to receive her. But if the servants were struck with the air of +dignity and cultivation which Adah acquired during her tour in Europe, +how much more did this same air impress the haughty ladies waiting for +her appearance, and feeling a little uncertain as to how they should +receive her. Any doubts, however, which they had upon this subject were +dispelled the moment she entered the room, and they saw at a glance that +it was not the timid, shrinking Rose Markham with whom they had to deal, +but a woman as wholly self-possessed as themselves, and one with whose +bearing even their critical eyes would find no fault. She would not +suffer them to patronize her; they must treat her fully as an equal or +as nothing, and with a new-born feeling of pride in her late son's +widow, Mrs. Richards arose, and putting Willie from her lap, advanced to +meet her, cordially extending her hand, but uttering no word of welcome. +Adah took the hand, but her eyes never sought the face of her lady +mother. They were riveted with a hungry, wistful, longing look on +Willie, the little boy, who, clinging to his grandmother's skirts, +peered curiously at her, holding back at first, when, unmindful of +Asenath and Eudora, who had not yet been greeted, she tried to take him +in her arms. + +"Oh, Willie, darling, don't you know me? I am poor mamma," and Adah's +voice was choked with sobs at this unlooked-for reception from her +child. + +He had been sent for from Anna's home to meet his mother, because it was +proper; but no one at Terrace Hill had said to him that the mamma for +whom sweet Anna taught him daily to pray was coming. She was not in his +mind, and as eighteen months had obliterated all memories of the gentle, +girlish creature he once knew as mother, he could not immediately +identify that mother with the lady before him. + +It was a sad disappointment to Adah, and without knowing what she was +doing, she sank down upon the sofa, and involuntarily laying her head in +Mrs. Richards' lap, cried bitterly, her tears bringing answering ones +from the eyes of all three of the ladies, for they half believed her +grief, in part, was for the lifeless form in the room below. + +"Poor child, you are tired and worn. It is hard to lose him just as +there was a prospect of perfect reconciliation with us all," Mrs. +Richards said, softly smoothing the brown tresses lying on her lap, and +thinking even then that curls were more becoming to her daughter-in-law +than braids had been, but wondering why, now she was in mourning, Adah +had persisted in wearing them. + +"Pretty girl, pretty turls, is you tyin'?" and won by her distress, +Willie drew near, and laid his baby hand upon the curls he thought so +pretty. + +"That's mamma, Willie," Asenath said; "the mamma Aunt Anna said would +come some time--Willie's mamma. Can't he kiss her?" + +The child could not resist the face which, lifting itself up, looked +eagerly at him, and he put up his little hands for Adah to take him, +returning the kisses she showered upon him and clinging to her neck, +while he said: + +"Is you mam-ma sure? I prays for mam-ma--God take care of her, and pa-pa +too. He's dead. They brought him back with a dum. Poor pa-pa, Willie +don't want him dead;" and the little lip began to quiver. + +Never before since she knew she was a widow had Adah felt so vivid a +sensation of something akin to affection for the dead, as when her child +and his mourned so plaintively for papa; and the tears which now fell +like rain were not for Willie alone, but were given rather to the dead. + +"Mrs. Richards has not yet greeted us," Asenath said; and turning to +her at once, Adah apologized for her seeming neglect, pressing both her +and Eudora's hands more cordially than she would have done a few moments +before. + +"Where is Anna?" she asked; and Mrs. Richards replied: + +"She's sick. She regretted much that she could not come up here to-day;" +while Willie, standing in Adah's lap, with his chubby arm around her +neck, chimed in. + +"You don't know what we've dot. We've dot 'ittle baby, we has." + +Adah knew now why Anna was absent, and why Charlie Millbrook looked so +happy when at last he came in to see her, delivering sundry messages +from his Anna, who, he said could scarcely wait to see her dear sister. +There was something genuine in Charlie's greeting, something which made +Adah feel as if she were indeed at home, and she wondered much how even +the Richards race could ever have objected to him, as she watched his +movements and heard him talking with his stately mother. + +"Yes, Major Stanley came," he said, in reply to her questions, and Adah +was glad it was put to him, for the blushes dyed her cheek at once, and +she bent over Willie to hide them, while Charlie continued: "Captain +Worthington came, too, Adah's brother, you know. He was in the same +battle with the doctor, was wounded rather seriously and has been +discharged, I believe." + +"Oh," and Mrs. Richards seemed quite interested now, asking where the +young men were, and appearing disappointed when told that, after waiting +a few moments in hopes of seeing the ladies, they had returned to the +hotel, where Mrs. Worthington and Alice were stopping. + +"I fully expected the ladies here; pray, send for them at once," she +said, but Adah interposed: + +"Her mother would not willingly be separated from Hugh, and as he of +course would remain at the hotel, it would be useless to think of +persuading Mrs. Worthington to come to Terrace Hill." + +"But Miss Johnson surely will come," persisted Mrs. Richards. + +Adah could not explain then that Alice was less likely to leave Hugh +than her mother, but she said: "Miss Johnson, I think, will not leave +mother alone," and so the matter was settled. + +It was a terribly long day to Adah, for Mrs. Richards and her daughter +kept their darkened room, seeing no one who called, and appearing +shocked when Adah stole out from their presence, and taking Willie with +her, sought the servants' sitting-room, where the atmosphere was not so +laden with restraint. Once the elder lady rang for Pamelia, asking where +Mrs. Richards was, and looking a little distressed when told she was in +the garden playing with Willie. + +"Why, do you want her?" was Pamelia's blunt inquiry, to which her +mistress responded with an aggrieved sigh: + +"No-o, only I thought perhaps she was with her dead husband; but, poor +thing, it is not her nature, I presume, to take it much to heart." + +Pamelia didn't believe she did "take it much to heart." Indeed, she +didn't see how she could, but she said nothing, and Adah was left to +play with Willie until Alice was announced as being in the +reception-room. She had driven around, she said, to call on Mrs. +Richards, and after that take Adah with her to the cottage, where Anna, +she knew, was anxious to receive her. At first Mrs. Richards demurred, +fearing it would be improper, but saying: "my late son's wife is, of +course, her own mistress, and can do as she likes." + +Very adroitly Alice waived all objections, and bore Adah off in triumph. + +"I knew you must be lonely up there," she said, as they drove slowly +along, "and there can be no harm in visiting one's sick sister." + +Anna surely did not think there was, as her warm, welcoming kisses fully +testified. + +"I wanted so much to see you to-day," she said, "that I have worked +myself into quite a fever; but knowing mother as I do, I feared she +might not sanction your coming;" then proudly turning down the blanket, +she disclosed the red-faced baby, who, just one week ago, had come to +the Riverside Cottage. + +"Isn't he a beauty?" she asked, pressing her lips upon the wrinkled +forehead. "A boy, too, and looks so much like Charlie, but--" and her +soft, blue eyes seemed more beautiful than ever with the maternal +love-shining for them, "I shall not call him Charlie, nor yet John, +though mother's heart is set on the latter name. I can't. I loved my +brother dearly, and never so much as now that he is dead, but my baby +boy must not bear his name, and so I have chosen Hugh, Hugh Richards. I +know it will please you both," and she glanced archly at Alice, who +blushingly kissed the little boy who was to bear the name dearest to her +of all others. + +Hugh--they talked of him a while, and then Anna spoke of Irving Stanley, +expressing her fears that she could not see him to thank him for his +kindness and forbearance to her erring brother. + +"He must be noble and good," she said, then turning to Adah, she +continued: "You were with him a year. You must know him well. Do you +like him?" + +"Yes," and Adah's face was all ablaze, as the simple answer dropped from +her lips. + +For a moment Anna regarded her intently, then her eyes were withdrawn +and her white hand beat the counterpane softly, but nothing more was +said of Irving Stanley then. + +The next day near the sunsetting, they buried the dead soldier, Mrs. +Richards and Adah standing side by side as the body was lowered to its +last resting place, the older leaning upon the younger for support, and +feeling as she went back to her lonely home and heard the merry laugh of +little Willie in the hall that she was glad her son had married the +young girl, who, now that John was gone forever from her sight began to +be very dear to her as his wife, the Lily whom he had loved so much. In +the dusky twilight of that night when alone with Adah she told her as +much, speaking sadly of the past, which she regretted, and wishing she +had never objected to receiving the girl about whom John wrote so +lovingly. + +"Had I done differently he might have been living now, and you might +have been spared much pain, but you'll forgive me. I'm an old woman, I +am breaking fast, and soon shall follow my boy, but while I live I wish +for peace, and you must love me, Lily, because I was his mother. Let me +call you Lily, as he did," and the hand of her who had conceded so much +rested entreatingly upon the bowed head of the young girl beside her. +There was no acting there, Adah knew, and clasping the trembling hand +she involuntarily whispered: + +"I will love you, mother, I will." + +"And stay with me, too?" Mrs. Richards continued, her voice choked with +the sobs she could not repress, when she heard herself called mother by +the girl she had so wronged. "You will stay with him, Lily. Anna is +gone, my other daughters are old. We are lonely in this great house. We +need somebody young to cheer our solitude, and you will stay, as +mistress, if you choose, or as a petted, youngest daughter." + +This was an unlooked for trial to Adah. She had not dreamed of living +there at Terrace Hill, when Hugh and her own mother could make her so +happy in their home. But Adah had never consulted her own happiness, and +as she listened to the pleading tones of the woman who surely had some +heart, some noble qualities, she felt that 'twas her duty to remain +there for a time at least, and so she replied at last: + +"I expected to live with my own mother, but for the present my home +shall be here with you." + +"God bless you, darling," and the proud woman's lips touched the fair +cheek, while the proud woman's hand smoothed again the soft short curls, +pushing them back from the white brow, as she murmured: "You are very +beautiful, my child, just as John said you were." + +It was hard for Adah to tell Mrs. Worthington that she could not make +one of the circle who would gather around the home fireside Hugh was to +purchase somewhere, but she did at last, standing firmly by her decision +and saying in reply to her mother's entreaties: "It is my duty. They +need me more than you, who have both Hugh and Alice." + +Adah was right, so Hugh said, and Alice, too, while Irving Stanley said +nothing. He must have found much that was attractive about the little +town of Snowdon, for he lingered there long after there was not the +least excuse for staying. He did not go often to Terrace Hill, and when +he did, he never asked for Adah, but so long as he could see her on the +Sabbath days when, with the Richards' family she walked quietly up the +aisle, her cheek flushing when she passed him, and so long as he +occasionally met her at Mrs. Worthington's rooms, or saw her riding in +the Richards' carriage, so long was he content to stay. But there came a +time when he must go, and then he asked for Adah, and in the presence of +her mother-in-law invited her to go with him to her husband's grave. She +went, taking Willie with her, and there, with that fresh mound between +them, Irving Stanley told her what he had hitherto withheld, told what +the dying soldier had said, and asked if it should be so. + +"Not now, not yet," he continued, as Adah's eyes were bent upon that +grave, "but by and by, will you do your husband's bidding--be my wife?" + +"I will," and taking Willie's hand Adah put it with hers into the broad, +warm palm which clasped them both, as Irving whispered: "Your child, +darling, shall be mine, and never need he know that I am not his +father." + +It was arranged that Alice should tell Mrs. Richards, as Adah would have +no concealments. Accordingly, Alice asked a private interview with the +lady, to whom she told everything as she understood it. And Mrs. +Richards, though weeping bitterly, generously exonerated Adah from all +blame, commended her as having acted very wisely, and then added, with a +flush of pride: + +"Many a woman would be glad to marry Irving Stanley, and it gives me +pleasure to know that to my son's widow the honor is accorded. He is +worthy to take John's place, and she, I believe, is worthy of him. I +love her already as my daughter, and shall look upon him as a son. You +say they are in the garden. Let them both come to me." + +They came, and listened quietly, while Mrs. Richards sanctioned their +engagement, and then, with a little eulogy upon her departed son, said +to Adah: "You will wait a year, of course. It will not be proper +before." + +Irving had hoped for only six months' probation, but Adah was satisfied +with the year, and they went from Mrs. Richards' presence with the +feeling that Providence was indeed smiling upon their pathway, and +flooding it with sunshine. + +The next day Major Stanley left Snowdon, but not until there had come to +Hugh a letter, whose handwriting made Mrs. Worthington turn pale, it +brought back so vividly the terror of the olden times. It was from +Murdock, and it inclosed for Densie Densmore the sum of five hundred +dollars. + +"Should she need more, I will try and supply it," he wrote, "for I have +wronged her cruelly." Then, after speaking of his fruitless search for +Adah, and his hearing at last that she was found and Dr. Richards dead, +he added: "As there is nothing left for me to do, and as I am sure to be +playing mischief if idle, I have joined the army, and am training a band +of contrabands to fight as soon as the government comes to its senses, +and is willing for the negroes to bear their part in the battle." + +The letter ended with saying that he should never come out of the war +alive, simply because it would last until he was too old to live any +longer. + +It was a relief for Mrs. Worthington to hear from him, and know that he +probably would not trouble her again, while Adah, whose memories of him +were pleasanter, expressed a strong desire to see him. + +"We will find him by and by, when you are mine," Irving said playfully; +then, drawing her into an adjoining room where they could be alone, he +said his parting words, and then with Hugh went to meet the train which +took him away from Snowdon. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX + +CONCLUSION + + +The New England hills were tinged with that peculiar purplish haze so +common to the Indian summer time, and the warm sunlight of November fell +softly upon Snowdon, whose streets this morning were full of eager, +expectant people, all hurrying on to the old brick church, and +quickening their steps with every stroke of the merry bell, pealing so +joyfully from the tall, dark tower. The Richards' carriage was out, and +waiting before the door of the Riverside Cottage, for the appearance of +Anna, who was this morning to venture out for a short time, and leaving +her baby Hugh alone. Another, and far handsomer carriage, was standing +before the hotel, where Hugh and his mother were yet stopping, and +where, in a pleasant private room, Adah Richards helped Alice Johnson +make her neat, tasteful toilet, smoothing lovingly the rich folds of +grayish-colored silk, arranging the snowy cuffs and collar, and then +bringing the stylish hat of brown Neapolitan, with its pretty face +trimmings of blue, and declaring it a shame to cover up the curls of +golden hair falling so luxuriously about the face and neck of the +blushing bride. For it was Alice's wedding day, and in the room +adjoining, Hugh Worthington stood, waiting impatiently the opening of +the mysterious door which Adah had shut against him, and wondering if, +after all, it were not a dream that the time was coming fast when +neither bolts nor locks would have a right to keep him from his wife. + +It seemed too great a joy to be true, and by way of reassuring himself +he had to look often at the crowds of people hurrying by, and down upon +old Sam, who, in full dress, with white cotton gloves drawn awkwardly +upon his cramped distorted fingers, stood by the carriage, bowing to all +who passed, himself the very personification of perfect bliss. Sam was +very happy, inasmuch as he took upon himself the credit of having made +the match, and was never tired of relating the wondrous story to all who +would listen to it. + +"Massah Hugh de perfectest massah," he said, "and Miss Ellis a little +more so;" adding that though "Canaan was a mighty nice place, he 'sumed +he'd rather not go thar jist yet, but live a leetle longer to see them +'joy themselves. Thar they comes--dat's miss in gray. She knows how't +orange posies and silks and satins is proper for weddin' nights; but +she's gwine travelin', and dat's why she comed out in dat stun-color, +Sam'll be blamed if he fancies." And having thus explained Alice's +choice of dress, the old negro held the carriage door himself, while +Hugh, handing in his mother, sister and his bride, took his seat beside +them, and was driven to the church. + +Twenty minutes passed, and then the streets were filled again; but now +the people were going home, talking as they went of the beauty of the +bride and of the splendid-looking bridegroom, who looked so fondly at +her as she murmured her responses, kissing her first himself when the +ceremony was over, and letting his arm rest for a moment around her +slender form. No one doubted its being a genuine love match, and all +rejoiced in the happiness of the newly-married pair, who, at the village +depot, were waiting for the train which would take them on their way to +Kentucky, for that was their destination. + +In the distracted condition of the country, Hugh's presence was needed +there; for, taking advantage of his absence, and the thousand rumors +afloat touching the Proclamation, one of his negroes had already run +away in company with some half dozen of the colonel's, who, in a +terrible state of excitement, talked seriously of emigrating to Canada. +Hugh's timely arrival, however, quieted him somewhat, though he listened +in sorrow, and almost with tears, to Hugh's plan of selling the Spring +Bank farm and removing with his negroes to some New England town, where +Alice, he knew, would be happier than she had been in Kentucky. This was +one object which Hugh had in view in going to Kentucky then, but a +purchaser for Spring Bank was not so easily found in those dark days; +and so, doing with his land the best he could, he called about him his +negroes, and giving to each his freedom, proposed that they stay quietly +where they were until spring, when he hoped to find them all employment +on the farm he went to buy in New England. + +Aunt Eunice, who understood managing blacks better than his timid mother +or his inexperienced wife, was to be his housekeeper in that new home of +his, where the colonel and his family would always be welcome; and +having thus provided for those for whom it was his duty to care, he bade +adieu to Kentucky, and returned to Snowdon in time to join the Christmas +party at Terrace Hill, where Irving Stanley was a guest, and where, in +spite of the war clouds darkening our land, and in spite of the sad, +haunting memories of the dead, there was much hilarity and +joy--reminding the villagers of the olden time when Terrace Hill was +filled with gay revelers. Anna Millbrook was there, more beautiful than +in her girlhood, and almost childishly fond of her missionary Charlie, +who she laughingly declared was perfectly incorrigible on the subject of +surplice and gown, adding that as the mountain would not go to Mahomet, +Mahomet must go to the mountain; and so she was fast becoming an +out-and-out Presbyterian of the very bluest stripe. + +Sweet Anna! None who looked into her truthful, loving face, or knew the +beautiful consistency of her daily life, could doubt that whether +Presbyterian or Episcopal in sentiment, the heart was right and the feet +were treading the narrow path which leadeth unto life eternal. + +It was a happy week spent at Terrace Hill; but one heart ached to its +very core when, at its close, Irving Stanley went back to where duty +called him, trusting that the God who had succored him thus far, would +shield him from future harm, and keep him safely till the coming autumn, +when, with the first falling of the leaf, he would gather to his embrace +his darling Adah, who, with every burden lifted from her spirits, had +grown in girlish beauty until others than himself marveled at her +strange loveliness. + + * * * * * + +On the white walls of a handsome country seat just on the banks of the +Connecticut, the light of the April sunset falls, and the soft April +wind kisses the fair cheek and lifts the golden curls of the young +mistress of Spring Bank--for so, in memory of the olden time, have they +named their new home--Hugh and Alice, who, arm in arm, walk up and down +the terraced garden, talking softly of the way they have been led, and +gratefully ascribing all praise to Him who rules and overrules, but does +nought save good to those who love Him. + +Down in the meadow land and at the rear of the building, dusky forms are +seen--the negroes, who have come to their Northern home, and among them +the runaway, who, ashamed of his desertion, has returned to his former +master, resenting the name of contraband, and dismissing the +ultra-abolitionists as humbugs, who deserved putting in the front of +every battle. Hugh knows it will be hard accustoming these blacks to +Northern usages and ways of doing things, but as he has their good in +view as well as his own, and as they will not leave him, he feels sure +that in time he will succeed, and cares but little for the opinion of +those who wonder what he "expects to do with that lazy lot of niggers." + +On a rustic seat, near a rear door, white-haired old Sam is sitting, +listening intently, while dusky Mug reads to him from the book of books, +the one he prizes above all else, stopping occasionally to expound, in +his own way, some point which he fancies may not be clear to her, +likening every good man to "Massah Hugh," and every bad one to the +leader of the "Suddern 'Federacy," whose horse he declares he held once +in "ole Virginny," telling Mug, in an aside, "how, if 'twasn't wicked, +nor agin' de scripter, he should most wish he'd put beech nuts under +Massah Jeffres' saddle, and so broke his fetched neck, 'fore he raise +sich a muss, runnin' calico so high that Miss Ellis 'clar she couldn't +'ford it, and axin' fifteen cents for a paltry spool of cotton." + +In the stable yard, Claib, his good-humored face all aglow with pride, +is exercising the fiery Rocket, who arches his neck as proudly as of +old, and dances mincingly around, while Lulu leans over the gate, +watching not so much him as the individual who holds him. And now that +it grows darker, and the ripple of the river sounds more like eventide, +lights gleam from the pleasant parlor, and thither Hugh and Alice +repair, still hand in hand, still looking love into each other's eyes, +but not forgetting others in their own great happiness. + +Very pleasantly Alice smiles upon Mrs. Worthington and Aunt Eunice +sitting by the cheerful fire just kindled on the marble hearth; and +then, withdrawing her hand from Hugh's, trips up the stairs and knocking +at a door, goes in where Densie sits, watching the daylight fade from +the western sky, and whispering to herself of the baby she could not +find when she went back to her home in the far-off city. Without turning +her head, she puts to Alice the same question she puts to every one: + +"Have you children, madam?" and when Alice answers no, she adds: "Be +thankful then, for they will never call you a white nigger, as 'Lina did +her mother. Poor 'Lina, she died, though saying 'Our Father.' Will you +say that with me?" + +"Yes, Densie, it's almost time to say our evening prayer, I came for +you," Alice rejoins, and taking the crazed creature's hand, she leads +her gently down to the parlor below, where, ere long, the blacks are all +assembled, and kneeling side by side, they follow with stammering +tongues, but honest hearts, their beloved master as he says first the +prayer our Savior taught, and then with words of thankful praise asks +God to bless and keep him and his in the days to come, even as He has +blessed and kept them in the days gone by. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BAD HUGH*** + + +******* This file should be named 16662.txt or 16662.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/6/6/16662 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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