"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.