"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."