Bad Hugh

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.