Bad Hugh

"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."