Bad Hugh

"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.