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Bad Hugh

Page 194

"No, not my head, not my head," and Adah continued impetuously; "Anna,

tell me, have I pleased you?--do you like me? would you, could you love

me if I were your equal--love me as I do you?"

Anna noticed that the "Miss" was dropped from her name, that her maid

was treating her more familiarly than she had ever done before; and for

an instant a flush showed on her cheek, for pride was Anna's besetting

sin, the one from which she daily prayed to be delivered. There was an

inward struggle, a momentary conflict, such as every Christian warrior

has felt at times, and then the flush was gone from the white cheek, and

her hand still lay on Adah's head, as she replied: "I do not understand

why you question me thus, but I will answer just the same. I do like you

very much, and you have always seemed to me much like an equal. I could

hardly do without you now."

"And Willie? If I should die, or anything happen to me, would you care

for Willie?"

There was something very earnest in Adah's tone as she pleaded for her

boy, and had Anna been at all suspicious, she must have guessed there

was something wrong. As it was, she merely thought Adah tired and

nervous. She had been thinking, perhaps, of the deserted, and she

smoothed her hair pityingly as she replied: "Of course I'd care for

Willie. He has won a large place in my heart."

"Bless you for that. It has made me very happy," Adah whispered, arising

to her feet and adding: "You may think me bold, but I must kiss you

once--only once--for it will be pleasant to remember that I kissed Anna

Richards."

There was nothing cringing or even pleading in the tone. Adah seemed to

ask it as her right, and ere Anna could answer she had pressed one

burning kiss upon the smooth, white forehead which a menial's lips had

never touched before, and was gone from the room.

"Was she crazy, or what was it that ailed her?" Anna asked herself,

wondering more and more, the more she thought of the strange conduct,

and lying awake long after the usual hour for sleep.

But wakeful as she was, there was one who kept the vigils with her,

knowing exactly when she fell away at last into a slumber all the

deeper for the restlessness which had preceded it. Anna slept very

soundly as Adah knew she would, and when toward morning a light footstep

glided across her threshold she did not hear it. The bolt was drawn, the

key was turned, and just as the clock struck three, Adah stood outside

the yard, leaning on the gate and gazing back at the huge building

looming up so dark and grand beneath the starry sky. One more prayer for

Willie and the mother-auntie to whose care she had left him, one more

straining glance at the window of the little room where he lay sleeping,

and she resolutely turned away, nor stopped again until the Danville

depot was reached the station where in less than five minutes after her

arrival the night express stood for an instant, and then went thundering

on, bearing with it another passenger, bound for--she knew not, cared

not whither.

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