Somehow the doctor fancied Alice wished him to say yes, and as he had
seen Adah's back, he replied at once: "Oh, yes, I saw her. Fine looking for a servant. Her little boy is
splendid."
Alice was satisfied. The shadow lifted from her spirits. Dr. Richards
was not George Hastings. He was not the villain she had feared, and
'Lina might have him now. Poor 'Lina. Alice felt almost as if she had
done her a wrong by suspecting the doctor, and was very kind to her that
day. Poor 'Lina, we say it again, for hard, and wicked, and treacherous,
and unfilial, as she had ever been, she had need for pity on this her
wedding day. Retribution, terrible and crushing, was at hand, hurrying
on in the carriage bringing Anna Richards to Spring Bank, and on the
fleet-footed steed bearing the convict swiftly up the Frankfort pike.
'Lina could not tell what ailed her. Her hauteur of manner was all
gone, and Mug, who had come into the room to see "the finery," was not
chidden or told to let them alone, while Densie, who, at Alice's
suggestion, brought her a glass of wine, was kindly thanked, and even
asked to stay if she liked while the dressing went on. But Densie did
not care to, and she left the room just as the mud-bespattered vehicle
containing Anna Richards drove up, Mr. Millbrook having purposely
stopped in Versailles, thinking it better that Anna should go on alone.
It was Ellen of course, 'Lina said, and so the dressing continued, and
she was all unsuspicious of the scene enacting below, in the room where
Anna met her brother alone. She had not given Hugh her name. She simply
asked for Dr. Richards, and conducting her into the parlor, hung with
bridal decorations, Hugh went for the doctor, amusing himself on the
back piazza with the sprightly Mug, who when asked if she were not sorry
Miss 'Lina was going off, had naïvely answered: "No-o--sir, 'case she done jaw so much, and pull my har. I tell you,
she's a peeler. Is you glad she's gwine?"
The doctor was not quite certain, but answered: "Yes, very glad," just
as Hugh announced "a lady who wished to see him."
Mechanically the doctor took his way to the parlor, while Hugh resumed
his seat by the window, where for the last hour he had watched for the
coming of one who had said, "I will be there."
Half an hour later, had he looked into the parlor, he would have seen a
frightened, white-faced man crouching at Anna Richards' side and
whispering to her as if all life, all strength, all power to act for
himself were gone: "What must I do? Tell me what to do."