Bad Hugh

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."