Bad Hugh

A little apart from the others, his eyes fixed earnestly upon the

convict, stood Hugh. His mind, too, had gathered in every fact, but he

had reached a widely different conclusion from what poor Densie had.

"Answer her," he said, gravely, as the convict did not reply. "Tell her

if Adah be her child, or--'Lina--which?"

Had a clap of thunder cleft the air around her, 'Lina could not have

started up sooner than she did. The convict took his eyes away from her,

pitying her so much, while Densie's bony hand was raised as if to thrust

her off, and Densie's voice exclaimed: "Not this, not this. She despises

me, a white nigger. I will not be her mother. The other one--Densie, I

named her--she is mine--"

The convict shook his head. "No, Densie, not Adah, I kept her, my lawful

child, and sent the other back. It was a bold move, and I wonder it was

not questioned, but Adaline's eyes were not so black then as they are

now, and though six months older than the other, she was small for her

age, and cannot now be so tall as Adah. The mark, too, must have

strengthened the deception, as I knew it would, and eighteen months

sometimes changes a child materially; so Eliza took it for granted that

the girl she received as Adaline, and whose real name was Densie, was

her own; but Adah Hastings is her daughter and Hugh's half-sister, while

this young woman is--the child of myself and Densie Densmore!"

Alice, Anna, and the doctor looked aghast, while Mrs. Worthington

murmured audibly: "Adah, Adah, darling Adah, she always seemed near to

me; and Willie, precious Willie--oh, I want them here now!"

One mother had claimed her own, but alas, the fond cry of welcome to

sweet Adah Hastings was a death knell to 'Lina, for it seemed to shut

her out of that gentle woman's heart. There was no place for her, and in

her terrible desolation she stood alone, her eyes wandering wistfully

from one to another, but turning very quickly when they fell on the

white-haired Densie, her mother. She would not have it so; she could not

own the woman she had affected to despise, that servant for her mother,

that villain for her father, and worse--oh, infinitely worse than

all--she had no right to be born! A child of sin and shame, disgraced,

disowned, forsaken. It was a terrible blow, and the proud girl staggered

beneath it.

"Will no one speak to me?" she said, at last; "no one break this

dreadful silence? Has everybody forsaken me? Do you all loathe and hate

the offspring of such parents? Won't somebody pity and care for me?"

"Yes, 'Lina," and Hugh--the one from whom she had the least right to

expect pity--Hugh came to her side; and winding his arm around her,

said, with a choking voice: "I will not forsake you, 'Lina; I will care

for you the same as ever, and so long as I have a home you shall have

one, too."