Bad Hugh

It was a sad house at Spring Bank that night, and only the negroes were

capable of any enjoyment. Terrified at first at what by dint of

listening they saw and heard, they assembled in the kitchen, and

together rehearsed the strange story, wondering if none of the tempting

supper prepared with so much care would be touched by the whites. If

not, they, of course, had the next best right, and when about midnight

Mrs. Worthington passed hurriedly through the dining-room, the table

gave evidence that somebody had partaken of the marriage feast, and not

very sparingly either. But she did not care, her thoughts were divided

between the distant Adah, her daughter--her own--the little brown-eyed

child she had been so proud of years ago, and the moaning, wretched girl

upstairs, 'Lina, tossing distractedly from side to side; now holding her

throbbing head, and now thrusting out her hot, dry hands, as if to keep

off some fancied form, whose hair, she said, was white as snow, and who

claimed to be her mother.

The shock had been a terrible one to 'Lina--terrible in more senses than

one. She did love Dr. Richards; and the losing him was enough of itself

to drive her mad; but worse even than this, and far more humiliating to

her pride, was the discovery of her parentage, the knowing that a

convict was her father, a common servant her mother, and that no

marriage tie had hallowed her birth.

"Oh, I can't bear it!" she cried. "I can't. I wish I might die! Will

nobody kill me? Hugh, you will, I know!"

But Hugh was away for the family physician, for he would not trust a

gossiping servant to do the errand. Once before that doctor had stood by

'Lina's bedside, and felt her feverish pulse, but his face then was not

as anxious as now. He did not speak of danger, but Hugh, who watched him

narrowly, read it in his face, and following him down the stairs, asked

to be told the truth.

"She is going to be very sick. She may get well, but I have little to

hope from symptoms like hers."

That was the doctor's reply, and with a sigh Hugh went back to the sick

girl, who had given him little else than sarcasm and scorn.