Bad Hugh

"Heaven bless you, Hugh. My mother prayed often for the preserver

of her child, and need I tell you that I, too, shall never forget

to pray for you? The Lord keep you in all your ways, and lead you

safely to your sister.

"ALICE"

Many times Hugh read this note, then pressing it to his lips thrust it

into his bosom, but failed to see what Alice had hoped he might see,

that the love he once asked for was his, and his alone. He was too sure

that another was preferred before him to reason clearly, and the only

emotions he experienced from reading her note were feelings of pleasure

that she had been set right at last, and that Irving had not withheld

from her the truth.

"That ends the drama," he said. "I don't quite believe she is going with

him to Europe, but she will be his when he returns; and henceforth my

duty must be to forget, if possible, that ever I knew I loved her. Oh,

Golden Hair, why did I ever meet, or meeting you, why was I suffered to

love her so devotedly, if I must lose her at the last!"

There were great drops of sweat about Hugh's lips and on his forehead,

as, burying his face in his hands, he laid both upon the table, and

battled manfully with his love for Alice Johnson, a love which refused

at once to surrender its object, even though there seemed no longer a

shadow of hope in which to take refuge.

"God, help me in my sorrow," was the prayer which fell from the

quivering lips, but did not break the silence of that little room, where

none, save God, witnessed the conflict, the last Hugh ever fought for

Alice Johnson.

He could give her up at length; could think, without a shudder, of the

time when another than himself would call her his wife; and when, late

that afternoon, he took the evening train for Cleveland, not one in the

crowded car would have guessed how sore was the heart of the young man

who plunged so energetically into the spirited war argument in progress

between a Northern and Southern politician. It was a splendid escape

valve for his pent-up feelings, and Hugh carried everything before him,

taking by turns both sides of the question, and effectually silencing

the two combatants, who said to each other in parting: "We shall hear

from that Kentuckian again, though whether in Rebeldom or Yankeeland we

cannot tell."