He did not feel pain now in his anxiety, as he asked: "Who is it, Adah?
who's after me?" but he started when she replied, with downcast eyes and
a flush upon her cheek: "Major Irving Stanley. You were in his
regiment, the ----th New York Volunteers."
Dr. Richards drew a relieved breath. "I'd rather it were he than Captain
Worthington, who hates me so cordially. Adah, you must hide me; I have
so much to tell. I know your parents, your brother, your husband; and I
am he. It was not a mock marriage. It has been proved real. It was a
genuine justice who married us, and you are my lawful wife. Oh, pray,
please don't hurt me so." He uttered a scream of pain as Adah's hands
pressed heavily now upon the hard, purple flesh.
She scarcely knew what she was doing as she listened to his words and
heard that she was indeed his wife. Two years before, such news would
have overwhelmed her with delight, but now for a single instant a fierce
and almost resentful pang shot through her heart as she thought of being
bound for life to one for whom she had no love, and whose very caresses
made her loathe him more and more. But when she thought of Willie, and
how the stain upon his birth was washed away, the hard look left her
eyes, and her hot tears dropped upon the ankle she was bandaging.
"You are glad?" he asked, looking at her curiously, for her manner
puzzled him.
"Yes, very glad for Willie," she replied, keeping her face bent down so
he could not see its expression.
Then when her task was done, she seemed to nerve herself for some
powerful task, and sitting down upon the hay, out of reach of his arms,
she said: "Tell me now all that has happened since I left Terrace Hill; but first
of Willie. You say Anna has him?"
"Yes, Anna--Mrs. Millbrook," he replied, and was about to say more, when
Adah interrupted him with: "It may spare you some pain if I tell you first what I know of the
tragedy at Spring Bank. I know that 'Lina is dead, and that the fact of
my existence prevented the marriage. So much I heard Mr. Stanley tell
his sister. I had just come to her then. She was prouder toward me than
she is now, and with a look silenced him from talking in my presence, so
that was all I ever knew, as I dared not question her lest I should be
suspected. Go on, you spoke of my parents, my brother. Who are they?"
Her manner perplexed him greatly, but he controlled himself, while he
repeated rapidly the story known already to our readers, the story
which made Adah reel where she sat, and turn so white that he attempted
to reach her, and so keep her from falling. But just the touch of his
hand had power to arouse her, and drawing back she laid her face in the
hay, and moaned: "That gentle woman, my mother; that noble Hugh, my brother! it's more
than I ever hoped. Oh, Heavenly Father, accept my thanks for this great
happiness. A mother and a brother found."