Bad Hugh

"I must have time to think. I cannot decide alone," Adah answered, while

the doctor clutched her dress, half shrieking with terror: "You surely will not consult him, Major Stanley?"

"No," and Adah spoke reverently, "there's a mightier friend than he. One

who has never failed me in my need. He will tell me what to do."

The doctor knew now what she meant, and with a moan he laid his head

again upon the hay, wishing, oh, so much, that the lessons taught him

when in that little attic chamber, years ago, he knelt by Adah's side,

and said with her, "Our Father," had not been all forgotten. When he

lifted up his face again, Adah was gone, but he knew she would return,

and waited patiently while just outside the door, with her fair face

buried in the sweet Virginia grass, and the warm summer sunshine falling

softly upon her, poor half-crazed Adah fought and won the fiercest

battle she had ever known, coming off conqueror over self, and feeling

sure that God had heard her earnest cry for help, and told her what to

do. There was no wavering now; her step was firm; her voice steady, as

she went back to the doctor's side, and bending over him, said: "I will nurse you, my husband, till you are well; then you must go back

whence you came, confess your fault, rejoin your regiment, and by your

faithfulness wipe out the stain of desertion. Then, when the war is

over, or you are honorably discharged, I will--be your wife. I may not

love you at first as once I did, but I shall try, and He, who counsels

me to tell you this, will help me, I am sure."

It was almost pitiful now to see the doctor, as, spaniel-like, he

crouched at Adah's feet, kissing her hands and blessing her 'mid his

tears. "He would be worthy of her, and they should yet be so happy."

Adah suffered him to caress her for a moment, and then told him she must

go, for Mrs. Ellsworth would wonder at her long absence, and possibly

institute a search. Pressing one more kiss upon her hand the doctor

crept back to his hiding place, while Adah went slowly to the house

where she knew Irving Stanley was anxiously waiting for her. She dared

not meet him alone now, for latterly each time they had so met, she knew

she had kept at bay the declaration trembling on his lips, and which now

must never be listened to. So she stayed away from the pleasant parlor

where all the morning he sat chatting with his sister, who guessed how

much he loved the beautiful and accomplished girl, whom, by way of his

sister Augusta he now knew as the Brownie he had once seen at Madam ----'s

school, in New York.