Bad Hugh

"And stay with me, too?" Mrs. Richards continued, her voice choked with

the sobs she could not repress, when she heard herself called mother by

the girl she had so wronged. "You will stay with him, Lily. Anna is

gone, my other daughters are old. We are lonely in this great house. We

need somebody young to cheer our solitude, and you will stay, as

mistress, if you choose, or as a petted, youngest daughter."

This was an unlooked for trial to Adah. She had not dreamed of living

there at Terrace Hill, when Hugh and her own mother could make her so

happy in their home. But Adah had never consulted her own happiness, and

as she listened to the pleading tones of the woman who surely had some

heart, some noble qualities, she felt that 'twas her duty to remain

there for a time at least, and so she replied at last: "I expected to live with my own mother, but for the present my home

shall be here with you."

"God bless you, darling," and the proud woman's lips touched the fair

cheek, while the proud woman's hand smoothed again the soft short curls,

pushing them back from the white brow, as she murmured: "You are very

beautiful, my child, just as John said you were."

It was hard for Adah to tell Mrs. Worthington that she could not make

one of the circle who would gather around the home fireside Hugh was to

purchase somewhere, but she did at last, standing firmly by her decision

and saying in reply to her mother's entreaties: "It is my duty. They

need me more than you, who have both Hugh and Alice."

Adah was right, so Hugh said, and Alice, too, while Irving Stanley said

nothing. He must have found much that was attractive about the little

town of Snowdon, for he lingered there long after there was not the

least excuse for staying. He did not go often to Terrace Hill, and when

he did, he never asked for Adah, but so long as he could see her on the

Sabbath days when, with the Richards' family she walked quietly up the

aisle, her cheek flushing when she passed him, and so long as he

occasionally met her at Mrs. Worthington's rooms, or saw her riding in

the Richards' carriage, so long was he content to stay. But there came a

time when he must go, and then he asked for Adah, and in the presence of

her mother-in-law invited her to go with him to her husband's grave. She

went, taking Willie with her, and there, with that fresh mound between

them, Irving Stanley told her what he had hitherto withheld, told what

the dying soldier had said, and asked if it should be so.

"Not now, not yet," he continued, as Adah's eyes were bent upon that

grave, "but by and by, will you do your husband's bidding--be my wife?"