Bad Hugh

Laughing merrily Hugh held her off at a little distance, likening her to

a mermaid fresh from the sea, and succeeding at last in quieting her

down until she could give a more concise account of the catastrophe.

"Never mind the dress," he said, good-humoredly, as she kept recurring

to that. "It isn't as if it were new. An old thing is never so

valuable."

Alas, that 'Lina did not then confess the truth. Had she done so he

would have forgiven her freely, but she let the golden opportunity pass,

and so paved the way for much bitterness of feeling in the future.

During the gloomy weeks which followed, Hugh's heart and hands were

full, inclination tempting him to stay by the moaning Adah, who knew the

moment he was gone, and stern duty, bidding him keep with delirious

'Lina, who, strange to say, was always more quiet when he was near,

taking readily from him the medicine refused when offered by her mother.

Day after day, week after week, Hugh watched alternately at the

bedsides, and those who came to offer help felt their hearts glow with

admiration for the worn, haggard man, whose character they had so

mistaken, never dreaming what depths of patient, all-enduring tenderness

were hidden beneath his rough exterior. Even Ellen Tiffton was softened,

and forgetting the Ladies' Fair, rode daily over to Spring Bank,

ostensibly to inquire after 'Lina, but really to speak a kindly word to

Hugh, to whom she felt she had done a wrong. How long those fevers ran,

and Hugh began to fear that 'Lina's never would abate, sorrowing much

for the harsh words which passed between them, wishing they had been

unsaid, for he would rather that none but pleasant memories should be

left to him of this, his only sister. But 'Lina did not die, and as her

disease had from the first assumed a far more violent form than Adah's,

so it was the first to yield, and February found her convalescent. With

Adah it was different. But there came a change at last, a morning when

she awoke from a death-like stupor which had clouded her faculties so

long, as the attending physician said to Hugh that his services would be

needed but a little longer. Physicians' bills, together with that of

Harney's yet unpaid, for Harney, villain though he was, would not

present it when Hugh was full of trouble; but the hour was coming when

it must be settled, and Hugh at last received a note, couched in

courteous terms, but urging immediate payment.

"I'll see him to-day. I'll know the worst at once," he said, and

mounting Rocket, who never looked more beautiful than he did that

afternoon, he dashed down the Frankfort turnpike, and was soon closeted

with Harney.