"Miss Worthington," Adah said, timidly, as 'Lina came near, "Lulu tells

me she is going North with you. Why not take me instead of her?"

"You!" and 'Lina's black eyes flashed scornfully. "What in the world

could I do with you and that child, and what would people think? Why,

I'd rather have Lulu forty times. A negro gives an éclat to one's

position which a white servant cannot. By the way, here is Miss

Tiffton's square-necked bertha. She's just got home from New York, and

says they are all the fashion. You are to cut me a pattern. There's a

paper, the Louisville Journal, I guess, but nobody reads it, now Hugh

is gone," and with a few more general directions, 'Lina hurried away

leaving Adah so hot, so disappointed, that the hot tears fell upon the

paper she took in her hand, the paper containing Anna Richards'

advertisement, intended solely for the poor girl sitting so lonely and

sad at Spring Bank that summer morning.

In spite of the doctor's predictions and consignment of that girl to

Georgia, or some warmer place, it had reached her at last. She did not

see it at first, so fast her tears fell, but just as her scissors were

raised to cut the pattern her eyes fell on the spot headed, "A Curious

Advertisement," and suspending her operations for a moment, she read it

through, a feeling rising in her heart that it was surely an answer to

her own advertisement, sent forth months ago, with tearful prayers that

it might be successful.

At the table she heard 'Lina say that Claib was going to town that

afternoon, and thinking within herself. "If a letter were only ready, he

could take it with him," she asked permission to write a few lines. It

would not take her long, she said, and she could work the later to make

it up.

'Lina did not refuse, and in a few moments Adah penned a note to A.E.R.

"It's an answer to an advertisement for a governess or waiting maid,"

she said, as 'Lina glanced carelessly at the superscription.

"It will do no harm, or good either, I imagine," was 'Lina'a reply, and

placing the letter in her pocket, she was about returning to her mother,

when she spied Ellen Tiffton dismounting at the gate.

Ellen was delighted to see 'Lina, and 'Lina was delighted to see Ellen,

leading her at once into the work-room, where Adah sat by the window,

busy on the bertha, and looking up quietly when Ellen entered, as if

half expecting an introduction. But 'Lina did not deign to notice her,

save in an aside to Ellen, to whom she whispered softly: "That girl, Adah, you know."

Reared in a country where the menials all were black, Ellen knew no such

marked distinction among the whites, and walked directly up to Adah,

whose face seemed to puzzle her. It was the first time they had met, and

Adah turned crimson beneath the close scrutiny to which she was

subjected. Noticing her embarrassment, and wishing to relieve it, Ellen

addressed to her some trivial remark concerning her work, complimenting

her skill, asking some questions about Willie, whom she had seen, and

then leaving her for a girlish conversation with 'Lina, to whom she

related many particulars of her visit to New York. Particularly was she

pleased with a certain Dr. Richards, who was described as the most

elegant young man at the hotel.




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