Bad Hugh

"Mrs. Worthington, daughter, and colored servant, Spring Bank,

Kentucky."

"Dr. John Richards and mother, New York City."

"Irving Stanley, Esq., Baltimore."

These were the last entries the flaxen-haired clerk at Union Hall had

made, feeling sure, as he made them, that each one had been first to

the United States, and failing to find accommodations there, had come

down to Union Hall.

The Union was so crowded that for the newcomers no rooms were found

except the small, uncomfortable ones far up in the fourth story of the

Ainsworth block, and thither, in not the most amiable mood, 'Lina

followed her trunks, and was followed in turn by her mother and Lulu,

the crowd whom they passed deciphering the name upon the trunks and

whispering to each other: "From Spring Bank, Kentucky. Haughty-looking

girl, wasn't she?"

From his little twelve by ten apartment, where the summer sun was

pouring in a perfect blaze of heat, Dr. Richards saw them pass, and

after wondering who they were, and hoping they would be comfortable in

their pen, gave them no further thought, but sat jamming his penknife

into the old worm-eaten table, and thinking savage thoughts against that

capricious lady, Fortune, who had compelled him to come to Saratoga,

where rich wives were supposed to be had for the asking. In Dr.

Richard's vest pocket there lay at this very moment a delicate little

note, the meaning of which was that Alice Johnson declined the honor of

becoming his wife. Now he was ready for the first chance that offered,

provided that chance possessed a certain style, and was tolerably

good-looking.

This, then, was Dr. Richards' errand to Saratoga, and one cause of his

disgust at being banished from the United States, where heiresses were

usually to be found in such abundance.

From his pleasanter, airier apartment, on the other side of the narrow

hall, Irving Stanley looked out through his golden glasses, pitying the

poor ladies condemned to that slow roast.

How hot, and dusty, and cross 'Lina was, and what a look of dismay she

cast around the room, with its two bedsteads, its bureau, its table, its

washstand, and its dozen pegs for her two dozen dresses, to say nothing

of her mother's.

How tired and faint poor Mrs. Worthington was, sinking down upon the

high-post bed! How she wished she had stayed at home, like a sensible

woman, instead of coming here to be made so uncomfortable in this hot

room. But it could not now be helped, 'Lina said; they must do the best

they could; and with a forlorn glance at the luxuriant patch of weeds,

the most prominent view from the window, 'Lina opened one of her trunks,

and spreading a part of its contents upon the bed, began to dress for

dinner. The dinner bell had long since ceased ringing, and the tread of

feet ceased in the halls below ere she descended to the deserted parlor,

followed by her mother, nervous and frightened at the prospect of this,

her first appearance at Saratoga.