“He has his young sister Augusta here now.  She has come on to do her shopping in New York, and is stopping with Mrs. Ellsworth.  A fine little creature, quite stylish, but very puritanical.  Through Augusta I have got acquainted with Lottie Gardner, a kind of stepniece to the doctor, and excessively aristocratic.  You ought to have seen how coolly her big, proud, black eyes inspected one.  I rather like her, though.  She and Augusta Stanley were together at Madam ——­’s school in the city.

“Didn’t Adah say she went there once?  Again I charge you, don’t let her go to Terrace Hill on any account.

“And one other thing.  I shall buy my bridal trousseau under Mrs. Ellsworth’s supervision.  She has exquisite taste, and Hugh must send the money.  As I told him before, he can sell Mug.  Harney will buy her.  He likes pretty darkies.”

* * * * *

“Oh, horror! can Ad be a woman, with womanly feelings?” Hugh exclaimed, feeling as if he hated his sister.

But after a moment he was able to listen while his mother asked if it would not be better to persuade Adah not to go to Terrace Hill.

“It may interfere with ’Lina’s plans,” she said, “and now it’s gone so far, it seems a pity to have it broken up.  It’s—­it’s very pleasant with ’Lina gone,” and with a choking sob, Mrs. Worthington laid her face upon the pillow, ashamed and sorry that the real sentiments of her heart were thus laid bare.

It was terrible for a mother to feel that her home would be happier for the absence of a child, and that child an only daughter, but she did feel so, and it made her half willing that Dr. Richards should be deceived.  But Hugh shrank from the dishonorable proceeding.

Mrs. Worthington always yielded to Hugh, and she did so now, mentally resolving, however, to say a few words to Adah, relative to her not divulging anything which could possibly harm ’Lina, such as telling how poor they were, or anything like that.  This done, Mrs. Worthington felt easier, and as Hugh looked tired and worried, she left him for a time, having first called Muggins to gather up the fragments of ’Lina’s letter which Hugh had thrown upon the carpet.

“Yes, burn every trace of it,” Hugh said, watching the child as she picked up piece by piece, and threw them into the grate.

“I means to save dat ar.  I’ll play I has a letter for Miss Alice,” Mug thought, as she came upon a bit larger than the others, and unwittingly she hid in her bosom that portion of the letter referring to herself and Harney!  This done, she too left the room, and Hugh was at last alone.

He had little hope now that he would ever win Alice, so jealously sure was he that Irving was preferred before him, and he whispered sadly to himself: 

“I can live on just the same, I suppose.  Life will be no more dreary than it was before I knew her.  No, nor half so dreary, for ’it is better to have loved and lost than not to have loved at all.’  That is what Adah said once when I asked what she would give never to have met that villain.”