Anna had no desire now to talk with Adah of the recreant lover, or ask that John should hear the story.  Her mind was too much disturbed, and for more than half an hour she sat, looking intently into the fire, seeing there visions of what might be in case Charlie loved her still, and wished her to be his wife.  The mere knowing that he had written made her so happy that she could not even be angry with her mother, though a shadow flitted over her face, when her reverie was broken by the entrance of Madam Richards, who had come to see what she thought of fitting up the west chambers for John’s wife, instead of the north ones.

“I have a letter from him,” she said.  “They are to be married the ——­ day of April, which leaves us only five weeks more, as they will start at once for Terrace Hill.  Do, Anna, look interested,” she continued, rather pettishly, as Anna did not seem very attentive.  “I am so bothered.  I want to see you alone,” and she cast a furtive glance at Adah, who left the room, while madam plunged at once into the matter agitating her so much.

She had fully intended going to Kentucky with her son, but ’Lina had objected, and the doctor had written, saying she must not go.

“I have not the money myself,” he wrote, “and I’ll have to get trusted for my wedding suit, so you must appeal to Anna’s good nature for the wherewithal with which to fix the rooms.  She may stay with you longer than you anticipate.  It is too expensive living here, as she would expect to live.  Nothing but Fifth Avenue Hotel would suit her, and I cannot ask her for funds at once.  I’d rather come to it gradually.”

And this it was which so disturbed Mrs. Richards’ peace of mind.  She could not go to Kentucky, and she might as well have saved the money she had expended in getting her black silk velvet dress fixed for the occasion, while, worst of all, she must have John’s wife there for months, perhaps, whether she liked it or not, and she must also fit up the rooms with paper and paint and carpets, notwithstanding that she’d nothing to do it with, unless Anna generously gave the necessary sum from her own yearly income.  Anna assented to that, and said she would try to spare the money.  Rose could make the carpets, and that would save a little.

“I wish, too, mother,” she added, “that you would let her arrange the rooms altogether.  She has exquisite taste, besides the faculty of making the most of things.  Our house never looked so well as it has since she came.  Somehow Eudora and Asenath have such a stiff set way of putting the furniture.”

So it was Anna who selected the tasteful carpet for ’Lina’s boudoir, and the bedchamber beyond it, but it was Adah who made it, Adah who, with Willie playing on the floor, bent so patiently over the heavy fabric, sometimes wiping away the bitter tears as she thought of the days preceding her own bridal, and of her happiness, even though no fingers were busy for her in the home where they were too proud to receive her.  Where was that home?  Was it North or South, East or West, and what was it like?  She had no idea, though, sometimes fancy had whispered that it might have been like Terrace Hill, that George’s haughty mother, who had threatened to turn her from the door, was a second Mrs. Richards, and then an involuntary prayer of thanksgiving escaped her lips for the trial she had escaped.