country seat, I went to Snowdon, and after some inquiries in the village, forced my way to Terrace Hill.  The lady listening to me was the only one I saw, and I felt sure she at least would be kind to Adah.  On my return to New York, I urged the marriage more pertinaciously than at first, saying, by way of excusing myself, that as I was only Adah’s guardian, I could not, of course, feel toward her as a near relative would feel—­that as I had already expended large sums of money on her, I was getting tired of it, and would be glad to be released, hinting, by way of smoothing the fiendish proposition, my belief that, from constant association, he would come to love her so much that at last he would really and truly make her his wife.  He did hesitate—­he did seem shocked, and if I remember rightly, called me a brute, an unnatural guardian, and all that; but little by little I gained ground, until at last he consented, and I hurried the matter at once, lest he should repent.

“I had an acquaintance, I said, who lived a few miles from the city—­a man who, for money, would do anything, and who, as a feigned justice of the peace, would go through with the ceremony, and ever after keep his own counsel.  I wonder the doctor did not make some inquiries concerning this so-called justice, but I think I am right in saying that he is not remarkably clear-headed, and this weakness saved me much trouble, and after a long time I arranged the matter with my friend, who was a lawful justice, staying with his brother, at that time absent in Europe.  This being done, I decided upon Hugh Worthington for a witness, as being the person, of all the world, who should be present at Adah’s bridal.  He had recently come to New York.  I had accidentally made his acquaintance, acquiring so strong an influence over him that I could almost mold him to my will.  I did not tell him what I wanted until I had tempted him with drugged wine, and he did not realize what he was doing.  He knew enough, however, to sign his name and to salute the bride, who really was a bride, as lawful a one as any who ever turned from the altar where she had registered her vows.”

“Oh, joy, joy!” and Alice sprang at once to her feet, and hastening to the doctor’s side, said to him, authoritatively: 

“You hear, you understand, Adah is your wife, your very own, and you must go back to her at once.  She’s in your own home as Rose Markham.  She went from here, Adah Hastings, whose husband’s name was George.  You do understand me?” and Alice grew very earnest as the doctor failed to rouse up, as she thought he ought to do.

Appealing next to Anna, she continued: 

“Pray, make him comprehend that his wife is at Terrace Hill.”

Very gently Anna answered: 

“She was there, but she has gone.  He knows it; I came to tell him, but she fled immediately after recognizing my brother, and left a letter revealing the whole.”

It had come to ’Lina by this time that Dr. Richards could never be her husband, and with a bitter cry, she covered her face with her hands, and went shivering to the corner where Mrs. Worthington sat, as if a mother’s sympathy were needed now, and coveted as it had never been before.