She had responded to that appeal, talking kindly to the little girl, between whom and herself the friendliest of relations were established and whose name she learned was Jenny Ellsworth.  The mother she did not then see, as, during the journey down the river she was suffering from a nervous headache, and kept her room.  From the child and child’s nurse, however, she heard that Mrs. Ellsworth was going ere long to Europe, and was anxious to secure some young and competent person to act in the capacity of Jenny’s governess.  Instantly Adah’s decision was made.  Once in New York she would by letter apply for the situation, for nothing then could so well suit her state of mind as a tour to Europe, where she would be far away from all she had ever known.  Very adroitly she ascertained Mrs. Ellsworth’s address, wrote to her a note the day following her arrival in New York, and the day following that, found her in Mrs. Ellsworth’s parlor at the Brevoort House, where for a few days she was stopping.  She had been greatly troubled to know what name to give, but finally resolved to take her own, the one by which she was known ere George Hastings crossed her path.  Adah Maria Gordon was, as she supposed, her real name, so in her note to Mrs. Ellsworth she signed herself “Maria Gordon,” omitting the Adah, which might lead to her being recognized.  From her little girl Mrs. Ellsworth had heard much of the sweet young lady, who was so kind to her on the boat, and was thus already prepossessed in her favor.

Adah did not tell Dr. Richards, and perhaps she did not herself know how surprised and delighted Mrs. Ellsworth was with the fair, girlish creature, announced to her as Miss Gordon, and who won her heart before five minutes were gone, making her think it of no consequence to inquire concerning her at Madam ——­’s school, where she said she had been a pupil.

“My sister must have been there at the same time,” Mrs. Ellsworth had said.  “Perhaps you remember her, Augusta Stanley?”

Yes, Miss Gordon remembered her well, but added modestly: 

“She may have forgotten me, as I was only a day scholar, and—­not—­not quite her circle.  I was poor.”

Charmed with her frankness, Mrs. Ellsworth decided in her own mind to take her, but, for form’s sake, she would write to her sister Augusta, recently married, and living in Milwaukee.

“Your first name is Maria,” she said, taking out her pencil to write it down.

Adah could not tell a lie, and she replied unhesitatingly: 

“No, ma’am; my name is Adah Maria, but I prefer being called Maria.”

Mrs. Ellsworth nodded, wrote down “Adah Maria Gordon,” but in the letter sent that day to Augusta, merely spoke of her governess in prospect as a Miss Gordon, who had been at the same school with Augusta, asking if she remembered her.

Yes, Augusta remembered Miss Gordon, well, a brown-eyed, sweet-faced, conscientious little creature whom she liked so much, and whose services her sister had better secure.