offee
being injurious, and he presumed it was."

"There's something on your mind," she said, observing his abstraction.
"Have you had another dunning letter, or what?"

Aunt Eunice had made a commencement, and in his usual impulsive way Hugh
began by asking if "she ever knew him tell a lie?"

No, Aunt Eunice never did. Nobody ever did, bad as some folks thought
him.

"Do they think me very bad?" and Hugh spoke so mournfully that Aunt
Eunice tried to apologize.

"She didn't mean anything, only folks sometimes said he was cross and
rough, and--and--"

"Stingy," he suggested, supplying the word she hated to say.

Yes, that was what Ellen Tiffton said, because he refused to go to the
Ladies' Fair, where he was sure to have his pockets picked. But, law,
she wasn't worth minding, if she was Colonel Tiffton's girl, and going
to have a big party one week from the next Monday. Had Hugh heard of it?

Hugh believed Ad said something about it yesterday, but he paid no
attention, for, of course, he should not go even if he were invited, as
he had nothing fit to wear.

"But why did you ask if I ever knew you tell a lie?" Aunt Eunice said,
and then in a low tone, as if afraid the walls might hear, Hugh told the
whole story of Adah.

"'Twas a mighty mean trick, I know," he said, as he saw Aunt Eunice's
look of horror when he confessed the part he had had in wronging the
poor girl, "but, Aunt Eunice, that villain coaxed me into drinking wine,
which you know I never use, and I think now he must have drugged it, for
I remember a strange feeling in my head, a feeling not like drunkenness,
for I knew perfectly well what was transpiring around me, and only felt
a don't-care-a-tive-ness which kept me silent when I should have spoken.
She has come to me at last. She believes God sent her, and if He did
He'll help me take care of her. I shall not turn her off."

"But, Hugh," and Aunt Eunice spoke earnestly, "you cannot afford the
expense. Think twice before you commit yourself."

"I have thought twice, the last time just as I did the first. Adah shall
stay, and I want you to take her. You need some one these winter nights.
There's the room you call mine. Give her that. Will you, Aunt Eunice?"
and Hugh wound his arm around Aunt Eunice's ample waist, while he
pleaded for Adah Hastings.

Aunt Eunice was soon won over, as Hugh knew she would be, and it was
settled that she should come that very day, if possible.

"Look, the sky is