.

At the table she heard 'Lina say that Claib was going to town that
afternoon, and thinking within herself. "If a letter were only ready, he
could take it with him," she asked permission to write a few lines. It
would not take her long, she said, and she could work the later to make
it up.

'Lina did not refuse, and in a few moments Adah penned a note to A.E.R.

"It's an answer to an advertisement for a governess or waiting maid,"
she said, as 'Lina glanced carelessly at the superscription.

"It will do no harm, or good either, I imagine," was 'Lina'a reply, and
placing the letter in her pocket, she was about returning to her mother,
when she spied Ellen Tiffton dismounting at the gate.

Ellen was delighted to see 'Lina, and 'Lina was delighted to see Ellen,
leading her at once into the work-room, where Adah sat by the window,
busy on the bertha, and looking up quietly when Ellen entered, as if
half expecting an introduction. But 'Lina did not deign to notice her,
save in an aside to Ellen, to whom she whispered softly:

"That girl, Adah, you know."

Reared in a country where the menials all were black, Ellen knew no such
marked distinction among the whites, and walked directly up to Adah,
whose face seemed to puzzle her. It was the first time they had met, and
Adah turned crimson beneath the close scrutiny to which she was
subjected. Noticing her embarrassment, and wishing to relieve it, Ellen
addressed to her some trivial remark concerning her work, complimenting
her skill, asking some questions about Willie, whom she had seen, and
then leaving her for a girlish conversation with 'Lina, to whom she
related many particulars of her visit to New York. Particularly was she
pleased with a certain Dr. Richards, who was described as the most
elegant young man at the hotel.

"There was something queer about him too," she said, in a lower tone,
and drawing nearer to 'Lina. "He seemed so absent-like, as if there were
something on his mind--some heart trouble, you know; but that only made
him more interesting; and such an adventure as I had, too. Send her out
of the room, please," and nodding toward Adah, Ellen spoke beneath her
breath.

'Lina comprehended her meaning, and turning to Adah said rather
haughtily:

"It's cool on the west end of the piazza. You may go and sit there a
while."

With a heightened color at being thus addressed before a stranger, Adah
withdrew, and Ellen continued:

"It's so strange. I