that it was he, then with an imploring cry as if for him to save her
from some dreaded evil, she stretched her little hands toward him and
sobbed: "Mr. Worthington, was it true? Was it as his letter said?" and
shedding back from her white face the wealth of flowing hair, Adah
waited for the answer, which did not come at once. In utter amazement
Hugh gazed upon the stranger, and then exclaimed:

"Adah, Adah Hastings, why are you here?"

In the tone of his voice surprise and pity were mingled with
disapprobation, the latter of which Adah detected at once, and as if it
had crushed out the last lingering hope, she covered her face with her
hands and sobbed piteously.

"Don't you turn against me, or I'll surely die, and I've come so far to
find you."

By this time Hugh was himself again. His rapid, quick-seeing mind had
come to a decision, and turning to his mother and sister, he said:

"Leave us alone for a time."

Rather reluctantly Mrs. Worthington and her daughter left the room.
Deliberately turning the key in the lock, Hugh advanced to her side,
groaning as his eye fell upon the child, which had fallen asleep again.

"I hoped this might have been spared her," he thought, as, kneeling by
the couch, he said, kindly: "Adah, I am more pained to see you here than
I can express. Why did you come, and where is--"

The name was lost to 'Lina, and muttering to herself: "It does not sound
much like a man and wife," she rather unwillingly quitted her position,
and Hugh was really alone with Adah.

Never was Hugh in so awkward a position before, or so uncertain how to
act. The sight of that sobbing, trembling wretched creature, whose heart
he had helped to crush, had perfectly unmanned him, making him almost as
much a woman as herself.

"Oh, what made you? Why didn't you save me?" she said, looking up to him
with an expression of reproach.

He had no excuse. He knew how innocent she was, and he held her in his
arms as he would once have held the Golden Haired, had she come to him
with a tale of woe.

"Let me see that letter again," he said.

She gave it to him; and he read once more the cruel lines, in which
there was still much of love for the poor thing, to whom they were
addressed.

"You will surely find friends who will care for you, until the time when
I may come to really make you mine."

Hugh repeated these words twice, aloud, his heart throbbing with the
noble resolve, that the confidence she had placed