“Never, and when only the wrong is remembered, I think I never care to see or hear from him again; but when the love I bore him comes surging back, as it sometimes does, I’d crawl to the end of the world for one more tender look from him. I’d lay his boy at his feet and die there myself so willingly. I used to form all sorts of castles about his coming after me, but they are all blown down, and I’ve learned to look the future in the face, to know that I must meet it alone. I wish there was something I could do to relieve Hugh of the expense I am to him. I did not know till after I was sick last spring how very poor he was, and how many self denials he had to make for his family. I heard his mother talking with Aunt Eunice when they thought I was asleep, and it almost broke my heart. He goes without decent clothes, without a fire in his room on wintry nights, goes without every thing, and then ’Lina calls him mean and stingy. The noble, self-denying Hugh! I would almost die for him; and I ask God every day to bring him some good fortune at last.”
“I never knew that Mr. Worthington was so straightened,” said Alice. “Was Rocket sold to Col. Tiffton for debt?”
“Yes, for ’Lina’s debts, contracted at Harney’s and for my sick bills, too. I’ve cried the hardest over that, for I know how Hugh loved that horse, but the worst of it is that Col. Tiffton has in some way become indebted to Harney for an immense sum of money. I don’t understand it, but the colonel signed a note for ten thousand dollars with somebody and for somebody, both of which somebodys have failed, and the colonel has to pay. It will take his home, they say, and his personal property, including Rocket, whom Harney is determined to secure. I’ve heard of his boasting that Hugh should yet be compelled to see him galloping down the pike upon his idol.”
“He never shall!” and Alice spoke under her breath, asking further questions concerning the sale of Colonel Tiffton’s house, and how much Mosside was worth.
Adah could not tell. She only knew that Rocket was pawned for five hundred dollars. “Once I insanely hoped that I might help redeem him—that God would find a work for me to do—and my heart was so happy for a moment.”
“What did you think of doing?” Alice asked, glancing at the delicate young girl, who looked so unaccustomed to toil of any kind.
“I thought to be a governess or waiting-maid,” and Adah’s lip began to quiver as she told how, before coming to Spring Bank, she had advertised for such a situation; how she had waited and watched for an answer, and how at last it came, or at least the words seemed addressed to her, and she had thought to answer it, but had been discouraged by ’Lina.
“Do you remember the address?” and Alice waited curiously for the answer.
“Yes, ‘A. E. R., Snowdon.’ You came from Snowdon, Miss Johnson, and I’ve wanted so much to ask if you knew ‘A. E. R.’”
Alice was confounded. Surely the leadings of Providence were too plainly evident to be unnoticed. There was a reason why Adah Hastings must go to Anna Richards, and Alice hastened to explain who the Richards family were.