“Now, then, to business, I want Hugh to send me some money, or all is lost. Let me explain.
“Here I am at Fifth Avenue Hotel, as good as any lady, if my purse is almost empty. Plague on it, why didn’t that Mrs. Johnson send me two thousand instead of one? It would not hurt her, and then I should get through nicely.”
“You see that thousand is almost gone and as board is two and a half dollars per day, I can’t stay long and shop in Broadway with old Mrs. Richards as I am expected to do in my capacity of heiress. There never was so lucky a hit as that, or anything that took so well, just think—I, Adeline Worthington, nee Adeline Murdoch, who used to help wash her own clothes in Elmwood, and who once talked of learning a vulgar trade, and did sew a week for old Aunt Jerusha Tubbs, here am I, metamorphosed into a Kentucky heiress, who can say and do anything she pleases on the strength of being an heiress, and hailing from a State where folks own niggers. I tell you, Spring Bank, Kentucky—has done wonders for me in the way of getting me noticed.
“You see I am a pure Southern woman here; nobody but Mrs. Richards knows that I was born, mercy knows where. But for you, she never need have known it either, but you must tell that we had not always lived in Kentucky. Honestly, I was glad when you left.
“But to do Mrs. Richards justice, she never alludes to my birth, and you ought to hear her introduce me to some of her friends, ‘Mrs. So and So, Miss Worthington from Spring Bank, Kentucky,’ then in an aside, which I am not supposed to hear, she adds, ‘A great heiress of a very respectable family. You may have heard of them.’ Somehow, this always makes me uncomfortable, as it brings up certain cogitations touching that scamp you were silly enough to marry, thereby giving me to the world, which my delectable brother no doubt thinks would have been better off without me. But to proceed—
“We left Saratoga a week ago—old lady Richards wanted to go to Terrace Hill awhile and show me to Anna who it seems is a kind of family oracle. If she approve Johnny’s choice, it is all right.”
“Who is Johnny?” Hugh asked, his face a purplish hue and contrasting strangely with the ashen one resting on his shoulder.
Mrs. Worthington explained to him what she knew of Dr. Richards, and Hugh went on:
“After counting the little gold eagles in my purse, I said perhaps I’d go for a few days, though I dreaded it terribly, for the doctor had not yet bound himself fast, and I did not know what the result of those three old maid sisters, sitting on me, would be. Old lady was quite happy in prospect of going home, when one day a letter come from Anna. I happened to have a headache, and was lying on madam’s bed, when the dinner bell rang. Of course I insisted that madam should go down without me, and of course she went. It was tedious lying there alone, and to pass away the time I just peeped into the letter, feeling amply rewarded by the insight I obtained into the family secrets.
“They are poorer than I supposed, but that does not matter, position is what I want. Anna has an income of her own, and, generous soul that she is, gives it out to her mother. You see there had been some talk of her coming to Saratoga, and in referring to it, said, ‘Much as I might enjoy it, I cannot afford to come, I can pay your bills for some time longer, if you really think the water a benefit, but my presence would just double the expense. Then, if brother does marry, I wish to surprise him with a handsome set of pearls for his bride, and I am economizing to do so.’ (Note by ’Lina)—Isn’t she a clever old soul? Don’t she deserve a better sister-in-law than I shall make her, and won’t I find the way to her purse often?”