“Yes, Adah is a dear, good girl,” Hugh replied. “She is to me all a sister could be. Do you like Adah?”
“Yes, very much.”
“I’m glad, for she is worthy of your love. She has been terribly wronged, sometime she may tell you.”
“She has told me,” Alice replied, while Hugh continued, “I am sure you will respect her just the same.”
Alice had not intended to talk with him of Adah then, but he had introduced the subject and so she said to him,
“I had thought to tell you of a plan which Mrs. Hastings has in view, but perhaps, I had better wait till you are stronger.”
“I am strong enough now—stronger than you think. Tell me of the plan,” and Hugh urged the request until Alice told him of Terrace Hill and Adah’s wish to go there.
For a few minutes Hugh lay perfectly still. Once he would have spurned the idea, for Spring Bank would be so lonely without Adah and the little boy, but Alice was there now; Alice was worth a dozen Adahs, and so he said at last, “I have heard of the Richards family before. You know the Dr. I believe. Do you like him? Is he a man to be trusted?”
“Yes, I know Dr. Richards,” Alice replied, half resolving to tell Hugh all she feared, but feeling that possibly she might be wrong in her suspicions, she concluded not to do so, Adah’s presence at Terrace Hill would settle that matter, and she asked again if he did not think it well for her to go.
“Yes, on some accounts,” Hugh answered, thinking of ’Lina. “But it looks too much like sending her out alone into the world. Does she wish to go? Is she anxious? Call her please. I would hear from her what she has to say.”