“And that child, the lawful wife of this young man, was she mine, or was she the servant girl’s?”
A little apart from the others, his arms folded tightly together, and his eyes fixed upon the convict, stood Hugh.
“Answer her,” he said, gravely, as the convict did not reply. “Tell her if Adah be her child, or,——’Lina,——which?”
Had a clap of thunder cleft the air around her, ’Lina could not have started up sooner than she did. It was the very first suspicion which had crossed her brain, and her life seemed dying out, as half way between Mrs. Worthington and the convict she stood with hands outstretched and livid lips, which tried to speak, but could only moan convulsively. The convict took his eyes away from her, pitying her so much, as he said, “Adah is my lawful child. I kept her, and sent the other back. It was a bold act, and I wonder it was not questioned, but Adaline’s eyes were not so black then as they are now, and though five months older than the other, she was small for her age, and two years sometimes change a child materially; so Eliza took it for granted that the girl she received as Adaline, and whose real name was Matilda, was her own; but Adah Hastings is her daughter and Hugh’s half sister while this young woman is—the child of myself and the servant girl.”
Alice, Anna, and the doctor looked aghast, while Mrs. Worthington murmured audibly, “Adah, darling Adah, and Willie, precious Willie—oh, I want them here now!”
The mother had claimed her own, but alas, the fond cry of welcome to sweet Adah Hastings was a death knell to ’Lina, for it seemed to shut her out of that gentle woman’s heart. There was no place for her, and in her terrible desolation she stood alone, her eyes wandering wistfully from one to another, but turning very quickly when they fell on the convict, her father. She would not have it so; she could not own a servant for her mother, that villain for her father, and worse—oh, infinitely worse than all—she had no right to be born! A child of sin and shame, disgraced, disowned, forsaken. It was a terrible blow, and the proud girl staggered beneath it.
“Will no one speak to me?” she said, at last; “no one break this dreadful silence? Has everybody forsaken me? Do you all loathe and hate the offspring of such parents? Won’t somebody pity and care for me?”
“Yes, ’Lina,” and Hugh—the one from whom she had the least right to expect pity—Hugh came to her side; and winding his arm around her, said, with a choking voice, “I will not forsake you, ’Lina; I will care for you the same as ever, and so long as I have a home you shall have one too.”
“Oh, Hugh, I don’t deserve this from you!” was ’Lina’s faint response, as she laid her head upon his bosom, whispering, “Take me away—from them all—up stairs—on the bed! I am so sick, and my head is bursting open!”
Hugh was strong as a young giant, and lifting gently the yielding form, he bore it from the room—the bridal room, which she would never enter again, until he brought her back—and laid her softly down beneath the windows, dropping tears upon her white, still face, and whispering,