"And the other, the boy like Hugh, have you met him again?" Adah asked,

feeling a little disappointed, when Alice replied: "Once, I am very sure."

Alice heard the faint sigh, and hope died out for Hugh. Poor Hugh! Alice

was thinking of him, too, and said at last: "Was Rocket sold to Colonel

Tiffton for debt?"

"Yes, for 'Lina's debts, contracted at Harney's. 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 now much

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Mosside was worth.

Adah did not know. She was only posted with regard to Rocket, who 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. Then she told how her letter had been carelessly forgotten.

"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.,' but have never dared talk

freely with you till to-day."

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 reply: "'A.E.R.' is no less a

person than Anna Richards whose mother and brother are now at Saratoga."

"Oh, I can't go there. They are too proud. They would hate me for

Willie, and ask me for his father."

Very gently Alice talked to her of Snowdon and Anna Richards, whom Adah

was sure to like.

"I'm so glad for your sake that it has come around at last," she said.

"Will you write to her to-day, or shall I for you? Perhaps I had

better!"

"Oh, no, I would rather go unannounced--rather Miss Anna should like me

for my self, if I go," and Adah's voice trembled, for she shrank

nervously from the thought of meeting the Richards family.

If 'Lina liked the old lady, she certainly could not, and the very

thought of these elder sisters, in all their primness, dismayed and

disheartened her.

While this was passing through her mind, she sat twining Willie's silken

curls around her finger, and apparently listening to what Alice was now

saying of Dr. Richards; but Alice might as well have talked to the winds

for any impression she made. Adah was looking far into the future,

wondering what it had in store for her, as if in Anna Richards she would

indeed find the sympathizing friend which Alice said she would.

Gradually, as she thought of Anna, her heart went out strangely toward

her.




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