"Turn you off!" and in his surprise at the sudden suspicion which for

the first time darted across his mind, Jim brought his horses to a full

stop, while he held a parley with the pale, frightened creature, asking

so eagerly if Mrs. Richards would turn her off. "Why should she? You

ain't going there for that, be you?"

"Not to be turned out of doors, no," Adah answered; "but I--I--I want

that place so much. I read Miss Anna's advertisement; but please turn

back, or let me get out and walk. I can't go there now. Is Miss Anna

like the rest?"

"Miss Anna's an angel," he answered. "If you get her ear, you're all

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right; the plague is to get it with them two she-cats ready to tear your

eyes out. If I'se you, I'd ask to see her. I wouldn't tell my arrent

either, till I did. She's sick upstairs; but I'll see if Pamely can't

manage it. That's my woman--Pamely; been mine for four years, and we've

had two pair of twins, all dead; so I feel tender toward the little

ones," and Jim glanced kindly at Willie, who had succeeded in making

Adah notice the house standing out so prominently against the winter

sky, and looking to the poor woman-girl more like a prison than a home.

It might be pleasant there in the summer, Adah thought; but now, with

snow on the roof, snow on the walk, snow on the trees, snow everywhere,

it presented a cheerless aspect. Only one part of it seemed

inviting--the two crimson-curtained windows opening upon a veranda, from

which a flight of steps led down into what must be a flower garden.

"Miss Anna's room," the driver said, pointing toward it; and Adah looked

wistfully out, vainly hoping for a glimpse of the sweet face she had in

her mind as Anna's.

But only Asenath's grim, angular visage was seen, as it looked from

Anna's window, wondering whom Jim could be bringing home.

"It's a handsome trunk--covered, too. Can it be Lottie?" and mentally

hoping it was not, she busied herself again with bathing poor Anna's

head, which was aching sadly to-day, owing to the excitement of her

brother's visit and the harsh words which passed between him and his

sisters, he telling them, jokingly at first, that he was tired of

getting married, and half resolved to give it up; while they, in return,

had abused him for fickleness, taunted him with their poverty, and

sharply reproached him for his unwillingness to lighten their burden, by

taking a rich wife when he could get one.

All this John had repeated to Anna in the dim twilight of the morning,

as he stood by her bedside to bid her good-by; and she, as usual, had

soothed him into quiet, speaking kindly of his bride-elect, and saying

she should like her.




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