"Willie, Willie," called Adah from a distant room, where she was looking
for him. "Willie, Willie," and as the silvery tone fell on the doctor's
ears he started suddenly.
"Who is that?" he asked, his heart throbs growing fainter as his mother
replied: "That is Mrs. Markham. Singularly sweet voice for a person in
humble life, don't you think so?"
The doctor's reply was cut short by the entrance of Anna, and in his joy
at meeting his favorite sister and the excitement at the breakfast which
followed immediately, the doctor forgot Rose Markham, who had succeeded
in capturing Willie and borne him to her own room. After breakfast was
over he went with Anna to inspect the rooms which Adah had fitted for
his bride. They were very pleasant, and fastidious as he was he could
find fault with nothing. The carpet, the curtains, the new light
furniture, the armchair by the window where 'Lina was expected to sit,
the fanciful workbasket standing near, and his chair not far away, all
were in perfect taste, and passing his arm caressingly about Anna's
waist he said: "It's very nice, and I thank my little sister so much; of
course, I am wholly indebted to you."
"Not of course. I furnished means, it is true, but another than myself
planned and executed the effect," and sitting down in 'Lina's chair,
Anna told her brother of Rose Markham, so beautiful, so refined, and so
perfectly ladylike. "You must see her, and judge for yourself. Can't I
think of some excuse for sending for her?" she said.
It was some evil genius truly which prompted the doctor's reply.
"Never mind. I'm not partial to smart waiting maids. I'd rather talk
with you."
And so the golden moment was lost, and Adah was not sent for, while in
his bridal rooms the doctor sat, trying to be interested in all that
Anna was saying, trying to believe he should be happy when 'Lina was his
wife, and trying, oh, so hard, to shut out the vision of another, who
should have been there in his own home, instead of lying in some
lonesome grave, as he believed she was, with her baby on her bosom. Poor
Lily!
It was a great mistake he made when he cast Lily off, but it could not
now be helped. No tears, no regrets, could bring back the dear little
form laid away beneath the grassy sod, and so he would not waste his
time in idle mourning. He would do the best he could with 'Lina. He did
believe she loved him. He was almost sure of it, and as a means of
redressing Lily's wrongs he would be kind to her.