in order.

The cleaning and arranging was finished at last, and everything within
the house was as neat and orderly as Aunt Eunice and Adah could make
it, even Aunt Chloe acknowledging that "things was tiptop," but said,
"it was no use settin' 'em to rights when Mas'r Hugh done onsot 'em so
quick;" but Hugh promised to do better. He would turn over a new leaf,
so by way of commencement, on the morning of Alice's expected arrival he
deliberately rolled up his towel and placed it under his pillow instead
of his nightshirt, which he hung conspicuously over the washstand. His
boots were put behind the fire-board, his every day hat jammed into the
bandbox where 'Lina kept her winter bonnet, and then, satisfied that so
far as his room was concerned, everything was in order, he descended the
stairs and went into the garden to gather fresh flowers with which still
further to adorn Alice's room. Hugh was fond of flowers, and two most
beautiful bouquets were soon arranged and placed in the vases brought
from the parlor mantel, while Muggins, who trotted beside him, watching
his movements and sometimes making suggestions, was told to see that
they were freshly watered, and not allowed to stand where the sun could
shine on them, as they might fade before Miss Johnson came.

During the excitement of preparing for Alice, the pain in his head had
in a measure been forgotten, but it had come back this morning with
redoubled force, and the veins upon his forehead looked almost like
bursting with their pressure of feverish blood. Hugh had never been sick
in his life, and he did not think it possible for him to be so now, so
he tried hard to forget the giddy, half blinding pain warning him of
danger, and after forcing himself to sip a little coffee in which he
would indulge this morning, he ordered Claib to bring out the covered
buggy, as he was going up to Lexington.

CHAPTER XVIII

MEETING OF ALICE AND HUGH

Could 'Lina have seen Hugh that morning as he emerged from a fashionable
tailor's shop, she would scarcely have recognized him. The hour passed
rapidly away, and its close found Hugh waiting at the terminus of the
Lexington and Cincinnati Railroad. He did not have to wait there long
ere a wreath of smoke in the distance heralded the approach of the
train, and in a moment the broad platform was swarming with passengers,
conspicuous among whom were an old lady and a young, both entire
strangers, as was evinced by their an