Hall, Saratoga Springs. By the way, tell
mother not to forget that dress. She'll know what you mean.

"Mr. Stanley seemed quite blue after you went away. I should not be
surprised to hear of his being at Spring Bank some day. Isn't it funny
that you had to go right there? Perhaps it's as well for you that Hugh
is sick. You will got a better impression. _Au revoir_."

Not a word was there in this letter of the doctor, but Alice understood
it all the same. He was the attraction which kept the selfish girl from
her brother's side. "May she be happy with him, if, indeed, he has a
right to win her," was Alice's mental comment, shuddering as she
recalled the time when she was pleased with the handsome doctor, and
silently thanking God, who had saved her from much sorrow. Hearing Mrs.
Worthington in the hall, and remembering what 'Lina said concerning the
dress, she stepped to the door and delivered the message, wondering that
Mrs. Worthington should seem so confounded, and stammer so, as she
turned to Adah, just coming up the stairs, and said:

"Have you ever done anything with that old muslin 'Lina gave you?"

"Never till to-day," Adah replied; "when it occurred to me that if this
hot weather lasted, I might find it comfortable, provided I could fix
it, so I sent Mug for it, and she is ripping the waist."

Mrs. Worthington was not a good dissembler, and her next question was:

"Did you find anything in the pocket?"

"Yes, my letter, written weeks ago. Your daughter must have forgotten
it. I intrusted it to her care the day Miss Tiffton called."

Adah was just thinking of speaking freely to Alice Johnson concerning
her future course, when Mrs. Worthington met her in the upper hall.

"I'll go to her now," she said, as Mrs. Worthington left her, and
knocking timidly at Alice's door, she asked permission to enter.

"Oh, certainly, I have something to tell you," Alice said, motioning her
to a chair, and sitting down beside her. "Miss Worthington sent me a
note in which she speaks of you."

"Of me?" and Adah colored slightly. "I did not know she ever thought of
me. Why did she not come with her mother?"

"She is enjoying herself so much is the reason she gives, though I fancy
there is another more powerful one. Perhaps the note will enlighten
you," and Alice passed it to Adah, not so much to show her how heartless
'Lina was, as to see if in what she had said of the Richards family
there was not something which Adah wo