e jewelery for which I
could find a place, Nell's bracelet with the rest. The doctor and
madam have both admired it very much, never dreaming that it was
borrowed. In the jam coming out it must have unclasped and dropped
off, for it's not to be found high nor low, and you can fancy the
muss I am in. Down at Ball & Black's there fortunately is another
exactly like Nell's, and this I must buy at any rate. I can perhaps
pay my board bills four or five weeks longer, but Hugh must send me
fifty dollars with which to replace the bracelet. It must be done.

"Don't for mercy's sake, let Alice Johnson get a sight of this
letter. I wonder if Dr. Richards did fancy her. Send the money,
send the money.

"Your distracted

"'LINA.

"P.S.--One day later. Rejoice, oh, rejoice! and give ear. The
doctor has actually asked the question, and I blushingly referred
him to mamma, but he seemed to think this unnecessary, took alarm
at once, and pressed the matter until I said yea. Aren't you glad?
But one thing is sure--Hugh must sell a nigger to get me a handsome
outfit. There's Mug, always under foot, doing no one any good.
She'll bring six hundred any day, she's so bright and healthy. Lulu
he must give out and out for a waiting maid. Madam expects it. And
now one word more; if Adah Hastings has not got over her idea of
going to Terrace Hill, she must get over it. Coax, advise, plead
with, threaten, or even throttle her, if necessary--anything to
keep her back.

"Yours, in ecstatic distress,

"'LINA"

CHAPTER XXIV

FORESHADOWINGS

So absorbed were Hugh and his mother in that letter as not to hear the
howl of fear echoing through the hall, as Mug fled in terror from the
dreaded new owner to whom Master Hugh was to sell her. Neither did they
hear the catlike tread with which Lulu glided past the door, taking the
same direction Mug had gone, namely, to Alice Johnson's room.

Lulu had been sitting by the open window at the end of the hall, and had
heard every word of this letter, while Mug had reached the threshold in
time to hear all that was said about selling her. Instinctively both
turned for protection to Alice, but Mug was the first to reach her.
Throwing herself upon her knees, she sobbed frantically.

"You buys me, Miss Alice. You give Mar's Hugh six hundred dollars for
me, so't he can get Miss 'Lina's weddin' finery. I'll be good, I will.
I'll learn do Lord's