vered platform, holding Willie in her arms, and pointing out her
trunk to the civil baggage man, who, in answer to her inquiries as to
the best means of reaching Terrace Hill, replied: "You can't go there
to-night; it is too late. You'll have to stay in the tavern kept right
over the depot, though if you'd kept on the train there might have been
a chance, for I see the young Dr. Richards aboard; and as he didn't get
out, I guess he's coaxed or hired the conductor to leave him at
Snowdon."

The baggage man was right in his conjecture, for the doctor had
persuaded the polite conductor, whom he knew personally, to stop the
train at Snowdon; and while Adah, shivering with cold, found her way up
the narrow stairs into the rather comfortless quarters where she must
spend the night, the doctor was kicking the snow from his feet and
talking to Jim, the coachman from Terrace Hill.

CHAPTER XXXI

THE CONVICT

It was a sad morning at Spring Bank, that morning of Adah's leaving, and
many a tear was shed as the last good-by was spoken. Mrs. Worthington,
Alice and Hugh accompanied Adah to Frankfort, and Alice had never seemed
in better spirits than on that winter's morning. She would be gay; it
was a duty she owed Hugh, and Adah, too. So she talked and laughed as if
there was no load upon her heart, and no cloud on Adah's spirits.
Outwardly Mrs. Worthington suffered most, wondering why she should cling
so to Adah, and why this parting was so painful. All the farewell words
had been spoken, for Adah would not leave them to the chance of a last
moment. She seemed almost too pretty to send on that long journey alone,
and Hugh felt that he might be doing wrong in suffering her to depart
without an escort. But Adah only laughed at his fears. Willie was her
protector, she said, and then, as the train came up she turned to Mrs.
Worthington, who, haunted with the dread lest something should happen to
prevent 'Lina's marriage, said softly:

"You'll be careful about 'Lina?"

Yes, Adah would be careful, and to Alice she whispered:

"I'll write after I get there, but you must not answer it at least not
till I say you may. Good-by."

* * * * *

"Come, mother, we are waiting for you," Hugh said.

At the sound of Hugh's voice she started and replied:

"Oh, yes, I remember--we are to visit the penitentiary. Dear me," and in
a kind of absent way, Mrs. Worthington took Hugh's arm, and the party
proc