to let them alone, while Densie, who, at Alice's
suggestion, brought her a glass of wine, was kindly thanked, and even
asked to stay if she liked while the dressing went on. But Densie did
not care to, and she left the room just as the mud-bespattered vehicle
containing Anna Richards drove up, Mr. Millbrook having purposely
stopped in Versailles, thinking it better that Anna should go on alone.

It was Ellen of course, 'Lina said, and so the dressing continued, and
she was all unsuspicious of the scene enacting below, in the room where
Anna met her brother alone. She had not given Hugh her name. She simply
asked for Dr. Richards, and conducting her into the parlor, hung with
bridal decorations, Hugh went for the doctor, amusing himself on the
back piazza with the sprightly Mug, who when asked if she were not sorry
Miss 'Lina was going off, had naively answered:

"No-o--sir, 'case she done jaw so much, and pull my har. I tell you,
she's a peeler. Is you glad she's gwine?"

The doctor was not quite certain, but answered: "Yes, very glad," just
as Hugh announced "a lady who wished to see him."

Mechanically the doctor took his way to the parlor, while Hugh resumed
his seat by the window, where for the last hour he had watched for the
coming of one who had said, "I will be there."

Half an hour later, had he looked into the parlor, he would have seen a
frightened, white-faced man crouching at Anna Richards' side and
whispering to her as if all life, all strength, all power to act for
himself were gone:

"What must I do? Tell me what to do."

This was a puzzle to Anna, and she replied by asking him another
question. "Do you love 'Lina Worthington?"

"I--I--no, I guess I don't; but she's rich, and--"

With a motion of disgust Anna cut him short, saying: "Don't make me
despise you more than I do. Until your lips confessed it, I had faith
that Lily was mistaken, that your marriage was honorable, at least, even
if you tired of it afterward. You are worse than I suppose and now you
speak of money. What shall you do? Get up and not sit whining at my feet
like a puppy. Find Lily, of course, and if she will stoop to listen a
second time to your suit, make her your wife, working to support her
until your hands are blistered, if need be."

Anna hardly knew herself in this phase of her character, and her brother
certainly did not.

"Don't be hard on me, Anna," he said, looking at her in a kind of
dogged, uncertain way. "I'