he one from whom she had the least right to
expect pity--Hugh came to her side; and winding his arm around her,
said, with a choking voice: "I will not forsake you, 'Lina; I will care
for you the same as ever, and so long as I have a home you shall have
one, too."

"Oh, Hugh, I don't deserve this from you!" was 'Lina's faint response,
as she laid her head upon his bosom, whispering: "Take me away--from
them all--upstairs--on the bed I am so sick, and my head is bursting
open!"

Hugh was strong as a young giant, and lifting gently the yielding form,
he bore it from the room--the bridal room, which she would never enter
again, until he brought her back--and laid her softly down beneath the
windows, dropping tears upon her white, still face, and whispering:

"Poor 'Lina!"

As Hugh passed out with his burden in his arms, the bewildered company
seemed to rally; but the convict was the first to act. Turning to Mrs.
Worthington he said:

"Eliza, I am here to-night for my children's sake; and now that I have
done what I came to do, I shall leave you, only asking that you continue
to be a mother to the poor girl who is really the only sufferer. The
rest have cause for joy; you in particular," turning to the doctor, who
suddenly seemed to break the spell which had bound him, and springing to
his feet, exclaimed:

"Yes, Lily shall he found, Lily shall be found; but I must see my boy
first. Anna, can't we go now, to-night?"

That was impossible, Alice said; and as hers was the only clear head in
the household, she set herself at once to plan for everybody. To the
convict and the doctor she paid no heed; but the tired Anna was
conducted at once to her own room, and made to take the rest she so much
needed. Densie too was cared for kindly, soothingly; for the poor old
woman was nearly crushed with all she had heard; and Alice, as she left
her upon the bed, heard her muttering deliriously to herself:

"She wouldn't let her own mother eat with her. She compared me to a
white nigger; and can I receive her now? No, no; and she don't wish it.
Yet I pitied her when her heart snapped to pieces there in the middle of
the room; poor girl, poor girl!"

When Alice returned again to the parlor, the convict had gone. There had
been a short consultation between himself and the doctor, an engagement
to meet in Cincinnati to arrange their plan of search; and then he had
turned again to his once wife, still sitting in her corner, motionles