ad gone forever.

CHAPTER XLI

TIDINGS

A few days after 'Lina's burial, there came three letters to Spring
Bank, one to Mrs. Worthington from Murdock, as he now chose to be
called, saying that though he had looked, and was still looking
everywhere for the missing Adah, he could only trace her, and that but
vaguely, to the Greenbush depot, where he lost sight of her entirely, no
one after that having seen a person bearing the least resemblance to
her. After a consultation with the doctor, he had advertised for her,
and he inclosed a copy of the advertisement, as it appeared in the
different papers of Boston, Albany, and New York.

"If A---- H---- will let her whereabouts be known to her friends, she
will hear of something to her advantage."

This was the purport of Murdock's letter, if we except a kind of inquiry
after 'Lina, of whose death he had not heard.

The second, for Alice, was from Anna Richards, who was also ignorant as
yet of 'Lina's decease. After inquiring kindly for the unfortunate girl,
she wrote:

"I have great hopes of my erring brother, now that I know how his whole
heart goes toward his beautiful boy, our darling Willie. I wish poor,
dear Lily could have seen him when, on his arrival at Terrace Hill, he
not only bent over, but knelt by the crib of his sleeping child, waking
him at once, and hugging him to his bosom, while his tears dropped like
rain. I am sure she would have chosen to be his wife, for her own sake
as well as Willie's.

"You know how proud my mother and sisters are, and it would surprise
you, as it does me, to see them pet, and spoil, and fondle Willie, who
rules the entire household, mother even allowing him to bring
wheelbarrow, drum, and trumpet into the parlor, declaring that she likes
the noise, as it stirs up her blood. Willie has made a vast change in
our once quiet home, and I fear I shall meet with much opposition when I
take him away, as I expect to do next month, for Lily gave him to me,
and brother John has said that I may have him until the mother is found,
while Charlie is perfectly willing; and thus, you see, my cup of joy is
full.

"Brother is away now, hunting for Adah, and I am wicked enough not to
miss him, so busy am I in the few preparations needed by the wife of a
poor missionary."

Then, in a postscript. Anna added: "I forgot to tell you that Charlie
and I are to be married some time in July, that the Presbyterian Society
of Snowdon has give