too. He's dead. They brought him back with a dum. Poor pa-pa, Willie
don't want him dead;" and the little lip began to quiver.

Never before since she knew she was a widow had Adah felt so vivid a
sensation of something akin to affection for the dead, as when her child
and his mourned so plaintively for papa; and the tears which now fell
like rain were not for Willie alone, but were given rather to the dead.

"Mrs. Richards has not yet greeted us," Asenath said; and turning to
her at once, Adah apologized for her seeming neglect, pressing both her
and Eudora's hands more cordially than she would have done a few moments
before.

"Where is Anna?" she asked; and Mrs. Richards replied:

"She's sick. She regretted much that she could not come up here to-day;"
while Willie, standing in Adah's lap, with his chubby arm around her
neck, chimed in.

"You don't know what we've dot. We've dot 'ittle baby, we has."

Adah knew now why Anna was absent, and why Charlie Millbrook looked so
happy when at last he came in to see her, delivering sundry messages
from his Anna, who, he said could scarcely wait to see her dear sister.
There was something genuine in Charlie's greeting, something which made
Adah feel as if she were indeed at home, and she wondered much how even
the Richards race could ever have objected to him, as she watched his
movements and heard him talking with his stately mother.

"Yes, Major Stanley came," he said, in reply to her questions, and Adah
was glad it was put to him, for the blushes dyed her cheek at once, and
she bent over Willie to hide them, while Charlie continued: "Captain
Worthington came, too, Adah's brother, you know. He was in the same
battle with the doctor, was wounded rather seriously and has been
discharged, I believe."

"Oh," and Mrs. Richards seemed quite interested now, asking where the
young men were, and appearing disappointed when told that, after waiting
a few moments in hopes of seeing the ladies, they had returned to the
hotel, where Mrs. Worthington and Alice were stopping.

"I fully expected the ladies here; pray, send for them at once," she
said, but Adah interposed:

"Her mother would not willingly be separated from Hugh, and as he of
course would remain at the hotel, it would be useless to think of
persuading Mrs. Worthington to come to Terrace Hill."

"But Miss Johnson surely will come," persisted Mrs. Richards.

Adah could not explain then that Alice was less likely to