Bad Hugh | Page 9

to his mother and sister, he said:

"Leave us alone for a time."
Rather reluctantly Mrs. Worthington and her daughter left the room.
Deliberately turning the key in the lock, Hugh advanced to her side,
groaning as his eye fell upon the child, which had fallen asleep again.
"I hoped this might have been spared her," he thought, as, kneeling by
the couch, he said, kindly: "Adah, I am more pained to see you here
than I can express. Why did you come, and where is--"
The name was lost to 'Lina, and muttering to herself: "It does not sound
much like a man and wife," she rather unwillingly quitted her position,
and Hugh was really alone with Adah.
Never was Hugh in so awkward a position before, or so uncertain how
to act. The sight of that sobbing, trembling wretched creature, whose
heart he had helped to crush, had perfectly unmanned him, making him
almost as much a woman as herself.
"Oh, what made you? Why didn't you save me?" she said, looking up to
him with an expression of reproach.
He had no excuse. He knew how innocent she was, and he held her in
his arms as he would once have held the Golden Haired, had she come
to him with a tale of woe.
"Let me see that letter again," he said.
She gave it to him; and he read once more the cruel lines, in which
there was still much of love for the poor thing, to whom they were
addressed.
"You will surely find friends who will care for you, until the time when
I may come to really make you mine."
Hugh repeated these words twice, aloud, his heart throbbing with the
noble resolve, that the confidence she had placed in him by coming
there, should not be abused, for he would be true to the trust, and care

for the poor, little, half-crazed Adah, moaning so piteously beside him,
and as he read the last line, saying eagerly:
"He speaks of coming back. Do you think he ever will? or could I find
him if I should try? I thought of starting once, but it was so far; and
there was Willie. Oh, if he could see Willie! Mr. Worthington, do you
believe he loves me one bit?"
Hugh said at last, that the letter contained many assurances of affection.
"It seems family pride has something to do with it. I wonder where his
people live, or who they are? Did he never tell you?"
"No," and Adah shook her head mournfully.
"Would you go to them?" Hugh asked quickly; and Adah answered:
"Sometimes I've thought I would. I'd brave his proud mother--I'd lay
Willie in her lap. I'd tell her whose he was, and then I'd go away and
die." Then, after a pause, she continued: "Once, Mr. Worthington, I
went down to the river, and said I'd end my wretched life, but God held
me back. He cooled my scorching head--He eased the pain, and on the
very spot where I meant to jump, I kneeled down and said: 'Our Father.'
No other words would come, only these: 'Lead us not into temptation.'
Wasn't it kind in God to save me?"
There was a radiant expression in the sweet face as Adah said this, but
it quickly passed away and was succeeded by one of deep concern
when Hugh abruptly said:
"Do you believe in God?"
"Oh, Mr. Worthington. Don't you? You do, you must, you will," and
Adah shrank away from him as from a monster.
The action reminded him of the Golden Haired, when on the deck of
the _St. Helena_ he had asked her a similar question, and anxious
further to probe the opinion of the girl beside him, he continued:

"If, as you think, there is a God who knew and saw when you were
about to drown yourself, why didn't He prevent the cruel wrong to you?
Why did He suffer it?"
"What He does we know not now, but we shall know hereafter," Adah
said, reverently, adding: "If George had feared God, he would not have
left me so; but he didn't, and perhaps he says there is no God--but you
don't, Mr. Worthington. Your face don't look like it. Tell me you
believe," and in her eagerness Adah grasped his arm beseechingly.
"Yes, Adah, I believe," Hugh answered, half jestingly, "but it's such as
you that make me believe, and as persons of your creed think
everything is ordered for good, so possibly you were permitted to suffer
that you might come here and benefit me. I think I must keep you,
Adah, at least, until he is found."
"No, no," and the tears flowed at once, "I cannot be a burden to you. I
have