"I must have time to think. I cannot decide alone," Adah answered, while
the doctor clutched her dress, half shrieking with terror: "You surely will not consult him, Major Stanley?"
"No," and Adah spoke reverently, "there's a mightier friend than he. One
who has never failed me in my need. He will tell me what to do."
The doctor knew now what she meant, and with a moan he laid his head
again upon the hay, wishing, oh, so much, that the lessons taught him
when in that little attic chamber, years ago, he knelt by Adah's side,
and said with her, "Our Father," had not been all forgotten. When he
lifted up his face again, Adah was gone, but he knew she would return,
and waited patiently while just outside the door, with her fair face
buried in the sweet Virginia grass, and the warm summer sunshine falling
softly upon her, poor half-crazed Adah fought and won the fiercest
battle she had ever known, coming off conqueror over self, and feeling
sure that God had heard her earnest cry for help, and told her what to
do. There was no wavering now; her step was firm; her voice steady, as
she went back to the doctor's side, and bending over him, said: "I will nurse you, my husband, till you are well; then you must go back
whence you came, confess your fault, rejoin your regiment, and by your
faithfulness wipe out the stain of desertion. Then, when the war is
over, or you are honorably discharged, I will--be your wife. I may not
love you at first as once I did, but I shall try, and He, who counsels
me to tell you this, will help me, I am sure."
It was almost pitiful now to see the doctor, as, spaniel-like, he
crouched at Adah's feet, kissing her hands and blessing her 'mid his
tears. "He would be worthy of her, and they should yet be so happy."
Adah suffered him to caress her for a moment, and then told him she must
go, for Mrs. Ellsworth would wonder at her long absence, and possibly
institute a search. Pressing one more kiss upon her hand the doctor
crept back to his hiding place, while Adah went slowly to the house
where she knew Irving Stanley was anxiously waiting for her. She dared
not meet him alone now, for latterly each time they had so met, she knew
she had kept at bay the declaration trembling on his lips, and which now
must never be listened to. So she stayed away from the pleasant parlor
where all the morning he sat chatting with his sister, who guessed how
much he loved the beautiful and accomplished girl, whom, by way of his
sister Augusta he now knew as the Brownie he had once seen at Madam ----'s
school, in New York.