"And stay with me, too?" Mrs. Richards continued, her voice choked with
the sobs she could not repress, when she heard herself called mother by
the girl she had so wronged. "You will stay with him, Lily. Anna is
gone, my other daughters are old. We are lonely in this great house. We
need somebody young to cheer our solitude, and you will stay, as
mistress, if you choose, or as a petted, youngest daughter."
This was an unlooked for trial to Adah. She had not dreamed of living
there at Terrace Hill, when Hugh and her own mother could make her so
happy in their home. But Adah had never consulted her own happiness, and
as she listened to the pleading tones of the woman who surely had some
heart, some noble qualities, she felt that 'twas her duty to remain
there for a time at least, and so she replied at last: "I expected to live with my own mother, but for the present my home
shall be here with you."
"God bless you, darling," and the proud woman's lips touched the fair
cheek, while the proud woman's hand smoothed again the soft short curls,
pushing them back from the white brow, as she murmured: "You are very
beautiful, my child, just as John said you were."
It was hard for Adah to tell Mrs. Worthington that she could not make
one of the circle who would gather around the home fireside Hugh was to
purchase somewhere, but she did at last, standing firmly by her decision
and saying in reply to her mother's entreaties: "It is my duty. They
need me more than you, who have both Hugh and Alice."
Adah was right, so Hugh said, and Alice, too, while Irving Stanley said
nothing. He must have found much that was attractive about the little
town of Snowdon, for he lingered there long after there was not the
least excuse for staying. He did not go often to Terrace Hill, and when
he did, he never asked for Adah, but so long as he could see her on the
Sabbath days when, with the Richards' family she walked quietly up the
aisle, her cheek flushing when she passed him, and so long as he
occasionally met her at Mrs. Worthington's rooms, or saw her riding in
the Richards' carriage, so long was he content to stay. But there came a
time when he must go, and then he asked for Adah, and in the presence of
her mother-in-law invited her to go with him to her husband's grave. She
went, taking Willie with her, and there, with that fresh mound between
them, Irving Stanley told her what he had hitherto withheld, told what
the dying soldier had said, and asked if it should be so.
"Not now, not yet," he continued, as Adah's eyes were bent upon that
grave, "but by and by, will you do your husband's bidding--be my wife?"