Laughing merrily Hugh held her off at a little distance, likening her to
a mermaid fresh from the sea, and succeeding at last in quieting her
down until she could give a more concise account of the catastrophe.
"Never mind the dress," he said, good-humoredly, as she kept recurring
to that. "It isn't as if it were new. An old thing is never so
valuable."
Alas, that 'Lina did not then confess the truth. Had she done so he
would have forgiven her freely, but she let the golden opportunity pass,
and so paved the way for much bitterness of feeling in the future.
During the gloomy weeks which followed, Hugh's heart and hands were
full, inclination tempting him to stay by the moaning Adah, who knew the
moment he was gone, and stern duty, bidding him keep with delirious
'Lina, who, strange to say, was always more quiet when he was near,
taking readily from him the medicine refused when offered by her mother.
Day after day, week after week, Hugh watched alternately at the
bedsides, and those who came to offer help felt their hearts glow with
admiration for the worn, haggard man, whose character they had so
mistaken, never dreaming what depths of patient, all-enduring tenderness
were hidden beneath his rough exterior. Even Ellen Tiffton was softened,
and forgetting the Ladies' Fair, rode daily over to Spring Bank,
ostensibly to inquire after 'Lina, but really to speak a kindly word to
Hugh, to whom she felt she had done a wrong. How long those fevers ran,
and Hugh began to fear that 'Lina's never would abate, sorrowing much
for the harsh words which passed between them, wishing they had been
unsaid, for he would rather that none but pleasant memories should be
left to him of this, his only sister. But 'Lina did not die, and as her
disease had from the first assumed a far more violent form than Adah's,
so it was the first to yield, and February found her convalescent. With
Adah it was different. But there came a change at last, a morning when
she awoke from a death-like stupor which had clouded her faculties so
long, as the attending physician said to Hugh that his services would be
needed but a little longer. Physicians' bills, together with that of
Harney's yet unpaid, for Harney, villain though he was, would not
present it when Hugh was full of trouble; but the hour was coming when
it must be settled, and Hugh at last received a note, couched in
courteous terms, but urging immediate payment.
"I'll see him to-day. I'll know the worst at once," he said, and
mounting Rocket, who never looked more beautiful than he did that
afternoon, he dashed down the Frankfort turnpike, and was soon closeted
with Harney.