WHAT FOLLOWED
There was a bright light in the sitting-room, and through the
half-closed shutters Hugh caught glimpses of a blazing fire. 'Lina had
evidently come home, and half wishing she had stayed a little longer,
Hugh entered the room.
Poor 'Lina! The party had proved a most unsatisfactory affair. She had
not made the sensation she expected to make. Harney had scarcely noticed
her at all, having neither eyes nor ears for any one save Ellen Tiffton,
who surely must have told that Hugh was not invited, for, in no other
way could 'Lina account for the remark she overheard touching her want
of heart in failing to resent a brother's insult. In the most unenviable
of moods, 'Lina left at a comparatively early hour. She bade Cæsar drive
carefully, as it was very dark, and the rain was almost blinding, so
rapidly it fell.
"Ye-es, mis-s, Cæs--he--done been to party fore now. Git 'long dar,
Sorrel," hiccoughed the negro, who, in Colonel Tiffton's kitchen had
indulged rather too freely to insure the safety of his mistress.
Still the horses knew the road, and kept it until they left the main
highway and turned into the fields. Even then they would probably have
made their way in safety, had not their drunken driver persisted in
turning them into a road which led directly through the deepest part of
the creek, swollen now by the melted snow and the vast amount of rain
which had fallen since the sunsetting. Not knowing they were wrong,
'Lina did not dream of danger until she heard Cæsar's cry of "Who'a dar,
Sorrel. Git up, Henry. Dat's nothin' but de creek," while a violent
lurch of the carriage sent her to the opposite side from where she had
been sitting.
A few mad plunges, another wrench, which pitched 'Lina headlong against
the window, and the steep, shelving bank was reached, but in endeavoring
to climb it the carriage was upset, and 'Lina found herself in pitchy
darkness. Perfectly sobered now, Cæsar extricated her as soon as
possible. The carriage was broken and there was no alternative save for
'Lina to walk the remaining distance home. It was not far, for the scene
of the disaster was within sight of Spring Bank, but to 'Lina,
bedraggled with mud and wet to the skin, it seemed an interminable
distance, and her strength was giving out just as she reached the
friendly piazza, and called on her mother for help, sobbing hysterically
as she repeated her story, but dwelling most upon her ruined dress.
"What will Hugh say? It was not paid for, either. Oh, dear, oh, dear, I
most wish I was dead!" she moaned, as her mother removed one by one the
saturated garments.
The sight of Hugh called forth her grief afresh, and forgetful of her
dishabille, she staggered toward him, and impulsively winding her arms
around his neck, sobbed out:
"Oh, Hugh, Hugh! I've had such a doleful time. I've been in the creek,
the carriage is broken, the horses are lamed, Cæsar is drunk,
and--and--oh, Hugh, I've spoiled my dress!"
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.