TALKING WITH HUGH
"This is Miss Johnson," Mrs. Worthington said, as Alice drew near, her
pallor giving place to a bright flush.
"I fancy I am to a certain degree indebted to Miss Johnson for my life,"
Hugh said. "I was not wholly unconscious of your presence," he
continued, still holding her hand. "There were moments when I had a
vague idea of somebody different from those I have always known bending
over me, and I fancied, too, that this somebody was sent to save me from
some great evil. I am glad you were here, Miss Johnson; I shall not
forget your kindness."
He dropped her hand then, while Alice attempted to stammer out some
reply.
"Adah, too, had been kind," she said, "quite as kind as herself."
"Yes, Hugh knew that Adah was a dear, good girl. He was glad they liked
each other."
Alice thought of Terrace Hill, but this was hardly the time to worry
Hugh with that, so she sat silent a while, until Mrs. Worthington,
growing very fidgety and very anxious to have the money matter adjusted,
said abruptly:
"You must not be angry, Hugh. I asked Alice what that watch was worth,
and somehow the story of the lost bracelet came out, and--and--she--Alice
would not let me sell the watch. Don't look so black, Hugh, don't--oh,
Miss Johnson, you must pacify him," and in terror poor Mrs. Worthington
fled from the room, leaving Alice and Hugh alone.
"My mother told you of our difficulties! Has she no discretion, no
sense?" and Hugh's face grew dark with the wrath he dared not manifest
with Alice's eyes upon him.
"Mr. Worthington," she said, "you have thanked me for caring for you
when you were sick. You have expressed a wish to return in some way
what you were pleased to call a kindness. There is a way, a favor you
can grant me, a favor we women prize so highly; will you grant it? Will
you let me do as I please? that's the favor."
She looked a very queen born to be obeyed as she talked thus to Hugh.
She did not make him feel small or mean, only submissive, while her
kindness touched a tender chord, which could not vibrate unseen. Hugh
was very weak, very nervous, too, and turning his head away so that she
could not see his face, he let the hot tears drop upon his pillow;
slowly at first they came, but gradually as everything--his embarrassed
condition, Rocket's loss, 'Lina's selfishness, and Alice's generosity,
came rushing over him--they fell in perfect torrents, and Alice felt a
keen pang of pity, as sob after sob smote upon her ear, and she knew the
shame it must be to him thus to give away before her.
"I did not mean to distress you so. I am sorry if I have done a wrong,"
she said to him softly, a sound of tears in her own voice.
He turned his white, suffering face toward her, and answered with
quivering lip:
"It is not so much that. It is everything combined. I am weak, I'm sick,
I'm discouraged," and Hugh could not restrain the tears. Soon rallying,
however, he continued:
"You think me a snivelling coward, no doubt, but believe me, Miss
Johnson, it is not my nature thus to give way. Tears and Hugh
Worthington are usually strangers to each other. I am a man, and I will
prove it to you, when I get well, but now I am not myself, and I grant
the favor you ask, simply because I can't help it. You meant it in
kindness. I take it as such. I thank you, but it must not be repeated.
You have come to be my friend, my sister, you say. God bless you for
that. I need a sister's love so much, and Adah has given it to me. You
like Adah?" and he fixed his eyes inquiringly on Alice, who answered:
"Yes, very much."
Now that the money matter was settled Hugh did not care to talk longer
of that or of himself, and eagerly seized upon Adah as a topic
interesting to both, and which would be likely to keep Alice with him
for a while at least, so, after a moment's silence, during which Alice
was revolving the expediency of leaving him lest he should become too
weary, he continued:
"Miss Johnson, you don't know how much I love Adah Hastings; not as men
generally love," he hastily added, as he caught an expression of
surprise on Alice's face, "not as that villain professed to love her,
but, as it seems to me, a brother might love an only sister. I mean no
disrespect to 'Lina," and his chin quivered a little, "but I have
dreamed of a different, brotherly love from what I feel toward her, and
my heart has beaten so fast when I built castles of what might have been
had we both been different, I, more forbearing, more even tempered, more
like the world in general, and she, more--more"--he knew not what, for
he would not speak against her, so he finally added, "had she known,
just how to take me--just how to make allowances for my rough, uncouth
ways, which, of course, annoy her."
Poor Hugh! he was trying now to smooth over what 'Lina had told Alice of
himself--trying to apologize for them both, and he did it so skillfully,
that Alice felt an increased respect for the man whose real character
she had so misunderstood. She, knew, however, that it could not be
pleasant for him to speak of 'Lina, and so she led him back to Adah by
saying:
"I had thought to talk with you of a plan which Mrs. Hastings has in
view, but think, perhaps, I had better wait till you are stronger."
"I am strong enough now--stronger than you think. Tell me of the plan,"
and Hugh urged the request until Alice told him of Terrace Hill and
Adah's wish to go there.
"I have heard something of this plan before," he said at last. "Ad spoke
of it in her letter. Miss Johnson, you know Dr. Richards, I believe. Do
you like him? Is he a man to be trusted?"
"Yes, I know Dr. Richards. He is said to be fine looking. I suspect
there is a liking between him and your sister. Suppose for your benefit
I describe him," and without waiting for permission, Alice portrayed the
doctor, feature by feature, watching Hugh narrowly the while, to see if
aught she said harmonized with any likeness he might have in his mind.
But Hugh was not thinking of that night which ruined Adah, and Alice's
description awakened no suspicion. She saw it did not, and thought once
to tell him frankly all she feared, but was deterred from doing so by a
feeling that possibly she might be wrong in her conjectures. Adah's
presence at Terrace Hill would set that matter right, and she asked if
Hugh did not think it best for her to go.
Hugh could only talk in a straightforward manner, and after a moment he
answered:
"Yes, best on some accounts. Her going may do good and prevent a wrong.
Yes, Adah may go."
He continued: "she surely cannot go alone. Would Sam do? I hear her now.
Call her while I talk with her."
Adah came at once, and heard from Hugh that he was willing she should
go, provided Spring Bank were still considered her home, the spot to
which she could always turn for shelter as to a brother's house.
"You seem so like a sister," he said, smoothing her soft brown hair,
"that I shall be sorry to lose you, and shall miss you so much, but Miss
Johnson thinks it right for you to go. Will you take Sam as an escort?"
"Oh, no, no; I don't want anybody," Adah cried, "Keep Sam with you, and
if in time I should earn enough to buy him, to free him. Oh, will you
sell him to me,--not to keep," she added, quickly, as she saw the
quizzical expression of Hugh's face,--"not to keep. I would not own a
slave--but to free, to tell him he's his own master. Will you, Hugh?"
He answered with a smile:
"I thought once as you do, that I would not own my brother, but we get
hardened to these things. I've never sold one yet."
"But you will. You'll sell me Sam," and Adah, in her eagerness, grasped
his hand.
"I'll give him to you," Hugh said. "Call him, Miss Johnson."
Alice obeyed, and Sam came hobbling in, listening in amazement to Hugh's
question.
"Would you like to be free, my boy?"
There was a sudden flush on the old man's cheek, and then he answered,
meekly:
"Thanky', Mas'r Hugh. It comed a'most too late. Years ago, when Sam was
young and peart, de berry smell of freedom make de sap bump through de
veins like trip-hammer. Den, world all before, now world all behind.
Nothing but t'other side of Jordan before. 'Bleeged to you, berry much,
but when mas'r bought ole Sam for pity, ole Sam feel in his bones that
some time he pay Mas'r Hugh; he don't know how, but it be's comin'. Sam
knows it. I'm best off here."
"But suppose I died, when I was so sick, what then?" Hugh asked, and Sam
replied:
"I thinks that all over on dem days mas'r so rarin'. I prays many times
that God would spar' young mas'r, and He hears ole Sam. He gives us back
our mas'r."
There were tears in Hugh's eyes, but he again urged upon him his
freedom, offering to give him either to Adah or Alice, just which he
preferred.
"I likes 'em both," Sam said, "but I likes Mas'r Hugh de best, 'case,
scuse me, mas'r, he ain't in de way, I feared, and Sam hope to help him
find it. Sam long's to Mas'r Hugh till dat day comes he sees ahead, when
he pays off de debt."
With another blessing on Mas'r Hugh Sam left the room.
"What can he mean about a coming day when he can pay his debt?" Hugh
asked, but Alice could not enlighten him.
Adah, however, after hesitating a moment, replied:
"During your illness you have lost the newspaper gossip to the effect
that if Lincoln is elected to the presidential chair, civil war is sure
to be the result. Now, what Sam means is this, that in case of a
rebellion or insurrection, which he fully expects, he will in some way
save your life, he don't know how, but he is sure."
To Alice the word rebellion or insurrection had a dreadful sound, and
her cheek paled with fear, but the feeling quickly passed away, as, like
many other deluded ones she thought how impossible it was that our fair
republic should be compelled to lay her dishonored head low in the dust.
It was settled finally that Adah should go as soon as the necessary
additions could be made to her own and Willie's wardrobe, and then Alice
adroitly led the conversation to Colonel Tiffton and his embarrassments.
What did Hugh think Mosside worth, and who would probably be most
anxious to secure it? There were livid spots on Hugh's face now, and a
strange gleam in his dark eyes as he answered between his teeth,
"Harney," groaning aloud as he remembered Rocket, and saw him in fancy
the property of his enemy.