The same day also brought a letter from Hugh, making many kind inquiries
after them all, saying his business was turning out better than he
expected, and inclosing forty dollars, fifteen of which, he said, was
for Adah, and the rest for Ad, as a peace offering for the harsh things
he had said to her. Forty dollars was just the price of a superb pearl
bracelet in Lexington, and if Hugh had only sent it all to her instead
of a part to Adah! The letter was torn in shreds, and 'Lina went to
Lexington next day in quest of the bracelet, which was pronounced
beautiful by the unsuspecting Adah, who never dreamed that her money had
helped to pay for it. Truly 'Lina was heaping up against herself a dark
catalogue of sin to be avenged some day, but the time was not yet.
Thus far everything went swimmingly. The dresses fitted admirably, and
nothing could exceed the care with which they had been packed. Her
mother no longer bothered her about Hugh. Lulu was quite well posted
with regard to her duty.
Thus it was in the best of humors, that 'Lina tripped from Spring Bank
door one pleasant July morning, and was driven with her mother and Lulu
to Lexington, where they intended taking the evening train for
Cincinnati.
CHAPTER XV
SARATOGA
"Mrs. Worthington, daughter, and colored servant, Spring Bank,
Kentucky."
"Dr. John Richards and mother, New York City."
"Irving Stanley, Esq., Baltimore."
These were the last entries the flaxen-haired clerk at Union Hall had
made, feeling sure, as he made them, that each one had been first to
the United States, and failing to find accommodations there, had come
down to Union Hall.
The Union was so crowded that for the newcomers no rooms were found
except the small, uncomfortable ones far up in the fourth story of the
Ainsworth block, and thither, in not the most amiable mood, 'Lina
followed her trunks, and was followed in turn by her mother and Lulu,
the crowd whom they passed deciphering the name upon the trunks and
whispering to each other: "From Spring Bank, Kentucky. Haughty-looking
girl, wasn't she?"
From his little twelve by ten apartment, where the summer sun was
pouring in a perfect blaze of heat, Dr. Richards saw them pass, and
after wondering who they were, and hoping they would be comfortable in
their pen, gave them no further thought, but sat jamming his penknife
into the old worm-eaten table, and thinking savage thoughts against that
capricious lady, Fortune, who had compelled him to come to Saratoga,
where rich wives were supposed to be had for the asking. In Dr.
Richard's vest pocket there lay at this very moment a delicate little
note, the meaning of which was that Alice Johnson declined the honor of
becoming his wife. Now he was ready for the first chance that offered,
provided that chance possessed a certain style, and was tolerably
good-looking.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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