Alice was confounded. Surely the leadings of Providence were too plainly evident to be unnoticed. There was a reason why Adah Hastings must go to Anna Richards, and Alice hastened to explain who the Richards family were. “Oh, I can’t go there. They are too proud. They would hate me for Willie, and ask me for his father,” Adah cried, the tears breaking through the fingers she pressed before her eyes. Very gently Alice talked to her of Anna, so lovely in disposition, so beautiful in her mature womanhood. Adah would be happy with her, she said, and Anna would be a second mother to her child. She did not hint of her suspicions that at Terrace Hill Adah would find _George_ for fear she might be mistaken, but she talked of Snowdon and Anna Richards, whom Adah was sure to like. “I’m so glad for your sake that it has come round at last,” she said. “Will you write to her to-day, or shall I for you? Perhaps I had better.” “No, no, oh, no—” and Adah’s voice trembled, for she shrank nervously from the thought of meeting the Richards family. If ’Lina liked the old lady, she certainly could not, and the very thought of these elder sisters, in all their primness, dismayed and disheartened her. “There’s a young man, is there not—a Dr. Richards?” she asked. “Yes; but he is not often at home. He need be no bugbear. He is practicing in New York, when practicing at all. At present he is at Saratoga.” Adah looked up quickly, guessing, in a moment, what was keeping ’Lina there, and feeling more averse than ever to Terrace Hill. Gradually, however, as Alice continued to talk of Anna, her feelings changed and she said at last, “I will go to Miss Richards, but not till Hugh is better, not till he knows and approves. Do you think it will be long before be regains his reason!” Alice could not tell. She hoped for the best, and thought with Adah that she ought to stay until he could be consulted. “Do you correspond with Miss Richards?” Adah suddenly asked, after a long reverie. “No, she dreads writing letters above all things else, while I am a wretchedly negligent correspondent. I will send a note of introduction by you, though.” “Please don’t,” and Adah spoke pleadingly, “I should have to give it if you did, and I’d rather go by myself. I know it would be better to have your influence, but it is a fancy of mine not to say that I ever knew you or any one at Spring Bank. I imagine this Dr. likes ’Lina, and they might question me of her. I could not say much that was good, and I should not like to say bad things of Hugh’s sister. Then, too, Miss Richards never need know of my past life unless I choose to let her, as I should have to do in telling her how I came at Spring Bank.”