Adah must go to Terrace Hill, and if Alice’s suspicions were correct the projected marriage would be prevented without further interference, for ’Lina was not bad enough deliberately to take for a husband one who had so cruelly wronged another, and even if she were, _Anna_ had power to stop it. Adah must go, and Alice’s must be the purse which defrayed all the expense of fitting her up. If ever Alice felt thankful to God for having made her rich in this world’s goods, it was that morning when so many calls for money seemed crowding on her at once. Only the previous night she had heard from Col. Tiffton that the day was fixed for the sale of his house, that he had no hope of redeeming it, and that _Nell_ had nearly cried herself into a second fever at the thoughts of leaving Mosside. “Then there’s _Rocket_,” the colonel had said, “Hugh cannot buy him back, and he’s so bound up in him too, poor Hugh,” and with quivering lip the colonel had wrung Alice’s hand, hurrying off ere she had time to suggest what all along had been in her mind. “It does not matter,” she thought. “A surprise will be quite as pleasant, and then Mr. Liston may object to it as a silly girl’s fancy.” This was the previous night, and now this morning another demand had come in the shape of Muggins weeping in her lap, and Lulu begging to be saved from ’Lina Worthington. Meantime in the sick room there was a consultation between mother and son, touching the money for which ’Lina had asked, and which Hugh declined sending to her. She had shown herself too heartless for any thing, he said, and were it not for _Anna_, who was too good to be so terribly duped, he should be glad when that Dr. took her off his hands; then he spoke of Alice asking many questions concerning her, and at last expressing a wish to see, and talk with her. This wish Mrs. Worthington at once communicated to Alice, who rather reluctantly went to his room, feeling that it was to all intents and purposes her first meeting with Hugh. “This is Miss Johnson,” Mrs. Worthington said, as Alice drew near, a bright flush spreading over her face as she met Hugh’s look, expressive of more than gratitude. “I fancy I am to a certain degree indebted to Miss Johnson for my life,” Hugh said, offering her his hand, while he thanked her for her kindness to him during the long weeks of his illness. “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, Adah is a dear, good girl,” Hugh replied. “She is to me all a sister could be. Do you like Adah?” “Yes, very much.”