Three weeks later there came another letter from ’Lina, and with his mother sitting beside him, Hugh read it aloud, learning “that Irving Stanley’s widowed sister, Mrs. Carrie Ellsworth, was in New York and had come to the hotel with her brother, that having an object in view ’Lina had done her best to _cultivate_ Mrs. Ellsworth, presuming a great deal on their relationship, and making herself so agreeable to her child, a most ugly piece of deformity, that _cousin Carrie_, who had hired a furnished house for the winter, had invited her to spend the season with her, and she was now snugly ensconced in most delightful quarters on Twenty-second street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues. Sometimes,” she wrote, “I half suspect Mrs. Ellsworth did not think I would jump at her invitation so quick, but I don’t care. The doctor, for some reason or other, has deferred our marriage until spring, and dear knows I am not coming to Spring Bank any sooner than I can help. The doctor, of course, would insist upon accompanying me, and that would explode my bubble at once. When I am ready to return, Hugh must do the brotherly, and come for me, so that the first inkling the doctor gets of Spring Bank will be when he comes to have tied the nuptial knot. I’m half sorry to think how disappointed he will be, for I begin to like him, and mean to make up in goodness what I lack in gold. “By the way, Adah must _not_ go to Terrace Hill as you wrote she thought of doing. You are crazy to think of it, of course they would quiz her to death about me and Spring Bank. So tie her up, or throttle her, or do some thing if she persists in going. “I shall buy my bridal trousseau under Mrs. Ellsworth’s supervision. She has exquisite taste, and Hugh must send the money. As I told him before, he can sell Mug. Harney will buy her. He likes pretty darkies.” “Oh, horror! can Ad be a woman, with womanly feelings!” Hugh exclaimed, as he deliberately tore the letter in fragments, and scattered them over the floor, feeling for a moment as if he hated his sister. But he struggled hard to cast the bitterness away, and after a moment was able to listen and answer calmly, while his mother asked if it would not be better to persuade Adah not to go to Terrace Hill. “It may interfere with ’Lina’s plans,” she said, “and now it’s gone so far, it seems a pity to have it broken up. I know it is not right to deceive him so, but—but—I don’t know what. It’s—it’s very pleasant with ’Lina gone,” and with a choking sob, Mrs. Worthington laid her face upon the pillow, ashamed and sorry that the real sentiments of her heart were thus laid bare.