“I had an acquaintance, I said, who lived a few miles from the city,—a man who, for money, would do any anything, and who, as a feigned justice of the peace, would go through with the ceremony, and ever after keep his own counsel. I wonder the doctor himself did not make some inquiries concerning this so called justice, but I think he is not remarkably clear-headed, and this weakness saved me much trouble. After a time I arranged the matter with my friend, who was a lawful justice, staying at the house of his brother, then absent in Europe. This being done, I decided upon _Hugh Worthington_, for a witness, as being the person of all the world, who should be present at the bridal. He had recently come to New York, and I had accidentally made his acquaintance, acquiring so strong an influence over him that when I invited him to the wedding of my _ward_, he went unsuspectingly, signing his name as witness and saluting the bride, who really was a bride, as lawful a one as any who ever turned from the altar where she had registered her vows.” “Oh, joy, joy!” and Alice sprang at once to her feet, and hastening to the doctor’s side, said to him, authoritatively: “You hear, you understand, Adah is your wife, your very own, and you must go back to her at once. You do understand me?” and Alice grew very earnest as the doctor failed to rouse up, as she thought he ought to do. Appealing next to Anna, she continued: “Pray, make him comprehend that his wife is at Terrace Hill.” Very gently Anna answered: “She was there, but she has gone. He knows it; I came to tell him, but she fled immediately after recognizing my brother, and left a letter revealing the whole.” It had come to ’Lina by this time that Dr. Richards could never be her husband, and with a bitter cry, she covered her face with her hands, and went shivering to the corner where Mrs. Worthington sat, as if a mother’s sympathy were needed now, and coveted as it had never been before. “Oh, mother,” she sobbed, laying her head in Mrs. Worthington’s lap, “I wish I had never been born.” Sadly her wail of disappointment rang through the room, and then the convict went on with his interrupted narrative.