They came, and listened quietly, while Mrs. Richards sanctioned their engagement, and then, with a little eulogy upon her departed son, said to Adah, “You will wait a year, of course. It will not be proper before.” Irving had hoped for only six months’ probation, but Adah was satisfied with the year, and they went from Mrs. Richards’ presence with the feeling that Providence was indeed smiling upon their pathway, and flooding it with sunshine. The next day Major Stanley left Snowdon, but not until there had come to Hugh a letter, whose handwriting made Mrs. Worthington turn pale, it brought back so vividly the terror of the olden time. It was from Murdoch, and it enclosed for Mrs. Worthington the sum of five hundred dollars, “I have no reason for thinking you rich,” he wrote, “and should she need more I will try to send it as some atonement for the past.” Then, after speaking of his fruitless search for Adah, and his hearing at last that she was found and Dr. Richards dead, he added, “As there is nothing left for me to do, and as I am sure to be playing mischief if idle, I have joined the army, and am training a band of contrabands to fight as soon as the government comes to its senses, and is willing for the negroes to bear their part in the battle.” The letter ended with saying that he should never come out of the war alive, simply because it would last until he was too old to live any longer. It was a relief for Mrs. Worthington to hear from him, and know that he probably would not trouble her again, while Adah, whose memories of him were pleasanter, expressed a strong desire to see him. “We will find him by and by, when you are mine,” Irving said playfully and drawing her into an adjoining room, where they could be alone, he said his parting words, and then with Hugh went to meet the train which took him away from Snowdon. CHAPTER XL. CONCLUSION.