Part 33 (2/2)

”A capital idea! Get acquainted with us low fellows,--I think you will like us when you know us better.”

”Have you seen Ellen?” He had turned to Lillian now.

”Ellen? Is she here?”

”Out sight-seeing somewhere. She is to return to her temporary home in a day or two.”

All this time, Mrs. Hamilton had not spoken of her mother,--not inquired for her. She had met and recognized her; but where was she now? For weeks she had watched for the familiar face; had looked everywhere for the flutter of the gray silk; and thus far it had been in vain. ”Where was she? Would she come no more?” A great disappointment had found its way into the happy heart, where love had for so many years been weeping, but where all tears were now wiped away in a blissful reunion. Lillian loved her mother. She had been petted and fondled by her through all her childhood's days; but the memory of the bitter curse would creep in among her joys, dragging after it the cold, dark shadows that for a time would exclude the warmth.

Mrs. Hamilton called upon Ellen St. Clair at her lodgings, where new interests were brought out, and many little feminine secrets unveiled, which tangled themselves together in a very perplexing sort of way. The story of Lily g.a.y.l.o.r.d's disappearance, and her father's ”unjust censure of Mrs. Belmont” was duly discussed and commented upon.

”An adopted daughter, you said, of the lady?” queried Lillian.

”Yes, and George said from the first that she resembled you in many ways. Her eyes certainly were as large and dreamy. 'Beautiful,' as Grace would say, 'as those of my Lily-Bell.' It was a stormy night on the sea, and, as every one declared, no small boat could keep up any length of time, and as nothing could be heard from her, it was concluded she must be lost,” Ellen went on to say.

”Dreadful! A young girl of----?”

”Of sixteen, I believe.”

Lillian started. ”Sixteen! How strange!--and my mother was with her--and unattended!”

”You seem excited; well we all were shocked! It was so inexplicable.

Such a mystery! But it was soon forgotten in the greater interests of the war. You know one is not missed when so many are being lost.”

It was Ellen who had said this, but her visitor sat motionless, her large eyes dilated as though striving to penetrate some dark uncertainty.

”I cannot but think how strange it is for you to be here--and with a _husband_! Why did you never tell us?”

”It was only one of my secrets, dear Ellen,” was the hesitating reply.

”But I am detaining you. We are a very busy people in Was.h.i.+ngton, and you are to leave here soon?”

”In three days.”

Ellen went as she intended. It was a long, tiresome journey to take alone, but her heart had become brave. There was a pleasant reunion at the widow's home on the evening of her arrival. George was better, and the hearts of the parents beat with a steady pulsation once more.

Bertha and the children were well, as late letters from the dear old home had a.s.sured them, and now Ellen had safely returned.

”George will write a few words every day and mail it once a week,” was the glad response to the inquiry as to how they were to hear from him.

”And in a month, the physician says, he will probably be able to travel a short distance each day, and will get to his chair at our table before it is very cold. He has ordered me to engage rooms for us all at the hotel for the winter, but I hate hotels, and it is so cozy here!”

”Anna and I would be very lonely without you now,” interposed the widow, calmly. ”Our rooms are small, but we have a goodly number of them.”

”And I will call it 'Maple Grove Inn' and write that I have secured a suite of rooms ample for us all! Bravo! And I want to learn to make pies and cakes and put my own hands into the biscuits, for I am a Yankee girl from henceforth! No more black fingers in my bread. Dear old Katy,” she said, after a moment's pause. ”How good everything tasted that her poor old ebony hands made! If I could find such a n.o.ble looking northerner as Lillian has for her husband he wouldn't have to ask me more than once to be his wife!”

”Lillian's husband, my child?” interrogated both father and mother in a breath.

”Certainly; but I have not told you. One cannot say everything in an hour!” And then the story was reproduced with the details George had added, having known it for months, yes almost a year and never told it, not forgetting her abstracted manner as the disappearance of Lily g.a.y.l.o.r.d was rehea.r.s.ed. ”One might have imagined to look at her that the girl was a near kin. She asked me about her general appearance, and when I said that some thought there was a very striking resemblance between her and Mrs. g.a.y.l.o.r.d's adopted daughter you ought to have seen the look!”

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