I see it there so plainly now, and know why that boy portrait of your brother has puzzled me so much.

But when I came here I had no suspicion, for he won me, not as a Richards--George Hastings, that was the name by which I knew him, and I was Adah Gordon.
If you do not believe me, ask him when he comes back if ever in his wanderings he met with Adah Gordon, or her guardian, Mr.Monroe.Ask if he was ever present at a marriage where this same Adah gave her heart to one for whom she would then have lost her life, erring in that she loved the gift more than the giver; but God punished idolatry, and He has punished me, so sorely, oh so sorely; that sometimes my fainting soul cries out, ''Tis more than I can bear,'" Then followed more particulars so that there should be no doubt, and then the half-crazed Adah took up the theme nearest to her heart, her boy, her beautiful Willie.

She could not take him with her.

She knew not where she was going, and Willie must not suffer.

Would Anna take the child?
"I do not ask that the new bride should ever call him hers," she wrote; "I'd rather she would not.