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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18777-h.zip b/18777-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c81968f --- /dev/null +++ b/18777-h.zip diff --git a/18777-h/18777-h.htm b/18777-h/18777-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9251bea --- /dev/null +++ b/18777-h/18777-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3533 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Ruth Arnold, by Lucy Byerley</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + .poem span.i1 {display: block; margin-left: 1em;} + hr.full { width: 100%; } + pre {font-size: 80%;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Ruth Arnold, by Lucy Byerley</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Ruth Arnold</p> +<p> or, the Country Cousin</p> +<p>Author: Lucy Byerley</p> +<p>Release Date: July 7, 2006 [eBook #18777]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUTH ARNOLD***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by David Clarke, Mary Meehan,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net/)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h1>RUTH ARNOLD</h1> + +<h4>Or, The Country Cousin</h4> + +<h2>BY L. BYERLEY</h2> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h4>London<br /> +THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY<br /> +56, <span class="smcap">Paternoster Row; 65, St. Paul's Churchyard</span><br /> +and 164, Piccadilly</h4> + +<h4><i>Butler & Tanner,<br /> +The Selwood Printing Works,<br /> +Frome, and London</i>.</h4> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I. A Letter</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II. Talking it Over.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III. Ruth's Decision</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV. The Journey</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V. Cousins</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI. Stonegate</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII. A Poor Relation</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII. Sea-side Pleasures</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX. The Picnic</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X. Busyborough</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI. School-girl Gossip</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII. Julia's Humiliation</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII. Hard at Work</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV. An Adventure</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV. Examination</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI. A Downward Step</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII. The Prize</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII. So as by Fire</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX. Living it Down</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX. Home Again</a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="RUTH_ARNOLD" id="RUTH_ARNOLD"></a>RUTH ARNOLD;</h2> + +<h3>Or, The Country Cousin.</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h3>A LETTER.</h3> + + +<p>School was over, and the holidays were beginning once more, summer +holidays, with all their promise of pleasure for dwellers in the +country. The scent of sweet new hay was borne on the afternoon breeze, +and the broad sunlight lay on fields of waving corn which would soon be +ready for the sickle, and on green meadows from which the hay was being +carried.</p> + +<p>Ruth Arnold slowly wended her way home-wards along the hot dusty road, +turned down a shady green lane, opened a little gate and walked up the +garden path; and then, instead of running indoors as usual, she sat down +in the little rose-covered porch and looked rather thoughtfully at the +book in her hand.</p> + +<p>It was a new book, a prize which had been awarded her that afternoon; +but she felt very little pride in it, for she had known all through the +half-year that the prize would be hers unless she was very idle or lazy. +Nor did she anticipate much pleasure in reading it, for it was only a +new English grammar, and grammar was not a study in which she felt +particularly interested at that moment.</p> + +<p>It was not often that Ruth sat down to think, for she was a merry lively +girl; but this afternoon she felt rather discontented with her lot. The +truth was that she had been at Miss Green's school, the only one in the +village, ever since she was six years old; and now she had turned +fourteen, and began to feel some contempt for the elementary catechisms +which had been her only lesson-books, and which were certainly not +calculated to make learning attractive or interesting. The mode of +instruction at Miss Green's was the old-fashioned one of saying lessons +by rote from the said catechisms, and when the pupils had reached the +end of the book they had to begin again at the first chapter.</p> + +<p>"I'm sure I don't know what I've learnt this half-year," said Ruth to +herself. "I can't remember learning a single thing which I didn't know +six months ago; and yet mother says that I must not leave school until I +am fifteen. I wonder what books they use in large boarding-schools, and +if they ever get beyond Mangnall's Questions in the first class. I +suppose I shouldn't trouble about it if it were not for father's +teaching us in the winter evenings; but he knows so much, that we see +how ignorant we are."</p> + +<p>"I didn't know that you were at home, Ruth. How long have you been +here?" asked her mother's voice.</p> + +<p>"Only a few minutes."</p> + +<p>"Where is your prize? And why did you not show it to me?"</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ruth_2.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + + +<p>"Here it is, mother; but I don't much care for it. There is so little +credit in getting a prize at Miss Green's, where one makes so little +progress, and has to do the same thing over and over again."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mrs. Arnold with a little sigh, "and so you will find it in +life, dear, the same thing over and over again, every day and every +year. But now," she added smiling, "as everyone is busy in the +hay-field, and baby has to be nursed and the cows to be milked every +day, will you help me to do one thing or the other?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Ruth as she went to put on a large blue pinafore; "I'll go +and help Mary with the milking."</p> + +<p>Five minutes later she was seated on a low stool beside her favourite +cow, Beauty, which had been reared on the farm, and named by Ruth +herself, who petted and talked to her like an old friend. The afternoon +was very warm, but still and sweet and quiet, with the summer hush upon +everything, even the lowing of the cows in the farm-yard, the murmur of +the brook, and the voices of the workers in the distant hay-field.</p> + +<p>"Ah me, old Beauty!" sighed Ruth, as she pressed the milk into the pail, +"mother says that it is the same thing over and over again all our +lives, and I suppose it is true, but I wish I could have something +different."</p> + +<p>Beauty only lowed; but if she could have spoken English she might have +said, "If <i>you</i> find life monotonous, what must it be for me? In the +morning I rise and crop the grass, then I come in to be milked. I go +back to the meadow and bathe in the stream or eat as much grass as I +want; in the afternoon I lie under the shade of the trees and chew the +cud; and in the evening I come again to be milked, and once more return +to the meadows. If I have a calf of my own, it is taken from me and +sent—I know not where. Yes, it is the same thing over and over again. +Yet I am quite content."</p> + +<p>Whatever Beauty meant as she lowed and looked at Ruth with her great +patient eyes, the young girl did not understand, but went on thinking +aloud: "Yes, it is breakfast, dinner, tea and supper every day, and +mother has to see to it all; and the children to be washed and dressed +and nursed, and the cows to be milked, and the cream to be skimmed; and +then every year father has the ploughing, and sowing, and haying, and +the har——"</p> + +<p>"Ah, Ruth, I see you are making yourself useful," cried her father, as +he entered the farm-yard followed by two merry looking boys aged +respectively seventeen and twelve. It was evident from a single glance +that they were Ruth's brothers, although their hands and faces were +brown and sunburnt, and Will, the elder, was fully a head taller than +his sister.</p> + +<p>"Guess what Will has got for you, Ruth!" cried roguish little Ned.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Will!" she exclaimed, looking up brightly, all her grave thoughts +gone in a moment, "have you brought a new plant for my garden? No! Has +Annie Price sent the pattern she promised for my wool-work? Well then, +is it the new tune-book you were talking of yesterday, with both the +music and words?"</p> + +<p>"No, you are quite wrong; and as I can't tell whether it is anything +good or bad, I may as well give it to you at once. It's from a girl, I +think," continued Will, as he took a letter from his pocket.</p> + +<p>"A letter for me! Who can it be from? Yes, I see it comes from a girl by +the writing. What a pretty hand! ever so much better than mine; and here +is the post-mark—Busyborough; it must be from Cousin Julia," she said +as she turned the letter over.</p> + +<p>Then she opened it and began to read, while her brothers stood by full +of interest, and saw a look of mingled wonder, surprise, and delight +spread over her face. They waited as long as their curiosity would +permit, and then both cried eagerly, "What does she say? What is it all +about?"</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ruth_1.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + + +<p>"She wants me—that is, aunt has invited me—to spend my holidays with +them at the sea-side," said Ruth, speaking very slowly, and looking as +if she could hardly understand the idea of such a piece of good fortune +coming in her way. "But there," she added with a sigh, as she refolded +the letter and put it into her pocket and tried to banish the visions of +brightness it had called forth, "of course it is quite out of the +question. I couldn't go away now when every one is so busy."</p> + +<p>She walked slowly back to the house, and tried not to think of the +bright dream of pleasure the letter had suggested; but this was not an +easy matter, as her father and mother were already sitting at the +tea-table talking over the same subject, for Mrs. Arnold had also +received a letter from Busyborough that afternoon.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h3>TALKING IT OVER.</h3> + + +<p>"Have you read your cousin's letter, Ruth?" asked her mother as she took +her seat. "Why, what makes you look so unhappy?" she exclaimed, +observing the girl's grave face.</p> + +<p>"It's very silly, I know, mother; and I didn't mean to be vexed about +it," she began, "but Julia said something about my going to the sea-side +with them to spend the holidays. Of course I know very well that you +couldn't spare me,—but I can't help crying—just a minute, mother, that +is all," said Ruth, while her tears dropped slowly.</p> + +<p>"Don't cry, child; we'll talk it over to-night, and see what can be +done," said her father cheerfully.</p> + +<p>"But, father!" cried Ruth, starting up in surprise, her tears quite +forgotten, "you don't think <i>really</i> that there is any chance of my +going, do you? Just see how busy you are with the haying, and then there +are the boys and the little ones——"</p> + +<p>"Well, well, your mother and I will talk it over," he repeated, as he +took up his hat and set out again for the hay-field.</p> + +<p>The summer evening soon slipped away, and Ruth knew better than to worry +her mother by asking foolish questions; but when supper was over, and +her head lay at rest upon the pillow, her brain was busy, and it was a +long time before sleep overtook her. Delightful visions of sea-side +places such as she had read of in her favourite books, of picnics and +boating, of rambles in search of shells, rare stones and long sea-weeds, +filled her mind; and as she heard the monotonous sounds of her parents' +voices talking in low tones in the room beneath her, and knew that they +were discussing the important question Was she to go or stay? her +impatience almost got the better of her, and she longed to run +downstairs and take part in the conversation.</p> + +<p>Presently the voices ceased, there were footsteps on the stairs, the +light of a candle showed through the chink of her door, the footsteps +receded and a door was shut, and Ruth knew that the decision was made +and her mother had gone to bed. And as she could not know the result of +the conversation that night, she very wisely closed her eyes and went to +sleep.</p> + +<p>Early the next morning she was awakened by the sun shining in at her +window. She rose at once, dressed quickly, and was soon downstairs, but +not before her mother, who was busily preparing the breakfast. There was +so much to be done before the meal was ready, so much chatter over it, +and so many last words to the boys and their father before they set out +for the hay-field, that Ruth could not find an opportunity to ask her +mother the question that was burning upon her lips, until all trace of +the meal was removed and the children had gone to play in the orchard.</p> + +<p>Then she went upstairs to help her make the beds, and there was time for +a quiet chat.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Arnold began by inquiring, "What did your cousin say in her letter +yesterday?"</p> + +<p>"She asked if I could spend my holidays with them at the sea-side," +replied Ruth, blushing with joy at the very thought.</p> + +<p>"And you would like to go?"</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, indeed I should, very, very much; that is—of course—if you +could spare me," she added hesitatingly.</p> + +<p>"I suppose then that you do not know what your aunt has suggested. She +writes to know if we will spare you, not only for the holidays, but for +a whole twelvemonth, to be a companion to your cousin and go to school +with her (What are you doing with the pillows, Ruth?), to share her +studies and amusements."</p> + +<p>"Should I see none of you for a whole year?"</p> + +<p>"I am not sure; that would depend upon your aunt."</p> + +<p>"But—mother—you don't think of letting me go, do you?" asked Ruth, +almost over-whelmed with pleasure and surprise.</p> + +<p>"I don't know. Your father thinks it would be good for you, but I am not +sure, Ruth. I am afraid whether, after living in a handsome +well-appointed house, waited upon by servants, and surrounded with +comforts and luxuries, you would grow discontented with our quiet +country life. I know you love your home now, but I fear lest a life in +town should spoil you, and make you no longer our little Ruth, but a +grown-up young lady, who would feel herself above our simple joys and +pleasures, and only bring herself to tolerate them from a sense of +duty."</p> + +<p>"Mother, mother!" cried Ruth, bursting into tears, "don't talk so. I'll +never go away. How can you think so of me?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I have done wrong to say so much to you, darling," replied her +mother; "but I must tell you that your father does not fear anything of +the sort for you. He says that you need to go to a good school, and that +he is thankful for the opportunity which is now offered. He feels sure +that you would be happy with his sister, and does not fear your growing +discontented with home. Besides, as he says, when you come back you will +be able to teach the younger children, and that will be a good object to +have in view while you are studying. So we have determined to leave it +for you to decide. We will give you to-day to think it over, and +to-morrow you must tell us what you wish to do. Pray over it, Ruth, and +don't let anything I have said prejudice you against the idea of going. +Indeed, dear," she added in a lower tone, "I don't think I should have +any fear for you if I were sure that you were not going alone, if I knew +that you had an almighty Friend to be with you and guide you in the +right way."</p> + +<p>It was very rarely that Mrs. Arnold said so much to any of her children, +and Ruth was quite overcome. She ran off to her own little room to give +vent to her feelings, and to think over all that she had heard.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h3>RUTH'S DECISION.</h3> + + +<p>For the first few moments Ruth felt quite determined not to leave home; +but as she thought over the advantages and disadvantages of the plan her +resolution wavered. How often she had wished, though vainly, to go to a +good boarding-school! and now there was an opportunity for her to have a +twelvemonth's education, without the great drawback of living at school +among strangers and losing the comforts and freedom of home. It was true +that she had only seen her aunt for a short time several years before, +and her cousins were quite unknown, except for the short notes she +usually received at Christmas, with a present from Julia. Still they +were relatives, and would not regard her as a stranger.</p> + +<p>There were so many arguments for accepting her aunt's invitation: the +pleasure of the sea-side trip, the change, the novelty of living in a +town, of having Julia for a companion and many school-fellows of her own +age; of exchanging Miss Green's school, with its catechisms and +needlework, for a young ladies' college, with its modern plans of study, +its classes and professors. And all these inducements had the charm of +being new and untried, so that only their agreeable side appeared to +view, the other being unknown.</p> + +<p>Yet if there were fewer reasons against the plan, they were very +weighty, for how would mother contrive to do without her? And how could +she bear to live a year without a glimpse of the dear home faces?</p> + +<p>"But I only help in the mornings and evenings," she mused, "for I am at +school all day, and perhaps I could come home for a few days at +Christmas. I'm sure I don't know what to do. I wish father and mother +had settled it. It is so difficult to know how to decide."</p> + +<p>She did not forget the advice which had been given her—to pray over the +matter. Indeed, I doubt if she would in any case have come to a decision +without taking counsel of her Heavenly Father, for Ruth had for years +been in the habit of carrying her childish troubles and perplexities to +the one unfailing Guide.</p> + +<p>And yet she was hardly sure that she was a Christian; and although she +longed to set her mother's mind at rest upon that point, she could not +venture to do so just yet. Like many another child of pious parents, she +had been trained to love good and hate evil; she had been taught to pray +and to desire to live a Christian life; she had long since begun the +never-ending conflict against evil and tried to rule her life and +actions by God's Word; and yet she could not tell whether the promptings +and impulses towards the Saviour which often came to her heart, were +merely the result of the loving sanctified home-influence which had +surrounded her from her birth, or if she had indeed become a disciple, +though but a feeble one, of the meek and lowly Jesus.</p> + +<p>In the quiet calm of a summer day, when the wind scarcely ruffles the +waters of the bay, it is difficult to say whether the fair ship riding +at anchor will prove herself seaworthy. It is when the storm rises in +its fury and the billows dash over her that the testing time comes, and +she proves the strength of her bows and the soundness of her timbers, or +she sinks a hopeless wreck.</p> + +<p>And it remained for Ruth's visit to Busyborough, to test her and prove +how strong was her desire to follow Christ. If it were but a weak +earth-born feeling, it would soon be upset by the winds of temptation; +but if it were indeed of God, although it might be roughly handled and +somewhat shaken for a time, it would come forth triumphant at last.</p> + +<p>"Well, Ruth, what do you intend to do?" asked her father, as they sat at +breakfast the next morning. "Do you intend to go to Busyborough, and +find out how ignorant you are, and then set to work to study with all +your might, or do you mean to be the pattern eldest scholar at Miss +Green's? Do you mean to rub shoulders with others, or are you going to +stay at home and fancy yourself a prodigy of wisdom and learning?"</p> + +<p>"I think, that if you and mother can spare me, I will go to Busyborough, +and rub shoulders with the others," said Ruth, steadily.</p> + +<p>"That's right; I am glad to hear it; for although we shall miss you very +much, I am sure the change will benefit you. Go and learn all the good +you can, and tell us all about it when you come back. Ah! your mother +looks grave: I know she rather fears your picking up some fantastical +notions and growing to look down on your own people. But I don't fear +it. I look forward to seeing my little Ruth again next summer, grown +somewhat taller, perhaps, and wiser too, but still always my own Ruth."</p> + +<p>"Yes, father," she answered, with something like a sob.</p> + +<p>But Will, the eldest brother, who found that his father's speech and +Ruth's face were getting too much for his feelings, jumped up and seized +his hat, saying in his queer way that he must be off to the hay-field if +there was a prospect of showers, and he hoped Ruth would not run away +before he came back.</p> + +<p>The other members of the family soon dispersed; and although Ruth's +departure was for days the all-absorbing topic of conversation, it was +generally referred to in a cheery way, and not in what Will called "the +sentimental strain."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h3>THE JOURNEY.</h3> + + +<p>Several letters passed between Mrs. Arnold and her sister-in-law; and as +it was arranged that Ruth was to go the following week, there was not +much time for preparation, and every spare minute was fully occupied. +Her entire wardrobe had to be inspected and replenished, as far as +slender means would permit; old garments were made to look as much like +new as possible, and little bits of ribbon and lace which had not seen +the light for years, because there were so few suitable occasions for +wearing them in a quiet country place, now reappeared in the form of +bows and tuckers for the neck.</p> + +<p>As Mrs. Woburn, Ruth's aunt, lived a great many miles from Cressleigh, +it was decided that her niece should go direct to Stonegate, the +watering-place where they were to spend the holidays. She was therefore +to take a long railway journey, quite an event in itself, as she had +rarely been farther by rail than the county town, twelve miles distant, +and even there she had always been accompanied by her father or mother. +But just now there was so much to be done on the farm, that her father +could spare neither the time nor money for a long journey, and the young +girl was obliged to travel alone, a formidable undertaking, which seemed +almost to spoil the anticipated pleasure of the sea-side visit.</p> + +<p>One bright morning in the early part of July, Ruth woke with the +thought, "I am really going away to-day, and perhaps I may not sleep in +this dear little room for a whole year, or for six months at least."</p> + +<p>She had rarely called her chamber a "dear little room" before; in fact, +she had often grumbled because it was so small; but now that she was +about to go away it had suddenly become dear, for was it not part of her +home, and what place in the world could ever be so dear as home?</p> + +<p>How strange it all seemed that morning! The coming downstairs and +finding the little trunk packed and corded in the hall; the hurried +breakfast, at which every one but mother talked very fast, because they +had so much to say and such a short time in which to say it; the +leave-takings, the good-byes, and parting injunctions.</p> + +<p>Ruth drove off at last beside her father, feeling like one in a dream, +so dimly did she see everything through the mist of tears which hung +about her eyes.</p> + +<p>There was another farewell to be said at the railway junction, for Mr. +Arnold could only wait a few minutes to see her into a comfortable +carriage, and then returned home to Cressleigh. When he waved his hand +and the train was fairly in motion, Ruth began to realize that she was +being separated for a long, long time from all whom she loved best in +the world; she heaved one great sob, and crouching into a corner of the +carriage gave way to a flood of tears. She wept for several minutes +undisturbed, then a kind motherly-looking lady, who was sitting opposite +to her, asked, "What is the matter, my dear? Are you going away to +school?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, ma'am; at least, I mean no, not yet. I am going to the sea-side to +stay with my cousins for a few weeks."</p> + +<p>"I don't think that most girls would be so distressed at the thought of +a visit to the sea-side," said the old lady, smiling.</p> + +<p>"But I'm not coming back for ever so long," replied Ruth, drying her +tears, however. Then she informed her new friend how long she was going +to be away, and what she hoped to see and do during her absence from +home, and the old lady seemed so much interested that Ruth soon grew +bright and merry, and began to notice the pretty country through which +they were passing; and when the train stopped at a rustic station, where +a little pony trap was waiting to convey the old lady to her own home, +they felt as if they had known each other for years instead of hours, +and were really very sorry to part.</p> + +<p>The rest of the journey seemed rather dull and tedious, and it was late +in the afternoon when the train drew up at the Stonegate station. There +were a good many people on the platform, and Ruth was wondering if any +one had come to meet her, when a lady looked in at the carriage door and +inquired in a pleasant manner, "Your name is Ruth Arnold, is it not?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is," she replied rather shyly, as she bent forward to look at +her aunt. But that look told her a great deal.</p> + +<p>She saw a fair placid face which she felt sure she should love, for the +dark blue eyes reminded her of her father's, though the fair hair and +small mouth were strangely unlike his. But there was something familiar +in the tone of her voice, and when she called a cab, gave instructions +about the luggage, and took her seat beside her niece, Ruth was quite at +ease and felt that she was going to be happy.</p> + +<p>"You will see Julia very soon," said Mrs. Woburn, "but this is our first +day at the sea-side, and she was out when I started. I am afraid that +she will be angry with me, for I know that she intended to come herself +to meet you, and I think she will be disappointed."</p> + +<p>"It was very kind of you to come," said Ruth; "I was getting quite +frightened, and thought that perhaps you might not know me, and that I +should be all alone in a strange place."</p> + +<p>"There is not much fear that any one who has seen your mother would not +recognise her daughter," was Mrs. Woburn's smiling reply.</p> + +<p>"Do you think me so much like her?" asked Ruth eagerly, looking greatly +pleased.</p> + +<p>"Indeed I do. But this is our lodging. I see Julia looking out of the +window."</p> + +<p>In another minute Ruth had followed her aunt into a large cheerful +sitting-room, with two bay-windows overlooking the beach and sea.</p> + +<p>"Oh! mamma, what a shame of you to go without me!" cried a voice from +the window where a young girl was standing.</p> + +<p>"You were so late, dear," said Mrs. Woburn gently. "Here is your cousin; +take her to her room; I am sure she must be tired after her long +journey."</p> + +<p>Julia, a pretty fair-haired fashionably-dressed girl, came forward and +shook hands, saying, "How d'ye do, Ruth? I am glad mamma met you. Will +you come upstairs?"</p> + +<p>She led the way to a pretty bedroom, much larger than the one in which +Ruth had slept at Cressleigh. There was a splendid view of the sea from +the windows, and the furniture of the room was all of light polished +wood; a pretty dressing-table stood between the windows, which were hung +with white muslin curtains, and the hangings and cover-lids of the two +little beds were snowy white.</p> + +<p>"What a pretty room!" said Ruth, as she entered.</p> + +<p>"Do you think so? I think it is awfully small and poky. And we are both +to sleep here, which I am sure will be very inconvenient; but we +couldn't get anything better, so I suppose we must put up with it. +Lodgings are always the great drawback to the sea-side, you know."</p> + +<p>Ruth did not know what reply to make, she was so taken aback by the +grandeur of Julia's air and manner.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h3>COUSINS.</h3> + + +<p>"Tea is ready, miss," said a trim maid-servant at the door of the +bedroom where the two girls were talking, and Ruth followed her cousin +downstairs to the large cheerful room she had entered upon her arrival.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Woburn had already taken her seat behind the urn, and the two boys +who were sitting beside her rose to meet their cousin. Ernest, the elder +of the two, was a tall, thin lad of fifteen, with a pair of large brown +eyes, the only striking feature in his plain but sensible face.</p> + +<p>Rupert was a merry little schoolboy of seven, bright-eyed and +curly-haired, a mischievous little sprite, no doubt, but a very +affectionate lovable little fellow. He chattered continually during the +meal, and did a great deal to take off the sense of shyness that Ruth +felt in the company of Julia and Ernest, and her aunt asked questions +about the farm-life at Cressleigh, and talked of their plans for the +next few weeks.</p> + +<p>"Oh! you will have a great deal to see," said Julia, "as this is your +first visit to the sea-side. I think we had better put on our hats and +go for a long walk at once, it is a shame to be indoors this lovely +evening."</p> + +<p>"That will hardly do for your cousin, dear; she looks rather tired, and +we must remember that she has had a long journey to-day."</p> + +<p>Ruth was very tired, and, much as she longed to go for a walk along the +shore, she felt that that pleasure must be deferred until the next +morning. But she was rather dismayed by Julia's saying, "Well, I don't +see any reason for our remaining indoors. Of course Ernest won't come, +he is too much taken up with that book about—shellology. So he can stay +with Ruth while you come out with us."</p> + +<p>"Why can't you call things by their right names, and say 'conchology'?" +asked Ernest quietly.</p> + +<p>"Really, Julia, I don't think we must leave your cousin this evening," +said Mrs. Woburn, doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"Don't stay at home on my account, auntie," replied Ruth, putting aside +her own feelings, though she did not much like the idea of spending the +evening with Ernest, such a grave, quiet boy, so very different from her +brothers.</p> + +<p>Julia carried her point, and started in a few minutes for a walk with +her mother and Rupert, leaving the cousins to their own resources. Ruth +took a seat near the window, and watched the waves breaking gently upon +the beach, while the boy appeared to be entirely occupied with his book. +It was rather dull, this first evening away from home; it seemed +scarcely possible that she had really only left Cressleigh that morning, +and she began to wonder if they had missed her very much, and what they +were doing now, and when she should see them all again, and as she +thought of the months that must elapse first she heaved a weary sigh.</p> + +<p>The sigh roused Ernest, who had quite forgotten his companion in the +charms of his book, and he at once endeavoured to make amends for his +neglect in his kind but awkward way.</p> + +<p>"Oh! I beg your pardon," he began, "I almost forgot—do you like +conchology?" he asked, by way of starting a conversation.</p> + +<p>"I don't know anything about it," was Ruth's meek reply, "but I believe +it is the science of shells, is it not?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. I thought you wouldn't care for it. Girls never do."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I might learn," she said humbly; "but I haven't had a chance to +study any 'ologies,' they did not teach them at Miss Green's. Are you +studying it as a holiday task?"</p> + +<p>"No, for amusement. They won't let me study in the holidays, but I enjoy +this. Just look at these shells, aren't they beauties?" and he showed +her one of the illustrations in his book.</p> + +<p>"Oh! how beautiful!" she exclaimed; and the boy, seeing she was +interested, told her what he had been reading, and promised to get her +some specimens the next day, and the time slipped rapidly by, until Mrs. +Woburn and Julia returned.</p> + +<p>"What have you been doing all the evening?" asked Julia, when they were +in their room that night. "Was Ernest civil?"</p> + +<p>"He was very kind, and showed me his book on conchology, and explained +about the shells, and he is going to get me some specimens to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Indeed!" said Julia, rather surprised, "I should not have thought that +you cared for that sort of thing."</p> + +<p>Ruth was too tired to answer, and had soon forgotten the events of the +day in sound refreshing sleep. When she awoke, the sun was shining +brightly, and she was astonished to find that she had slept until +half-past seven. She was accustomed to rise very early at home, and was +afraid that her cousins would be shocked at her laziness, until she +found that Julia was still sleeping quietly in the bed beside her.</p> + +<p>"Julia! Julia!" she cried, "it's very late. We must get up at once."</p> + +<p>"What is the time?" was asked drowsily.</p> + +<p>"Half-past seven."</p> + +<p>"Why can't you let me rest?" said Julia crossly. "We always breakfast at +eight at home, but I don't intend to get up so early at the sea-side."</p> + +<p>She closed her eyes and went to sleep again; but Ruth, who was wide +awake, rose at once, dressed quickly, brushed her brown curls, and went +downstairs. There was no one about, and the morning air was so fresh, +and the sunshine so inviting, that she took her hat and ran down to the +beach, feeling so full of joy and gladness that she could hardly +restrain herself from singing, as she often did in the fields at +Cressleigh. The sunlight sparkled upon the crested waves as they broke +gently upon the shore, and the tide came in, slowly creeping up the +shingle, now bearing away a dry piece of sea-weed and making it look +alive and fresh, advancing and retreating, yet ever creeping slowly +upward, until one wave almost broke over her feet and reminded her of +the old and oft-repeated adage, "Time and tide wait for no man."</p> + +<p>She hurried back, to find her aunt and cousins waiting breakfast for +her; and as she told them about her morning ramble, she did not notice +the unpleasant glances which Julia bestowed upon her dress, a blue +cotton one, made very simply, but somewhat old-fashioned, and washed +until the colour was rather faded.</p> + +<p>"We must certainly go out this lovely morning," said Mrs. Woburn after +breakfast. "Where do you think your cousin would like to go, dear?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! we'll go to the Esplanade of course," replied Julia, as she ran off +to get ready. She came down a few minutes later looking very nice in her +pretty holland dress trimmed with red, and shady straw hat with muslin +and lace bows, and dainty gloves.</p> + +<p>"You don't mean to say that you are going out like that, Ruth!" she +exclaimed, as she caught sight of her cousin sitting by the window still +wearing her print dress and shabby straw hat.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she replied, and was going to ask "Why not?" but the sight of her +cousin's simple but pretty costume stopped her, and she blushed rosy +red.</p> + +<p>"Then of course we cannot go to the Esplanade," said Julia in a pointed +manner.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3>STONEGATE.</h3> + + +<p>"The Esplanade did you say, girls?" asked Mrs. Woburn, entering at that +moment.</p> + +<p>"No, mamma, we don't care about it; any other place will do," replied +Julia sulkily.</p> + +<p>"We will walk along the beach to Brill Head then," said Mrs. Woburn, +"and I dare say Ernest would like to accompany us; he will find plenty +of specimens there."</p> + +<p>"Shall I stay at home, Aunt Annie?" asked Ruth timidly.</p> + +<p>"Certainly not, unless you wish it; Julia has been longing to have you +for a companion, and this will be such a delightful walk."</p> + +<p>But the pleasure of the walk was gone for Ruth. Julia was quiet, and +scarcely spoke to any one, and her mother could not understand what was +the matter, and although she tried her best to bring back the look of +delight to her niece's face, she was not successful. It was not until +they reached Brill Head, and Ernest began his search for specimens, that +Ruth recovered her wonted liveliness, and the sunshine returned to her +face and the gladness to her heart, and she felt so full of life and +energy that she challenged Rupert to a race.</p> + +<p>"Just look at her, mamma!" exclaimed Julia, who was sitting beside her +mother on a rustic seat. "Did you ever see any one so wild and vulgar? +And that frightful dress, as old-fashioned as possible! To think of our +going on the Esplanade with her!"</p> + +<p>"Is that the reason you did not wish to go there?"</p> + +<p>"Of course it was. Every one would have stared at her antiquated dress. +Indeed, she is altogether old-fashioned; she actually asked me last +night if I had any dolls, and if I went to Sunday-school. I didn't think +that having a poor relation to live with us would be quite so annoying +and humiliating."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Woburn was very seldom angry with her spoilt child, but now she was +thoroughly roused, and said in low distinct tones, "Remember, Julia, +that you speak of my brother's daughter. While Ruth is here she will be +treated as your sister. You little know what you owe to your uncle, and +if I ever hear you speak in that contemptuous way of any of his family I +will send you to your room at once."</p> + +<p>Such a threat was quite strange to Julia, who at fourteen began to +consider herself almost grown-up, and quite above reproof or punishment; +but it was sufficiently determined to prevent her making any more +remarks of the sort in her mother's hearing, though it did not increase +her affection for her cousin.</p> + +<p>During the walk home Ruth was merry as ever, romping with Rupert, +chatting with that usually shy lad, Ernest, and planning an afternoon on +the shore to collect sea-weeds. But Julia walked slowly beside her +mother, so evidently determined to be silent that the rest of the party +tacitly agreed to leave her to herself.</p> + +<p>Mr. Woburn and his eldest son, Gerald, arrived at Stonegate that +afternoon, and Ruth saw them for the first time. She soon felt at home +with her uncle, a plain-featured, middle-aged man of business, but with +his son she felt wonderfully shy. It seemed hardly possible that the +handsome young man with the dark moustache and manly bearing could be +her cousin. She had expected to see a boy two or three years older than +Will, but still a boy, not a polite and self-possessed young man, who by +his way of speaking to her made her feel a very little girl indeed.</p> + +<p>"How have you been improving the shining hours, my lad?" was his +greeting to Ernest.</p> + +<p>"He has been down on the shore collecting shells for Ruth," said Julia +mischievously.</p> + +<p>"Ernest becoming a lady's man! Dear me! the country cousin is working +wonders," he cried in feigned surprise.</p> + +<p>Ruth felt the hot blood rushing to her cheeks, though she tried to look +as if she had not heard the remark; but it spoilt her pleasure in +seeking for shells, and she decided mentally that she should never like +Cousin Gerald. The arrival of her brother seemed to have restored +Julia's good-humour, and when in the evening he proposed a stroll on the +pier she gladly assented, and the whole party set out to hear the band +which played there two or three evenings in the week.</p> + +<p>Ruth thought that she had never known anything so charming as that +evening. It was so pleasant to sit in a sheltered corner listening to +the finest music she had ever heard, played by a military band and +accompanied by the gentle splash of the waves against the pier; to feel +the cool fresh sea-breeze blowing around her, and to see the gay dresses +of the ladies as they walked up and down talking to their friends, until +by-and-by the quiet stars came out and the silver moon shone upon the +scene.</p> + +<p>Julia was not contented to sit still and look on; she begged Gerald to +let her promenade with him, and for a few minutes he gratified her whim; +but Ruth, although she had changed the dress which had proved so +obnoxious that morning, did not consider herself to be attired richly +enough to mingle with the gay throng that passed and re-passed her in +her quiet corner.</p> + +<p>"What do you think of Gerald?" asked Julia, when the two girls had +retired to their bedroom that evening. "Is he not very handsome?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Ruth, glad that her cousin had asked a question to which she +could give her assent so easily. "But I didn't know that he was so old; +I expected he would be a boy."</p> + +<p>"He is only nineteen," said Julia; "but I am sure he looks older."</p> + +<p>"Only nineteen! Why, Will is seventeen, and he is quite a boy compared +with Cousin Gerald."</p> + +<p>"That is very likely, for he has been brought up in the country, and +that makes a great difference. Now I am sure that Gerald knows quite as +much as most men do, and I think it is too bad for father to treat him +like a boy."</p> + +<p>"Does he?" asked Ruth innocently.</p> + +<p>"Yes; he won't even allow him to have a latch-key, and then he complains +if Gerald is rather late home in the evening, and he has to sit up for +him. And even mamma annoys him dreadfully sometimes by calling him 'her +dear boy.'"</p> + +<p>"I thought mothers did that even when their sons were quite grown up," +said Ruth.</p> + +<p>"I don't think they should," was Julia's reply. "But it is quite too bad +of papa to expect poor Gerald to slave away in that office all day. He +is quite a tyrant, and grudges the poor fellow any pleasure."</p> + +<p>"Julia! Julia! I am sure it is very wrong of you to talk in that way of +your parents," cried Ruth reproachfully. "Don't you know the Bible says, +'Honour thy father and mother'?"</p> + +<p>"What an old-fashioned, tiresome creature you are!" muttered Julia in a +sleepy voice.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h3>A POOR RELATION.</h3> + + +<p>"When are we to have the picnic, mamma?" asked Julia at breakfast the +next morning.</p> + +<p>"Any day will suit me; but as your father and Gerald will only be here +for a short time, I think we must arrange to have it as early as +possible the week after next."</p> + +<p>"Let us have it on Monday. Yes, Monday," cried Rupert and Julia +together.</p> + +<p>"I am going out boating on Monday," said Gerald lazily.</p> + +<p>"Tuesday or Wednesday," suggested Mrs. Woburn.</p> + +<p>"I am engaged for Tuesday also, but Wednesday is clear, I believe," +replied the young man in a careless manner, as if it did not signify +much to him whether he formed one of the party or not.</p> + +<p>"How horrid of you to put it off so long," exclaimed his sister angrily. +"I daresay Wednesday will be wet."</p> + +<p>"<i>Nous verrons</i>," he replied, as he sauntered from the room with his +hands in his pockets. He looked in again at the door to say, "I shall +not be back until the evening, mother;" and in another moment the +banging of the front-door told them that he had left the house.</p> + +<p>"It is too bad of Gerald to go off like that the very first day he is +here," said Julia. "I suppose he has taken his bicycle and gone out with +his friends, the Goodes. Horrid people! Yes, there he is," she cried as +Gerald and two other young men on bicycles passed the house bowing and +smiling towards the window where the two girls were standing.</p> + +<p>"Gerald out with the Goodes? I wish he would choose some other +companions," said Mr. Woburn, who had scarcely noticed their previous +conversation.</p> + +<p>"You see how papa finds fault with him," whispered Julia to her cousin.</p> + +<p>"Ruth, I want you to come to my room for a few minutes," said Mrs. +Woburn; and her niece followed her upstairs.</p> + +<p>"I should like you to try on these things and see how they fit you," she +said, as she pointed to some pretty dresses spread out on the bed. There +was a pale pink, trimmed with dainty white lace; a figured sateen +covered with tiny rosebuds, and finished off here and there with knots +and bows of rose-coloured ribbon; a simple holland dress trimmed with +white braid, and a shady straw hat with bows of lace and a tiny bunch of +rosebuds. Ruth gazed at the garments with admiration and astonishment, +then she glanced at her own shabby print frock, blushed rosy red, and +the tears began to gather in her eyes.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter, Ruth? Do you not like them?" asked her aunt kindly.</p> + +<p>"They are very pretty, and you are very kind, auntie; but I would rather +not wear them," said the girl, trying hard to repress the tears of +mortification that stood in her eyes.</p> + +<p>"But, my dear, they have been bought on purpose for you to wear at the +sea-side. Do at least try them."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, auntie, I would much rather not do so;" and Ruth turned +aside to the window, from which she could see nothing for the mist +before her eyes caused by the storm of passion and pride surging within +her breast.</p> + +<p>There was no reply, and when she looked round again she found that she +was alone. The sunshine was streaming into the room, shining upon the +white hat and the pretty dresses, just such garments as Ruth would have +chosen if she had had an opportunity of buying such a stock of clothes +for herself. But she remembered Julia's words and manner the previous +morning, and felt so proud and angry that she deliberately shut her eyes +as she walked out of the room, and gave not a thought to her aunt's +kindness.</p> + +<p>"It is too bad! I'll not stand it!" she murmured. "I did not come here +to be treated like a poor relation. If they don't like me as I am, I +will go home again. Yes, I'll go and tell auntie so at once," she +continued, her pride rising higher and higher until she reached the +bay-windowed drawing-room where her aunt was sitting with Ernest. She +did not observe his presence, but went straight to her aunt, her cheeks +crimson and her eyes flashing.</p> + +<p>"Aunt Annie," she said as calmly as her emotion would permit, "Aunt +Annie, I think that I had better go home."</p> + +<p>"My dear child, what is the matter?" cried Mrs. Woburn, dropping her +work in her amazement.</p> + +<p>"I think that if you don't like me as I am, I had better go home," she +repeated.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" asked her aunt, still more perplexed; while Ernest +looked up from his book and inquired, "Has Julia been annoying her?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Ruth; "but, oh, auntie! I can't bear to be—a poor relation, +and—and have clothes given me."</p> + +<p>The pent-up sobs would have their way at last, and the girl sank down +beside her aunt, who tried to soothe and comfort her.</p> + +<p>"Have those dresses troubled you so much, dear?" she asked gently. "I +had no idea that that was the cause of your annoyance, but fancied you +did not like the style in which they were made. If I had thought that +you would have any objection I would have acted differently; but as your +mother——"</p> + +<p>"Did mother know that you were getting them for me?" inquired Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and she wrote to say that she should be glad for you to be treated +in every way like your cousin. And you must never think, dear, that we +regard you as 'a poor relation.' Remember that your father is my +brother, and whatever I give you has been paid for, and far more than +paid for, years ago."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, auntie; I am glad to know that," she said quietly.</p> + +<p>"I did not think you were so proud, Ruth," whispered Ernest as she left +the room, and went up to her own chamber to have a good cry over her +foolish behaviour. But, to her dismay, Julia was there dressing for a +walk, an occupation which she knew would take her a considerable time.</p> + +<p>Oh, how she longed for her little room at home, where she had so often +taken her childish troubles, or for a quiet nook upon the shore, such as +she had often read of, but which is rarely to be found in a fashionable +watering-place. There was no solitude for her just then, and she was +obliged to fight the battle within silently, while her companion rallied +her upon her mournful looks and red eyes; and to send up her prayer for +help from the heart, without using the lips. But help came, and she +conquered at last the pride and temper of which she was now thoroughly +ashamed. She was anxious to obtain her aunt's forgiveness for the rude +reception of her kindness, and tried to make amends by arraying herself +in the pink dress and pretty hat, which she showed to Julia, saying how +kind it was of auntie to get such lovely things for her. By-and-by when +she had an opportunity she said in a low voice, "I am very sorry that I +was so proud and rude just now, auntie. I'll try to behave better in +future."</p> + +<p>And Mrs. Woburn, looking at her niece's dress, saw that her repentance +was not only expressed in words.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h3>SEA-SIDE PLEASURES.</h3> + + +<p>A week spent at Stonegate had taught Ruth more of her own frailties and +weaknesses, and had shown her more of the various sorts of people of +which the world is composed, than she would have learnt in a whole year +spent in the quiet sheltered seclusion of her home at Cressleigh.</p> + +<p>The novelty, the continued round of pleasure, the excitement and gaiety, +were bewildering and delightful to the simple country girl. It seemed to +her that she had been suddenly transported from the commonplace ordinary +work-a-day world in which she had hitherto dwelt, to a fairyland of +sunshine, music, and pleasure. It was almost impossible at times to +realize that the sun which brightened the Esplanade, and gilded the edge +of the rippling waves, was the same sun which was shining upon her +father's harvest-field at home, upon the labourers toiling at the +sickle, the women binding the sheaves, and the servants briskly moving +hither and thither, all as busy as bees throughout the whole of the long +summer day.</p> + +<p>Everything at the sea-side was new to Ruth, and she exulted in the +freshness and novelty of all around her, for she was still at that happy +age</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"When all things pleased, for life itself was new,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the heart promised what the fancy drew."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Alas, that that time is being gradually shortened, and that children say +good-bye at such an early age to the simple pleasures of youth!</p> + +<p>How few years there are in which one can be young, and how many in which +one must be old!</p> + +<p>But Ruth was still young, far younger in her capacity to enjoy than +Julia, who was her junior by some months. She was in good health, with +fine animal spirits, and had not tasted half the pleasures which had +already grown stale to her cousin. The boating, the chatter, the +strolls, the music on the pier, the glorious sunsets, the very stones +and shells upon the beach, the fresh breezes and the ever-changing sea, +all contributed to afford her such pleasure as it would have been +impossible for Julia to feel, because she, poor child, was already +disenchanted at fourteen, was already wearied with frequent repetition +of the amusements which were new to her cousin, and also because she had +imbibed the idea that it was ill-bred, and a mark of ignorance, to show +or even to <i>feel</i> extreme pleasure in anything, yet was ever selfishly +seeking some new gratification.</p> + +<p>"You appear to be enjoying yourself very much, Ruth," observed her aunt, +as she sat beside her on the pier the evening before the day arranged +for the picnic.</p> + +<p>"How can I help it, auntie? You are so kind, and everything is so +enchanting," was the enthusiastic reply.</p> + +<p>"I think that many of the richest people here would give all they +possess to have that child's keen sense of delight," remarked Mrs. +Woburn to her husband, as Ruth tripped away to join her cousins.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Julia," she exclaimed, "what a charming piece the band has been +playing!"</p> + +<p>"That old thing!" replied the other contemptuously. "It is the overture +to 'La Sonnambula,' and I perfectly hate it, for I learnt it at school +ages ago, and Signor Touchi used to get awfully angry about it."</p> + +<p>Julia often acted as a sort of wet blanket upon her cousin's +enthusiastic outbursts; though it was a long time before the country +girl learnt to express her delight in the usual formula of a fashionable +young lady, "Very charming," or "Awfully nice," pronounced in a manner +which seems to imply, "Just tolerable."</p> + +<p>Wednesday morning rose clear and bright, and soon after sunrise Ruth +peeped out of the window to see if the weather were favourable, and when +she saw the sunshine she could remain in bed no longer, but dressed +quickly and ran down to the beach, her favourite retreat in the early +morning, and the only place where she ever found an opportunity for +quiet thought amidst all the excitement of pleasure-seeking.</p> + +<p>What a long time it seemed since she had left home! And yet it was only +a few days. What would her mother think, she wondered, of the life she +was leading now? She had only received one short letter from her, +written after all the rest of the household were in bed, and Ruth could +guess how very busy every one was, although there was but a casual +reference to the fact in the letter.</p> + +<p>"I hope that mother is not doing too much," she mused, "it was very kind +of her to let me have so much pleasure; but how hard it would be to go +back now after all this gaiety. I trust that I am not getting spoilt, +yet——"</p> + +<p>"Have you been looking for anemones, Ruth?" asked a boyish voice beside +her. "This is not the place to find them."</p> + +<p>"I had no idea that you were near, Ernest," was her reply, "but I have +not been looking for anything, only thinking."</p> + +<p>"Well, it is almost breakfast time now. You know that we are to be early +this morning on account of the picnic to which you are all going."</p> + +<p>"But surely you are going with us?" said Ruth in surprise.</p> + +<p>"No," he answered quietly, "I should only be in the way. Gerald and his +fellows don't want me, and Julia and her friends only snub me and think +me a nuisance, and of course I am too old to romp and be petted like +little Ru. So I shall have a quiet day on the shore collecting fresh +specimens, and you shall see them to-morrow. Now we must go in to +breakfast."</p> + +<p>Ernest had grown very fond of his country cousin, who was so different +from his sister and her friends that she could actually take an interest +in his pursuits, and who, under her father's guidance, had learnt many +interesting facts of natural history which the town-bred boy had never +had opportunities of observing.</p> + +<p>Breakfast was a hurried meal, and directly it was over there followed +the bustle of preparation for the day's excursion. Hampers were sent +off, duly packed with all kinds of delicacies; Rupert was running up and +down stairs continually, and getting in the way as much as Ernest, who +remained stationary near the door; while Julia rushed from her room to +her mother's, declaring that she was quite certain they would all be +late, and then ran back to ask Ruth to help her to dress.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h3>THE PICNIC.</h3> + + +<p>Everything was ready at last, and the whole family started for the pier, +where they were to meet their friends. Such a crowd of people surrounded +them upon their arrival, that Ruth, who merely knew a few of them +slightly, felt quite over-whelmed, and wished that her usual companion, +Ernest, had been beside her.</p> + +<p>The steamer which had been chartered for the occasion now came alongside +the pier, and every one was occupied with the business of embarking. +When all the party were safely on board, Ruth found herself amongst a +number of strangers, far away from Julia, who had evidently quite +forgotten her, and was laughing and chatting with a little group of +girls at the other end of the vessel. Her aunt was entertaining the +ladies, and her uncle walking up and down the deck in earnest +conversation with two gentlemen; Rupert was trying to get on the +paddle-box, and there was no one near her but Gerald, the facetious +leader of a knot of young men. Ruth felt very lonely and rather +sorrowful; she had been eagerly anticipating this picnic, and now she +seemed to be quite neglected, while every one else was gay and happy. +She had not the courage to make her way through the visitors to reach +Julia at the other end of the boat, for she had an undefined feeling +that if she went she would not be welcomed there. Her thoughts flew back +to the one spot of earth where she was always wanted and ever welcomed, +and she heaved a little sigh.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter, my fair coz?" asked Gerald, who was standing near +and heard the sigh. "Are the Fates very unpropitious?"</p> + +<p>"No, Cousin Gerald," she answered shyly.</p> + +<p>She could not understand the young man who patronized her, and talked to +her as if she were a little child, and she fancied that he was making +fun of her.</p> + +<p>"Then why do you sigh?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>"I have nothing else to do," she said, smiling.</p> + +<p>"Has Julia left you without any introduction? Well, we will soon remedy +that," he said as he led her towards a very fair young girl, dressed in +blue and white, and having introduced the two girls he left them +talking, and strolled off with a friend.</p> + +<p>Ruth's companion was by no means shy, she had a great deal to say, and +began by making remarks upon the people on board, and telling little +scraps of their personal histories.</p> + +<p>"You see that old gentleman walking with Mr. Woburn. That is Mr. Amass, +the banker. They say that he is awfully rich, but I am sure that he is a +terrible screw. Only look at his wife, and see how shabbily she dresses. +Don't you see her over there with the daisies in her bonnet? And that is +her niece, Miss Game, flirting with Mr. Trim. Ah! he is walking away +now; he prefers a chat with Edith Thorpe. How amused they look! I +suppose he is telling her what Miss Game has been saying. Yes, I am sure +they are laughing at her!"</p> + +<p>"But surely," said Ruth, looking rather shocked, "he would not be so +rude as to talk to a young lady, and then go away and laugh at her!"</p> + +<p>"My dear child," replied the other, laughing, "every one does it, more +or less."</p> + +<p>"But are none of them <i>friends</i>? Do none of them care for each other +sufficiently to refrain from laughing?" asked Ruth earnestly.</p> + +<p>"Very few persons care enough for their friends to be quiet about their +follies and weaknesses," replied this worldly-wise young lady, and then +she continued her running commentary upon the visitors until the steamer +arrived at its destination, a beautiful little bay where the water was +so clear that one could see the sea-weeds growing underneath. Tall trees +grew not far from the shore, and upon a slight eminence was situated an +old castle, not possessing many historical associations, but in a fairly +good state of preservation, and much frequented by pleasure parties from +Stonegate.</p> + +<p>The older ladies at once made their way to a shady nook under the trees, +and the rest of the party strolled about the grounds in twos and threes +until a tempting repast had been spread, not upon the grass, but upon +long wooden tables in the castle yard.</p> + +<p>Ruth was utterly astonished. Her ideas of a picnic were gathered from +the simple and joyous little parties held in the woods near her home, +when the hamper, filled with cold meat, tartlets, and milk or lemonade, +was sent on in the milk cart or one of the farm wagons, a white cloth +was spread under the shade of a tree, and the whole party sat on the +grass round it, and were merry and lively, regarding the little +accidents which would occasionally happen as so much cause for mirth.</p> + +<p>But this sumptuous collation, with its garnished dishes of poultry and +joints, salads, tarts, jellies, blancmange, ices and champagne, with +various fruits, all tastefully arranged, and the accessories of glass +and flowers, silver forks and spoons, and long seats, with waiters +hurrying about, made a picnic quite a different affair, and—Ruth was +unfashionable enough to think—took away all the fun of it. She could +see that her aunt was somewhat anxious, and was quite as vexed at any +slight accident which occurred as if she had been giving a party in her +own house.</p> + +<p>Of course there were several toasts and a good deal of speech-making, +and a considerable quantity of champagne was drunk before the guests +left the tables and dispersed, some to the tennis court, others to +explore the castle, and a few to take a country walk in the green lanes.</p> + +<p>The afternoon was very warm, but the hush of the summer's stillness was +broken by the merry voices of the girls as they made their way through +the old castle and peeped out of the windows at their friends in the +tennis court below. There was a continual flutter of light dresses +through the low doorways and up the dingy stairs, and merry sounds of +laughter echoed through the empty chambers. It was the first castle that +romantic little Ruth had ever seen; and although she could not gather +much of its history from the little books sold at the gate, she tried to +imagine the scenes that had been enacted there, to people it with +knights in armour, and to fancy that the girlish faces which peeped +through the windows were those of "fayre ladyes" of bygone days.</p> + +<p>She was aroused from her day-dream by a scream from one of the girls, +and saw Gerald, looking white and scared, hurrying towards a small door +leading to the keep. The tennis players ceased their game, all eyes were +turned in one direction, and a frightened whisper ran through the crowd +as Mr. Woburn hastened across the ground. On the very edge of a broken +tottering wall projecting from the side of the keep sat Rupert—ever an +adventurous little fellow—his face white and his legs dangling. He had +crept up into the keep alone, and climbed as high as he could, just to +give them all a fright. And he had succeeded, but not without risk to +himself, for the shriek of terror which some one gave upon seeing him +had awakened him to a sense of his danger, and looking down upon the +terrified faces below he grew frightened and almost lost the power to +keep his seat. It was a terrible moment, and every one paused in +horror-stricken silence.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ruth_14.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + + +<p>"That's right, Ruey, sit still!" cried a clear, ringing voice. "Shall I +come up to keep you company? But you must get to the other end of the +wall. Don't try to crawl; push yourself along like this," cried Ruth, +sitting on a low fence and propelling herself sideways, clutching it +with her hands on either side, quite regardless of the notice she was +attracting. It was the best thing she could have done, for the boy, +hearing her cheery tones and seeing that the faces below were no longer +upturned in terror, began to regain his courage, and imitated his +cousin's movements, thus getting farther and farther from the dangerous +corner and nearer to the firmer masonry of the keep, through which the +young men were hurrying to his rescue. Slowly and awkwardly he shuffled +along, and reached the end of the wall just as Ruth reached the end of +her fence, for she had kept on all the time for the sake of example.</p> + +<p>"Thank God he is safe!" cried Mr. Woburn, as Gerald caught the little +fellow in his arms and disappeared within the walls of the building.</p> + +<p>"And this young lady has saved him," said a gentleman who had just +appeared upon the scene. He had been taking a country ramble, had seen +the boy's danger from a considerable distance, and arrived, almost +breathless, in the castle yard just as Rupert was lifted from his +perilous position.</p> + +<p>"If he had fainted or turned giddy he must have fallen, and that wall +would not have borne another person. Indeed, if the boy had not been a +very light weight, I am afraid it would have given way;" and as if to +verify his words a small piece of stone, which had probably been +loosened by the boy's movements, came crashing down from the wall.</p> + +<p>Ruth was now the universal object of attention, and she felt dreadfully +bashful and awkward as one after another gathered round her and praised +"her wonderful presence of mind," and "her remarkable courage." "So +fearless, too," said one young dandy, who would not on any account have +risked his dainty limbs. "I really thought she was going to climb up and +fetch him down."</p> + +<p>"I should not have been surprised if she had done so," said a young lady +near him.</p> + +<p>The poor girl blushed, and began to wonder if she had done rightly in +calling out so loudly and drawing every one's attention to herself, for +her mother had always told her that a young girl should seek to avoid +notice.</p> + +<p>"And yet," she thought, "it cannot be wrong. I only wanted to cheer +little Ru, and I could not stop to think of any other way."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h3>BUSYBOROUGH.</h3> + + +<p>The appearance of little Rupert in the castle yard diverted attention +from his blushing cousin, while friends and relatives crowded round him +to scold, applaud, or pet, as they deemed fit. His mother, overcome by +the anxiety and suspense of those terrible moments, fainted directly he +was brought down to her, but was soon restored, and grew very anxious +that the affair should not interfere with the happiness of her guests. +Some, indeed, proposed returning at once to Stonegate, but they were +overruled by the younger members of the party, who were anxious to +remain until the moon had risen, and also by Mrs. Woburn's desire not to +curtail their enjoyment; and it was finally settled that the steamer +should not return until ten o'clock.</p> + +<p>Tea, coffee, and other refreshments were handed round, and the +interrupted games were resumed and carried on until the summer evening +grew chilly. The dew began to fall, and gave warning that it was too +late for out-of-door sports, and drove them into the shelter of the old +castle, where the young people proposed a dance. There was a spacious +room in the lower part of the building which had been often used for +such a purpose, and after hunting up a village musician and pressing him +into their service, hats and wraps were thrown aside and the dancing +commenced. Ruth did not understand the steps, but sat down near the +married ladies and looked on at what, to her unaccustomed eyes, was a +gay and lively scene. Yet she could not enter into it as she had entered +into the pleasures of the preceding days. She could not forget the alarm +of the afternoon; she was sure that her aunt was feeling ill and weary, +and she felt that the gaiety around was rather ill-timed and out of +harmony with the feelings of the hostess. The hours passed slowly to +those who were merely looking on, but at ten the dancing ceased, the old +fiddler was dismissed, and amidst a great deal of laughter and chatter +the gay party left the castle and made their way to the steamer.</p> + +<p>The moon was shining brilliantly, and the walls of the old castle +gleamed in its light or were hidden in dense shadow by the surrounding +trees. The steamer lay in the little bay just below, every inch of her +visible in the moonlight, and all agreed that it was a perfect night for +a water trip.</p> + +<p>Ruth longed for a little quiet, and strove to escape from her lively +companions, whose mirth did not accord with her feelings. She sat in a +sheltered corner, and looked at the vast expanse of water and at the +quiet stars keeping watch overhead. Nothing so much reminded her of home +as the stars, which shone upon her just as they had shone at home, and +with the thought of home came a remembrance of the Heavenly Father of +whom she had thought so little lately, but who had watched over her +unceasingly and had helped her that day to save her little cousin from a +horrible fate.</p> + +<p>Mr. Woburn and Gerald returned to Busyborough a few days after the +picnic, and the remaining weeks of the sea-side holiday passed all too +quickly for Ruth, who was never tired of the delights of sea and shore +and all the varied amusements that Stonegate afforded.</p> + +<p>Still, she was anxious to commence her studies at the young ladies' +college her cousin attended, and spent many an hour thinking of it and +trying to imagine what the school, the governesses, and the pupils would +be like. It was of little use to question Julia, who always declared +that she "didn't want to be bothered about school in the holidays," and +that Ruth would soon find out "how horrid it was."</p> + +<p>It was in September that they bade farewell to Stonegate and left for +Busyborough. The days were growing shorter and colder, and as the +railway journey occupied two or three hours it was late in the day when +they reached their destination, and the street lamps and shop windows +were all aglow with gas-light.</p> + +<p>What a large noisy place it seemed to country-bred Ruth, as their cab +rattled through street after street brilliantly lighted, down long +roads, past handsome houses and gardens, until it stopped before a large +many-windowed house, with a long flight of stone steps and a small +garden, enclosed by massive iron railings.</p> + +<p>Rupert and Julia ran up the steps and disappeared, and Ruth followed her +aunt into the tile-paved hall, where two servants were waiting to +receive them. It was a home-coming to all the others, but to the country +cousin it was quite strange and new.</p> + +<p>"It is good to be at home again," said Mrs. Woburn. "Come, Ruth, I will +show you your room."</p> + +<p>She led the way upstairs and opened the door of a pleasant little room, +furnished tastefully with every requisite for a young girl's apartment. +Everything was so pretty, and the bright fire burning in the grate gave +the room such a cosy look, that Ruth was delighted, and tried to express +her grateful thanks, but was simply bidden to make herself at home and +to be very happy.</p> + +<p>Left alone in the room which was to be her own, she began to look around +her and to admire the pretty French bedstead, the light modern +furniture, and the pictures, bookshelves, and brackets upon the walls. +How much larger and more elegant it was than the tiny room which had +been hers at Cressleigh! She felt that she was indeed growing farther +away from the old life every day. "If it were not for Julia, and the +fact that I am so far from home, I could be perfectly happy here," was +her mental comment.</p> + +<p>They were two large "if's," and Julia was the one which occupied the +principal share of her thoughts. She did not "take to" her cousin, +neither did she try to make the best of the very apparent fact that +their tastes were dissimilar. Instead of seeking for points on which +they could agree, she allowed her mind to dwell continually upon their +diversity, and was beginning to return her cousin's ill-concealed +contempt for her rustic and unfashionable notions by a growing scorn and +proud dislike, which though at first secretly cherished could not fail +to show themselves in time.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<h3>SCHOOL-GIRL GOSSIP.</h3> + + +<p>Studies will be resumed on Tuesday, 25th inst. Such was the intimation +sent out by Miss Elgin, the principal of the ladies' college which the +girls were to attend.</p> + +<p>Accordingly on Tuesday morning Ruth accompanied her cousin to Addison +College, where she was kindly received by Miss Elgin, and introduced to +several of the girls, who seemed friendly and agreeable.</p> + +<p>The lofty spacious schoolroom, with its comfortable seats and desks, its +splendid maps and numerous modern appliances and convenient +arrangements, the school library, with its rows of standard authors in +uniform binding, the music-room, the pianos—in fact, the whole +establishment exceeded Ruth's brightest dreams of school; and her desire +for knowledge, which had somewhat lessened during her sojourn at the +sea-side, seemed at once to be kindled afresh.</p> + +<p>She answered readily the questions given to test her previously acquired +knowledge, and it soon became evident that what she professed to know +had been thoroughly learnt. In English studies she was pronounced fairly +proficient for her age; but in French, music, and other accomplishments +she was very backward, and she found that she would have to work very +hard in order to obtain a good place in her class.</p> + +<p>The work of the morning was so novel and interesting to Ruth, that she +was quite astonished when the bell rang for recess, and the girls +trooped off to an anteroom, where their tongues were unloosed and the +pleasures and events of the holidays were discussed, with many other +topics.</p> + +<p>"Have you heard the news about Mr. Stanley?" asked a bright lively girl, +Ethel Thompson by name, the gossip and news-monger of the school.</p> + +<p>"No; what is it?" cried several voices.</p> + +<p>"Well, you must keep it to yourselves, you know," she said in a +confidential tone, "but he has failed, he is a bankrupt."</p> + +<p>"Are you sure it is true?" asked one and another.</p> + +<p>"How do you know?"</p> + +<p>"I am sure it is quite true, for my father was talking about it last +night, and of course I understood how it was that Mabel's place was +vacant this morning," continued Ethel.</p> + +<p>"Vacant! I should think it was! You don't suppose she would show her +face here, do you?" exclaimed Julia Woburn. "Of course no one would take +any notice of her. Only fancy the idea of being seen with a bankrupt's +daughter!" she added scornfully.</p> + +<p>"Well, it is not <i>her</i> fault." "I suppose she could not help it," said +one or two of the girls.</p> + +<p>"If it is not her fault it is her father's, and of course it is a great +disgrace to the family. I shouldn't think they would ever hold up their +heads again," remarked Julia proudly.</p> + +<p>"It is very sad." "I always thought them rich." "Mabel was never proud," +began a chorus of voices, but the luncheon bell ringing at that moment +put an end to the conversation.</p> + +<p>The subject was not forgotten, however, and was referred to again in the +afternoon, when the girls were preparing to return home.</p> + +<p>"What do you think the Stanleys will do?" asked a girl of Ethel +Thompson, who having brought the news was expected to know everything +relating to her unfortunate school-fellow's family affairs.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," replied Ethel. "Perhaps Mr. Stanley will begin business +again, men do sometimes, you know; or he may go away from the town and +start elsewhere."</p> + +<p>"The best thing he can do, I consider," cried Julia. "I can't conceive +how people can show themselves in a place where every one knows they +have failed. I am sure I could not do it. But some persons have coarse +natures and do not feel things as much as others."</p> + +<p>"I am quite sure that the Stanleys have feelings as keen as any of us," +remarked a shy quiet-looking girl. "You know how sensitive poor Mabel +is, and I do hope that if she comes back we shall all be kind to her and +not let her know that we have ever heard about her father's +misfortunes."</p> + +<p>"That may be your opinion, Nora Ellis," said Julia, "but for my part I +do not choose to associate with a bankrupt's daughter. If she should +return here, of course no one would speak to her; but I do not suppose +that there is any fear of it. Miss Elgin would be making a great mistake +if she were to receive Mabel Stanley, and would be ruining her school +and acting against her own interests."</p> + +<p>"I daresay Miss Elgin will do as she thinks best," retorted Ethel +Thompson, sorry to have raised a storm which it was not easy to subdue.</p> + +<p>Julia and Ruth did not reach school the following morning until nearly +ten o'clock, the hour at which Miss Elgin's pupils assembled for their +morning classes.</p> + +<p>They had scarcely entered the cloak-room before they became aware that +something unusual had occurred, something which was evidently connected +with the young girl standing apart from the rest, at the end of the +room, and looking tearful and timid. In a moment Ruth guessed, from the +scornful expression of her cousin's face, that the new-comer was Mabel +Stanley who had been so freely discussed the previous day, and that the +poor child had met with a very cool reception on her return to school.</p> + +<p>Pity for the unfortunate girl, indignation at the freezing glances +bestowed upon her, mingled perhaps with a vague idea of vexing Julia, +caused Ruth to make a sudden resolution to befriend her; and when upon +entering the schoolroom she found that their desks were side by side, +she did not delay to take advantage of the fact and endeavour to set +Mabel at ease by referring to her occasionally for help in little +matters of school routine with which she (Ruth) was unacquainted. The +questions were politely answered, but her sensitive neighbour seemed +either too proud or too shy to respond to her friendly advances.</p> + +<p>"Ruth Arnold," exclaimed Julia in the cloak-room at the close of the +day, when Mabel Stanley had dressed quickly in silence and taken her +departure with only a half-whispered "Good-afternoon" to Ruth, "did you +know that the girl you have been sitting next all day is the very one we +were talking about yesterday?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I imagined so," was the quiet reply.</p> + +<p>"But I thought you knew that we had all determined to cut her if she +came back, and not to say one word more to her than we were really +obliged," continued Julia.</p> + +<p>"Why?" asked Ruth sharply.</p> + +<p>"Because she has no business here, because she degrades the school. A +bankrupt's daughter ought not to come here," said Julia haughtily, "and +I hope you will not associate with her."</p> + +<p>Ruth's eyes were flashing and her cheeks crimson as she retorted +angrily, "That is no reason why I should not be friendly with her; and +indeed, Julia, I do not intend to ask you whom I am to choose for my +friends."</p> + +<p>"Do as you like, and go your own way," said Julia with a scornful laugh. +"Mabel must be destitute of all fine feeling, but perhaps you have a +fancy for people of that sort. If any one belonging to me had ever been +a bankrupt, I should never show my face in the town again."</p> + +<p>She left the house a moment later with one or two of her chosen friends, +and Ruth was slowly walking home alone, trying to swallow her +indignation, and letting the cool breeze fan her hot cheeks, when Ethel +Thompson overtook her.</p> + +<p>"I really think," she began, "that Julia has been terribly down on +Mabel, and I am glad that you took her part and would not give in. Our +coolness to her to-day was all Julia's doing, and I know that she is +wild with you, for she cannot bear to be crossed. But Mabel has not done +anything; and after all, I don't see why we should cut her to please +Julia, who wants to dictate to every one."</p> + +<p>Ruth made an indifferent reply, and hastened to change the subject, for +she did not care to discuss her cousin's shortcomings with one whom she +knew but slightly.</p> + +<p>Very few words passed between the cousins upon their return home that +evening; but on their way to school the next morning Julia asked +scornfully, "Do you still intend to cultivate your aristocratic +acquaintance, Ruth?"</p> + +<p>"I shall do as I please," said the other shortly.</p> + +<p>The girls at Miss Elgin's were mostly the children of wealthy parents, +but unhappily many of them, though rich and fashionable, were sadly +lacking in refinement of heart and mind. Money was the god revered and +worshipped in most of their homes, the one thing talked of and held in +honour, and it was not surprising that the girls, from constantly +hearing their neighbours' worth reckoned solely by the amount of money +they possessed, had come to regard it as the chief good, and to consider +the want of it as something like a crime. Julia had been reared in a +somewhat different atmosphere, but she had adopted the tone of her +school-fellows, and even surpassed them in scorn and disdain for those +who were poor or unfortunate.</p> + +<p>But she was about to meet with a terrible humiliation.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<h3>JULIA'S HUMILIATION.</h3> + + +<p>A tender conscience is easily aroused, and Ruth's had been troubling her +since the previous afternoon. She knew that although she had done right +in befriending Mabel she had not done it in a Christian spirit. She +almost decided that she ought to beg her cousin's pardon, and was even +thinking what it would be advisable to say, when Julia's question +stirred her worst feelings to activity, and she answered curtly that she +should do as she pleased.</p> + +<p>A lively conversation was being carried on in the cloak-room, but +suddenly ceased as they entered. The exciting cause of it was Ethel +Thompson, whose busy tongue often brought both herself and others into +trouble. She had carried home a full account of the quarrel between the +cousins the day before, and had concluded by imitating Julia's haughty +manner when she said, "If any one belonging to me had ever been a +bankrupt, I should never show my face in the town again."</p> + +<p>"Humph! Did she say that?" asked Mr. Thompson. "Well 'people who live in +glass houses shouldn't throw stones.'"</p> + +<p>"Why do you say that?" inquired Ethel curiously.</p> + +<p>"Because her own father failed some years ago."</p> + +<p>"Are you quite sure?"</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, I remember it very well, though I suppose it must have been +quite nine or ten years ago, time flies so fast. But he is a very +prosperous man now."</p> + +<p>Ethel did not wait to hear more, but went to school next day full of the +idea of humbling Julia by means of this wonderful piece of news. She had +already whispered it to two or three girls when the cousins appeared at +the door and the bell rang for class.</p> + +<p>Julia was rather late, and in her hurry she placed her hat upon the +nearest vacant peg, which happened to be Mabel Stanley's. Mabel entered +at that moment, and seeing that her peg was occupied, quietly asked +Julia to remove her hat. She did so with a very bad grace, and without +saying a word hastened to join her companions in the schoolroom.</p> + +<p>"How shamefully Julia Woburn treats that poor child!" said one of the +elder girls who lingered in the cloak-room, "and I hear that it is +simply because Mr. Stanley has failed in business."</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied the other, "and what makes it more disgraceful is—that +her own father was a bankrupt not very long ago!"</p> + +<p>"Her father? Mr. Woburn? Surely you are mistaken!"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed. Ethel Thompson brought the information this morning, and is +quite full of it."</p> + +<p>It so happened that Julia was returning to the cloak-room for a book +which she had forgotten, when she heard her own name mentioned, and +pausing for an instant on the threshold overheard all that was said.</p> + +<p>She ran in and confronted the two girls, her eyes flashing and her heart +beating fast, and exclaimed, "Did Ethel really say that? How dare she +tell such an untruth!"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it was only a joke," said the girl who had spoken first.</p> + +<p>"It is a slander, an insult, and I'll not stand it!" said Julia +indignantly.</p> + +<p>They reasoned with her and endeavoured to calm her, but only partially +succeeded in soothing her before she returned to the schoolroom. Her +face still wore an angry sullen expression, and she carefully avoided +Ethel Thompson throughout the morning. Not one lesson could she say, and +she begged to be excused her arithmetic and French on the plea of a +severe headache.</p> + +<p>After study hours, when the girls met in recess time, Julia proudly +demanded of Ethel what she meant by spreading such false statements +about her family; and Ethel replied that all she had said was true, and +added that when she heard it she was no longer surprised at Julia's +treatment of Mabel, but saw a reason for it.</p> + +<p>Julia, finding that Ethel's report had gained credence among her +school-fellows, was half wild with mortification and rage; and declaring +that she would remain there no longer to be insulted, she dressed +herself and went home, leaving her companions somewhat alarmed at the +storm their foolish conversation had raised.</p> + +<p>They had not reflected that one of the most fruitful sources of quarrels +among school-girls is—silly gossip about their relatives and friends.</p> + +<p>While Mr. and Mrs. Woburn were sitting at luncheon they were startled by +hearing a violent knock at the door, and the next moment Julia, dressed +in her walking attire, rushed into the room, regardless of everything +but the one idea which possessed her mind, and exclaimed, "Father, tell +me, did you ever fail? Were you ever a bankrupt?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Woburn's face changed suddenly, and grew stern and pale.</p> + +<p>"Why do you ask?"</p> + +<p>"Because they have slandered you and insulted me at school, but I told +them it was false."</p> + +<p>"It <i>was</i>—true," said Mr. Woburn slowly, "but I fail to see what can +have brought it up now."</p> + +<p>"True!" cried Julia, bursting into tears, and sobbing hysterically. +"Then I can never go to Miss Elgin's again."</p> + +<p>She threw herself upon the sofa, and for some minutes was unable to +speak, so violent was her passion and anger. In vain her father demanded +an explanation of her strange behaviour, and her mother tried to calm +and soothe her.</p> + +<p>"Leave her to me," she said at last. "I am quite at a loss to understand +the matter, but she will tell me when she is better."</p> + +<p>Before the sobs had altogether subsided Ruth entered the room: for Miss +Elgin, hearing of Julia's sudden departure, had imagined that her +headache had increased, and at once despatched her cousin to follow her.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you can explain what has happened," said her aunt. "Why have +the girls been talking of your uncle's business affairs?"</p> + +<p>"Well, the fact is, auntie, that Mabel Stanley came to school yesterday, +and Julia was cross and rude to her because her father has failed, and +then the girls made up this tale to humble her, and she flew into a rage +and came home."</p> + +<p>"Now I understand. But the tale was true, nevertheless. Now, Julia dear, +don't sob. I think I had better tell you all about it, that you may +understand for yourselves.</p> + +<p>"I think you know, Julia, that when your father started in life he had +not much capital, and began business in a small way. But he did very +well until there came a time of commercial depression, and a man who +owed him a considerable sum of money died insolvent. Then your father +found that he was so much embarrassed that he thought the wisest and +most honourable course would be to divide what he had amongst his +creditors at once. He gave up everything to them, and was hesitating +what he should do for a living. Just at that time my father died and +left all his little property to me and my brother (your father, Ruth). +My money would not have been sufficient to start another business, but +your father came to our help, and offered to lend his share of the +money. Then my husband was able to start again, and prospered. All his +creditors were paid in full long ago, and my brother's money was repaid +with interest, though nothing, I am sure, can ever repay his kindness in +lending it to us at that particular time, for I fear that he must have +been straitened for years by his generous deed. Now you understand, +Ruth, why I told you that everything I gave you had been more than paid +for long ago, though I did not know that it would be necessary to tell +you how."</p> + +<p>Ruth was silent and thoughtful. Her aunt's words gave her the clue to +many things which she had never been able to comprehend. She guessed now +why her father sometimes looked regretfully at a large and excellent +farm a short distance from his own.</p> + +<p>"You ought to have taken that farm," she had once heard a neighbour +remark to him.</p> + +<p>"Ah! the time for that is gone by," was his reply.</p> + +<p>She believed now that the opportunity of taking it had occurred while +the money was embarked in her uncle's business, and that when it was +free the farm and the family had soon absorbed it, for the land was not +very good, and there had been several bad harvests lately.</p> + +<p>"Why did you never tell me before?" asked Julia peevishly, from the +sofa.</p> + +<p>"Why, dear? Well, you know it is never pleasant to talk about our +failures. Your father has not referred to the subject, even to me, for +years, and I could see that he was exceedingly annoyed by your mention +of it just now. You were but an infant at the time, and it is so long +ago that it seemed to have been forgotten. But I have looked back +sometimes since we have grown rich, and thought with pleasure of my +brother's kindness."</p> + +<p>"Still it is true," whined Julia, "and," she added passionately, "I can +never look at Ethel Thompson or any of the girls again."</p> + +<p>"That is very silly," said her mother.</p> + +<p>"Indeed I cannot—never—<i>never</i>, and I am the most wretched girl in +England, and shall never be happy again!"</p> + +<p>Her sobs were renewed with redoubled violence, and she looked really ill +from vexation and passion. Mrs. Woburn gave her some cooling medicine +and persuaded her to go to bed.</p> + +<p>But Ruth did not pity her cousin. She worked alone at her lessons that +evening, and when the thought of Julia crossed her mind her lips +tightened and she said to herself, "She deserves to be ill. She treated +Mabel unkindly, and now it has come back to her, and she is suffering +for it. Yes, she deserves it." And before she went to rest that night +she read in her little Bible a few verses about the sin of pride, with a +mental reference to Julia, and also some passages concerning +retribution, and wrong-doing coming home to the sinner.</p> + +<p>She was not following in the footsteps of the Lord, who hates sin, yet +loves the sinner, but thought only of her cousin's just punishment, and +wondered how she would bear to meet all her school-fellows again. She +was not cherishing the love that vaunteth not itself, that is not puffed +up, that rejoiceth not in iniquity; the love that never faileth, and +that covers a multitude of sins.</p> + +<p>Was there not something of the spirit of the Pharisee in Ruth's heart? +Was she not beginning to sit in the seat of the scornful, and to look +down upon her cousin from her superior position? Well, pride must have a +fall, sooner or later, whether it be pride of position or pride of +heart.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<h3>HARD AT WORK.</h3> + + +<p>Ruth went to school alone the next morning, for Julia was so unwell from +the excitement of the day that she seemed quite ill and feverish, and +was scarcely able to lift her head from the pillow. Her eyes had dark +rims round them, her head ached terribly, and she was certainly quite +unfit to attend to her studies and to meet her school-fellows.</p> + +<p>None of the girls liked to ask Ruth what had happened after her return +home, and they scarcely ventured to inquire for her cousin. They +evidently felt that they had gone too far, and began to speak kindly to +Mabel and to treat her in their usual manner.</p> + +<p>But the poor girl could not easily forget the slights she had received, +and amid their new-born kindness she turned naturally to the one who had +befriended her while the others behaved rudely. She soon grew quite +intimate with Ruth, and even ventured to speak of the trouble which had +befallen her father that summer, and of her future prospects.</p> + +<p>"Of course," she said, "papa would not have thought of allowing me to +remain at such an expensive school as Miss Elgin's, but grandmamma has +kindly promised to pay the expenses of my education for two years, and +if I study hard for that time I hope that I shall be able to teach, and +to help papa and mamma."</p> + +<p>Ruth could thoroughly sympathise with her friend, and entered into her +feelings, her hopes and aspirations, for was she not working with the +same object in view? Did she not desire to help <i>her</i> father and mother +by teaching the younger children?</p> + +<p>Thus their friendship grew and strengthened during Julia's absence, +which lasted quite a week.</p> + +<p>She, poor child, was quite unstrung, and for two or three days the very +mention of school brought on a fit of hysterical crying, and she begged +that she might be allowed to go to some boarding-school at a distance, +anywhere—away from Busyborough. Mrs. Woburn was inclined to yield to +her wish; but her father would not hear of such a thing, and declared +that she had brought all the trouble upon herself by her own folly, and +she must bear the consequences of it. He was, in fact, excessively angry +with his spoilt child, and believed that her return to school would be a +severe punishment which she richly deserved.</p> + +<p>When Mr. Woburn spoke in that decided way there was nothing to be done +but to obey. His wife, however, called upon Miss Elgin, and explained +the reason of Julia's absence, begging that she would ask the girls to +receive her kindly, without referring to the cause of the quarrel, as +she had already suffered a good deal.</p> + +<p>Miss Elgin was astonished to hear of the affair, which had perplexed and +puzzled her not a little; for, as her pupils had all felt themselves +more or less to blame in the matter, they had all kept it from her +knowledge, and she had only guessed from their reticence, and the air of +mystery with which they received every allusion to their absent +school-fellow, that something was wrong. Before morning school she +called the girls together, told them how pained and grieved she had +been, and gave them a little lecture upon the duty of ruling the tongue, +and the folly of valuing people only for their wealth or position +instead of their goodness and virtue. The girls listened in silence, and +when Julia returned, looking very much ashamed and humbled after her +vain boasting, they made no allusion to her fiery outburst, and in a few +days she had regained her old place in the school and everything went on +as usual.</p> + +<p>Lessons, classes, exercises, and lectures were crowded into each day. +Ruth had plenty to do, and found that she must work very hard if she +wished to succeed, and to take a good place in the school. She was +astonished to see how indolent some of the girls were; to find that many +of them did not care for knowledge for its own sake, but regarded their +lessons as a trouble, and were continually begging to be allowed to +leave off this or that study. And she was still more surprised and +shocked to find how many of the exercises were merely copied from old +books, with perhaps a few slight mistakes inserted to prevent suspicion. +On more than one occasion, Ruth gave offence by refusing to lend her +books for this purpose, or to avail herself of proffered assistance; but +she persevered steadily, and declared that she would rather make a few +mistakes than evade a difficulty which she could not surmount, as she +would be sure to meet it again.</p> + +<p>Miss Elgin was not long in perceiving that Ruth was a conscientious +girl, anxious to learn, and in many little ways she contrived to help +and encourage her.</p> + +<p>As the weather grew colder and winter advanced, the old home-life at the +farm seemed very far away, and somehow the home letters were not so full +of interest as they had once been. How trivial and childish it seemed to +read about the new kittens, the chickens, the nuts in the woods, and the +apples in the orchard, and the many little details with which the +children's letters were filled, when one was studying chemistry and +reading Milton and Shakespeare. Her mother's letters were always +welcome, but they were very rare.</p> + +<p>The comfort and luxury of her new home were beginning to make a visible +alteration in her. Already she looked and felt quite a different person +from the little Ruth Arnold who sometimes milked the cows, or helped +with the house-work when the servants were busy. Her brown curls had +long since given place to a long plait like Julia's, her clothes were of +richer materials and made in a more fashionable style, and she had what +seemed at first an abundant supply of pocket-money. The only day on +which she really longed to be back at Cressleigh was Sunday. It had +always been such a happy day at the farm, the only rest day of the busy +father and mother, and always spent with the children. There were of +course certain duties which could not be neglected, but these were +quickly done, and then the whole family went together to the house of +God. In the afternoon the children all went to Sunday-school, where Will +was promoted to the post of teacher, and Mr. and Mrs. Arnold had a quiet +hour together with no one but the baby to disturb them. There was rarely +any service in the evening, but it was a pleasant time for the children, +who in fine summer weather sat on the lawn and sang their favourite +hymns, or on winter evenings gathered round the old piano in the +well-worn parlour while their mother or Ruth played, or listened while +their father talked or read some good and interesting book. All went to +bed early, and rose in the morning refreshed and strengthened by the joy +and repose of the day of rest.</p> + +<p>But Sunday at Busyborough was quite a different matter. Every one was +expected to attend public worship once during the day, but Gerald was +often missing, and the others did not appear to take much pleasure in +going. Mr. Woburn had a pew in a handsome church close by, and also at a +large Nonconformist chapel in the neighbourhood. His wife usually +attended the latter, but Julia preferred the church, where the service +was very elaborate. She hated long sermons, she said, and liked to have +something to look at. Ruth accompanied her once or twice, but found the +morning service, to which she had been accustomed all her life, so +differently rendered that at first she could hardly follow it. The dear +old Psalms, which had always been read at Cressleigh by the clergyman +and the people led by the parish clerk, sounded so strange and +unfamiliar when chanted by a surpliced choir. The intoning, the +processions, and everything else, were so strange, that Ruth was afraid +to join in the service.</p> + +<p>After going a few times she decided to accompany her aunt, for although +the service of the chapel was unfamiliar she was able to enter into the +spirit of it, and could appreciate and enjoy the sermon delivered by a +clever and eloquent preacher.</p> + +<p>The family dined early on Sundays, and then the miserable part of the +day began for Ruth. There was "nothing to do on Sundays," Julia said, +and indeed there seemed to be no occupation provided. No one thought of +going to Sunday-school, as Ruth had once timidly suggested, although +Julia sometimes went to church when there was a special musical service. +At other times she would begin to read; then she would fidget or strum +on the piano, greatly to the annoyance of her father, who always took a +Sunday afternoon nap, and of Ernest, who buried himself in a book. +Gerald went out, Rupert got into all sorts of mischief, and Ruth was +left to her own devices.</p> + +<p>In the evening the girls wrote their Scripture exercises, under cover of +which Julia often did other lessons, though this was quite contrary to +the express orders of her father, who was very anxious that his children +should have a "proper regard for the day." There was continual +bickering, many disputes and petty quarrels, and when bed-time came +every one was weary and cross, and seemed glad the day was over. No +wonder that Ruth often longed and sighed for one of the happy old +Sundays at home.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<h3>AN ADVENTURE.</h3> + + +<p>Gerald was less known to his cousin than any other member of the family, +for he spent very little time in her society. He usually rose late, and +after a hasty breakfast hurried away to the office whither his father +had already gone. The girls did not see him again until six o'clock when +he returned to dinner, frequently going out directly it was over to +spend the evening with his friends.</p> + +<p>Yet, although Ruth saw but little of him, that little astonished her. +She could never forget that he was only a year or two older than Will. A +year or two made a great difference, she knew, but could Will ever +become such a well-dressed fashionable young man, who grumbled at his +mother if the dinner was not to his mind, scolded the servants, and +argued and talked to his father just as if he were a man of his own age?</p> + +<p>Ruth thought not, and hoped not.</p> + +<p>The short November days were cold and dreary, school duties seemed to +increase, and the girls were beginning to talk of the coming +examinations, and to look forward to the Christmas holidays and +festivities.</p> + +<p>In spite of hard work Ruth found it a difficult matter to do all her +lessons thoroughly, and although she was strong and healthy and not +easily fatigued, the effort was beginning to tell upon her.</p> + +<p>One fine Wednesday her aunt persuaded her to take a holiday. The rest +was very pleasant, but she had a certain amount of work to finish by the +end of the week, and sat up rather late the next night over her French +translation. She was obliged to give up at last, and went to bed quite +dissatisfied with her evening's work. But when she laid her head upon +the pillow sleep quite forsook her. She tossed and turned, but all in +vain, sleep would not come; her mind was full of the paragraph she had +been endeavouring to translate, and she felt sure that she could do it +much better, if only it were not so late.</p> + +<p>Might she not scribble down a few of the sentences which had puzzled +her, but were now quite clear? Of course her aunt would not like it, but +then she need never know. It could not be any worse to write than to lie +in bed and think, she argued, and it would be such a relief to get it +done.</p> + +<p>She sprang out of bed, turned up the gas, put on her pretty flannel +dressing gown and woollen shoes, drew up a comfortable easy-chair, and +then remembered that she had left all her books and papers downstairs, +in the little room opening out of the hall where she and Julia prepared +their lessons.</p> + +<p>"Never mind, I can get it without disturbing any one," she said, as she +lighted a bedroom candle and crept downstairs very softly in her +woollen shoes, shading the candle as she passed the bedroom doors that +the light might not be seen.</p> + +<p>The house was very still and quiet: not a sound was to be heard but the +ticking of the great clock in the hall. Ruth did not look at it, she did +not care to know the time, for she was sure it was very late. The little +study looked cold and desolate by the light of her solitary candle, and +the ashes in the grate still moved and made a slight rustling which +sounded very plainly. Ruth had just gathered up her books and papers +when the hall clock struck close to her, one long solemn stroke.</p> + +<p>One o'clock! It was very late she owned, and very lonely down there.</p> + +<p>Hark! what was that? Surely the clock was striking again. No, it was a +different sound and came from the front-door. Some person was evidently +trying to open it. Ruth's heart stood still. All the terrible stories +she had ever heard of burglars and midnight robberies came to her mind, +and at the same time the unpleasant conviction that she had stepped +aside from the path of duty and thus brought herself into danger.</p> + +<p>Her presence of mind was quite gone. She feared that her candle might +attract attention, but dared not extinguish it and be alone in the dark +with—she knew not whom. Holding her breath she stood for a moment +gazing fixedly towards the door. It was opened softly and cautiously, +and the figure of a man entered the hall and carefully fastened the +bolts of the door. Ruth was too terrified to scream, and as the light of +her candle fell upon his face she suddenly recognised her +cousin—<i>Gerald</i>.</p> + +<p>He started when he saw the light and his little cousin's scared pale +face, and exclaimed, "What is the matter, Ruth?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Gerald, how you have frightened me!" she said, trembling violently. +"Where have you been?"</p> + +<p>"What are you doing here?" he asked, evading her question.</p> + +<p>"I couldn't sleep, and came down to fetch my books, and I—I heard you +at the door, and thought you were a burglar."</p> + +<p>"Do you often stroll about at night?" he inquired curiously.</p> + +<p>"No, indeed. And I have been so terrified that I am sure I will never do +it again. I am very sorry, but I will tell auntie all about it +to-morrow," she said, taking her candle and moving towards the stairs.</p> + +<p>"Ruth," said Gerald, in an agitated whisper, "wait a minute."</p> + +<p>She turned so that the light fell full upon his face, and saw that he +looked white and anxious.</p> + +<p>"May I ask you, as a favour, not to mention your adventure with the +burglar? Perhaps it would be better for both of us to be silent about +to-night's occurrence."</p> + +<p>"Why? Where have you been, Gerald? You went to bed before ten o'clock, +and"—a thought struck her—"how came the door to be unbolted?"</p> + +<p>"Now, Ruth," he said coaxingly, "I know you are a good-natured little +thing, and I don't believe you would do me a bad turn. You know the +governor is always down upon me, won't let me have a latch-key, and says +I must be in by half-past ten. A fellow can't live without a little +pleasure, and if the governor won't let me have it I must take it. But +don't say a word, there's a dear, or you will get me into an awful row."</p> + +<p>"But it is so wrong to deceive your father and mother," urged Ruth, +thinking that after all Gerald was not so "grown-up" as he seemed. "Do +you often go out at night?"</p> + +<p>"No, very seldom."</p> + +<p>It was not true, but he was anxious to conciliate her.</p> + +<p>"Well, Ruth, shall we promise each other that we won't say a word about +to-night?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. I don't mind telling auntie what I have done, though I +know it was wrong and foolish, but, of course, I don't want to get you +into trouble. Yet—I can't tell lies——"</p> + +<p>"Of course not; I wouldn't wish it. But you can be silent—yes, I +believe you can—and I want you to promise me on your word as a good +little cousin, that you will not mention what has happened to any one."</p> + +<p>"Very well," she said, turning away slowly.</p> + +<p>"Gerald, will you promise me something?"</p> + +<p>"Anything you like."</p> + +<p>They were almost upstairs now, and he was anxious for her to be silent.</p> + +<p>"Promise that you won't go out at night again without letting your +father know."</p> + +<p>"I'll promise," was his whispered reply; and they separated.</p> + +<p>Another moment, and Ruth was in her own room, but without the books for +which she had gone downstairs. She had forgotten them and the +translation in her astonishment about Gerald, and when she lay in bed +once more her mind was full of her strange adventure, and she began to +wonder if she had done right in giving her promise so quickly, without +any reflection.</p> + +<p>A promise was to her a sacred thing, not to be lightly given or easily +broken, but she comforted herself with the thought that she was really +doing good to her cousin. Had he not promised her in return that he +would give up these forbidden pleasures? And was not that something to +rejoice over?</p> + +<p>She did not know enough of the world to reflect that one who wilfully +deceived his parents was hardly likely to keep a promise so readily made +to his little country cousin.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<h3>EXAMINATION.</h3> + + +<p>After the events of that night Gerald took more notice of Ruth, spoke +kindly to her, and often remarked upon her studious industry, usually to +his sister's disparagement. Although she was not very fond of Julia, +Ruth could not help feeling that this must be very galling to her, for +Julia certainly seemed more fond of Gerald than of any other person, and +she felt his sarcastic remarks very keenly.</p> + +<p>He appeared to be keeping his promise, for he came down to breakfast in +good time and did not look so pale and languid as usual. But Ruth soon +forgot both Gerald and her promise for a time in a matter of great +importance to herself—the school examination.</p> + +<p>She had been working steadily throughout the term, and was very anxious +to pass the examination creditably, more especially as, in addition to +the usual prizes, Miss Elgin had offered one for general improvement, +which she was very desirous of obtaining. It would, she knew, be such a +joy to her father and mother, who were expecting great things of her, +and their pride and approval would be more to her than the honour of +receiving the prize.</p> + +<p>In English studies Ruth had made very considerable progress, and did not +much fear the result of the examination, but she was not so sure about +French. That was always her weak point, perhaps on account of the very +English fashion in which she had learnt it at Miss Green's. Still she +persevered with it, and had some hopes of success.</p> + +<p>But when the hour of the examination came, and the papers were given +out, her courage almost failed.</p> + +<p>There were grammatical questions, phrases to be explained, and short +sentences to be translated into French. These she understood fairly, but +the paragraph that filled her with dismay was a short French poem of +three verses to be put into English prose. She read it again and again, +but, from the idioms and inversions it contained, totally failed to +comprehend its meaning. Indeed, she could see from the significant +glances which—talking being forbidden—were exchanged between the +girls, that she was not the only one who failed to appreciate the +beauty, or even the sense of the poem.</p> + +<p>"It's of no use," she sighed; "I must leave it and answer some +questions. If I have time afterwards, I may, perhaps, do one verse."</p> + +<p>For a whole hour there was not a sound to be heard but the scratching of +busy pens and the rustling of papers or the tapping of idle fingers, +waiting to put down the thoughts that would not come.</p> + +<p>Julia was writing very fast. She was more proficient in French than in +any other study. She liked it, and easily caught the sounds, and was +very proud of the fact that she had once spent a few days in Paris with +her mother. She had also profited by her friendship with a French girl, +one of Miss Elgin's boarders, who had come to the place quite unable to +speak English. Julia had taken a fancy to mademoiselle, and in +conversation with her picked up several unusual phrases, and became +familiar with many of the idioms, though her knowledge of the grammar +was still very meagre.</p> + +<p>The poem which perplexed the other girls was less difficult to her than +the grammatical questions, and she wrote away busily translating it. She +was seated at a desk just in front of Ruth, who looked up after writing +her answers, wondering what she could do about the poem. The time +allowed for the paper was drawing to a close. Julia had finished her +translation, and was holding it in her hand, reading it over to see if +it required any correction. Her writing was large, firm, and clear, and +as she held up the paper Ruth's eye fell upon it, and, almost +unconsciously, she read the whole of her cousin's translation.</p> + +<p>The meaning of the poem was no longer a mystery to her. She understood +it now, and could easily translate it.</p> + +<p>Without stopping to think if it were right or wrong, she seized her pen +and wrote the words as they came to her mind. Naturally enough they were +almost identical with those she had read on her cousin's paper. But she +did not stop to think, and had scarcely finished the last word when the +clock struck, and the papers were immediately collected, Ruth's not +having been even read over.</p> + +<p>"How many questions did you answer?" "What have you done?" "How <i>did</i> +you get on with that dreadful translation?" asked the girls of each +other when school hours were over and their tongues were once more +unloosed.</p> + +<p>"I suppose that you have done it, Julia, you are so clever at French," +said Ethel.</p> + +<p>"It really wasn't difficult," replied Julia carelessly. "What have you +done, Ruth?"</p> + +<p>"I think I answered nearly all the questions," was the reply.</p> + +<p>"And the poem?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I did it."</p> + +<p>Julia looked rather surprised, but she said nothing, though several of +the girls were loud in their exclamations of wonder that Ruth should +even have attempted it.</p> + +<p>She listened rather impatiently to their remarks, for already she felt +ashamed of the advantage she had taken, and would gladly have seized the +paper upon which her translation was written and thrown it upon the +fire.</p> + +<p>But it had gone out of her possession and was hers no longer.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<h3>A DOWNWARD STEP.</h3> + + +<p>"I can't think what has happened to Ruth, she is not at all like her +usual self," remarked Ernest that evening.</p> + +<p>He had been playfully teasing his cousin about her studies, when she +suddenly answered him sharply, burst into a violent flood of tears, and +ran away to her own room.</p> + +<p>"She is crosser than ever," said Julia.</p> + +<p>"Poor child!" sighed Mrs. Woburn; "I am afraid she has been working too +hard. I am glad for her sake that the holidays are so near. She is so +anxious to do well, and to-day's examination has tried her sadly."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Ruth, upstairs in her own room, was sobbing bitterly, and +thinking hard thoughts of herself. The examination <i>had</i> tried her, but +not half as much as the loss of self-respect she had felt since she gave +up her papers that morning with the translation which was certainly not +the result of her own work.</p> + +<p>"I wish I had never left home," she thought; "everything is going wrong, +it is so difficult to do right here. If only I had not seen Julia's +translation. If I had never promised Gerald that I would not mention +about his coming in so late. Oh, I wish I were back at Cressleigh!"</p> + +<p>With the thought of home, which to her troubled mind seemed so calm and +peaceful, came the remembrance of her mother's words, "I should have no +fear for you if I were sure that you were not going alone, if I knew +that you had an almighty Friend with you to lead you in the right way."</p> + +<p>She knew that she had strayed out of the right way, and she had not far +to seek for the reason. Ever since she came to Busyborough she had been +growing careless about the things of eternity, and had ceased to take +delight in reading God's Word and in prayer.</p> + +<p>The Bible upon her dressing-table was read daily, it is true, and both +morning and evening Ruth knelt for a few moments in prayer. But the +sweet meaning was gone from the texts, and the prayer was little better +than a form; there was no life in either.</p> + +<p>When the young girl went to live at her uncle's house, she found that +the lives of those with whom she came into daily contact were not ruled +by the same principles and motives as her own. At first she grieved and +prayed for her cousins, then she became self-sufficient and wise in her +own conceit; and having once allowed the unchristian spirit of pride and +dislike for Julia to creep into her heart and take possession, other +evils had quickly followed, and had gradually drawn her farther and +farther away from her Saviour. She began to see it all that night, and +to realize how far off she was; but the knowledge only increased her +wretchedness, and made her more miserable. Suddenly a thought struck +her. Would it not be wise and right to go to Miss Elgin before school +the next morning, to confess that she had yielded to temptation, and to +ask that the obnoxious translation might at once be burnt?</p> + +<p>But Ruth angrily resisted the notion. Confess that <i>she</i>, who bore the +character of the most conscientious and trustworthy girl in the school, +had stooped to do the very thing which she had so often censured in +others? No, never. It would be too degrading and humiliating. Perhaps, +after all, Julia's translation was not correct. There might be many +faults in her own, and it was very unlikely that she would get a high +number of marks for her French paper.</p> + +<p>Thus she tried to quiet her conscience, and to banish uncomfortable +suggestions. It was the 22nd of December, and the prizes were to be +given away on the 23rd. It was not yet known who were to receive them, +and, as school work was virtually over, there was a good deal of talk +and speculation concerning them. Finishing touches were being given to +drawings and maps, desks were being put in order, and books arranged, +all in preparation for the festive morrow.</p> + +<p>"Miss Arnold, will you go at once to Miss Elgin, in the library?" said +one of the teachers in charge of the restless chattering crowd of girls.</p> + +<p>Ruth obeyed, and left the room with a heightened colour, and the girls +began to wonder why she had been summoned.</p> + +<p>"It is about the prize for general improvement, I believe," said Ethel +Thompson. "I heard Miss Elgin telling Miss Lee that she thought Ruth +deserved it for 'her steady and conscientious work.'"</p> + +<p>"Well, there is no doubt that she has worked hard," said one of her +companions.</p> + +<p>"Come in," said Miss Elgin, in response to Ruth's tap at the library +door. "Sit down, dear; I want to ask you a question."</p> + +<p>The governess was seated in her study chair, looking over the piles of +examination papers heaped upon the table, and entering the numbers of +marks in a small red book.</p> + +<p>"I want to ask you a question," she repeated. "Did any one help you with +your French paper?"</p> + +<p>Ruth was taken aback. She did not wish to tell a falsehood, and yet she +felt that she could not, <i>could</i> not confess now. Her face grew crimson, +and a crowd of thoughts surged through her brain. The form in which the +question was put tempted her, and she argued with herself, "No one +helped me. How could Julia help me without knowing? I helped myself." +And after a moment's pause, in which she seemed to be listening for her +own reply, her lips moved and repeated the expression of her thoughts, +"No—no one helped me."</p> + +<p>"Excuse my asking you, but your paper was so remarkably good that I +could hardly understand your having so few faults, especially in the +translation, which was really difficult. I suppose," she added with a +smile, "that you have already concluded that your steady application and +diligent work will meet with their deserved reward. That will do. You +may go now."</p> + +<p>She returned to the schoolroom in silence, her mind full of two ideas: +the first, that she had obtained the prize; the second, that she had +deceived Miss Elgin.</p> + +<p>"But I have not told an untruth," she argued with her conscience. "I was +asked if any one helped me. Julia did not help me. I only saw and read +her paper accidentally."</p> + +<p>It was very trying work, arguing with conscience when a number of +chattering girls were buzzing about, laughing and asking questions, and +Ruth gave several sharp and pettish replies to their inquiries, and was +rallied upon her silence and her grave face.</p> + +<p>How often it happens that our hardest battles have to be fought in the +midst of a crowd, that our moments of sharpest agony and keenest remorse +come at a time when we long for solitude, but cannot obtain it, but must +go on speaking and acting as if our minds were quite at ease, and full +of nothing but the trifling affairs of the moment.</p> + +<p>Ruth's conscience was very active, and would keep reminding her that it +was not yet too late to go and confess to Miss Elgin. But she put it +off. Alas! every moment that had elapsed since she gave up the paper +rendered such a task more difficult; the longer she concealed her fault +the more serious it became. Looking quite pale and wretched, she +returned home that afternoon with a splitting headache. Her aunt was +quite troubled about her, though she tried to make light of it, and Mr. +Woburn said cheerily, "You must make haste and get well for to-morrow, +Ruth. I suppose you will have a grand prize to bring home after all this +term's work."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, I would rather not go to-morrow morning," she replied +sincerely, as she wished them good-night.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<h3>THE PRIZE.</h3> + + +<p>But when the morning came she could find no plausible excuse for +absenting herself from the prize-giving. Her head was better, though she +still looked pale, and Mrs. Woburn, who was to accompany the two girls, +would not hear of her remaining at home.</p> + +<p>Sick at heart, and anxious for the whole business to be over, Ruth +followed her aunt and cousin into the schoolroom, where the desks had +been cleared away, and the drawings and work of the pupils were arranged +for exhibition.</p> + +<p>A number of visitors had already arrived, and were walking round +inspecting the drawings, etc., and chatting in little groups, until Mr. +Redcliffe, a gentleman of influence and wide repute, entered the +schoolroom and took his seat. He made a little speech upon the value of +education, complimented Miss Elgin upon her excellent system of +instruction and the proficiency of her pupils, and said a few words of +congratulation and encouragement to each of the girls as they came +forward to receive their prizes.</p> + +<p>Ruth's turn came last, and perhaps on that account his words to her were +even kinder and more appreciative. He considered that the prize for +general improvement was perhaps better worth having than any other, +because, in order to gain it, one must indeed have proved worthy, he +said to the blushing girl who stood before him, trembling and full of +shame, which, however, appeared to be humility.</p> + +<p>The longed-for moment had come at last, and Ruth held in her hand the +prize for which she had worked and striven. Yes, she had gained it, but +at what a cost!</p> + +<p>At the cost of truth and honour, of right principle and self-respect. It +was a very poor exchange for them, and the unhappy girl would gladly +have given it up, would have borne any disappointment, anything but the +humiliation of confession, to have been her old light-hearted innocent +self again. But she had done wrong, and although she shrank from pain, +she had to bear what, in her state of mind, was indeed a trial—the kind +congratulations of her school-fellows, and the praises of her teacher +and friends. Even when she reached home the trial was not over, for her +uncle and cousins had each some kind word to say.</p> + +<p>"And now, my dear, you must write to your father and mother," said Mrs. +Woburn that afternoon. "How proud and delighted they will be to hear of +your success!"</p> + +<p><i>That letter!</i> It was the hardest task of all to write and tell her +parents what she knew would give them so much pleasure, while she was +concealing the fact which would, if known, give them far greater pain. +She spent the afternoon writing and re-writing it, and at last sent off +a stiff, constrained little note, informing them that she had been +successful, and hoped they were all well.</p> + +<p>When Mrs. Arnold received the letter, she read it again and again. She +felt convinced, from the absence of any playful remarks, from Ruth's +unusual brevity and lack of detail, that something was wrong; but she +knew that if her daughter did not write freely she could not <i>force</i> her +confidence. So she carried the trouble to her Heavenly Father, and asked +Him to lead and guide her absent child.</p> + +<p>Christmas was upon them almost before Ruth was aware of it, the gayest +and most festive Christmas time that she had ever known, a round of +parties, pleasure and merriment. It needs a mind at peace to be able to +enter into and enjoy the innocent pleasures of life, and to feel no +bitterness when they are past. And Ruth, in spite of the presents she +received, the parties to which she was invited, and the pretty dresses +she wore, was troubled in mind, and therefore unhappy.</p> + +<p>Two things weighed heavily upon her, her own deceit, and her promise to +Gerald.</p> + +<p>She had been so carefully trained, and so early taught the difference +between right and wrong, that she could not look upon her prize without +being reminded of the temptation to which she had so suddenly yielded, +and the equivocation to which she had resorted in order to hide it.</p> + +<p>Then her promise to Gerald troubled her greatly. She felt almost sure, +though she could not prove it, that he was not keeping his word. He came +down in the morning very late, looking pale and haggard, scarcely tasted +his breakfast, and hurried away to the office; and when he returned in +the evening either pooh-poohed his mother's anxious inquiries about his +health, or answered her curtly and snappishly.</p> + +<p>Everything was going wrong, Ruth said to herself continually.</p> + +<p>She had done very wrong, had taken a false step, and she felt truly +enough that no power on earth could alter that fact. And having once +started on a downward path it seemed of no use to try to stop and to do +better in future: she must give up all her struggles to do right, and go +down, down. It requires a very hardened sinner to forget the past, and +begin again as if nothing had happened; or a very humble Christian to +start again, after repeated failures, in dependence upon God. Ruth's +self-sufficiency was gone, and she sadly admitted to herself that she +was no better than Julia and the other girls. She had given up reading +her Bible now, thinking its sweet messages were not for her, a wayward, +erring one, and would scarcely dare to pray even for the safety and +well-being of the dear ones at home. Too broken-spirited to make +resolutions which she felt herself to be too weak to carry out, afraid +to open her Bible and read therein her own condemnation, and feeling +that her sin had raised a barrier, which she was unable to remove, +between herself and God, the New Year began in sorrow and sadness. "Your +sins have separated between you and your God." These words were +continually in her mind, and the remembrance of the peace and joy which +she had once felt in thinking of the things belonging to the kingdom +only made her more miserable.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + +<h3>SO AS BY FIRE.</h3> + + +<p>"Hark! what was that?" exclaimed Ruth one night, starting up in bed.</p> + +<p>She had been half-dozing, half-dreaming, when she was startled by a +slight noise downstairs, as if something had fallen.</p> + +<p>"I believe it is Gerald. I will go down at once, and tell him that as he +has not kept his word I am no longer bound by my promise."</p> + +<p>She sprang out of bed, slipped on her dressing-gown and shoes, and +hurried downstairs, anxious to meet her cousin before he went up to his +room, and to get rid of the embargo which rested so heavily upon her.</p> + +<p>Down the stairs and into the hall she went without meeting him. The +front-door was fastened and bolted securely. Had she been mistaken, or +had he already gone to his room?</p> + +<p>One moment she stood in perplexity and doubt. Then hearing a slight +noise, and seeing a bright light shining under the door of the little +study, she turned the handle and opened the door to enter, but stepped +back, half-blinded by the cloud of smoke which immediately enveloped +her. The next moment she discovered the form of Gerald, who was +evidently asleep in his chair, bending over the table, upon which were +some blazing papers. The table itself was on fire, and the cloth that +covered it was smouldering and giving forth volumes of smoke.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/ruth_26.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + + +<p>Ruth gave a piercing scream, which alarmed the household, rushed into +the room, caught up the heavy rug and threw it over the table, seized +her cousin by the arm, and tried with all her might to drag him from the +room.</p> + +<p>Before she succeeded in arousing him her aunt and uncle came to her +relief, drawn thither by her cry of alarm. They were soon followed by +the terrified servants, who, under Mr. Woburn's direction, quickly +extinguished the fire and removed Gerald.</p> + +<p>The young man was soon restored to consciousness, and started up with a +bewildered look, but his face assumed an expression of fear and horror +as he gradually realized how narrowly he had escaped from a dreadful +death.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Gerald! How did it occur?" asked his mother, giving utterance to +the question which had been uppermost in the minds of all.</p> + +<p>"Don't ask," he almost groaned; "and yet you must know it, sooner or +later."</p> + +<p>"Do tell everything, Gerald," implored Ruth, who, now that the terror +and excitement were over, stood pale and shivering. "It was partly my +fault, you know; I ought not to have made that promise."</p> + +<p>Thus entreated, Gerald told them the story of his faults and follies; of +his midnight carousals and their discovery by Ruth, of his overwhelming +love of pleasure, of half-hours stolen from the office during his +father's absence and of work neglected. He went on to say that the chief +clerk had told him, a few days before, that he really must inform Mr. +Woburn how shamefully neglected were the books under his son's care; +that he dreaded his father's anger, and promised to write up the books +and finish his work before the end of January. For this purpose he had +brought home the books and worked at them stealthily by night until +drowsiness overtook him, and he probably knocked over the candle which +had done the mischief.</p> + +<p>Mr. Woburn felt more anger than he dared to show at such a time, just +after his son's deliverance from a horrible fate, and he turned the +subject by applauding Ruth's presence of mind and bravery.</p> + +<p>"Don't praise me, I can't bear it! I am as bad as Gerald!" she sobbed, +and rushed away to her own room.</p> + +<p>Before daylight the next morning Mrs. Woburn was at her door with a +steaming cup of coffee.</p> + +<p>"Drink this, my dear," she said. "How your hand trembles! I was afraid +that you would feel ill after your dreadful fright. Indeed, dear," she +said, her eyes full of tears, "I can never thank you, never feel half +grateful enough for your brave rescue of my poor Gerald."</p> + +<p>"Don't say that, auntie. If—if anything had happened, it would have +been my fault. I ought to have told you of his wrong-doing long ago."</p> + +<p>"It was only your goodness of heart, darling," said her aunt kindly.</p> + +<p>"But it wasn't <i>right</i>, auntie. I deceived you. Oh dear! I feel such a +bundle of deceit. I've deceived every one," she said under a sudden +impulse. "No, don't stop me; I must tell you all about it."</p> + +<p>Then she poured into her ear the whole story of the prize as well as her +promise to Gerald, and finished by saying that she had been perfectly +miserable all through the holidays.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Woburn was surprised and somewhat shocked at this recital; but she +was good-natured, and her sense of wrong had been growing dull so many +years that she failed to understand Ruth's emotion.</p> + +<p>"Poor child!" she said gently, "it has been very bad for you, but it is +all over now, and you will do better in future."</p> + +<p>"Oh, auntie, how can I?" she exclaimed, as she thought what a different +reply her mother would have made.</p> + +<p>"I must tell Miss Elgin," she said resolutely; "and I suppose all the +girls must know, and Julia, and—and father and mother."</p> + +<p>"Do you think that necessary, dear? You are very sorry, I am sure. Is +not that enough?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing can make it right, I know, auntie; but I cannot, and will not, +deceive them any longer."</p> + +<p>Ruth burst into a fit of hysterical crying, and was only quieted by her +aunt's promise to go with her that very day to call upon Miss Elgin.</p> + +<p>"Poor Ruth seems quite ill," said Mrs. Woburn at breakfast-time. "I +persuaded her to stay in bed a little while, and I think she will be +better soon. She has made quite a confession to me."</p> + +<p>"What was it about?" inquired Julia.</p> + +<p>Then, according to her niece's wish, she repeated the whole story, +concluding with the remark that, after all, it was not quite such a +serious matter as the poor child seemed to think. She remembered that +girls used to copy when she went to school, and they worked so hard now +that it really was somewhat excusable.</p> + +<p>"You would think it was serious if you heard Ruth denounce it," was +Julia's reply. "She could never say enough against it, and pretended to +be so much better than any of us. To think of her having looked over me! +I couldn't have believed it!"</p> + +<p>Ernest made no remark, though he listened attentively to the +conversation.</p> + +<p>The visit to Miss Elgin, which Mrs. Woburn did not consider necessary, +was a very trying ordeal. <i>She</i> certainly did not make light of the +matter, although she did not think it would be advisable to tell the +girls; it would be sufficient for them to know that Ruth was under her +displeasure.</p> + +<p>"I feared at first that there was something wrong," she said, "but I +could not doubt your word, Ruth; I have always trusted to your high +principle and honour. Henceforth I must act differently, and you must +not expect to be trusted."</p> + +<p>There was no palliation of the offence, which she surveyed from her high +stand-point of justice alone.</p> + +<p>"Now, Ruth, your troubles are over," said her aunt gaily as they +returned home.</p> + +<p>"Over! Are they?" she sighed wearily to herself, "when I have to write +home, and to live next term under Miss Elgin's displeasure, and all my +life with the remembrance of this behind me!"</p> + +<p>It was a great trial to have to write home to dispel her mother's fond +hopes and her father's pride in her; to tell them that their Ruth was +not the frank, open, truth-loving girl they had always believed her; to +prove to them that one of their children could stoop to equivocation and +deceit. Yes, it was a hard and bitter task, and she shed a good many +tears over it as she wrote, almost oblivious of everything else in the +little study, where the traces of the fire still remained.</p> + +<p>Presently she raised her head, and saw Ernest looking at her—not +curiously, but with a kind, compassionate gaze.</p> + +<p>"Ruth," he said, in a low tone, "I am awfully sorry for you, but I can't +understand why you should be so unhappy <i>now</i>."</p> + +<p>"I shall always be wretched," said Ruth bitterly; "all my life, I +expect."</p> + +<p>"I—I thought when first you came here that you were a Christian," said +the boy timidly.</p> + +<p>"I thought so too," sobbed Ruth, "but I suppose I was wrong. Everything +goes wrong here, and that happy time is so far away."</p> + +<p>"But if you have confessed to God, and have His forgiveness, the +happiness will come again."</p> + +<p>"Confess to <i>Him</i>? How could I? He is such a long way off now, and there +is such a gulf between that I cannot pray to Him."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Ruth; you are making a great mistake. You know that Jesus died on +purpose to put away sin, to break down the wall, to bridge over the +gulf. He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. It is you that +have changed, not Christ. Go to Him at once; it is of no use humbling +yourself and confessing to others if you stop away from Him. He only can +forgive and send peace."</p> + +<p>"'Your sins have separated between you and your God,'" said Ruth +solemnly.</p> + +<p>"'The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin,'" replied +her cousin.</p> + +<p>"Ernest, you are a Christian!" said Ruth suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I hope so," replied the boy, reddening as his shyness and +self-consciousness returned.</p> + +<p>"Why did you never talk to me before?" asked Ruth; "you might have +helped me so much. I thought I was all alone and better than the rest."</p> + +<p>"It was wrong, I know," he replied, "but I am so foolish I cannot talk +about these things; yet I felt so sorry for you just now, for I thought +you had forgotten."</p> + +<p>"Forgotten what?"</p> + +<p>"How much God loves you. 'Like as a father pitieth his children,' you +know, Ruth."</p> + +<p>She made no reply, but slipped away to her own room to lay her heavy +burden at the feet of the Crucified One.</p> + +<p>I remember hearing some years ago of a little child who, being reproved +for some naughty deed, seemed very unhappy, and was seen to steal into a +room close by, where he knelt down and lisped in his baby tones, "Dear +God, <i>mis'able</i>." How much there was in that tiny prayer, that one word! +It was indeed the essence of heartfelt prayer, the laying down of the +soul's burden.</p> + +<p>Ruth could hardly find words in which to express the cry of her heart, +but when she went downstairs half an hour later there was a peaceful +look upon her face and a gladness in her very step which had been +wanting since she came to Busyborough. She had sought and obtained +pardon, and had rejoiced once more in the sweet texts which she read in +her Bible. She added a long postscript to her home letter, and that +night Ernest found upon his dressing-table a little twisted note +containing these words—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Dear Ernest,—Thank you for ever and ever.</p> + +<p>"Your forgiven and happy cousin,</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Ruth</span>."</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + +<h3>LIVING IT DOWN.</h3> + + +<p>The holidays were over about the end of January, and Ruth once more +accompanied her cousin to Addison College. But she entered the +schoolroom in a different spirit, distrusting self and relying only upon +Divine help.</p> + +<p>She had need enough of grace and strength, for the day had not passed +before the girls noticed that Miss Elgin had lost confidence in her and +was inclined to regard her with distrust and suspicion, and they +wondered greatly what had caused the change. Julia of course was +questioned, and without really wishing to do her cousin an injury she +gradually let out the facts concerning the prize. The girls took +different views of the case, according to their liking for Ruth and +their sense of right and wrong. There was a great deal of talk for a few +days, and then the matter was forgotten by all but Miss Elgin, whose +manner was a constant reminder of the affair.</p> + +<p>As for Ruth herself, she could <i>almost</i> say, "None of these things move +me," so trivial did they seem; for she was rejoicing in the +consciousness of forgiveness and pardon, her heart was resting after its +wanderings, filled with the "peace which passeth all understanding." The +sheep had come back to the fold, there to abide, to find its shelter +safer and sweeter than ever.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Arnold's reply to her daughter was at once tender, sorrowful, +hopeful and motherly. She grieved over what had happened, but rejoiced +that her child had no longer any secret to hide from her; she pointed +out the only path of safety, and commended her to the care and keeping +of the loving Father who had watched over her during all her waywardness +and had brought her back to Himself.</p> + +<p>That letter aroused an intense longing for home, for a glimpse of all +the dear faces which she had not seen for seven long months. August +seemed so far away, though each day brought it nearer. Ernest had quite +relapsed into his usual shy, quiet manner, and it was only occasionally +that he was willing to talk with his cousin upon the one subject which +was a bond of union between them.</p> + +<p>A change took place in the household early in March, for Gerald left +home. His accident and subsequent explanations opened his father's eyes +to shortcomings which he had for some time suspected, yet it was also +the means of establishing a better relation between them.</p> + +<p>The injury which the fire had caused to the books was a most serious +matter, and not even several weeks' work was able to repair the +mischief. The whole matter was necessarily known to all the clerks, and +Mr. Woburn decided that his son must no longer remain in his office, +where he had been able persistently to shirk his duties. Gerald was +thankful to have a chance of starting afresh, away from his old +associates, and gladly fell in with his father's proposal that he should +leave Busyborough, and take a situation which was easily procured for +him in another town.</p> + +<p>Julia openly lamented his going, and also cried over it a good deal in +secret, for she was very much attached to her eldest brother, and had +regarded Ruth far more kindly ever since the night when she had been the +means of saving him.</p> + +<p>"I used to think that you hated Gerald," she said to her cousin one day, +"and he seemed so kind and polite to you, and so cross to me, that I +grew jealous and couldn't bear you;" and Ruth was somewhat amused to +overhear Julia remark to a friend that she thought she (Ruth) "had +really improved of late."</p> + +<p>Study, lessons, classes, essays, and practice were again the important +matters to which attention was directed daily, and there was little time +for recreation or amusement until Easter, when Gerald returned for a few +days, and there was a fortnight's respite from the apparently endless +round of school duties.</p> + +<p>A day's excursion of about ten miles into the country, in search of +primroses and other wild flowers, greatly revived Ruth's longing for +home. It seemed so strange to think that the Cressleigh woods were +studded with primroses and anemones, and that she would not gather them +nor see the woods until the flowers had all vanished.</p> + +<p>One more term's work, and then—hurrah for home! Such were her thoughts +when she returned to school again after her brief holiday; and as it +would probably be her last term, she determined to work with redoubled +vigour and energy to acquire the knowledge which she would afterwards be +able to impart to her young brothers and sisters.</p> + +<p>Miss Elgin's coolness and distrust considerably abated, when she saw +Ruth working diligently and bearing with patience the petty taunts and +slights of her school-fellows. Her influence was greater than it had +been. She no longer found fault with the other girls in the spirit of +the Pharisee, but spoke compassionately, knowing what it was to be +tempted and to fall, and her companions were more inclined to follow the +example of one who was striving to do right than to be influenced by the +precepts of a self-sufficient paragon.</p> + +<p>There were still many slips and shortcomings, but she neither concealed +nor made light of them; she simply confessed herself in the wrong and +began again in the strength which comes from above.</p> + +<p>So the term passed, and Ruth, who believed that her school-days were +nearly over, began to take a mournful pleasure in thinking, "This is the +last time I shall ever do this or that," and drew many plans for her +future life.</p> + +<p>Miss Elgin said that it was a pity for her to leave school when she was +learning so much and making such satisfactory progress; but Ruth +somewhat propitiated her by saying that she would work hard and keep up +her studies at home.</p> + +<p>But how little we know what the future will bring!</p> + +<p>Just before the holidays, Ruth received a letter which contained the +alarming news that one of the younger children was ill with scarlatina, +and that she would be obliged to postpone her return home for at least a +few weeks. She was anxious to go at once and help her mother in her work +of nursing, but her parents would not allow her to run the risk of +entering the infected house.</p> + +<p>It was disappointing, more especially as she had just gained a handsome +prize, which was indeed fairly hers by right of industry and patience.</p> + +<p>Yet after all it was no great hardship to go to the sea-side again with +her aunt and cousins to spend the summer holidays. The reports from +Cressleigh were not encouraging. Letter after letter brought the news +that another of the home-birds had been stricken with fever, and for a +week they were all in terrible anxiety about Daisy, the youngest child +and pet of the household. But her life was spared, and she began to +recover slowly.</p> + +<p>The summer days passed quickly at the sea-side, and when September came +Ruth cherished a faint hope that she might be allowed to return home. A +letter from her father, however, dispelled any such idea. He said that +although the invalids were going on well there was a great deal of fever +in the neighbourhood, and the doctor did not consider that it would be +safe for her to return for several months. He thought, therefore, that +she could not do better than accept her aunt's kind offer that she +should return with her to Busyborough, and continue to attend Addison +College until Christmas, or even Easter.</p> + +<p>Ruth was again disappointed, but she knew that useless murmurs would be +a poor return for her aunt's kindness. So she put a brave face upon the +matter, and wiped away the tears that would come. Like David of old, she +encouraged herself in the Lord, and once more took up her daily duties +in the form of lessons and study.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2> + +<h3>HOME AGAIN.</h3> + + +<p>It was Easter again before Ruth was allowed to return to Cressleigh. How +little she had thought when she left it that she would not see the old +home and its inmates for nearly two years!</p> + +<p>But the time had really passed, and the day had come at last when she +must bid farewell to school-days and Busyborough, and take leave of her +aunt, uncle, and cousins. Partings are never pleasant when we are +leaving those we love, and Ruth had grown very fond of them all during +her protracted visit. Julia's animosity had been allayed long since, and +Mrs. Woburn had grown to love her niece as a daughter. She had been for +some time the peace-making element of the household, and a great +favourite with Rupert, who was growing a fine sturdy boy. Ernest was +sorry to lose her, though, as usual, he was not profuse in his +expressions of regret. The shy, awkward boy was developing into a clever +but somewhat reserved young man. Ruth had understood him far better than +any of his own family, and he knew that he should miss her sadly.</p> + +<p>The farewells at the house and good-byes at the railway station were +painful, and it was a tearful face of which Mrs. Woburn caught a last +glimpse through the carriage window; but when the train started, Ruth's +mind was so full of joyful anticipations of her welcome home that she +could not feel sad. She wondered, as she leaned back and closed her +eyes, what they would think of her, whether her father would think her +improved or spoilt, and she began to reflect how much she had learnt, +and what experience she had gained of the world and of her own heart +during her absence. It seemed to her that the Ruth Arnold who had left +home nearly two years ago was a very simple, ignorant little girl, whom +she could think of as quite apart from herself.</p> + +<p>So busy was she with her thoughts that she scarcely noticed her +fellow-passengers leaving the carriage one by one, until she was aroused +by a cry of "All change here." Was that Crook Junction? Yes, surely. +Then she was only ten miles from home.</p> + +<p>She hastened from the carriage to look after her luggage, and was +astonished to hear a familiar voice say, "Ruth." It was her father. How +kind of him to come to meet her! In a few minutes both father and +daughter were seated in another carriage travelling on the loop line to +Cressleigh, and Ruth was talking very fast, trying to tell all the +events of two years in five minutes, and stopping again and again to ask +a question or to recognise some familiar landmark.</p> + +<p>Primroses were blooming everywhere, and the country looked gay with +them.</p> + +<p>"The children were remarking last night," said her father, "that the +spring has decorated all Cressleigh in honour of your return."</p> + +<p>"Here we are at last!" cried Ruth, as the train stopped at the +well-known little station with its little garden-strip of bright flowers +beside the platform. And there was Will, dear old Will, grown such a +handsome fellow, waiting in the station-yard with the brown mare in the +old light cart.</p> + +<p>After a hasty greeting came the drive home along the lanes, where the +trees were bursting into leaf, and the hedgerows were gay with starry +blossoms, and the air was delicious after the smoke of a large town.</p> + +<p>The children were waiting at the gate, and a little group stood in the +porch to receive her. It was indeed a home-coming, and the poor girl was +almost bewildered by the kissing, the waving, the shouting, the +questions, the entreaties to "look at this," and "come and see that." +Mrs. Arnold was obliged to dismiss the whole party after Ruth had duly +admired the floral decorations in the hall, and had commented upon the +many inches added to the various members of the family during her +absence, and secured her a few minutes' quiet by carrying her off to her +own room.</p> + +<p>How tiny and bare it looked after her comfortable, pretty room at +Busyborough, and yet so snug and sweet! How delightfully fresh was the +breeze that blew about the white dimity curtains, and what a wide range +of country she could see instead of a vista of windows, roofs, and +chimney-pots! Yes, indeed, though simple and plain, it was "Home, sweet +home," and there was no other place in the world like it.</p> + +<p>Tea followed, a merry, noisy meal, for every one had so much to say, and +although Ruth talked very fast she was not able to reply to half the +questions that were put to her. But the exertion and excitement of the +day had made her feel weary, and she was thankful when the evening drew +to a close, and her father took down the big Bible and read a psalm; and +in the prayer that followed he gave thanks for her safe return, and +prayed that she might be a comfort and blessing to all the household. +When Ruth lay in her little bed that night her last conscious thought +was of the day's changes and the morrow's duties, and she asked that He +who had guided her in the past would be with her in the future, and that +He would help her in her work as the eldest daughter at home, as He had +guided and helped her in her life at Busyborough as The Country Cousin.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUTH ARNOLD***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 18777-h.txt or 18777-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/7/7/18777">http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/7/7/18777</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Ruth Arnold + or, the Country Cousin + + +Author: Lucy Byerley + + + +Release Date: July 7, 2006 [eBook #18777] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUTH ARNOLD*** + + +E-text prepared by David Clarke, Mary Meehan, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 18777-h.htm or 18777-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/7/7/18777/18777-h/18777-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/7/7/18777/18777-h.zip) + + + + + +RUTH ARNOLD + +Or, The Country Cousin + +by + +L. BYERLEY + + + + + + + +London +The Religious Tract Society +56, Paternoster Row; 65, St. Paul's Churchyard and 164, Piccadilly +Butler & Tanner, +The Selwood Printing Works, +Frome, and London. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER + + I. A Letter + + II. Talking it Over + + III. Ruth's Decision + + IV. The Journey + + V. Cousins + + VI. Stonegate + + VII. A Poor Relation + + VIII. Sea-side Pleasures + + IX. The Picnic + + X. Busyborough + + XI. School-girl Gossip + + XII. Julia's Humiliation + + XIII. Hard at Work + + XIV. An Adventure + + XV. Examination + + XVI. A Downward Step + + XVII. The Prize + + XVIII. So as by Fire + + XIX. Living it Down + + XX. Home Again + + + + +RUTH ARNOLD; + +Or, The Country Cousin. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +A LETTER. + + +School was over, and the holidays were beginning once more, summer +holidays, with all their promise of pleasure for dwellers in the +country. The scent of sweet new hay was borne on the afternoon breeze, +and the broad sunlight lay on fields of waving corn which would soon be +ready for the sickle, and on green meadows from which the hay was being +carried. + +Ruth Arnold slowly wended her way home-wards along the hot dusty road, +turned down a shady green lane, opened a little gate and walked up the +garden path; and then, instead of running indoors as usual, she sat down +in the little rose-covered porch and looked rather thoughtfully at the +book in her hand. + +It was a new book, a prize which had been awarded her that afternoon; +but she felt very little pride in it, for she had known all through the +half-year that the prize would be hers unless she was very idle or lazy. +Nor did she anticipate much pleasure in reading it, for it was only a +new English grammar, and grammar was not a study in which she felt +particularly interested at that moment. + +It was not often that Ruth sat down to think, for she was a merry lively +girl; but this afternoon she felt rather discontented with her lot. The +truth was that she had been at Miss Green's school, the only one in the +village, ever since she was six years old; and now she had turned +fourteen, and began to feel some contempt for the elementary catechisms +which had been her only lesson-books, and which were certainly not +calculated to make learning attractive or interesting. The mode of +instruction at Miss Green's was the old-fashioned one of saying lessons +by rote from the said catechisms, and when the pupils had reached the +end of the book they had to begin again at the first chapter. + +"I'm sure I don't know what I've learnt this half-year," said Ruth to +herself. "I can't remember learning a single thing which I didn't know +six months ago; and yet mother says that I must not leave school until I +am fifteen. I wonder what books they use in large boarding-schools, and +if they ever get beyond Mangnall's Questions in the first class. I +suppose I shouldn't trouble about it if it were not for father's +teaching us in the winter evenings; but he knows so much, that we see +how ignorant we are." + +"I didn't know that you were at home, Ruth. How long have you been +here?" asked her mother's voice. + +"Only a few minutes." + +"Where is your prize? And why did you not show it to me?" + +[Illustration] + +"Here it is, mother; but I don't much care for it. There is so little +credit in getting a prize at Miss Green's, where one makes so little +progress, and has to do the same thing over and over again." + +"Yes," said Mrs. Arnold with a little sigh, "and so you will find it in +life, dear, the same thing over and over again, every day and every +year. But now," she added smiling, "as everyone is busy in the +hay-field, and baby has to be nursed and the cows to be milked every +day, will you help me to do one thing or the other?" + +"Yes," said Ruth as she went to put on a large blue pinafore; "I'll go +and help Mary with the milking." + +Five minutes later she was seated on a low stool beside her favourite +cow, Beauty, which had been reared on the farm, and named by Ruth +herself, who petted and talked to her like an old friend. The afternoon +was very warm, but still and sweet and quiet, with the summer hush upon +everything, even the lowing of the cows in the farm-yard, the murmur of +the brook, and the voices of the workers in the distant hay-field. + +"Ah me, old Beauty!" sighed Ruth, as she pressed the milk into the pail, +"mother says that it is the same thing over and over again all our +lives, and I suppose it is true, but I wish I could have something +different." + +Beauty only lowed; but if she could have spoken English she might have +said, "If _you_ find life monotonous, what must it be for me? In the +morning I rise and crop the grass, then I come in to be milked. I go +back to the meadow and bathe in the stream or eat as much grass as I +want; in the afternoon I lie under the shade of the trees and chew the +cud; and in the evening I come again to be milked, and once more return +to the meadows. If I have a calf of my own, it is taken from me and +sent--I know not where. Yes, it is the same thing over and over again. +Yet I am quite content." + +Whatever Beauty meant as she lowed and looked at Ruth with her great +patient eyes, the young girl did not understand, but went on thinking +aloud: "Yes, it is breakfast, dinner, tea and supper every day, and +mother has to see to it all; and the children to be washed and dressed +and nursed, and the cows to be milked, and the cream to be skimmed; and +then every year father has the ploughing, and sowing, and haying, and +the har----" + +"Ah, Ruth, I see you are making yourself useful," cried her father, as +he entered the farm-yard followed by two merry looking boys aged +respectively seventeen and twelve. It was evident from a single glance +that they were Ruth's brothers, although their hands and faces were +brown and sunburnt, and Will, the elder, was fully a head taller than +his sister. + +"Guess what Will has got for you, Ruth!" cried roguish little Ned. + +"Oh, Will!" she exclaimed, looking up brightly, all her grave thoughts +gone in a moment, "have you brought a new plant for my garden? No! Has +Annie Price sent the pattern she promised for my wool-work? Well then, +is it the new tune-book you were talking of yesterday, with both the +music and words?" + +"No, you are quite wrong; and as I can't tell whether it is anything +good or bad, I may as well give it to you at once. It's from a girl, I +think," continued Will, as he took a letter from his pocket. + +"A letter for me! Who can it be from? Yes, I see it comes from a girl by +the writing. What a pretty hand! ever so much better than mine; and here +is the post-mark--Busyborough; it must be from Cousin Julia," she said +as she turned the letter over. + +Then she opened it and began to read, while her brothers stood by full +of interest, and saw a look of mingled wonder, surprise, and delight +spread over her face. They waited as long as their curiosity would +permit, and then both cried eagerly, "What does she say? What is it all +about?" + +[Illustration] + +"She wants me--that is, aunt has invited me--to spend my holidays with +them at the sea-side," said Ruth, speaking very slowly, and looking as +if she could hardly understand the idea of such a piece of good fortune +coming in her way. "But there," she added with a sigh, as she refolded +the letter and put it into her pocket and tried to banish the visions of +brightness it had called forth, "of course it is quite out of the +question. I couldn't go away now when every one is so busy." + +She walked slowly back to the house, and tried not to think of the +bright dream of pleasure the letter had suggested; but this was not an +easy matter, as her father and mother were already sitting at the +tea-table talking over the same subject, for Mrs. Arnold had also +received a letter from Busyborough that afternoon. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +TALKING IT OVER. + + +"Have you read your cousin's letter, Ruth?" asked her mother as she took +her seat. "Why, what makes you look so unhappy?" she exclaimed, +observing the girl's grave face. + +"It's very silly, I know, mother; and I didn't mean to be vexed about +it," she began, "but Julia said something about my going to the sea-side +with them to spend the holidays. Of course I know very well that you +couldn't spare me,--but I can't help crying--just a minute, mother, that +is all," said Ruth, while her tears dropped slowly. + +"Don't cry, child; we'll talk it over to-night, and see what can be +done," said her father cheerfully. + +"But, father!" cried Ruth, starting up in surprise, her tears quite +forgotten, "you don't think _really_ that there is any chance of my +going, do you? Just see how busy you are with the haying, and then there +are the boys and the little ones----" + +"Well, well, your mother and I will talk it over," he repeated, as he +took up his hat and set out again for the hay-field. + +The summer evening soon slipped away, and Ruth knew better than to worry +her mother by asking foolish questions; but when supper was over, and +her head lay at rest upon the pillow, her brain was busy, and it was a +long time before sleep overtook her. Delightful visions of sea-side +places such as she had read of in her favourite books, of picnics and +boating, of rambles in search of shells, rare stones and long sea-weeds, +filled her mind; and as she heard the monotonous sounds of her parents' +voices talking in low tones in the room beneath her, and knew that they +were discussing the important question Was she to go or stay? her +impatience almost got the better of her, and she longed to run +downstairs and take part in the conversation. + +Presently the voices ceased, there were footsteps on the stairs, the +light of a candle showed through the chink of her door, the footsteps +receded and a door was shut, and Ruth knew that the decision was made +and her mother had gone to bed. And as she could not know the result of +the conversation that night, she very wisely closed her eyes and went to +sleep. + +Early the next morning she was awakened by the sun shining in at her +window. She rose at once, dressed quickly, and was soon downstairs, but +not before her mother, who was busily preparing the breakfast. There was +so much to be done before the meal was ready, so much chatter over it, +and so many last words to the boys and their father before they set out +for the hay-field, that Ruth could not find an opportunity to ask her +mother the question that was burning upon her lips, until all trace of +the meal was removed and the children had gone to play in the orchard. + +Then she went upstairs to help her make the beds, and there was time for +a quiet chat. + +Mrs. Arnold began by inquiring, "What did your cousin say in her letter +yesterday?" + +"She asked if I could spend my holidays with them at the sea-side," +replied Ruth, blushing with joy at the very thought. + +"And you would like to go?" + +"Oh yes, indeed I should, very, very much; that is--of course--if you +could spare me," she added hesitatingly. + +"I suppose then that you do not know what your aunt has suggested. She +writes to know if we will spare you, not only for the holidays, but for +a whole twelvemonth, to be a companion to your cousin and go to school +with her (What are you doing with the pillows, Ruth?), to share her +studies and amusements." + +"Should I see none of you for a whole year?" + +"I am not sure; that would depend upon your aunt." + +"But--mother--you don't think of letting me go, do you?" asked Ruth, +almost over-whelmed with pleasure and surprise. + +"I don't know. Your father thinks it would be good for you, but I am not +sure, Ruth. I am afraid whether, after living in a handsome +well-appointed house, waited upon by servants, and surrounded with +comforts and luxuries, you would grow discontented with our quiet +country life. I know you love your home now, but I fear lest a life in +town should spoil you, and make you no longer our little Ruth, but a +grown-up young lady, who would feel herself above our simple joys and +pleasures, and only bring herself to tolerate them from a sense of +duty." + +"Mother, mother!" cried Ruth, bursting into tears, "don't talk so. I'll +never go away. How can you think so of me?" + +"Perhaps I have done wrong to say so much to you, darling," replied her +mother; "but I must tell you that your father does not fear anything of +the sort for you. He says that you need to go to a good school, and that +he is thankful for the opportunity which is now offered. He feels sure +that you would be happy with his sister, and does not fear your growing +discontented with home. Besides, as he says, when you come back you will +be able to teach the younger children, and that will be a good object to +have in view while you are studying. So we have determined to leave it +for you to decide. We will give you to-day to think it over, and +to-morrow you must tell us what you wish to do. Pray over it, Ruth, and +don't let anything I have said prejudice you against the idea of going. +Indeed, dear," she added in a lower tone, "I don't think I should have +any fear for you if I were sure that you were not going alone, if I knew +that you had an almighty Friend to be with you and guide you in the +right way." + +It was very rarely that Mrs. Arnold said so much to any of her children, +and Ruth was quite overcome. She ran off to her own little room to give +vent to her feelings, and to think over all that she had heard. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +RUTH'S DECISION. + + +For the first few moments Ruth felt quite determined not to leave home; +but as she thought over the advantages and disadvantages of the plan her +resolution wavered. How often she had wished, though vainly, to go to a +good boarding-school! and now there was an opportunity for her to have a +twelvemonth's education, without the great drawback of living at school +among strangers and losing the comforts and freedom of home. It was true +that she had only seen her aunt for a short time several years before, +and her cousins were quite unknown, except for the short notes she +usually received at Christmas, with a present from Julia. Still they +were relatives, and would not regard her as a stranger. + +There were so many arguments for accepting her aunt's invitation: the +pleasure of the sea-side trip, the change, the novelty of living in a +town, of having Julia for a companion and many school-fellows of her own +age; of exchanging Miss Green's school, with its catechisms and +needlework, for a young ladies' college, with its modern plans of study, +its classes and professors. And all these inducements had the charm of +being new and untried, so that only their agreeable side appeared to +view, the other being unknown. + +Yet if there were fewer reasons against the plan, they were very +weighty, for how would mother contrive to do without her? And how could +she bear to live a year without a glimpse of the dear home faces? + +"But I only help in the mornings and evenings," she mused, "for I am at +school all day, and perhaps I could come home for a few days at +Christmas. I'm sure I don't know what to do. I wish father and mother +had settled it. It is so difficult to know how to decide." + +She did not forget the advice which had been given her--to pray over the +matter. Indeed, I doubt if she would in any case have come to a decision +without taking counsel of her Heavenly Father, for Ruth had for years +been in the habit of carrying her childish troubles and perplexities to +the one unfailing Guide. + +And yet she was hardly sure that she was a Christian; and although she +longed to set her mother's mind at rest upon that point, she could not +venture to do so just yet. Like many another child of pious parents, she +had been trained to love good and hate evil; she had been taught to pray +and to desire to live a Christian life; she had long since begun the +never-ending conflict against evil and tried to rule her life and +actions by God's Word; and yet she could not tell whether the promptings +and impulses towards the Saviour which often came to her heart, were +merely the result of the loving sanctified home-influence which had +surrounded her from her birth, or if she had indeed become a disciple, +though but a feeble one, of the meek and lowly Jesus. + +In the quiet calm of a summer day, when the wind scarcely ruffles the +waters of the bay, it is difficult to say whether the fair ship riding +at anchor will prove herself seaworthy. It is when the storm rises in +its fury and the billows dash over her that the testing time comes, and +she proves the strength of her bows and the soundness of her timbers, or +she sinks a hopeless wreck. + +And it remained for Ruth's visit to Busyborough, to test her and prove +how strong was her desire to follow Christ. If it were but a weak +earth-born feeling, it would soon be upset by the winds of temptation; +but if it were indeed of God, although it might be roughly handled and +somewhat shaken for a time, it would come forth triumphant at last. + +"Well, Ruth, what do you intend to do?" asked her father, as they sat at +breakfast the next morning. "Do you intend to go to Busyborough, and +find out how ignorant you are, and then set to work to study with all +your might, or do you mean to be the pattern eldest scholar at Miss +Green's? Do you mean to rub shoulders with others, or are you going to +stay at home and fancy yourself a prodigy of wisdom and learning?" + +"I think, that if you and mother can spare me, I will go to Busyborough, +and rub shoulders with the others," said Ruth, steadily. + +"That's right; I am glad to hear it; for although we shall miss you very +much, I am sure the change will benefit you. Go and learn all the good +you can, and tell us all about it when you come back. Ah! your mother +looks grave: I know she rather fears your picking up some fantastical +notions and growing to look down on your own people. But I don't fear +it. I look forward to seeing my little Ruth again next summer, grown +somewhat taller, perhaps, and wiser too, but still always my own Ruth." + +"Yes, father," she answered, with something like a sob. + +But Will, the eldest brother, who found that his father's speech and +Ruth's face were getting too much for his feelings, jumped up and seized +his hat, saying in his queer way that he must be off to the hay-field if +there was a prospect of showers, and he hoped Ruth would not run away +before he came back. + +The other members of the family soon dispersed; and although Ruth's +departure was for days the all-absorbing topic of conversation, it was +generally referred to in a cheery way, and not in what Will called "the +sentimental strain." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE JOURNEY. + + +Several letters passed between Mrs. Arnold and her sister-in-law; and as +it was arranged that Ruth was to go the following week, there was not +much time for preparation, and every spare minute was fully occupied. +Her entire wardrobe had to be inspected and replenished, as far as +slender means would permit; old garments were made to look as much like +new as possible, and little bits of ribbon and lace which had not seen +the light for years, because there were so few suitable occasions for +wearing them in a quiet country place, now reappeared in the form of +bows and tuckers for the neck. + +As Mrs. Woburn, Ruth's aunt, lived a great many miles from Cressleigh, +it was decided that her niece should go direct to Stonegate, the +watering-place where they were to spend the holidays. She was therefore +to take a long railway journey, quite an event in itself, as she had +rarely been farther by rail than the county town, twelve miles distant, +and even there she had always been accompanied by her father or mother. +But just now there was so much to be done on the farm, that her father +could spare neither the time nor money for a long journey, and the young +girl was obliged to travel alone, a formidable undertaking, which seemed +almost to spoil the anticipated pleasure of the sea-side visit. + +One bright morning in the early part of July, Ruth woke with the +thought, "I am really going away to-day, and perhaps I may not sleep in +this dear little room for a whole year, or for six months at least." + +She had rarely called her chamber a "dear little room" before; in fact, +she had often grumbled because it was so small; but now that she was +about to go away it had suddenly become dear, for was it not part of her +home, and what place in the world could ever be so dear as home? + +How strange it all seemed that morning! The coming downstairs and +finding the little trunk packed and corded in the hall; the hurried +breakfast, at which every one but mother talked very fast, because they +had so much to say and such a short time in which to say it; the +leave-takings, the good-byes, and parting injunctions. + +Ruth drove off at last beside her father, feeling like one in a dream, +so dimly did she see everything through the mist of tears which hung +about her eyes. + +There was another farewell to be said at the railway junction, for Mr. +Arnold could only wait a few minutes to see her into a comfortable +carriage, and then returned home to Cressleigh. When he waved his hand +and the train was fairly in motion, Ruth began to realize that she was +being separated for a long, long time from all whom she loved best in +the world; she heaved one great sob, and crouching into a corner of the +carriage gave way to a flood of tears. She wept for several minutes +undisturbed, then a kind motherly-looking lady, who was sitting opposite +to her, asked, "What is the matter, my dear? Are you going away to +school?" + +"Yes, ma'am; at least, I mean no, not yet. I am going to the sea-side to +stay with my cousins for a few weeks." + +"I don't think that most girls would be so distressed at the thought of +a visit to the sea-side," said the old lady, smiling. + +"But I'm not coming back for ever so long," replied Ruth, drying her +tears, however. Then she informed her new friend how long she was going +to be away, and what she hoped to see and do during her absence from +home, and the old lady seemed so much interested that Ruth soon grew +bright and merry, and began to notice the pretty country through which +they were passing; and when the train stopped at a rustic station, where +a little pony trap was waiting to convey the old lady to her own home, +they felt as if they had known each other for years instead of hours, +and were really very sorry to part. + +The rest of the journey seemed rather dull and tedious, and it was late +in the afternoon when the train drew up at the Stonegate station. There +were a good many people on the platform, and Ruth was wondering if any +one had come to meet her, when a lady looked in at the carriage door and +inquired in a pleasant manner, "Your name is Ruth Arnold, is it not?" + +"Yes, it is," she replied rather shyly, as she bent forward to look at +her aunt. But that look told her a great deal. + +She saw a fair placid face which she felt sure she should love, for the +dark blue eyes reminded her of her father's, though the fair hair and +small mouth were strangely unlike his. But there was something familiar +in the tone of her voice, and when she called a cab, gave instructions +about the luggage, and took her seat beside her niece, Ruth was quite at +ease and felt that she was going to be happy. + +"You will see Julia very soon," said Mrs. Woburn, "but this is our first +day at the sea-side, and she was out when I started. I am afraid that +she will be angry with me, for I know that she intended to come herself +to meet you, and I think she will be disappointed." + +"It was very kind of you to come," said Ruth; "I was getting quite +frightened, and thought that perhaps you might not know me, and that I +should be all alone in a strange place." + +"There is not much fear that any one who has seen your mother would not +recognise her daughter," was Mrs. Woburn's smiling reply. + +"Do you think me so much like her?" asked Ruth eagerly, looking greatly +pleased. + +"Indeed I do. But this is our lodging. I see Julia looking out of the +window." + +In another minute Ruth had followed her aunt into a large cheerful +sitting-room, with two bay-windows overlooking the beach and sea. + +"Oh! mamma, what a shame of you to go without me!" cried a voice from +the window where a young girl was standing. + +"You were so late, dear," said Mrs. Woburn gently. "Here is your cousin; +take her to her room; I am sure she must be tired after her long +journey." + +Julia, a pretty fair-haired fashionably-dressed girl, came forward and +shook hands, saying, "How d'ye do, Ruth? I am glad mamma met you. Will +you come upstairs?" + +She led the way to a pretty bedroom, much larger than the one in which +Ruth had slept at Cressleigh. There was a splendid view of the sea from +the windows, and the furniture of the room was all of light polished +wood; a pretty dressing-table stood between the windows, which were hung +with white muslin curtains, and the hangings and cover-lids of the two +little beds were snowy white. + +"What a pretty room!" said Ruth, as she entered. + +"Do you think so? I think it is awfully small and poky. And we are both +to sleep here, which I am sure will be very inconvenient; but we +couldn't get anything better, so I suppose we must put up with it. +Lodgings are always the great drawback to the sea-side, you know." + +Ruth did not know what reply to make, she was so taken aback by the +grandeur of Julia's air and manner. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +COUSINS. + + +"Tea is ready, miss," said a trim maid-servant at the door of the +bedroom where the two girls were talking, and Ruth followed her cousin +downstairs to the large cheerful room she had entered upon her arrival. + +Mrs. Woburn had already taken her seat behind the urn, and the two boys +who were sitting beside her rose to meet their cousin. Ernest, the elder +of the two, was a tall, thin lad of fifteen, with a pair of large brown +eyes, the only striking feature in his plain but sensible face. + +Rupert was a merry little schoolboy of seven, bright-eyed and +curly-haired, a mischievous little sprite, no doubt, but a very +affectionate lovable little fellow. He chattered continually during the +meal, and did a great deal to take off the sense of shyness that Ruth +felt in the company of Julia and Ernest, and her aunt asked questions +about the farm-life at Cressleigh, and talked of their plans for the +next few weeks. + +"Oh! you will have a great deal to see," said Julia, "as this is your +first visit to the sea-side. I think we had better put on our hats and +go for a long walk at once, it is a shame to be indoors this lovely +evening." + +"That will hardly do for your cousin, dear; she looks rather tired, and +we must remember that she has had a long journey to-day." + +Ruth was very tired, and, much as she longed to go for a walk along the +shore, she felt that that pleasure must be deferred until the next +morning. But she was rather dismayed by Julia's saying, "Well, I don't +see any reason for our remaining indoors. Of course Ernest won't come, +he is too much taken up with that book about--shellology. So he can stay +with Ruth while you come out with us." + +"Why can't you call things by their right names, and say 'conchology'?" +asked Ernest quietly. + +"Really, Julia, I don't think we must leave your cousin this evening," +said Mrs. Woburn, doubtfully. + +"Don't stay at home on my account, auntie," replied Ruth, putting aside +her own feelings, though she did not much like the idea of spending the +evening with Ernest, such a grave, quiet boy, so very different from her +brothers. + +Julia carried her point, and started in a few minutes for a walk with +her mother and Rupert, leaving the cousins to their own resources. Ruth +took a seat near the window, and watched the waves breaking gently upon +the beach, while the boy appeared to be entirely occupied with his book. +It was rather dull, this first evening away from home; it seemed +scarcely possible that she had really only left Cressleigh that morning, +and she began to wonder if they had missed her very much, and what they +were doing now, and when she should see them all again, and as she +thought of the months that must elapse first she heaved a weary sigh. + +The sigh roused Ernest, who had quite forgotten his companion in the +charms of his book, and he at once endeavoured to make amends for his +neglect in his kind but awkward way. + +"Oh! I beg your pardon," he began, "I almost forgot--do you like +conchology?" he asked, by way of starting a conversation. + +"I don't know anything about it," was Ruth's meek reply, "but I believe +it is the science of shells, is it not?" + +"Yes. I thought you wouldn't care for it. Girls never do." + +"Perhaps I might learn," she said humbly; "but I haven't had a chance to +study any 'ologies,' they did not teach them at Miss Green's. Are you +studying it as a holiday task?" + +"No, for amusement. They won't let me study in the holidays, but I enjoy +this. Just look at these shells, aren't they beauties?" and he showed +her one of the illustrations in his book. + +"Oh! how beautiful!" she exclaimed; and the boy, seeing she was +interested, told her what he had been reading, and promised to get her +some specimens the next day, and the time slipped rapidly by, until Mrs. +Woburn and Julia returned. + +"What have you been doing all the evening?" asked Julia, when they were +in their room that night. "Was Ernest civil?" + +"He was very kind, and showed me his book on conchology, and explained +about the shells, and he is going to get me some specimens to-morrow." + +"Indeed!" said Julia, rather surprised, "I should not have thought that +you cared for that sort of thing." + +Ruth was too tired to answer, and had soon forgotten the events of the +day in sound refreshing sleep. When she awoke, the sun was shining +brightly, and she was astonished to find that she had slept until +half-past seven. She was accustomed to rise very early at home, and was +afraid that her cousins would be shocked at her laziness, until she +found that Julia was still sleeping quietly in the bed beside her. + +"Julia! Julia!" she cried, "it's very late. We must get up at once." + +"What is the time?" was asked drowsily. + +"Half-past seven." + +"Why can't you let me rest?" said Julia crossly. "We always breakfast at +eight at home, but I don't intend to get up so early at the sea-side." + +She closed her eyes and went to sleep again; but Ruth, who was wide +awake, rose at once, dressed quickly, brushed her brown curls, and went +downstairs. There was no one about, and the morning air was so fresh, +and the sunshine so inviting, that she took her hat and ran down to the +beach, feeling so full of joy and gladness that she could hardly +restrain herself from singing, as she often did in the fields at +Cressleigh. The sunlight sparkled upon the crested waves as they broke +gently upon the shore, and the tide came in, slowly creeping up the +shingle, now bearing away a dry piece of sea-weed and making it look +alive and fresh, advancing and retreating, yet ever creeping slowly +upward, until one wave almost broke over her feet and reminded her of +the old and oft-repeated adage, "Time and tide wait for no man." + +She hurried back, to find her aunt and cousins waiting breakfast for +her; and as she told them about her morning ramble, she did not notice +the unpleasant glances which Julia bestowed upon her dress, a blue +cotton one, made very simply, but somewhat old-fashioned, and washed +until the colour was rather faded. + +"We must certainly go out this lovely morning," said Mrs. Woburn after +breakfast. "Where do you think your cousin would like to go, dear?" + +"Oh! we'll go to the Esplanade of course," replied Julia, as she ran off +to get ready. She came down a few minutes later looking very nice in her +pretty holland dress trimmed with red, and shady straw hat with muslin +and lace bows, and dainty gloves. + +"You don't mean to say that you are going out like that, Ruth!" she +exclaimed, as she caught sight of her cousin sitting by the window still +wearing her print dress and shabby straw hat. + +"Yes," she replied, and was going to ask "Why not?" but the sight of her +cousin's simple but pretty costume stopped her, and she blushed rosy +red. + +"Then of course we cannot go to the Esplanade," said Julia in a pointed +manner. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +STONEGATE. + + +"The Esplanade did you say, girls?" asked Mrs. Woburn, entering at that +moment. + +"No, mamma, we don't care about it; any other place will do," replied +Julia sulkily. + +"We will walk along the beach to Brill Head then," said Mrs. Woburn, +"and I dare say Ernest would like to accompany us; he will find plenty +of specimens there." + +"Shall I stay at home, Aunt Annie?" asked Ruth timidly. + +"Certainly not, unless you wish it; Julia has been longing to have you +for a companion, and this will be such a delightful walk." + +But the pleasure of the walk was gone for Ruth. Julia was quiet, and +scarcely spoke to any one, and her mother could not understand what was +the matter, and although she tried her best to bring back the look of +delight to her niece's face, she was not successful. It was not until +they reached Brill Head, and Ernest began his search for specimens, that +Ruth recovered her wonted liveliness, and the sunshine returned to her +face and the gladness to her heart, and she felt so full of life and +energy that she challenged Rupert to a race. + +"Just look at her, mamma!" exclaimed Julia, who was sitting beside her +mother on a rustic seat. "Did you ever see any one so wild and vulgar? +And that frightful dress, as old-fashioned as possible! To think of our +going on the Esplanade with her!" + +"Is that the reason you did not wish to go there?" + +"Of course it was. Every one would have stared at her antiquated dress. +Indeed, she is altogether old-fashioned; she actually asked me last +night if I had any dolls, and if I went to Sunday-school. I didn't think +that having a poor relation to live with us would be quite so annoying +and humiliating." + +Mrs. Woburn was very seldom angry with her spoilt child, but now she was +thoroughly roused, and said in low distinct tones, "Remember, Julia, +that you speak of my brother's daughter. While Ruth is here she will be +treated as your sister. You little know what you owe to your uncle, and +if I ever hear you speak in that contemptuous way of any of his family I +will send you to your room at once." + +Such a threat was quite strange to Julia, who at fourteen began to +consider herself almost grown-up, and quite above reproof or punishment; +but it was sufficiently determined to prevent her making any more +remarks of the sort in her mother's hearing, though it did not increase +her affection for her cousin. + +During the walk home Ruth was merry as ever, romping with Rupert, +chatting with that usually shy lad, Ernest, and planning an afternoon on +the shore to collect sea-weeds. But Julia walked slowly beside her +mother, so evidently determined to be silent that the rest of the party +tacitly agreed to leave her to herself. + +Mr. Woburn and his eldest son, Gerald, arrived at Stonegate that +afternoon, and Ruth saw them for the first time. She soon felt at home +with her uncle, a plain-featured, middle-aged man of business, but with +his son she felt wonderfully shy. It seemed hardly possible that the +handsome young man with the dark moustache and manly bearing could be +her cousin. She had expected to see a boy two or three years older than +Will, but still a boy, not a polite and self-possessed young man, who by +his way of speaking to her made her feel a very little girl indeed. + +"How have you been improving the shining hours, my lad?" was his +greeting to Ernest. + +"He has been down on the shore collecting shells for Ruth," said Julia +mischievously. + +"Ernest becoming a lady's man! Dear me! the country cousin is working +wonders," he cried in feigned surprise. + +Ruth felt the hot blood rushing to her cheeks, though she tried to look +as if she had not heard the remark; but it spoilt her pleasure in +seeking for shells, and she decided mentally that she should never like +Cousin Gerald. The arrival of her brother seemed to have restored +Julia's good-humour, and when in the evening he proposed a stroll on the +pier she gladly assented, and the whole party set out to hear the band +which played there two or three evenings in the week. + +Ruth thought that she had never known anything so charming as that +evening. It was so pleasant to sit in a sheltered corner listening to +the finest music she had ever heard, played by a military band and +accompanied by the gentle splash of the waves against the pier; to feel +the cool fresh sea-breeze blowing around her, and to see the gay dresses +of the ladies as they walked up and down talking to their friends, until +by-and-by the quiet stars came out and the silver moon shone upon the +scene. + +Julia was not contented to sit still and look on; she begged Gerald to +let her promenade with him, and for a few minutes he gratified her whim; +but Ruth, although she had changed the dress which had proved so +obnoxious that morning, did not consider herself to be attired richly +enough to mingle with the gay throng that passed and re-passed her in +her quiet corner. + +"What do you think of Gerald?" asked Julia, when the two girls had +retired to their bedroom that evening. "Is he not very handsome?" + +"Yes," said Ruth, glad that her cousin had asked a question to which she +could give her assent so easily. "But I didn't know that he was so old; +I expected he would be a boy." + +"He is only nineteen," said Julia; "but I am sure he looks older." + +"Only nineteen! Why, Will is seventeen, and he is quite a boy compared +with Cousin Gerald." + +"That is very likely, for he has been brought up in the country, and +that makes a great difference. Now I am sure that Gerald knows quite as +much as most men do, and I think it is too bad for father to treat him +like a boy." + +"Does he?" asked Ruth innocently. + +"Yes; he won't even allow him to have a latch-key, and then he complains +if Gerald is rather late home in the evening, and he has to sit up for +him. And even mamma annoys him dreadfully sometimes by calling him 'her +dear boy.'" + +"I thought mothers did that even when their sons were quite grown up," +said Ruth. + +"I don't think they should," was Julia's reply. "But it is quite too bad +of papa to expect poor Gerald to slave away in that office all day. He +is quite a tyrant, and grudges the poor fellow any pleasure." + +"Julia! Julia! I am sure it is very wrong of you to talk in that way of +your parents," cried Ruth reproachfully. "Don't you know the Bible says, +'Honour thy father and mother'?" + +"What an old-fashioned, tiresome creature you are!" muttered Julia in a +sleepy voice. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +A POOR RELATION. + + +"When are we to have the picnic, mamma?" asked Julia at breakfast the +next morning. + +"Any day will suit me; but as your father and Gerald will only be here +for a short time, I think we must arrange to have it as early as +possible the week after next." + +"Let us have it on Monday. Yes, Monday," cried Rupert and Julia +together. + +"I am going out boating on Monday," said Gerald lazily. + +"Tuesday or Wednesday," suggested Mrs. Woburn. + +"I am engaged for Tuesday also, but Wednesday is clear, I believe," +replied the young man in a careless manner, as if it did not signify +much to him whether he formed one of the party or not. + +"How horrid of you to put it off so long," exclaimed his sister angrily. +"I daresay Wednesday will be wet." + +"_Nous verrons_," he replied, as he sauntered from the room with his +hands in his pockets. He looked in again at the door to say, "I shall +not be back until the evening, mother;" and in another moment the +banging of the front-door told them that he had left the house. + +"It is too bad of Gerald to go off like that the very first day he is +here," said Julia. "I suppose he has taken his bicycle and gone out with +his friends, the Goodes. Horrid people! Yes, there he is," she cried as +Gerald and two other young men on bicycles passed the house bowing and +smiling towards the window where the two girls were standing. + +"Gerald out with the Goodes? I wish he would choose some other +companions," said Mr. Woburn, who had scarcely noticed their previous +conversation. + +"You see how papa finds fault with him," whispered Julia to her cousin. + +"Ruth, I want you to come to my room for a few minutes," said Mrs. +Woburn; and her niece followed her upstairs. + +"I should like you to try on these things and see how they fit you," she +said, as she pointed to some pretty dresses spread out on the bed. There +was a pale pink, trimmed with dainty white lace; a figured sateen +covered with tiny rosebuds, and finished off here and there with knots +and bows of rose-coloured ribbon; a simple holland dress trimmed with +white braid, and a shady straw hat with bows of lace and a tiny bunch of +rosebuds. Ruth gazed at the garments with admiration and astonishment, +then she glanced at her own shabby print frock, blushed rosy red, and +the tears began to gather in her eyes. + +"What is the matter, Ruth? Do you not like them?" asked her aunt kindly. + +"They are very pretty, and you are very kind, auntie; but I would rather +not wear them," said the girl, trying hard to repress the tears of +mortification that stood in her eyes. + +"But, my dear, they have been bought on purpose for you to wear at the +sea-side. Do at least try them." + +"Thank you, auntie, I would much rather not do so;" and Ruth turned +aside to the window, from which she could see nothing for the mist +before her eyes caused by the storm of passion and pride surging within +her breast. + +There was no reply, and when she looked round again she found that she +was alone. The sunshine was streaming into the room, shining upon the +white hat and the pretty dresses, just such garments as Ruth would have +chosen if she had had an opportunity of buying such a stock of clothes +for herself. But she remembered Julia's words and manner the previous +morning, and felt so proud and angry that she deliberately shut her eyes +as she walked out of the room, and gave not a thought to her aunt's +kindness. + +"It is too bad! I'll not stand it!" she murmured. "I did not come here +to be treated like a poor relation. If they don't like me as I am, I +will go home again. Yes, I'll go and tell auntie so at once," she +continued, her pride rising higher and higher until she reached the +bay-windowed drawing-room where her aunt was sitting with Ernest. She +did not observe his presence, but went straight to her aunt, her cheeks +crimson and her eyes flashing. + +"Aunt Annie," she said as calmly as her emotion would permit, "Aunt +Annie, I think that I had better go home." + +"My dear child, what is the matter?" cried Mrs. Woburn, dropping her +work in her amazement. + +"I think that if you don't like me as I am, I had better go home," she +repeated. + +"What do you mean?" asked her aunt, still more perplexed; while Ernest +looked up from his book and inquired, "Has Julia been annoying her?" + +"No," said Ruth; "but, oh, auntie! I can't bear to be--a poor relation, +and--and have clothes given me." + +The pent-up sobs would have their way at last, and the girl sank down +beside her aunt, who tried to soothe and comfort her. + +"Have those dresses troubled you so much, dear?" she asked gently. "I +had no idea that that was the cause of your annoyance, but fancied you +did not like the style in which they were made. If I had thought that +you would have any objection I would have acted differently; but as your +mother----" + +"Did mother know that you were getting them for me?" inquired Ruth. + +"Yes, and she wrote to say that she should be glad for you to be treated +in every way like your cousin. And you must never think, dear, that we +regard you as 'a poor relation.' Remember that your father is my +brother, and whatever I give you has been paid for, and far more than +paid for, years ago." + +"Thank you, auntie; I am glad to know that," she said quietly. + +"I did not think you were so proud, Ruth," whispered Ernest as she left +the room, and went up to her own chamber to have a good cry over her +foolish behaviour. But, to her dismay, Julia was there dressing for a +walk, an occupation which she knew would take her a considerable time. + +Oh, how she longed for her little room at home, where she had so often +taken her childish troubles, or for a quiet nook upon the shore, such as +she had often read of, but which is rarely to be found in a fashionable +watering-place. There was no solitude for her just then, and she was +obliged to fight the battle within silently, while her companion rallied +her upon her mournful looks and red eyes; and to send up her prayer for +help from the heart, without using the lips. But help came, and she +conquered at last the pride and temper of which she was now thoroughly +ashamed. She was anxious to obtain her aunt's forgiveness for the rude +reception of her kindness, and tried to make amends by arraying herself +in the pink dress and pretty hat, which she showed to Julia, saying how +kind it was of auntie to get such lovely things for her. By-and-by when +she had an opportunity she said in a low voice, "I am very sorry that I +was so proud and rude just now, auntie. I'll try to behave better in +future." + +And Mrs. Woburn, looking at her niece's dress, saw that her repentance +was not only expressed in words. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +SEA-SIDE PLEASURES. + + +A week spent at Stonegate had taught Ruth more of her own frailties and +weaknesses, and had shown her more of the various sorts of people of +which the world is composed, than she would have learnt in a whole year +spent in the quiet sheltered seclusion of her home at Cressleigh. + +The novelty, the continued round of pleasure, the excitement and gaiety, +were bewildering and delightful to the simple country girl. It seemed to +her that she had been suddenly transported from the commonplace ordinary +work-a-day world in which she had hitherto dwelt, to a fairyland of +sunshine, music, and pleasure. It was almost impossible at times to +realize that the sun which brightened the Esplanade, and gilded the edge +of the rippling waves, was the same sun which was shining upon her +father's harvest-field at home, upon the labourers toiling at the +sickle, the women binding the sheaves, and the servants briskly moving +hither and thither, all as busy as bees throughout the whole of the long +summer day. + +Everything at the sea-side was new to Ruth, and she exulted in the +freshness and novelty of all around her, for she was still at that happy +age + + "When all things pleased, for life itself was new, + And the heart promised what the fancy drew." + +Alas, that that time is being gradually shortened, and that children say +good-bye at such an early age to the simple pleasures of youth! + +How few years there are in which one can be young, and how many in which +one must be old! + +But Ruth was still young, far younger in her capacity to enjoy than +Julia, who was her junior by some months. She was in good health, with +fine animal spirits, and had not tasted half the pleasures which had +already grown stale to her cousin. The boating, the chatter, the +strolls, the music on the pier, the glorious sunsets, the very stones +and shells upon the beach, the fresh breezes and the ever-changing sea, +all contributed to afford her such pleasure as it would have been +impossible for Julia to feel, because she, poor child, was already +disenchanted at fourteen, was already wearied with frequent repetition +of the amusements which were new to her cousin, and also because she had +imbibed the idea that it was ill-bred, and a mark of ignorance, to show +or even to _feel_ extreme pleasure in anything, yet was ever selfishly +seeking some new gratification. + +"You appear to be enjoying yourself very much, Ruth," observed her aunt, +as she sat beside her on the pier the evening before the day arranged +for the picnic. + +"How can I help it, auntie? You are so kind, and everything is so +enchanting," was the enthusiastic reply. + +"I think that many of the richest people here would give all they +possess to have that child's keen sense of delight," remarked Mrs. +Woburn to her husband, as Ruth tripped away to join her cousins. + +"Oh, Julia," she exclaimed, "what a charming piece the band has been +playing!" + +"That old thing!" replied the other contemptuously. "It is the overture +to 'La Sonnambula,' and I perfectly hate it, for I learnt it at school +ages ago, and Signor Touchi used to get awfully angry about it." + +Julia often acted as a sort of wet blanket upon her cousin's +enthusiastic outbursts; though it was a long time before the country +girl learnt to express her delight in the usual formula of a fashionable +young lady, "Very charming," or "Awfully nice," pronounced in a manner +which seems to imply, "Just tolerable." + +Wednesday morning rose clear and bright, and soon after sunrise Ruth +peeped out of the window to see if the weather were favourable, and when +she saw the sunshine she could remain in bed no longer, but dressed +quickly and ran down to the beach, her favourite retreat in the early +morning, and the only place where she ever found an opportunity for +quiet thought amidst all the excitement of pleasure-seeking. + +What a long time it seemed since she had left home! And yet it was only +a few days. What would her mother think, she wondered, of the life she +was leading now? She had only received one short letter from her, +written after all the rest of the household were in bed, and Ruth could +guess how very busy every one was, although there was but a casual +reference to the fact in the letter. + +"I hope that mother is not doing too much," she mused, "it was very kind +of her to let me have so much pleasure; but how hard it would be to go +back now after all this gaiety. I trust that I am not getting spoilt, +yet----" + +"Have you been looking for anemones, Ruth?" asked a boyish voice beside +her. "This is not the place to find them." + +"I had no idea that you were near, Ernest," was her reply, "but I have +not been looking for anything, only thinking." + +"Well, it is almost breakfast time now. You know that we are to be early +this morning on account of the picnic to which you are all going." + +"But surely you are going with us?" said Ruth in surprise. + +"No," he answered quietly, "I should only be in the way. Gerald and his +fellows don't want me, and Julia and her friends only snub me and think +me a nuisance, and of course I am too old to romp and be petted like +little Ru. So I shall have a quiet day on the shore collecting fresh +specimens, and you shall see them to-morrow. Now we must go in to +breakfast." + +Ernest had grown very fond of his country cousin, who was so different +from his sister and her friends that she could actually take an interest +in his pursuits, and who, under her father's guidance, had learnt many +interesting facts of natural history which the town-bred boy had never +had opportunities of observing. + +Breakfast was a hurried meal, and directly it was over there followed +the bustle of preparation for the day's excursion. Hampers were sent +off, duly packed with all kinds of delicacies; Rupert was running up and +down stairs continually, and getting in the way as much as Ernest, who +remained stationary near the door; while Julia rushed from her room to +her mother's, declaring that she was quite certain they would all be +late, and then ran back to ask Ruth to help her to dress. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE PICNIC. + + +Everything was ready at last, and the whole family started for the pier, +where they were to meet their friends. Such a crowd of people surrounded +them upon their arrival, that Ruth, who merely knew a few of them +slightly, felt quite over-whelmed, and wished that her usual companion, +Ernest, had been beside her. + +The steamer which had been chartered for the occasion now came alongside +the pier, and every one was occupied with the business of embarking. +When all the party were safely on board, Ruth found herself amongst a +number of strangers, far away from Julia, who had evidently quite +forgotten her, and was laughing and chatting with a little group of +girls at the other end of the vessel. Her aunt was entertaining the +ladies, and her uncle walking up and down the deck in earnest +conversation with two gentlemen; Rupert was trying to get on the +paddle-box, and there was no one near her but Gerald, the facetious +leader of a knot of young men. Ruth felt very lonely and rather +sorrowful; she had been eagerly anticipating this picnic, and now she +seemed to be quite neglected, while every one else was gay and happy. +She had not the courage to make her way through the visitors to reach +Julia at the other end of the boat, for she had an undefined feeling +that if she went she would not be welcomed there. Her thoughts flew back +to the one spot of earth where she was always wanted and ever welcomed, +and she heaved a little sigh. + +"What is the matter, my fair coz?" asked Gerald, who was standing near +and heard the sigh. "Are the Fates very unpropitious?" + +"No, Cousin Gerald," she answered shyly. + +She could not understand the young man who patronized her, and talked to +her as if she were a little child, and she fancied that he was making +fun of her. + +"Then why do you sigh?" he inquired. + +"I have nothing else to do," she said, smiling. + +"Has Julia left you without any introduction? Well, we will soon remedy +that," he said as he led her towards a very fair young girl, dressed in +blue and white, and having introduced the two girls he left them +talking, and strolled off with a friend. + +Ruth's companion was by no means shy, she had a great deal to say, and +began by making remarks upon the people on board, and telling little +scraps of their personal histories. + +"You see that old gentleman walking with Mr. Woburn. That is Mr. Amass, +the banker. They say that he is awfully rich, but I am sure that he is a +terrible screw. Only look at his wife, and see how shabbily she dresses. +Don't you see her over there with the daisies in her bonnet? And that is +her niece, Miss Game, flirting with Mr. Trim. Ah! he is walking away +now; he prefers a chat with Edith Thorpe. How amused they look! I +suppose he is telling her what Miss Game has been saying. Yes, I am sure +they are laughing at her!" + +"But surely," said Ruth, looking rather shocked, "he would not be so +rude as to talk to a young lady, and then go away and laugh at her!" + +"My dear child," replied the other, laughing, "every one does it, more +or less." + +"But are none of them _friends_? Do none of them care for each other +sufficiently to refrain from laughing?" asked Ruth earnestly. + +"Very few persons care enough for their friends to be quiet about their +follies and weaknesses," replied this worldly-wise young lady, and then +she continued her running commentary upon the visitors until the steamer +arrived at its destination, a beautiful little bay where the water was +so clear that one could see the sea-weeds growing underneath. Tall trees +grew not far from the shore, and upon a slight eminence was situated an +old castle, not possessing many historical associations, but in a fairly +good state of preservation, and much frequented by pleasure parties from +Stonegate. + +The older ladies at once made their way to a shady nook under the trees, +and the rest of the party strolled about the grounds in twos and threes +until a tempting repast had been spread, not upon the grass, but upon +long wooden tables in the castle yard. + +Ruth was utterly astonished. Her ideas of a picnic were gathered from +the simple and joyous little parties held in the woods near her home, +when the hamper, filled with cold meat, tartlets, and milk or lemonade, +was sent on in the milk cart or one of the farm wagons, a white cloth +was spread under the shade of a tree, and the whole party sat on the +grass round it, and were merry and lively, regarding the little +accidents which would occasionally happen as so much cause for mirth. + +But this sumptuous collation, with its garnished dishes of poultry and +joints, salads, tarts, jellies, blancmange, ices and champagne, with +various fruits, all tastefully arranged, and the accessories of glass +and flowers, silver forks and spoons, and long seats, with waiters +hurrying about, made a picnic quite a different affair, and--Ruth was +unfashionable enough to think--took away all the fun of it. She could +see that her aunt was somewhat anxious, and was quite as vexed at any +slight accident which occurred as if she had been giving a party in her +own house. + +Of course there were several toasts and a good deal of speech-making, +and a considerable quantity of champagne was drunk before the guests +left the tables and dispersed, some to the tennis court, others to +explore the castle, and a few to take a country walk in the green lanes. + +The afternoon was very warm, but the hush of the summer's stillness was +broken by the merry voices of the girls as they made their way through +the old castle and peeped out of the windows at their friends in the +tennis court below. There was a continual flutter of light dresses +through the low doorways and up the dingy stairs, and merry sounds of +laughter echoed through the empty chambers. It was the first castle that +romantic little Ruth had ever seen; and although she could not gather +much of its history from the little books sold at the gate, she tried to +imagine the scenes that had been enacted there, to people it with +knights in armour, and to fancy that the girlish faces which peeped +through the windows were those of "fayre ladyes" of bygone days. + +She was aroused from her day-dream by a scream from one of the girls, +and saw Gerald, looking white and scared, hurrying towards a small door +leading to the keep. The tennis players ceased their game, all eyes were +turned in one direction, and a frightened whisper ran through the crowd +as Mr. Woburn hastened across the ground. On the very edge of a broken +tottering wall projecting from the side of the keep sat Rupert--ever an +adventurous little fellow--his face white and his legs dangling. He had +crept up into the keep alone, and climbed as high as he could, just to +give them all a fright. And he had succeeded, but not without risk to +himself, for the shriek of terror which some one gave upon seeing him +had awakened him to a sense of his danger, and looking down upon the +terrified faces below he grew frightened and almost lost the power to +keep his seat. It was a terrible moment, and every one paused in +horror-stricken silence. + +[Illustration] + +"That's right, Ruey, sit still!" cried a clear, ringing voice. "Shall I +come up to keep you company? But you must get to the other end of the +wall. Don't try to crawl; push yourself along like this," cried Ruth, +sitting on a low fence and propelling herself sideways, clutching it +with her hands on either side, quite regardless of the notice she was +attracting. It was the best thing she could have done, for the boy, +hearing her cheery tones and seeing that the faces below were no longer +upturned in terror, began to regain his courage, and imitated his +cousin's movements, thus getting farther and farther from the dangerous +corner and nearer to the firmer masonry of the keep, through which the +young men were hurrying to his rescue. Slowly and awkwardly he shuffled +along, and reached the end of the wall just as Ruth reached the end of +her fence, for she had kept on all the time for the sake of example. + +"Thank God he is safe!" cried Mr. Woburn, as Gerald caught the little +fellow in his arms and disappeared within the walls of the building. + +"And this young lady has saved him," said a gentleman who had just +appeared upon the scene. He had been taking a country ramble, had seen +the boy's danger from a considerable distance, and arrived, almost +breathless, in the castle yard just as Rupert was lifted from his +perilous position. + +"If he had fainted or turned giddy he must have fallen, and that wall +would not have borne another person. Indeed, if the boy had not been a +very light weight, I am afraid it would have given way;" and as if to +verify his words a small piece of stone, which had probably been +loosened by the boy's movements, came crashing down from the wall. + +Ruth was now the universal object of attention, and she felt dreadfully +bashful and awkward as one after another gathered round her and praised +"her wonderful presence of mind," and "her remarkable courage." "So +fearless, too," said one young dandy, who would not on any account have +risked his dainty limbs. "I really thought she was going to climb up and +fetch him down." + +"I should not have been surprised if she had done so," said a young lady +near him. + +The poor girl blushed, and began to wonder if she had done rightly in +calling out so loudly and drawing every one's attention to herself, for +her mother had always told her that a young girl should seek to avoid +notice. + +"And yet," she thought, "it cannot be wrong. I only wanted to cheer +little Ru, and I could not stop to think of any other way." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +BUSYBOROUGH. + + +The appearance of little Rupert in the castle yard diverted attention +from his blushing cousin, while friends and relatives crowded round him +to scold, applaud, or pet, as they deemed fit. His mother, overcome by +the anxiety and suspense of those terrible moments, fainted directly he +was brought down to her, but was soon restored, and grew very anxious +that the affair should not interfere with the happiness of her guests. +Some, indeed, proposed returning at once to Stonegate, but they were +overruled by the younger members of the party, who were anxious to +remain until the moon had risen, and also by Mrs. Woburn's desire not to +curtail their enjoyment; and it was finally settled that the steamer +should not return until ten o'clock. + +Tea, coffee, and other refreshments were handed round, and the +interrupted games were resumed and carried on until the summer evening +grew chilly. The dew began to fall, and gave warning that it was too +late for out-of-door sports, and drove them into the shelter of the old +castle, where the young people proposed a dance. There was a spacious +room in the lower part of the building which had been often used for +such a purpose, and after hunting up a village musician and pressing him +into their service, hats and wraps were thrown aside and the dancing +commenced. Ruth did not understand the steps, but sat down near the +married ladies and looked on at what, to her unaccustomed eyes, was a +gay and lively scene. Yet she could not enter into it as she had entered +into the pleasures of the preceding days. She could not forget the alarm +of the afternoon; she was sure that her aunt was feeling ill and weary, +and she felt that the gaiety around was rather ill-timed and out of +harmony with the feelings of the hostess. The hours passed slowly to +those who were merely looking on, but at ten the dancing ceased, the old +fiddler was dismissed, and amidst a great deal of laughter and chatter +the gay party left the castle and made their way to the steamer. + +The moon was shining brilliantly, and the walls of the old castle +gleamed in its light or were hidden in dense shadow by the surrounding +trees. The steamer lay in the little bay just below, every inch of her +visible in the moonlight, and all agreed that it was a perfect night for +a water trip. + +Ruth longed for a little quiet, and strove to escape from her lively +companions, whose mirth did not accord with her feelings. She sat in a +sheltered corner, and looked at the vast expanse of water and at the +quiet stars keeping watch overhead. Nothing so much reminded her of home +as the stars, which shone upon her just as they had shone at home, and +with the thought of home came a remembrance of the Heavenly Father of +whom she had thought so little lately, but who had watched over her +unceasingly and had helped her that day to save her little cousin from a +horrible fate. + +Mr. Woburn and Gerald returned to Busyborough a few days after the +picnic, and the remaining weeks of the sea-side holiday passed all too +quickly for Ruth, who was never tired of the delights of sea and shore +and all the varied amusements that Stonegate afforded. + +Still, she was anxious to commence her studies at the young ladies' +college her cousin attended, and spent many an hour thinking of it and +trying to imagine what the school, the governesses, and the pupils would +be like. It was of little use to question Julia, who always declared +that she "didn't want to be bothered about school in the holidays," and +that Ruth would soon find out "how horrid it was." + +It was in September that they bade farewell to Stonegate and left for +Busyborough. The days were growing shorter and colder, and as the +railway journey occupied two or three hours it was late in the day when +they reached their destination, and the street lamps and shop windows +were all aglow with gas-light. + +What a large noisy place it seemed to country-bred Ruth, as their cab +rattled through street after street brilliantly lighted, down long +roads, past handsome houses and gardens, until it stopped before a large +many-windowed house, with a long flight of stone steps and a small +garden, enclosed by massive iron railings. + +Rupert and Julia ran up the steps and disappeared, and Ruth followed her +aunt into the tile-paved hall, where two servants were waiting to +receive them. It was a home-coming to all the others, but to the country +cousin it was quite strange and new. + +"It is good to be at home again," said Mrs. Woburn. "Come, Ruth, I will +show you your room." + +She led the way upstairs and opened the door of a pleasant little room, +furnished tastefully with every requisite for a young girl's apartment. +Everything was so pretty, and the bright fire burning in the grate gave +the room such a cosy look, that Ruth was delighted, and tried to express +her grateful thanks, but was simply bidden to make herself at home and +to be very happy. + +Left alone in the room which was to be her own, she began to look around +her and to admire the pretty French bedstead, the light modern +furniture, and the pictures, bookshelves, and brackets upon the walls. +How much larger and more elegant it was than the tiny room which had +been hers at Cressleigh! She felt that she was indeed growing farther +away from the old life every day. "If it were not for Julia, and the +fact that I am so far from home, I could be perfectly happy here," was +her mental comment. + +They were two large "if's," and Julia was the one which occupied the +principal share of her thoughts. She did not "take to" her cousin, +neither did she try to make the best of the very apparent fact that +their tastes were dissimilar. Instead of seeking for points on which +they could agree, she allowed her mind to dwell continually upon their +diversity, and was beginning to return her cousin's ill-concealed +contempt for her rustic and unfashionable notions by a growing scorn and +proud dislike, which though at first secretly cherished could not fail +to show themselves in time. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +SCHOOL-GIRL GOSSIP. + + +Studies will be resumed on Tuesday, 25th inst. Such was the intimation +sent out by Miss Elgin, the principal of the ladies' college which the +girls were to attend. + +Accordingly on Tuesday morning Ruth accompanied her cousin to Addison +College, where she was kindly received by Miss Elgin, and introduced to +several of the girls, who seemed friendly and agreeable. + +The lofty spacious schoolroom, with its comfortable seats and desks, its +splendid maps and numerous modern appliances and convenient +arrangements, the school library, with its rows of standard authors in +uniform binding, the music-room, the pianos--in fact, the whole +establishment exceeded Ruth's brightest dreams of school; and her desire +for knowledge, which had somewhat lessened during her sojourn at the +sea-side, seemed at once to be kindled afresh. + +She answered readily the questions given to test her previously acquired +knowledge, and it soon became evident that what she professed to know +had been thoroughly learnt. In English studies she was pronounced fairly +proficient for her age; but in French, music, and other accomplishments +she was very backward, and she found that she would have to work very +hard in order to obtain a good place in her class. + +The work of the morning was so novel and interesting to Ruth, that she +was quite astonished when the bell rang for recess, and the girls +trooped off to an anteroom, where their tongues were unloosed and the +pleasures and events of the holidays were discussed, with many other +topics. + +"Have you heard the news about Mr. Stanley?" asked a bright lively girl, +Ethel Thompson by name, the gossip and news-monger of the school. + +"No; what is it?" cried several voices. + +"Well, you must keep it to yourselves, you know," she said in a +confidential tone, "but he has failed, he is a bankrupt." + +"Are you sure it is true?" asked one and another. + +"How do you know?" + +"I am sure it is quite true, for my father was talking about it last +night, and of course I understood how it was that Mabel's place was +vacant this morning," continued Ethel. + +"Vacant! I should think it was! You don't suppose she would show her +face here, do you?" exclaimed Julia Woburn. "Of course no one would take +any notice of her. Only fancy the idea of being seen with a bankrupt's +daughter!" she added scornfully. + +"Well, it is not _her_ fault." "I suppose she could not help it," said +one or two of the girls. + +"If it is not her fault it is her father's, and of course it is a great +disgrace to the family. I shouldn't think they would ever hold up their +heads again," remarked Julia proudly. + +"It is very sad." "I always thought them rich." "Mabel was never proud," +began a chorus of voices, but the luncheon bell ringing at that moment +put an end to the conversation. + +The subject was not forgotten, however, and was referred to again in the +afternoon, when the girls were preparing to return home. + +"What do you think the Stanleys will do?" asked a girl of Ethel +Thompson, who having brought the news was expected to know everything +relating to her unfortunate school-fellow's family affairs. + +"I don't know," replied Ethel. "Perhaps Mr. Stanley will begin business +again, men do sometimes, you know; or he may go away from the town and +start elsewhere." + +"The best thing he can do, I consider," cried Julia. "I can't conceive +how people can show themselves in a place where every one knows they +have failed. I am sure I could not do it. But some persons have coarse +natures and do not feel things as much as others." + +"I am quite sure that the Stanleys have feelings as keen as any of us," +remarked a shy quiet-looking girl. "You know how sensitive poor Mabel +is, and I do hope that if she comes back we shall all be kind to her and +not let her know that we have ever heard about her father's +misfortunes." + +"That may be your opinion, Nora Ellis," said Julia, "but for my part I +do not choose to associate with a bankrupt's daughter. If she should +return here, of course no one would speak to her; but I do not suppose +that there is any fear of it. Miss Elgin would be making a great mistake +if she were to receive Mabel Stanley, and would be ruining her school +and acting against her own interests." + +"I daresay Miss Elgin will do as she thinks best," retorted Ethel +Thompson, sorry to have raised a storm which it was not easy to subdue. + +Julia and Ruth did not reach school the following morning until nearly +ten o'clock, the hour at which Miss Elgin's pupils assembled for their +morning classes. + +They had scarcely entered the cloak-room before they became aware that +something unusual had occurred, something which was evidently connected +with the young girl standing apart from the rest, at the end of the +room, and looking tearful and timid. In a moment Ruth guessed, from the +scornful expression of her cousin's face, that the new-comer was Mabel +Stanley who had been so freely discussed the previous day, and that the +poor child had met with a very cool reception on her return to school. + +Pity for the unfortunate girl, indignation at the freezing glances +bestowed upon her, mingled perhaps with a vague idea of vexing Julia, +caused Ruth to make a sudden resolution to befriend her; and when upon +entering the schoolroom she found that their desks were side by side, +she did not delay to take advantage of the fact and endeavour to set +Mabel at ease by referring to her occasionally for help in little +matters of school routine with which she (Ruth) was unacquainted. The +questions were politely answered, but her sensitive neighbour seemed +either too proud or too shy to respond to her friendly advances. + +"Ruth Arnold," exclaimed Julia in the cloak-room at the close of the +day, when Mabel Stanley had dressed quickly in silence and taken her +departure with only a half-whispered "Good-afternoon" to Ruth, "did you +know that the girl you have been sitting next all day is the very one we +were talking about yesterday?" + +"Yes, I imagined so," was the quiet reply. + +"But I thought you knew that we had all determined to cut her if she +came back, and not to say one word more to her than we were really +obliged," continued Julia. + +"Why?" asked Ruth sharply. + +"Because she has no business here, because she degrades the school. A +bankrupt's daughter ought not to come here," said Julia haughtily, "and +I hope you will not associate with her." + +Ruth's eyes were flashing and her cheeks crimson as she retorted +angrily, "That is no reason why I should not be friendly with her; and +indeed, Julia, I do not intend to ask you whom I am to choose for my +friends." + +"Do as you like, and go your own way," said Julia with a scornful laugh. +"Mabel must be destitute of all fine feeling, but perhaps you have a +fancy for people of that sort. If any one belonging to me had ever been +a bankrupt, I should never show my face in the town again." + +She left the house a moment later with one or two of her chosen friends, +and Ruth was slowly walking home alone, trying to swallow her +indignation, and letting the cool breeze fan her hot cheeks, when Ethel +Thompson overtook her. + +"I really think," she began, "that Julia has been terribly down on +Mabel, and I am glad that you took her part and would not give in. Our +coolness to her to-day was all Julia's doing, and I know that she is +wild with you, for she cannot bear to be crossed. But Mabel has not done +anything; and after all, I don't see why we should cut her to please +Julia, who wants to dictate to every one." + +Ruth made an indifferent reply, and hastened to change the subject, for +she did not care to discuss her cousin's shortcomings with one whom she +knew but slightly. + +Very few words passed between the cousins upon their return home that +evening; but on their way to school the next morning Julia asked +scornfully, "Do you still intend to cultivate your aristocratic +acquaintance, Ruth?" + +"I shall do as I please," said the other shortly. + +The girls at Miss Elgin's were mostly the children of wealthy parents, +but unhappily many of them, though rich and fashionable, were sadly +lacking in refinement of heart and mind. Money was the god revered and +worshipped in most of their homes, the one thing talked of and held in +honour, and it was not surprising that the girls, from constantly +hearing their neighbours' worth reckoned solely by the amount of money +they possessed, had come to regard it as the chief good, and to consider +the want of it as something like a crime. Julia had been reared in a +somewhat different atmosphere, but she had adopted the tone of her +school-fellows, and even surpassed them in scorn and disdain for those +who were poor or unfortunate. + +But she was about to meet with a terrible humiliation. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +JULIA'S HUMILIATION. + + +A tender conscience is easily aroused, and Ruth's had been troubling her +since the previous afternoon. She knew that although she had done right +in befriending Mabel she had not done it in a Christian spirit. She +almost decided that she ought to beg her cousin's pardon, and was even +thinking what it would be advisable to say, when Julia's question +stirred her worst feelings to activity, and she answered curtly that she +should do as she pleased. + +A lively conversation was being carried on in the cloak-room, but +suddenly ceased as they entered. The exciting cause of it was Ethel +Thompson, whose busy tongue often brought both herself and others into +trouble. She had carried home a full account of the quarrel between the +cousins the day before, and had concluded by imitating Julia's haughty +manner when she said, "If any one belonging to me had ever been a +bankrupt, I should never show my face in the town again." + +"Humph! Did she say that?" asked Mr. Thompson. "Well 'people who live in +glass houses shouldn't throw stones.'" + +"Why do you say that?" inquired Ethel curiously. + +"Because her own father failed some years ago." + +"Are you quite sure?" + +"Oh yes, I remember it very well, though I suppose it must have been +quite nine or ten years ago, time flies so fast. But he is a very +prosperous man now." + +Ethel did not wait to hear more, but went to school next day full of the +idea of humbling Julia by means of this wonderful piece of news. She had +already whispered it to two or three girls when the cousins appeared at +the door and the bell rang for class. + +Julia was rather late, and in her hurry she placed her hat upon the +nearest vacant peg, which happened to be Mabel Stanley's. Mabel entered +at that moment, and seeing that her peg was occupied, quietly asked +Julia to remove her hat. She did so with a very bad grace, and without +saying a word hastened to join her companions in the schoolroom. + +"How shamefully Julia Woburn treats that poor child!" said one of the +elder girls who lingered in the cloak-room, "and I hear that it is +simply because Mr. Stanley has failed in business." + +"Yes," replied the other, "and what makes it more disgraceful is--that +her own father was a bankrupt not very long ago!" + +"Her father? Mr. Woburn? Surely you are mistaken!" + +"No, indeed. Ethel Thompson brought the information this morning, and is +quite full of it." + +It so happened that Julia was returning to the cloak-room for a book +which she had forgotten, when she heard her own name mentioned, and +pausing for an instant on the threshold overheard all that was said. + +She ran in and confronted the two girls, her eyes flashing and her heart +beating fast, and exclaimed, "Did Ethel really say that? How dare she +tell such an untruth!" + +"Perhaps it was only a joke," said the girl who had spoken first. + +"It is a slander, an insult, and I'll not stand it!" said Julia +indignantly. + +They reasoned with her and endeavoured to calm her, but only partially +succeeded in soothing her before she returned to the schoolroom. Her +face still wore an angry sullen expression, and she carefully avoided +Ethel Thompson throughout the morning. Not one lesson could she say, and +she begged to be excused her arithmetic and French on the plea of a +severe headache. + +After study hours, when the girls met in recess time, Julia proudly +demanded of Ethel what she meant by spreading such false statements +about her family; and Ethel replied that all she had said was true, and +added that when she heard it she was no longer surprised at Julia's +treatment of Mabel, but saw a reason for it. + +Julia, finding that Ethel's report had gained credence among her +school-fellows, was half wild with mortification and rage; and declaring +that she would remain there no longer to be insulted, she dressed +herself and went home, leaving her companions somewhat alarmed at the +storm their foolish conversation had raised. + +They had not reflected that one of the most fruitful sources of quarrels +among school-girls is--silly gossip about their relatives and friends. + +While Mr. and Mrs. Woburn were sitting at luncheon they were startled by +hearing a violent knock at the door, and the next moment Julia, dressed +in her walking attire, rushed into the room, regardless of everything +but the one idea which possessed her mind, and exclaimed, "Father, tell +me, did you ever fail? Were you ever a bankrupt?" + +Mr. Woburn's face changed suddenly, and grew stern and pale. + +"Why do you ask?" + +"Because they have slandered you and insulted me at school, but I told +them it was false." + +"It _was_--true," said Mr. Woburn slowly, "but I fail to see what can +have brought it up now." + +"True!" cried Julia, bursting into tears, and sobbing hysterically. +"Then I can never go to Miss Elgin's again." + +She threw herself upon the sofa, and for some minutes was unable to +speak, so violent was her passion and anger. In vain her father demanded +an explanation of her strange behaviour, and her mother tried to calm +and soothe her. + +"Leave her to me," she said at last. "I am quite at a loss to understand +the matter, but she will tell me when she is better." + +Before the sobs had altogether subsided Ruth entered the room: for Miss +Elgin, hearing of Julia's sudden departure, had imagined that her +headache had increased, and at once despatched her cousin to follow her. + +"Perhaps you can explain what has happened," said her aunt. "Why have +the girls been talking of your uncle's business affairs?" + +"Well, the fact is, auntie, that Mabel Stanley came to school yesterday, +and Julia was cross and rude to her because her father has failed, and +then the girls made up this tale to humble her, and she flew into a rage +and came home." + +"Now I understand. But the tale was true, nevertheless. Now, Julia dear, +don't sob. I think I had better tell you all about it, that you may +understand for yourselves. + +"I think you know, Julia, that when your father started in life he had +not much capital, and began business in a small way. But he did very +well until there came a time of commercial depression, and a man who +owed him a considerable sum of money died insolvent. Then your father +found that he was so much embarrassed that he thought the wisest and +most honourable course would be to divide what he had amongst his +creditors at once. He gave up everything to them, and was hesitating +what he should do for a living. Just at that time my father died and +left all his little property to me and my brother (your father, Ruth). +My money would not have been sufficient to start another business, but +your father came to our help, and offered to lend his share of the +money. Then my husband was able to start again, and prospered. All his +creditors were paid in full long ago, and my brother's money was repaid +with interest, though nothing, I am sure, can ever repay his kindness in +lending it to us at that particular time, for I fear that he must have +been straitened for years by his generous deed. Now you understand, +Ruth, why I told you that everything I gave you had been more than paid +for long ago, though I did not know that it would be necessary to tell +you how." + +Ruth was silent and thoughtful. Her aunt's words gave her the clue to +many things which she had never been able to comprehend. She guessed now +why her father sometimes looked regretfully at a large and excellent +farm a short distance from his own. + +"You ought to have taken that farm," she had once heard a neighbour +remark to him. + +"Ah! the time for that is gone by," was his reply. + +She believed now that the opportunity of taking it had occurred while +the money was embarked in her uncle's business, and that when it was +free the farm and the family had soon absorbed it, for the land was not +very good, and there had been several bad harvests lately. + +"Why did you never tell me before?" asked Julia peevishly, from the +sofa. + +"Why, dear? Well, you know it is never pleasant to talk about our +failures. Your father has not referred to the subject, even to me, for +years, and I could see that he was exceedingly annoyed by your mention +of it just now. You were but an infant at the time, and it is so long +ago that it seemed to have been forgotten. But I have looked back +sometimes since we have grown rich, and thought with pleasure of my +brother's kindness." + +"Still it is true," whined Julia, "and," she added passionately, "I can +never look at Ethel Thompson or any of the girls again." + +"That is very silly," said her mother. + +"Indeed I cannot--never--_never_, and I am the most wretched girl in +England, and shall never be happy again!" + +Her sobs were renewed with redoubled violence, and she looked really ill +from vexation and passion. Mrs. Woburn gave her some cooling medicine +and persuaded her to go to bed. + +But Ruth did not pity her cousin. She worked alone at her lessons that +evening, and when the thought of Julia crossed her mind her lips +tightened and she said to herself, "She deserves to be ill. She treated +Mabel unkindly, and now it has come back to her, and she is suffering +for it. Yes, she deserves it." And before she went to rest that night +she read in her little Bible a few verses about the sin of pride, with a +mental reference to Julia, and also some passages concerning +retribution, and wrong-doing coming home to the sinner. + +She was not following in the footsteps of the Lord, who hates sin, yet +loves the sinner, but thought only of her cousin's just punishment, and +wondered how she would bear to meet all her school-fellows again. She +was not cherishing the love that vaunteth not itself, that is not puffed +up, that rejoiceth not in iniquity; the love that never faileth, and +that covers a multitude of sins. + +Was there not something of the spirit of the Pharisee in Ruth's heart? +Was she not beginning to sit in the seat of the scornful, and to look +down upon her cousin from her superior position? Well, pride must have a +fall, sooner or later, whether it be pride of position or pride of +heart. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +HARD AT WORK. + + +Ruth went to school alone the next morning, for Julia was so unwell from +the excitement of the day that she seemed quite ill and feverish, and +was scarcely able to lift her head from the pillow. Her eyes had dark +rims round them, her head ached terribly, and she was certainly quite +unfit to attend to her studies and to meet her school-fellows. + +None of the girls liked to ask Ruth what had happened after her return +home, and they scarcely ventured to inquire for her cousin. They +evidently felt that they had gone too far, and began to speak kindly to +Mabel and to treat her in their usual manner. + +But the poor girl could not easily forget the slights she had received, +and amid their new-born kindness she turned naturally to the one who had +befriended her while the others behaved rudely. She soon grew quite +intimate with Ruth, and even ventured to speak of the trouble which had +befallen her father that summer, and of her future prospects. + +"Of course," she said, "papa would not have thought of allowing me to +remain at such an expensive school as Miss Elgin's, but grandmamma has +kindly promised to pay the expenses of my education for two years, and +if I study hard for that time I hope that I shall be able to teach, and +to help papa and mamma." + +Ruth could thoroughly sympathise with her friend, and entered into her +feelings, her hopes and aspirations, for was she not working with the +same object in view? Did she not desire to help _her_ father and mother +by teaching the younger children? + +Thus their friendship grew and strengthened during Julia's absence, +which lasted quite a week. + +She, poor child, was quite unstrung, and for two or three days the very +mention of school brought on a fit of hysterical crying, and she begged +that she might be allowed to go to some boarding-school at a distance, +anywhere--away from Busyborough. Mrs. Woburn was inclined to yield to +her wish; but her father would not hear of such a thing, and declared +that she had brought all the trouble upon herself by her own folly, and +she must bear the consequences of it. He was, in fact, excessively angry +with his spoilt child, and believed that her return to school would be a +severe punishment which she richly deserved. + +When Mr. Woburn spoke in that decided way there was nothing to be done +but to obey. His wife, however, called upon Miss Elgin, and explained +the reason of Julia's absence, begging that she would ask the girls to +receive her kindly, without referring to the cause of the quarrel, as +she had already suffered a good deal. + +Miss Elgin was astonished to hear of the affair, which had perplexed and +puzzled her not a little; for, as her pupils had all felt themselves +more or less to blame in the matter, they had all kept it from her +knowledge, and she had only guessed from their reticence, and the air of +mystery with which they received every allusion to their absent +school-fellow, that something was wrong. Before morning school she +called the girls together, told them how pained and grieved she had +been, and gave them a little lecture upon the duty of ruling the tongue, +and the folly of valuing people only for their wealth or position +instead of their goodness and virtue. The girls listened in silence, and +when Julia returned, looking very much ashamed and humbled after her +vain boasting, they made no allusion to her fiery outburst, and in a few +days she had regained her old place in the school and everything went on +as usual. + +Lessons, classes, exercises, and lectures were crowded into each day. +Ruth had plenty to do, and found that she must work very hard if she +wished to succeed, and to take a good place in the school. She was +astonished to see how indolent some of the girls were; to find that many +of them did not care for knowledge for its own sake, but regarded their +lessons as a trouble, and were continually begging to be allowed to +leave off this or that study. And she was still more surprised and +shocked to find how many of the exercises were merely copied from old +books, with perhaps a few slight mistakes inserted to prevent suspicion. +On more than one occasion, Ruth gave offence by refusing to lend her +books for this purpose, or to avail herself of proffered assistance; but +she persevered steadily, and declared that she would rather make a few +mistakes than evade a difficulty which she could not surmount, as she +would be sure to meet it again. + +Miss Elgin was not long in perceiving that Ruth was a conscientious +girl, anxious to learn, and in many little ways she contrived to help +and encourage her. + +As the weather grew colder and winter advanced, the old home-life at the +farm seemed very far away, and somehow the home letters were not so full +of interest as they had once been. How trivial and childish it seemed to +read about the new kittens, the chickens, the nuts in the woods, and the +apples in the orchard, and the many little details with which the +children's letters were filled, when one was studying chemistry and +reading Milton and Shakespeare. Her mother's letters were always +welcome, but they were very rare. + +The comfort and luxury of her new home were beginning to make a visible +alteration in her. Already she looked and felt quite a different person +from the little Ruth Arnold who sometimes milked the cows, or helped +with the house-work when the servants were busy. Her brown curls had +long since given place to a long plait like Julia's, her clothes were of +richer materials and made in a more fashionable style, and she had what +seemed at first an abundant supply of pocket-money. The only day on +which she really longed to be back at Cressleigh was Sunday. It had +always been such a happy day at the farm, the only rest day of the busy +father and mother, and always spent with the children. There were of +course certain duties which could not be neglected, but these were +quickly done, and then the whole family went together to the house of +God. In the afternoon the children all went to Sunday-school, where Will +was promoted to the post of teacher, and Mr. and Mrs. Arnold had a quiet +hour together with no one but the baby to disturb them. There was rarely +any service in the evening, but it was a pleasant time for the children, +who in fine summer weather sat on the lawn and sang their favourite +hymns, or on winter evenings gathered round the old piano in the +well-worn parlour while their mother or Ruth played, or listened while +their father talked or read some good and interesting book. All went to +bed early, and rose in the morning refreshed and strengthened by the joy +and repose of the day of rest. + +But Sunday at Busyborough was quite a different matter. Every one was +expected to attend public worship once during the day, but Gerald was +often missing, and the others did not appear to take much pleasure in +going. Mr. Woburn had a pew in a handsome church close by, and also at a +large Nonconformist chapel in the neighbourhood. His wife usually +attended the latter, but Julia preferred the church, where the service +was very elaborate. She hated long sermons, she said, and liked to have +something to look at. Ruth accompanied her once or twice, but found the +morning service, to which she had been accustomed all her life, so +differently rendered that at first she could hardly follow it. The dear +old Psalms, which had always been read at Cressleigh by the clergyman +and the people led by the parish clerk, sounded so strange and +unfamiliar when chanted by a surpliced choir. The intoning, the +processions, and everything else, were so strange, that Ruth was afraid +to join in the service. + +After going a few times she decided to accompany her aunt, for although +the service of the chapel was unfamiliar she was able to enter into the +spirit of it, and could appreciate and enjoy the sermon delivered by a +clever and eloquent preacher. + +The family dined early on Sundays, and then the miserable part of the +day began for Ruth. There was "nothing to do on Sundays," Julia said, +and indeed there seemed to be no occupation provided. No one thought of +going to Sunday-school, as Ruth had once timidly suggested, although +Julia sometimes went to church when there was a special musical service. +At other times she would begin to read; then she would fidget or strum +on the piano, greatly to the annoyance of her father, who always took a +Sunday afternoon nap, and of Ernest, who buried himself in a book. +Gerald went out, Rupert got into all sorts of mischief, and Ruth was +left to her own devices. + +In the evening the girls wrote their Scripture exercises, under cover of +which Julia often did other lessons, though this was quite contrary to +the express orders of her father, who was very anxious that his children +should have a "proper regard for the day." There was continual +bickering, many disputes and petty quarrels, and when bed-time came +every one was weary and cross, and seemed glad the day was over. No +wonder that Ruth often longed and sighed for one of the happy old +Sundays at home. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +AN ADVENTURE. + + +Gerald was less known to his cousin than any other member of the family, +for he spent very little time in her society. He usually rose late, and +after a hasty breakfast hurried away to the office whither his father +had already gone. The girls did not see him again until six o'clock when +he returned to dinner, frequently going out directly it was over to +spend the evening with his friends. + +Yet, although Ruth saw but little of him, that little astonished her. +She could never forget that he was only a year or two older than Will. A +year or two made a great difference, she knew, but could Will ever +become such a well-dressed fashionable young man, who grumbled at his +mother if the dinner was not to his mind, scolded the servants, and +argued and talked to his father just as if he were a man of his own age? + +Ruth thought not, and hoped not. + +The short November days were cold and dreary, school duties seemed to +increase, and the girls were beginning to talk of the coming +examinations, and to look forward to the Christmas holidays and +festivities. + +In spite of hard work Ruth found it a difficult matter to do all her +lessons thoroughly, and although she was strong and healthy and not +easily fatigued, the effort was beginning to tell upon her. + +One fine Wednesday her aunt persuaded her to take a holiday. The rest +was very pleasant, but she had a certain amount of work to finish by the +end of the week, and sat up rather late the next night over her French +translation. She was obliged to give up at last, and went to bed quite +dissatisfied with her evening's work. But when she laid her head upon +the pillow sleep quite forsook her. She tossed and turned, but all in +vain, sleep would not come; her mind was full of the paragraph she had +been endeavouring to translate, and she felt sure that she could do it +much better, if only it were not so late. + +Might she not scribble down a few of the sentences which had puzzled +her, but were now quite clear? Of course her aunt would not like it, but +then she need never know. It could not be any worse to write than to lie +in bed and think, she argued, and it would be such a relief to get it +done. + +She sprang out of bed, turned up the gas, put on her pretty flannel +dressing gown and woollen shoes, drew up a comfortable easy-chair, and +then remembered that she had left all her books and papers downstairs, +in the little room opening out of the hall where she and Julia prepared +their lessons. + +"Never mind, I can get it without disturbing any one," she said, as she +lighted a bedroom candle and crept downstairs very softly in her +woollen shoes, shading the candle as she passed the bedroom doors that +the light might not be seen. + +The house was very still and quiet: not a sound was to be heard but the +ticking of the great clock in the hall. Ruth did not look at it, she did +not care to know the time, for she was sure it was very late. The little +study looked cold and desolate by the light of her solitary candle, and +the ashes in the grate still moved and made a slight rustling which +sounded very plainly. Ruth had just gathered up her books and papers +when the hall clock struck close to her, one long solemn stroke. + +One o'clock! It was very late she owned, and very lonely down there. + +Hark! what was that? Surely the clock was striking again. No, it was a +different sound and came from the front-door. Some person was evidently +trying to open it. Ruth's heart stood still. All the terrible stories +she had ever heard of burglars and midnight robberies came to her mind, +and at the same time the unpleasant conviction that she had stepped +aside from the path of duty and thus brought herself into danger. + +Her presence of mind was quite gone. She feared that her candle might +attract attention, but dared not extinguish it and be alone in the dark +with--she knew not whom. Holding her breath she stood for a moment +gazing fixedly towards the door. It was opened softly and cautiously, +and the figure of a man entered the hall and carefully fastened the +bolts of the door. Ruth was too terrified to scream, and as the light of +her candle fell upon his face she suddenly recognised her +cousin--_Gerald_. + +He started when he saw the light and his little cousin's scared pale +face, and exclaimed, "What is the matter, Ruth?" + +"Oh, Gerald, how you have frightened me!" she said, trembling violently. +"Where have you been?" + +"What are you doing here?" he asked, evading her question. + +"I couldn't sleep, and came down to fetch my books, and I--I heard you +at the door, and thought you were a burglar." + +"Do you often stroll about at night?" he inquired curiously. + +"No, indeed. And I have been so terrified that I am sure I will never do +it again. I am very sorry, but I will tell auntie all about it +to-morrow," she said, taking her candle and moving towards the stairs. + +"Ruth," said Gerald, in an agitated whisper, "wait a minute." + +She turned so that the light fell full upon his face, and saw that he +looked white and anxious. + +"May I ask you, as a favour, not to mention your adventure with the +burglar? Perhaps it would be better for both of us to be silent about +to-night's occurrence." + +"Why? Where have you been, Gerald? You went to bed before ten o'clock, +and"--a thought struck her--"how came the door to be unbolted?" + +"Now, Ruth," he said coaxingly, "I know you are a good-natured little +thing, and I don't believe you would do me a bad turn. You know the +governor is always down upon me, won't let me have a latch-key, and says +I must be in by half-past ten. A fellow can't live without a little +pleasure, and if the governor won't let me have it I must take it. But +don't say a word, there's a dear, or you will get me into an awful row." + +"But it is so wrong to deceive your father and mother," urged Ruth, +thinking that after all Gerald was not so "grown-up" as he seemed. "Do +you often go out at night?" + +"No, very seldom." + +It was not true, but he was anxious to conciliate her. + +"Well, Ruth, shall we promise each other that we won't say a word about +to-night?" + +"I don't know. I don't mind telling auntie what I have done, though I +know it was wrong and foolish, but, of course, I don't want to get you +into trouble. Yet--I can't tell lies----" + +"Of course not; I wouldn't wish it. But you can be silent--yes, I +believe you can--and I want you to promise me on your word as a good +little cousin, that you will not mention what has happened to any one." + +"Very well," she said, turning away slowly. + +"Gerald, will you promise me something?" + +"Anything you like." + +They were almost upstairs now, and he was anxious for her to be silent. + +"Promise that you won't go out at night again without letting your +father know." + +"I'll promise," was his whispered reply; and they separated. + +Another moment, and Ruth was in her own room, but without the books for +which she had gone downstairs. She had forgotten them and the +translation in her astonishment about Gerald, and when she lay in bed +once more her mind was full of her strange adventure, and she began to +wonder if she had done right in giving her promise so quickly, without +any reflection. + +A promise was to her a sacred thing, not to be lightly given or easily +broken, but she comforted herself with the thought that she was really +doing good to her cousin. Had he not promised her in return that he +would give up these forbidden pleasures? And was not that something to +rejoice over? + +She did not know enough of the world to reflect that one who wilfully +deceived his parents was hardly likely to keep a promise so readily made +to his little country cousin. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +EXAMINATION. + + +After the events of that night Gerald took more notice of Ruth, spoke +kindly to her, and often remarked upon her studious industry, usually to +his sister's disparagement. Although she was not very fond of Julia, +Ruth could not help feeling that this must be very galling to her, for +Julia certainly seemed more fond of Gerald than of any other person, and +she felt his sarcastic remarks very keenly. + +He appeared to be keeping his promise, for he came down to breakfast in +good time and did not look so pale and languid as usual. But Ruth soon +forgot both Gerald and her promise for a time in a matter of great +importance to herself--the school examination. + +She had been working steadily throughout the term, and was very anxious +to pass the examination creditably, more especially as, in addition to +the usual prizes, Miss Elgin had offered one for general improvement, +which she was very desirous of obtaining. It would, she knew, be such a +joy to her father and mother, who were expecting great things of her, +and their pride and approval would be more to her than the honour of +receiving the prize. + +In English studies Ruth had made very considerable progress, and did not +much fear the result of the examination, but she was not so sure about +French. That was always her weak point, perhaps on account of the very +English fashion in which she had learnt it at Miss Green's. Still she +persevered with it, and had some hopes of success. + +But when the hour of the examination came, and the papers were given +out, her courage almost failed. + +There were grammatical questions, phrases to be explained, and short +sentences to be translated into French. These she understood fairly, but +the paragraph that filled her with dismay was a short French poem of +three verses to be put into English prose. She read it again and again, +but, from the idioms and inversions it contained, totally failed to +comprehend its meaning. Indeed, she could see from the significant +glances which--talking being forbidden--were exchanged between the +girls, that she was not the only one who failed to appreciate the +beauty, or even the sense of the poem. + +"It's of no use," she sighed; "I must leave it and answer some +questions. If I have time afterwards, I may, perhaps, do one verse." + +For a whole hour there was not a sound to be heard but the scratching of +busy pens and the rustling of papers or the tapping of idle fingers, +waiting to put down the thoughts that would not come. + +Julia was writing very fast. She was more proficient in French than in +any other study. She liked it, and easily caught the sounds, and was +very proud of the fact that she had once spent a few days in Paris with +her mother. She had also profited by her friendship with a French girl, +one of Miss Elgin's boarders, who had come to the place quite unable to +speak English. Julia had taken a fancy to mademoiselle, and in +conversation with her picked up several unusual phrases, and became +familiar with many of the idioms, though her knowledge of the grammar +was still very meagre. + +The poem which perplexed the other girls was less difficult to her than +the grammatical questions, and she wrote away busily translating it. She +was seated at a desk just in front of Ruth, who looked up after writing +her answers, wondering what she could do about the poem. The time +allowed for the paper was drawing to a close. Julia had finished her +translation, and was holding it in her hand, reading it over to see if +it required any correction. Her writing was large, firm, and clear, and +as she held up the paper Ruth's eye fell upon it, and, almost +unconsciously, she read the whole of her cousin's translation. + +The meaning of the poem was no longer a mystery to her. She understood +it now, and could easily translate it. + +Without stopping to think if it were right or wrong, she seized her pen +and wrote the words as they came to her mind. Naturally enough they were +almost identical with those she had read on her cousin's paper. But she +did not stop to think, and had scarcely finished the last word when the +clock struck, and the papers were immediately collected, Ruth's not +having been even read over. + +"How many questions did you answer?" "What have you done?" "How _did_ +you get on with that dreadful translation?" asked the girls of each +other when school hours were over and their tongues were once more +unloosed. + +"I suppose that you have done it, Julia, you are so clever at French," +said Ethel. + +"It really wasn't difficult," replied Julia carelessly. "What have you +done, Ruth?" + +"I think I answered nearly all the questions," was the reply. + +"And the poem?" + +"Yes, I did it." + +Julia looked rather surprised, but she said nothing, though several of +the girls were loud in their exclamations of wonder that Ruth should +even have attempted it. + +She listened rather impatiently to their remarks, for already she felt +ashamed of the advantage she had taken, and would gladly have seized the +paper upon which her translation was written and thrown it upon the +fire. + +But it had gone out of her possession and was hers no longer. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +A DOWNWARD STEP. + + +"I can't think what has happened to Ruth, she is not at all like her +usual self," remarked Ernest that evening. + +He had been playfully teasing his cousin about her studies, when she +suddenly answered him sharply, burst into a violent flood of tears, and +ran away to her own room. + +"She is crosser than ever," said Julia. + +"Poor child!" sighed Mrs. Woburn; "I am afraid she has been working too +hard. I am glad for her sake that the holidays are so near. She is so +anxious to do well, and to-day's examination has tried her sadly." + +Meanwhile Ruth, upstairs in her own room, was sobbing bitterly, and +thinking hard thoughts of herself. The examination _had_ tried her, but +not half as much as the loss of self-respect she had felt since she gave +up her papers that morning with the translation which was certainly not +the result of her own work. + +"I wish I had never left home," she thought; "everything is going wrong, +it is so difficult to do right here. If only I had not seen Julia's +translation. If I had never promised Gerald that I would not mention +about his coming in so late. Oh, I wish I were back at Cressleigh!" + +With the thought of home, which to her troubled mind seemed so calm and +peaceful, came the remembrance of her mother's words, "I should have no +fear for you if I were sure that you were not going alone, if I knew +that you had an almighty Friend with you to lead you in the right way." + +She knew that she had strayed out of the right way, and she had not far +to seek for the reason. Ever since she came to Busyborough she had been +growing careless about the things of eternity, and had ceased to take +delight in reading God's Word and in prayer. + +The Bible upon her dressing-table was read daily, it is true, and both +morning and evening Ruth knelt for a few moments in prayer. But the +sweet meaning was gone from the texts, and the prayer was little better +than a form; there was no life in either. + +When the young girl went to live at her uncle's house, she found that +the lives of those with whom she came into daily contact were not ruled +by the same principles and motives as her own. At first she grieved and +prayed for her cousins, then she became self-sufficient and wise in her +own conceit; and having once allowed the unchristian spirit of pride and +dislike for Julia to creep into her heart and take possession, other +evils had quickly followed, and had gradually drawn her farther and +farther away from her Saviour. She began to see it all that night, and +to realize how far off she was; but the knowledge only increased her +wretchedness, and made her more miserable. Suddenly a thought struck +her. Would it not be wise and right to go to Miss Elgin before school +the next morning, to confess that she had yielded to temptation, and to +ask that the obnoxious translation might at once be burnt? + +But Ruth angrily resisted the notion. Confess that _she_, who bore the +character of the most conscientious and trustworthy girl in the school, +had stooped to do the very thing which she had so often censured in +others? No, never. It would be too degrading and humiliating. Perhaps, +after all, Julia's translation was not correct. There might be many +faults in her own, and it was very unlikely that she would get a high +number of marks for her French paper. + +Thus she tried to quiet her conscience, and to banish uncomfortable +suggestions. It was the 22nd of December, and the prizes were to be +given away on the 23rd. It was not yet known who were to receive them, +and, as school work was virtually over, there was a good deal of talk +and speculation concerning them. Finishing touches were being given to +drawings and maps, desks were being put in order, and books arranged, +all in preparation for the festive morrow. + +"Miss Arnold, will you go at once to Miss Elgin, in the library?" said +one of the teachers in charge of the restless chattering crowd of girls. + +Ruth obeyed, and left the room with a heightened colour, and the girls +began to wonder why she had been summoned. + +"It is about the prize for general improvement, I believe," said Ethel +Thompson. "I heard Miss Elgin telling Miss Lee that she thought Ruth +deserved it for 'her steady and conscientious work.'" + +"Well, there is no doubt that she has worked hard," said one of her +companions. + +"Come in," said Miss Elgin, in response to Ruth's tap at the library +door. "Sit down, dear; I want to ask you a question." + +The governess was seated in her study chair, looking over the piles of +examination papers heaped upon the table, and entering the numbers of +marks in a small red book. + +"I want to ask you a question," she repeated. "Did any one help you with +your French paper?" + +Ruth was taken aback. She did not wish to tell a falsehood, and yet she +felt that she could not, _could_ not confess now. Her face grew crimson, +and a crowd of thoughts surged through her brain. The form in which the +question was put tempted her, and she argued with herself, "No one +helped me. How could Julia help me without knowing? I helped myself." +And after a moment's pause, in which she seemed to be listening for her +own reply, her lips moved and repeated the expression of her thoughts, +"No--no one helped me." + +"Excuse my asking you, but your paper was so remarkably good that I +could hardly understand your having so few faults, especially in the +translation, which was really difficult. I suppose," she added with a +smile, "that you have already concluded that your steady application and +diligent work will meet with their deserved reward. That will do. You +may go now." + +She returned to the schoolroom in silence, her mind full of two ideas: +the first, that she had obtained the prize; the second, that she had +deceived Miss Elgin. + +"But I have not told an untruth," she argued with her conscience. "I was +asked if any one helped me. Julia did not help me. I only saw and read +her paper accidentally." + +It was very trying work, arguing with conscience when a number of +chattering girls were buzzing about, laughing and asking questions, and +Ruth gave several sharp and pettish replies to their inquiries, and was +rallied upon her silence and her grave face. + +How often it happens that our hardest battles have to be fought in the +midst of a crowd, that our moments of sharpest agony and keenest remorse +come at a time when we long for solitude, but cannot obtain it, but must +go on speaking and acting as if our minds were quite at ease, and full +of nothing but the trifling affairs of the moment. + +Ruth's conscience was very active, and would keep reminding her that it +was not yet too late to go and confess to Miss Elgin. But she put it +off. Alas! every moment that had elapsed since she gave up the paper +rendered such a task more difficult; the longer she concealed her fault +the more serious it became. Looking quite pale and wretched, she +returned home that afternoon with a splitting headache. Her aunt was +quite troubled about her, though she tried to make light of it, and Mr. +Woburn said cheerily, "You must make haste and get well for to-morrow, +Ruth. I suppose you will have a grand prize to bring home after all this +term's work." + +"Indeed, I would rather not go to-morrow morning," she replied +sincerely, as she wished them good-night. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE PRIZE. + + +But when the morning came she could find no plausible excuse for +absenting herself from the prize-giving. Her head was better, though she +still looked pale, and Mrs. Woburn, who was to accompany the two girls, +would not hear of her remaining at home. + +Sick at heart, and anxious for the whole business to be over, Ruth +followed her aunt and cousin into the schoolroom, where the desks had +been cleared away, and the drawings and work of the pupils were arranged +for exhibition. + +A number of visitors had already arrived, and were walking round +inspecting the drawings, etc., and chatting in little groups, until Mr. +Redcliffe, a gentleman of influence and wide repute, entered the +schoolroom and took his seat. He made a little speech upon the value of +education, complimented Miss Elgin upon her excellent system of +instruction and the proficiency of her pupils, and said a few words of +congratulation and encouragement to each of the girls as they came +forward to receive their prizes. + +Ruth's turn came last, and perhaps on that account his words to her were +even kinder and more appreciative. He considered that the prize for +general improvement was perhaps better worth having than any other, +because, in order to gain it, one must indeed have proved worthy, he +said to the blushing girl who stood before him, trembling and full of +shame, which, however, appeared to be humility. + +The longed-for moment had come at last, and Ruth held in her hand the +prize for which she had worked and striven. Yes, she had gained it, but +at what a cost! + +At the cost of truth and honour, of right principle and self-respect. It +was a very poor exchange for them, and the unhappy girl would gladly +have given it up, would have borne any disappointment, anything but the +humiliation of confession, to have been her old light-hearted innocent +self again. But she had done wrong, and although she shrank from pain, +she had to bear what, in her state of mind, was indeed a trial--the kind +congratulations of her school-fellows, and the praises of her teacher +and friends. Even when she reached home the trial was not over, for her +uncle and cousins had each some kind word to say. + +"And now, my dear, you must write to your father and mother," said Mrs. +Woburn that afternoon. "How proud and delighted they will be to hear of +your success!" + +_That letter!_ It was the hardest task of all to write and tell her +parents what she knew would give them so much pleasure, while she was +concealing the fact which would, if known, give them far greater pain. +She spent the afternoon writing and re-writing it, and at last sent off +a stiff, constrained little note, informing them that she had been +successful, and hoped they were all well. + +When Mrs. Arnold received the letter, she read it again and again. She +felt convinced, from the absence of any playful remarks, from Ruth's +unusual brevity and lack of detail, that something was wrong; but she +knew that if her daughter did not write freely she could not _force_ her +confidence. So she carried the trouble to her Heavenly Father, and asked +Him to lead and guide her absent child. + +Christmas was upon them almost before Ruth was aware of it, the gayest +and most festive Christmas time that she had ever known, a round of +parties, pleasure and merriment. It needs a mind at peace to be able to +enter into and enjoy the innocent pleasures of life, and to feel no +bitterness when they are past. And Ruth, in spite of the presents she +received, the parties to which she was invited, and the pretty dresses +she wore, was troubled in mind, and therefore unhappy. + +Two things weighed heavily upon her, her own deceit, and her promise to +Gerald. + +She had been so carefully trained, and so early taught the difference +between right and wrong, that she could not look upon her prize without +being reminded of the temptation to which she had so suddenly yielded, +and the equivocation to which she had resorted in order to hide it. + +Then her promise to Gerald troubled her greatly. She felt almost sure, +though she could not prove it, that he was not keeping his word. He came +down in the morning very late, looking pale and haggard, scarcely tasted +his breakfast, and hurried away to the office; and when he returned in +the evening either pooh-poohed his mother's anxious inquiries about his +health, or answered her curtly and snappishly. + +Everything was going wrong, Ruth said to herself continually. + +She had done very wrong, had taken a false step, and she felt truly +enough that no power on earth could alter that fact. And having once +started on a downward path it seemed of no use to try to stop and to do +better in future: she must give up all her struggles to do right, and go +down, down. It requires a very hardened sinner to forget the past, and +begin again as if nothing had happened; or a very humble Christian to +start again, after repeated failures, in dependence upon God. Ruth's +self-sufficiency was gone, and she sadly admitted to herself that she +was no better than Julia and the other girls. She had given up reading +her Bible now, thinking its sweet messages were not for her, a wayward, +erring one, and would scarcely dare to pray even for the safety and +well-being of the dear ones at home. Too broken-spirited to make +resolutions which she felt herself to be too weak to carry out, afraid +to open her Bible and read therein her own condemnation, and feeling +that her sin had raised a barrier, which she was unable to remove, +between herself and God, the New Year began in sorrow and sadness. "Your +sins have separated between you and your God." These words were +continually in her mind, and the remembrance of the peace and joy which +she had once felt in thinking of the things belonging to the kingdom +only made her more miserable. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +SO AS BY FIRE. + + +"Hark! what was that?" exclaimed Ruth one night, starting up in bed. + +She had been half-dozing, half-dreaming, when she was startled by a +slight noise downstairs, as if something had fallen. + +"I believe it is Gerald. I will go down at once, and tell him that as he +has not kept his word I am no longer bound by my promise." + +She sprang out of bed, slipped on her dressing-gown and shoes, and +hurried downstairs, anxious to meet her cousin before he went up to his +room, and to get rid of the embargo which rested so heavily upon her. + +Down the stairs and into the hall she went without meeting him. The +front-door was fastened and bolted securely. Had she been mistaken, or +had he already gone to his room? + +One moment she stood in perplexity and doubt. Then hearing a slight +noise, and seeing a bright light shining under the door of the little +study, she turned the handle and opened the door to enter, but stepped +back, half-blinded by the cloud of smoke which immediately enveloped +her. The next moment she discovered the form of Gerald, who was +evidently asleep in his chair, bending over the table, upon which were +some blazing papers. The table itself was on fire, and the cloth that +covered it was smouldering and giving forth volumes of smoke. + +[Illustration: ruth-26.jpg] + +Ruth gave a piercing scream, which alarmed the household, rushed into +the room, caught up the heavy rug and threw it over the table, seized +her cousin by the arm, and tried with all her might to drag him from the +room. + +Before she succeeded in arousing him her aunt and uncle came to her +relief, drawn thither by her cry of alarm. They were soon followed by +the terrified servants, who, under Mr. Woburn's direction, quickly +extinguished the fire and removed Gerald. + +The young man was soon restored to consciousness, and started up with a +bewildered look, but his face assumed an expression of fear and horror +as he gradually realized how narrowly he had escaped from a dreadful +death. + +"Oh, Gerald! How did it occur?" asked his mother, giving utterance to +the question which had been uppermost in the minds of all. + +"Don't ask," he almost groaned; "and yet you must know it, sooner or +later." + +"Do tell everything, Gerald," implored Ruth, who, now that the terror +and excitement were over, stood pale and shivering. "It was partly my +fault, you know; I ought not to have made that promise." + +Thus entreated, Gerald told them the story of his faults and follies; of +his midnight carousals and their discovery by Ruth, of his overwhelming +love of pleasure, of half-hours stolen from the office during his +father's absence and of work neglected. He went on to say that the chief +clerk had told him, a few days before, that he really must inform Mr. +Woburn how shamefully neglected were the books under his son's care; +that he dreaded his father's anger, and promised to write up the books +and finish his work before the end of January. For this purpose he had +brought home the books and worked at them stealthily by night until +drowsiness overtook him, and he probably knocked over the candle which +had done the mischief. + +Mr. Woburn felt more anger than he dared to show at such a time, just +after his son's deliverance from a horrible fate, and he turned the +subject by applauding Ruth's presence of mind and bravery. + +"Don't praise me, I can't bear it! I am as bad as Gerald!" she sobbed, +and rushed away to her own room. + +Before daylight the next morning Mrs. Woburn was at her door with a +steaming cup of coffee. + +"Drink this, my dear," she said. "How your hand trembles! I was afraid +that you would feel ill after your dreadful fright. Indeed, dear," she +said, her eyes full of tears, "I can never thank you, never feel half +grateful enough for your brave rescue of my poor Gerald." + +"Don't say that, auntie. If--if anything had happened, it would have +been my fault. I ought to have told you of his wrong-doing long ago." + +"It was only your goodness of heart, darling," said her aunt kindly. + +"But it wasn't _right_, auntie. I deceived you. Oh dear! I feel such a +bundle of deceit. I've deceived every one," she said under a sudden +impulse. "No, don't stop me; I must tell you all about it." + +Then she poured into her ear the whole story of the prize as well as her +promise to Gerald, and finished by saying that she had been perfectly +miserable all through the holidays. + +Mrs. Woburn was surprised and somewhat shocked at this recital; but she +was good-natured, and her sense of wrong had been growing dull so many +years that she failed to understand Ruth's emotion. + +"Poor child!" she said gently, "it has been very bad for you, but it is +all over now, and you will do better in future." + +"Oh, auntie, how can I?" she exclaimed, as she thought what a different +reply her mother would have made. + +"I must tell Miss Elgin," she said resolutely; "and I suppose all the +girls must know, and Julia, and--and father and mother." + +"Do you think that necessary, dear? You are very sorry, I am sure. Is +not that enough?" + +"Nothing can make it right, I know, auntie; but I cannot, and will not, +deceive them any longer." + +Ruth burst into a fit of hysterical crying, and was only quieted by her +aunt's promise to go with her that very day to call upon Miss Elgin. + +"Poor Ruth seems quite ill," said Mrs. Woburn at breakfast-time. "I +persuaded her to stay in bed a little while, and I think she will be +better soon. She has made quite a confession to me." + +"What was it about?" inquired Julia. + +Then, according to her niece's wish, she repeated the whole story, +concluding with the remark that, after all, it was not quite such a +serious matter as the poor child seemed to think. She remembered that +girls used to copy when she went to school, and they worked so hard now +that it really was somewhat excusable. + +"You would think it was serious if you heard Ruth denounce it," was +Julia's reply. "She could never say enough against it, and pretended to +be so much better than any of us. To think of her having looked over me! +I couldn't have believed it!" + +Ernest made no remark, though he listened attentively to the +conversation. + +The visit to Miss Elgin, which Mrs. Woburn did not consider necessary, +was a very trying ordeal. _She_ certainly did not make light of the +matter, although she did not think it would be advisable to tell the +girls; it would be sufficient for them to know that Ruth was under her +displeasure. + +"I feared at first that there was something wrong," she said, "but I +could not doubt your word, Ruth; I have always trusted to your high +principle and honour. Henceforth I must act differently, and you must +not expect to be trusted." + +There was no palliation of the offence, which she surveyed from her high +stand-point of justice alone. + +"Now, Ruth, your troubles are over," said her aunt gaily as they +returned home. + +"Over! Are they?" she sighed wearily to herself, "when I have to write +home, and to live next term under Miss Elgin's displeasure, and all my +life with the remembrance of this behind me!" + +It was a great trial to have to write home to dispel her mother's fond +hopes and her father's pride in her; to tell them that their Ruth was +not the frank, open, truth-loving girl they had always believed her; to +prove to them that one of their children could stoop to equivocation and +deceit. Yes, it was a hard and bitter task, and she shed a good many +tears over it as she wrote, almost oblivious of everything else in the +little study, where the traces of the fire still remained. + +Presently she raised her head, and saw Ernest looking at her--not +curiously, but with a kind, compassionate gaze. + +"Ruth," he said, in a low tone, "I am awfully sorry for you, but I can't +understand why you should be so unhappy _now_." + +"I shall always be wretched," said Ruth bitterly; "all my life, I +expect." + +"I--I thought when first you came here that you were a Christian," said +the boy timidly. + +"I thought so too," sobbed Ruth, "but I suppose I was wrong. Everything +goes wrong here, and that happy time is so far away." + +"But if you have confessed to God, and have His forgiveness, the +happiness will come again." + +"Confess to _Him_? How could I? He is such a long way off now, and there +is such a gulf between that I cannot pray to Him." + +"Oh, Ruth; you are making a great mistake. You know that Jesus died on +purpose to put away sin, to break down the wall, to bridge over the +gulf. He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. It is you that +have changed, not Christ. Go to Him at once; it is of no use humbling +yourself and confessing to others if you stop away from Him. He only can +forgive and send peace." + +"'Your sins have separated between you and your God,'" said Ruth +solemnly. + +"'The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin,'" replied +her cousin. + +"Ernest, you are a Christian!" said Ruth suddenly. + +"Yes, I hope so," replied the boy, reddening as his shyness and +self-consciousness returned. + +"Why did you never talk to me before?" asked Ruth; "you might have +helped me so much. I thought I was all alone and better than the rest." + +"It was wrong, I know," he replied, "but I am so foolish I cannot talk +about these things; yet I felt so sorry for you just now, for I thought +you had forgotten." + +"Forgotten what?" + +"How much God loves you. 'Like as a father pitieth his children,' you +know, Ruth." + +She made no reply, but slipped away to her own room to lay her heavy +burden at the feet of the Crucified One. + +I remember hearing some years ago of a little child who, being reproved +for some naughty deed, seemed very unhappy, and was seen to steal into a +room close by, where he knelt down and lisped in his baby tones, "Dear +God, _mis'able_." How much there was in that tiny prayer, that one word! +It was indeed the essence of heartfelt prayer, the laying down of the +soul's burden. + +Ruth could hardly find words in which to express the cry of her heart, +but when she went downstairs half an hour later there was a peaceful +look upon her face and a gladness in her very step which had been +wanting since she came to Busyborough. She had sought and obtained +pardon, and had rejoiced once more in the sweet texts which she read in +her Bible. She added a long postscript to her home letter, and that +night Ernest found upon his dressing-table a little twisted note +containing these words-- + + "Dear Ernest,--Thank you for ever and ever. + + "Your forgiven and happy cousin, + + "Ruth." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +LIVING IT DOWN. + + +The holidays were over about the end of January, and Ruth once more +accompanied her cousin to Addison College. But she entered the +schoolroom in a different spirit, distrusting self and relying only upon +Divine help. + +She had need enough of grace and strength, for the day had not passed +before the girls noticed that Miss Elgin had lost confidence in her and +was inclined to regard her with distrust and suspicion, and they +wondered greatly what had caused the change. Julia of course was +questioned, and without really wishing to do her cousin an injury she +gradually let out the facts concerning the prize. The girls took +different views of the case, according to their liking for Ruth and +their sense of right and wrong. There was a great deal of talk for a few +days, and then the matter was forgotten by all but Miss Elgin, whose +manner was a constant reminder of the affair. + +As for Ruth herself, she could _almost_ say, "None of these things move +me," so trivial did they seem; for she was rejoicing in the +consciousness of forgiveness and pardon, her heart was resting after its +wanderings, filled with the "peace which passeth all understanding." The +sheep had come back to the fold, there to abide, to find its shelter +safer and sweeter than ever. + +Mrs. Arnold's reply to her daughter was at once tender, sorrowful, +hopeful and motherly. She grieved over what had happened, but rejoiced +that her child had no longer any secret to hide from her; she pointed +out the only path of safety, and commended her to the care and keeping +of the loving Father who had watched over her during all her waywardness +and had brought her back to Himself. + +That letter aroused an intense longing for home, for a glimpse of all +the dear faces which she had not seen for seven long months. August +seemed so far away, though each day brought it nearer. Ernest had quite +relapsed into his usual shy, quiet manner, and it was only occasionally +that he was willing to talk with his cousin upon the one subject which +was a bond of union between them. + +A change took place in the household early in March, for Gerald left +home. His accident and subsequent explanations opened his father's eyes +to shortcomings which he had for some time suspected, yet it was also +the means of establishing a better relation between them. + +The injury which the fire had caused to the books was a most serious +matter, and not even several weeks' work was able to repair the +mischief. The whole matter was necessarily known to all the clerks, and +Mr. Woburn decided that his son must no longer remain in his office, +where he had been able persistently to shirk his duties. Gerald was +thankful to have a chance of starting afresh, away from his old +associates, and gladly fell in with his father's proposal that he should +leave Busyborough, and take a situation which was easily procured for +him in another town. + +Julia openly lamented his going, and also cried over it a good deal in +secret, for she was very much attached to her eldest brother, and had +regarded Ruth far more kindly ever since the night when she had been the +means of saving him. + +"I used to think that you hated Gerald," she said to her cousin one day, +"and he seemed so kind and polite to you, and so cross to me, that I +grew jealous and couldn't bear you;" and Ruth was somewhat amused to +overhear Julia remark to a friend that she thought she (Ruth) "had +really improved of late." + +Study, lessons, classes, essays, and practice were again the important +matters to which attention was directed daily, and there was little time +for recreation or amusement until Easter, when Gerald returned for a few +days, and there was a fortnight's respite from the apparently endless +round of school duties. + +A day's excursion of about ten miles into the country, in search of +primroses and other wild flowers, greatly revived Ruth's longing for +home. It seemed so strange to think that the Cressleigh woods were +studded with primroses and anemones, and that she would not gather them +nor see the woods until the flowers had all vanished. + +One more term's work, and then--hurrah for home! Such were her thoughts +when she returned to school again after her brief holiday; and as it +would probably be her last term, she determined to work with redoubled +vigour and energy to acquire the knowledge which she would afterwards be +able to impart to her young brothers and sisters. + +Miss Elgin's coolness and distrust considerably abated, when she saw +Ruth working diligently and bearing with patience the petty taunts and +slights of her school-fellows. Her influence was greater than it had +been. She no longer found fault with the other girls in the spirit of +the Pharisee, but spoke compassionately, knowing what it was to be +tempted and to fall, and her companions were more inclined to follow the +example of one who was striving to do right than to be influenced by the +precepts of a self-sufficient paragon. + +There were still many slips and shortcomings, but she neither concealed +nor made light of them; she simply confessed herself in the wrong and +began again in the strength which comes from above. + +So the term passed, and Ruth, who believed that her school-days were +nearly over, began to take a mournful pleasure in thinking, "This is the +last time I shall ever do this or that," and drew many plans for her +future life. + +Miss Elgin said that it was a pity for her to leave school when she was +learning so much and making such satisfactory progress; but Ruth +somewhat propitiated her by saying that she would work hard and keep up +her studies at home. + +But how little we know what the future will bring! + +Just before the holidays, Ruth received a letter which contained the +alarming news that one of the younger children was ill with scarlatina, +and that she would be obliged to postpone her return home for at least a +few weeks. She was anxious to go at once and help her mother in her work +of nursing, but her parents would not allow her to run the risk of +entering the infected house. + +It was disappointing, more especially as she had just gained a handsome +prize, which was indeed fairly hers by right of industry and patience. + +Yet after all it was no great hardship to go to the sea-side again with +her aunt and cousins to spend the summer holidays. The reports from +Cressleigh were not encouraging. Letter after letter brought the news +that another of the home-birds had been stricken with fever, and for a +week they were all in terrible anxiety about Daisy, the youngest child +and pet of the household. But her life was spared, and she began to +recover slowly. + +The summer days passed quickly at the sea-side, and when September came +Ruth cherished a faint hope that she might be allowed to return home. A +letter from her father, however, dispelled any such idea. He said that +although the invalids were going on well there was a great deal of fever +in the neighbourhood, and the doctor did not consider that it would be +safe for her to return for several months. He thought, therefore, that +she could not do better than accept her aunt's kind offer that she +should return with her to Busyborough, and continue to attend Addison +College until Christmas, or even Easter. + +Ruth was again disappointed, but she knew that useless murmurs would be +a poor return for her aunt's kindness. So she put a brave face upon the +matter, and wiped away the tears that would come. Like David of old, she +encouraged herself in the Lord, and once more took up her daily duties +in the form of lessons and study. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +HOME AGAIN. + + +It was Easter again before Ruth was allowed to return to Cressleigh. How +little she had thought when she left it that she would not see the old +home and its inmates for nearly two years! + +But the time had really passed, and the day had come at last when she +must bid farewell to school-days and Busyborough, and take leave of her +aunt, uncle, and cousins. Partings are never pleasant when we are +leaving those we love, and Ruth had grown very fond of them all during +her protracted visit. Julia's animosity had been allayed long since, and +Mrs. Woburn had grown to love her niece as a daughter. She had been for +some time the peace-making element of the household, and a great +favourite with Rupert, who was growing a fine sturdy boy. Ernest was +sorry to lose her, though, as usual, he was not profuse in his +expressions of regret. The shy, awkward boy was developing into a clever +but somewhat reserved young man. Ruth had understood him far better than +any of his own family, and he knew that he should miss her sadly. + +The farewells at the house and good-byes at the railway station were +painful, and it was a tearful face of which Mrs. Woburn caught a last +glimpse through the carriage window; but when the train started, Ruth's +mind was so full of joyful anticipations of her welcome home that she +could not feel sad. She wondered, as she leaned back and closed her +eyes, what they would think of her, whether her father would think her +improved or spoilt, and she began to reflect how much she had learnt, +and what experience she had gained of the world and of her own heart +during her absence. It seemed to her that the Ruth Arnold who had left +home nearly two years ago was a very simple, ignorant little girl, whom +she could think of as quite apart from herself. + +So busy was she with her thoughts that she scarcely noticed her +fellow-passengers leaving the carriage one by one, until she was aroused +by a cry of "All change here." Was that Crook Junction? Yes, surely. +Then she was only ten miles from home. + +She hastened from the carriage to look after her luggage, and was +astonished to hear a familiar voice say, "Ruth." It was her father. How +kind of him to come to meet her! In a few minutes both father and +daughter were seated in another carriage travelling on the loop line to +Cressleigh, and Ruth was talking very fast, trying to tell all the +events of two years in five minutes, and stopping again and again to ask +a question or to recognise some familiar landmark. + +Primroses were blooming everywhere, and the country looked gay with +them. + +"The children were remarking last night," said her father, "that the +spring has decorated all Cressleigh in honour of your return." + +"Here we are at last!" cried Ruth, as the train stopped at the +well-known little station with its little garden-strip of bright flowers +beside the platform. And there was Will, dear old Will, grown such a +handsome fellow, waiting in the station-yard with the brown mare in the +old light cart. + +After a hasty greeting came the drive home along the lanes, where the +trees were bursting into leaf, and the hedgerows were gay with starry +blossoms, and the air was delicious after the smoke of a large town. + +The children were waiting at the gate, and a little group stood in the +porch to receive her. It was indeed a home-coming, and the poor girl was +almost bewildered by the kissing, the waving, the shouting, the +questions, the entreaties to "look at this," and "come and see that." +Mrs. Arnold was obliged to dismiss the whole party after Ruth had duly +admired the floral decorations in the hall, and had commented upon the +many inches added to the various members of the family during her +absence, and secured her a few minutes' quiet by carrying her off to her +own room. + +How tiny and bare it looked after her comfortable, pretty room at +Busyborough, and yet so snug and sweet! How delightfully fresh was the +breeze that blew about the white dimity curtains, and what a wide range +of country she could see instead of a vista of windows, roofs, and +chimney-pots! Yes, indeed, though simple and plain, it was "Home, sweet +home," and there was no other place in the world like it. + +Tea followed, a merry, noisy meal, for every one had so much to say, and +although Ruth talked very fast she was not able to reply to half the +questions that were put to her. But the exertion and excitement of the +day had made her feel weary, and she was thankful when the evening drew +to a close, and her father took down the big Bible and read a psalm; and +in the prayer that followed he gave thanks for her safe return, and +prayed that she might be a comfort and blessing to all the household. +When Ruth lay in her little bed that night her last conscious thought +was of the day's changes and the morrow's duties, and she asked that He +who had guided her in the past would be with her in the future, and that +He would help her in her work as the eldest daughter at home, as He had +guided and helped her in her life at Busyborough as The Country Cousin. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUTH ARNOLD*** + + +******* This file should be named 18777.txt or 18777.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/7/7/18777 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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