"I mean that if you will only wait until we can get a clear light on
this matter of Isabel's--which will most likely be by the next time you
come"--

"Oh, Ruth, Ruth, my own Ruth at last!"

"Please don't speak so. I'm not engaging myself to you now."

"Oh yes, you are! Yes, you are! Yes--you--are!"

"No--no--no--listen! Listen to me, Godfrey. I think that now, among us
all, we shall manage Isabel's affair well enough, and that the very next
time--you--come"--She began absently to pick her steps.

"What--what then?"

"Then you may ask me."

The response of the overjoyed lover was but one or two passionate words,
and her sufficient reply, as they halted among their fellows, was to
look across the valley with her meditative smile. Isabel took note, but
kindly gave a long sigh of admiration, and with an exalted sweep of the
hand drew the gaze of the five to the beauties of the scene below. The
day was near its end. The long shadow of the great cliff behind Bylow
Hill hung over the roofs of the town and over the hither meadows. The
sun's rays were laying their last touches upon the winding river, and
upon the grainfields that extended from its farther shore. In the upper
blue rested a few peaceful clouds, changing from silver to pink, from
pink to pearly gray, and on the skyline crouched in a purpling haze the
round-backed mountains of another county.