Leonard leaned and fingered the needlework,--a worsted slipper, too
small for most men, too large for most women. "Is that for him?"

"Yes," apologized Ruth; "it's the thing every clergyman has to incur.
But I'm only doing it to help Isabel out; she has the other."

The evening went quickly. When Leonard let down the window sashes and
lowered the shades, Ruth, standing by the lamp as if to put out its
light, said, "I'll not go up for a moment or two yet."

She sent him an ardent smile across the room and turned to a desk.




XI

HAS IT COME TO THIS?


Ruth wrote to her lover. Her father's keeping secret his receipt of
Godfrey's letter until he had mailed its answer, could mean only that
the answer was for Godfrey to come home. The General's talk of being
tired by the writing of it was a purely expletive irony, for he had
written with the brevity of an old soldier to a young sailor; but he had
written that trouble was impending, that its source was Arthur, and that
the last hope of removing it lay with him, Godfrey.

A line from Ruth, pursuing after this message, would be one steamer
behind it all the way, but it would reach the far wanderer before any