"I wonder," said Ruth. "Couldn't you speak to him?"

"What?--and be insulted for my trouble? No, thank you!"

"That is it. You complain of a condition, but you leave the
correction to someone else."

The spinster had no retort to offer such directness. This child was
frequently disconcerting. Prudence attacked her chicken wing.

"If I spoke to him, my interest might be misinterpreted."

"Where did you go to school?" Prudence asked, seeking a new
channel, for the old one appeared to be full of hidden reefs.

"I never went to school."

"But you are educated!"--astonished.

"That depends upon what you call educated. Still, my tutor was a
highly educated scholar--my father." Neither spinster noticed the
reluctance in the tones.

"Ah! I see. He suddenly realized that he could not keep you for
ever in this part of the world; so he sends you to your aunt. That
dress! Only a man--and an unworldly one--would have permitted you
to proceed on your adventure dressed in a gown thirty years out of
date. What is your father's business?"