Other Things Being Equal

by Emma Wolf




Chapter I

A humming-bird dipped through the air and lit upon the palm-tree just below
the open window; the long drowsy call of a crowing cock came from afar off;
the sun spun down in the subdued splendor of a hazy veil. It was a
dustless, hence an anomalous, summer's afternoon in San Francisco.

Ruth Levice sat near the window, lazily rocking, her long lithe arms
clasped about her knees, her face a dream of the day. The seasons single
out their favorite moods: a violet of spring-time woos one, a dusky June
rose another; to-day the soft, languorous air had, unconsciously to her,
charmed the girl's waking dream.

So removed was she in spirit from her surroundings that she heard with an
obvious start a knock at the door. The knock was immediately followed by a
smiling, plump young woman, sparkling of eye, rosy of cheek, and glistening
with jewels and silk.

"Here you are, Ruth," she exclaimed, kissing her heartily; whereupon she
sank into a chair, and threw back her bonnet-strings with an air of relief.
"I came up here at once when the maid said your mother was out. Where is
she?"