appearance of excitement. He looked like a man who has simply taken,
in the face of disaster, a sudden, somewhat imaginative, resolution
not to "worry." He presently twisted himself about on his bench
again and began to watch for his companions. "Well, they ARE walking
round," he resumed; "I guess they've hit on something, somewhere.
And they've got a carriage waiting outside of that archway too. They
seem to do a big business in archways here, don't they. They like to
have a carriage to carry home the things--those ladies of mine. Then
they're sure they've got them." The ladies, after this, to do them
justice, were not very long in appearing. They came toward us, from
under the archway to which Mr. Ruck had somewhat invidiously alluded,
slowly and with a rather exhausted step and expression. My companion
looked at them a moment, as they advanced. "They're tired," he said
softly. "When they're tired, like that, it's very expensive."

"Well," said Mrs. Ruck, "I'm glad you've had some company." Her
husband looked at her, in silence, through narrowed eyelids, and I
suspected that this gracious observation on the lady's part was
prompted by a restless conscience.

Miss Sophy glanced at me with her little straightforward air of
defiance. "It would have been more proper if WE had had the company.
Why didn't you come after us, instead of sitting there?" she asked of
Mr. Ruck's companion.

"I was told by your father," I explained, "that you were engaged in
sacred rites." Miss Ruck was not gracious, though I doubt whether it
was because her conscience was better than her mother's.

"Well, for a gentleman there is nothing so sacred as ladies'