decided that his son must no longer remain in his office,
where he had been able persistently to shirk his duties. Gerald was
thankful to have a chance of starting afresh, away from his old
associates, and gladly fell in with his father's proposal that he should
leave Busyborough, and take a situation which was easily procured for
him in another town.

Julia openly lamented his going, and also cried over it a good deal in
secret, for she was very much attached to her eldest brother, and had
regarded Ruth far more kindly ever since the night when she had been the
means of saving him.

"I used to think that you hated Gerald," she said to her cousin one day,
"and he seemed so kind and polite to you, and so cross to me, that I
grew jealous and couldn't bear you;" and Ruth was somewhat amused to
overhear Julia remark to a friend that she thought she (Ruth) "had
really improved of late."

Study, lessons, classes, essays, and practice were again the important
matters to which attention was directed daily, and there was little time
for recreation or amusement until Easter, when Gerald returned for a few
days, and there was a fortnight's respite from the apparently endless
round of school duties.

A day's excursion of about ten miles into the country, in search of
primroses and other wild flowers, greatly revived Ruth's longing for
home. It seemed so strange to think that the Cressleigh woods were
studded with primroses and anemones, and that she would not gather them
nor see the woods until the flowers had all vanished.

One more term's work, and then--hurrah for home! Such were her thoughts
when she returned to school again after her brief holiday; and as it
would probably be her last term, she determined to work with redoubled
vigour and energy to acquire the knowledge which she would afterwards be
able to impart to her young brothers and sisters.

Miss Elgin's coolness and distrust considerably abated, when she saw
Ruth working diligently and bearing with patience the petty taunts and
slights of her school-fellows. Her influence was greater than it had
been. She no longer found fault with the other girls in the spirit of
the Pharisee, but spoke compassionately, knowing what it was to be
tempted and to fall, and her companions were more inclined to follow the
example of one who was striving to do right than to be influenced by the
precepts of a self-sufficient paragon.

There were still many slips and shortcomings, b