ded to come herself
to meet you, and I think she will be disappointed."

"It was very kind of you to come," said Ruth; "I was getting quite
frightened, and thought that perhaps you might not know me, and that I
should be all alone in a strange place."

"There is not much fear that any one who has seen your mother would not
recognise her daughter," was Mrs. Woburn's smiling reply.

"Do you think me so much like her?" asked Ruth eagerly, looking greatly
pleased.

"Indeed I do. But this is our lodging. I see Julia looking out of the
window."

In another minute Ruth had followed her aunt into a large cheerful
sitting-room, with two bay-windows overlooking the beach and sea.

"Oh! mamma, what a shame of you to go without me!" cried a voice from
the window where a young girl was standing.

"You were so late, dear," said Mrs. Woburn gently. "Here is your cousin;
take her to her room; I am sure she must be tired after her long
journey."

Julia, a pretty fair-haired fashionably-dressed girl, came forward and
shook hands, saying, "How d'ye do, Ruth? I am glad mamma met you. Will
you come upstairs?"

She led the way to a pretty bedroom, much larger than the one in which
Ruth had slept at Cressleigh. There was a splendid view of the sea from
the windows, and the furniture of the room was all of light polished
wood; a pretty dressing-table stood between the windows, which were hung
with white muslin curtains, and the hangings and cover-lids of the two
little beds were snowy white.

"What a pretty room!" said Ruth, as she entered.

"Do you think so? I think it is awfully small and poky. And we are both
to sleep here, which I am sure will be very inconvenient; but we
couldn't get anything better, so I suppose we must put up with it.
Lodgings are always the great drawback to the sea-side, you know."

Ruth did not know what reply to make, she was so taken aback by the
grandeur of Julia's air and manner.

CHAPTER V.

COUSINS.

"Tea is ready, miss," said a trim maid-servant at the door of the
bedroom where the two girls were talking, and Ruth followed her cousin
downstairs to the large cheerful room she had entered upon her arrival.

Mrs. Woburn had already taken her seat behind the urn, and the two boys
who were sitting beside her rose to meet their cousin. Ernest, the elder
of the two, was a tall, thin lad of fifteen, with a pair of large brown
eyes, the only striking feature in his plain but sensible face.