stic reply.

"I think that many of the richest people here would give all they
possess to have that child's keen sense of delight," remarked Mrs.
Woburn to her husband, as Ruth tripped away to join her cousins.

"Oh, Julia," she exclaimed, "what a charming piece the band has been
playing!"

"That old thing!" replied the other contemptuously. "It is the overture
to 'La Sonnambula,' and I perfectly hate it, for I learnt it at school
ages ago, and Signor Touchi used to get awfully angry about it."

Julia often acted as a sort of wet blanket upon her cousin's
enthusiastic outbursts; though it was a long time before the country
girl learnt to express her delight in the usual formula of a fashionable
young lady, "Very charming," or "Awfully nice," pronounced in a manner
which seems to imply, "Just tolerable."

Wednesday morning rose clear and bright, and soon after sunrise Ruth
peeped out of the window to see if the weather were favourable, and when
she saw the sunshine she could remain in bed no longer, but dressed
quickly and ran down to the beach, her favourite retreat in the early
morning, and the only place where she ever found an opportunity for
quiet thought amidst all the excitement of pleasure-seeking.

What a long time it seemed since she had left home! And yet it was only
a few days. What would her mother think, she wondered, of the life she
was leading now? She had only received one short letter from her,
written after all the rest of the household were in bed, and Ruth could
guess how very busy every one was, although there was but a casual
reference to the fact in the letter.

"I hope that mother is not doing too much," she mused, "it was very kind
of her to let me have so much pleasure; but how hard it would be to go
back now after all this gaiety. I trust that I am not getting spoilt,
yet----"

"Have you been looking for anemones, Ruth?" asked a boyish voice beside
her. "This is not the place to find them."

"I had no idea that you were near, Ernest," was her reply, "but I have
not been looking for anything, only thinking."

"Well, it is almost breakfast time now. You know that we are to be early
this morning on account of the picnic to which you are all going."

"But surely you are going with us?" said Ruth in surprise.

"No," he answered quietly, "I should only be in the way. Gerald and his
fellows don't want me, and Julia and her friends only snub me and think
me a nuisance, and of course I am