n the street below looked like toys. She could not
even see these properly, because there were iron bars to prevent her
from stretching her head out too far, so that all she could do was to
look straight across to the row of tall houses opposite, or up at the
sky between the chimney-pots. How she longed for something different to
look at!

The houses always looked the same, and though the sky changed sometimes,
it was often of a dirty grey colour, and then Ruth gave a little sigh
and looked back from the window-seat where she was kneeling, into the
nursery, for something to amuse her. It was full of all sorts of toys--
dolls, and dolls' houses elegantly furnished, pictures and books and
many pretty things; but in spite of all these she often found nothing to
please her, for what she wanted more than anything else was a companion
of her own age, and she had no brothers or sisters.

The dolls, however much she pretended, were never glad, or sorry, or
happy, or miserable--they could not answer her when she talked to them,
and their beautiful bright eyes had a hard unfeeling look which became
very tiring, for it never changed.

There was certainly Nurse Smith. She was alive and real enough; there
was no necessity to "pretend" anything about her. She was always there,
sitting upright and flat-backed beside her work-basket, frowning a
little, not because she was cross, but because she was rather
near-sighted. She had come when Ruth was quite a baby, after Mrs
Lorimer's death, and Aunt Clarkson often spoke of her as "a treasure."
However that might be, she was not an amusing companion; though she did
her best to answer all Ruth's questions, and was always careful of her
comfort, and particular about her being neatly dressed.

Perhaps it was not her fault that she did not understand games, and was
quite unable to act the part of any other character than her own. If
she did make the attempt, she failed so miserably that Ruth had to tell
her what to say, which made it so flat and uninteresting that she found
it better to play alone. But she often became weary of this; and there
were times when she was tired of her toys, and tired of Nurse Smith, and
did not know what in the world to do with herself.

Each day passed much in the same way. Ruth's governess came to teach
her for an hour every morning, and then after her early dinner there was
a walk with Nurse, generally in one direction. And after tea it was
time to