ight, and he was glad to see again what a
good-looking, well-mannered, right-minded young fellow he was. Nothing
could be said against him. Everything--or almost everything--was to be
said in his praise. The open fact that he thought all this himself would
be nothing against him with Ruth. A man's faith in himself is indeed
often the chief cause of a woman's faith in him. No one knew this better
than Philip Alston. As he looked at William that day, a new feeling of
peace came into his perturbed breast. He was beginning to be
disheartened by unexpected opposition to his plan to have the young
lawyer appointed to the office of attorney-general. Had he been closer
in touch with the governor, he would have known that all his efforts
were useless, for the office was held by appointment in those days, and
not by election as it is now. But it was a long way to the state capital
on horseback, and he had seen no newspapers, so that he knew nothing
positively, and was only beginning to fear. And thinking about the
uncertainty, he was encouraged to feel that even failure in this would
not alter his belief that the marriage was the best Ruth could make.
There was something purely unselfish in the content that he felt. With
clouds lowering around his own head, it comforted him to feel that her
future would be safe whatever came. He smiled at her, shaking his head
when she asked if he had heard any news, and drew her down by his side.
At the first opportunity he must ask about Sister Angela's progress with
the wedding clothes. It was not long now till Christmas Eve, and he
wanted to hear more about the preparations for the marriage. These had
seemed to lag of late.

* * * * *

The blood-red sun went down behind threatening clouds on that terrible
day, and the second morning came in with a wintry storm of icy winds and
swirling snow. Then followed two more gloomy, gray days and two more
wild, black nights. The fifth day dawned still wilder and darker, but
Paul Colbert found strength to go away. On the sixth it seemed to Ruth
that her heart would break with its aching for his absence; and with the
sadness that came from listening to a sobbing wind which sighed
despairingly through the naked forest; and with watching a melancholy
rain which hung a dark curtain between Cedar House and the other side of
the river. And thus the dreadful time dragged on into the seventh
endless day, and still there was no new