"In this, as in any other
position of life, the man who is influenced solely by the profoundest
and most conscientious conviction, and who is firm in following his
convictions, can hardly go far astray."

The judge looked at him over his big spectacles in perplexed, troubled
silence for a moment. So gazing, he gave the old impatient toss of his
tousled head, and the old quizzical look came under his suddenly
uplifted eyebrow.

"All _right_, William!" he said at last, almost immediately lapsing into
silence, and presently beginning to nod.

Philip Alston scarcely glanced at the judge and his nephew. He was
looking at Ruth, and noting with adoring eyes that her beauty had
blossomed like some rare flower of late. It seemed to him that the roses
on her fair cheeks were of a more exquisite, yet brighter tint, that her
eyes were bluer and brighter and softer than ever. There also appeared
to be a new maturity in the delicate curves of her graceful figure. But
there was no change in the childlike affection of her bearing toward
him. She clung round him just as she had always done, and when she
turned to leave his side to take a chair, he called her back,
unconsciously falling into the tone of fond playfulness that he had used
in her childhood.

"If a little girl about your size were to come and look in her uncle's
pockets, she might find something that she would like--"

Ruth did not wait for him to finish what he was saying, but ran to him
as if she had been the little toddler of other days, needing only the
sight of his dear face, or the sound of his kind voice, to fly into his
outstretched arms. In a moment more her eager hands were swiftly
searching his pockets, and making believe to have great difficulty in
finding the hidden treasure. She knew all the while where it was, but
she also knew that he liked her to be a long time in getting it out. His
worshipping eyes looked down on her hands fluttering like white doves
about his heart,--for it was hard to keep away from that inner breast
pocket--and at last, when she could not wait any longer, she went deep
down in it, and drew out a flat packet. This looked as if it had
travelled a long distance. There were many wrappings around it, and many
seals and foreign marks were stamped upon it. She laid it on his knee,
and pretended to shake him, when he made out that he meant to take time
to untie the cords which bound the wrappings, instead of cutting them.
And when he had