premises by the front door, the door of
the outer shop. But Ruth had walked to the gate to see if Babbie
was coming and, as Maud emerged from the shop, the two women came
face to face. For an instant they did not speak. Maud, excited
and overwrought by her experience with the letter and her interview
with Jed, was still struggling for self-control, and Ruth, knowing
that the other must by this time have received that letter and
learned her brother's secret, was inclined to be coldly defiant.
She was the first to break the silence. She said "Good afternoon"
and passed on. But Maud, after another instant of hesitation,
turned back.

"Oh, Mrs. Armstrong," she faltered, "may I speak with you just--
just for a few minutes?"

And now Ruth hesitated. What was it the girl wished to speak
about? If it was to reproach her or her brother, or to demand
further explanations or apologies, the interview had far better not
take place. She was in no mood to listen to reproaches. Charles
was, in her eyes, a martyr and a hero and now, largely because of
this girl, he was going away to certain danger, perhaps to death.
She had tried, for his sake, not to blame Maud Hunniwell because
Charles had fallen in love with her, but she was not, just then,
inclined toward extreme forbearance. So she hesitated, and Maud
spoke again.

"May I speak with you for just a few minutes?" she pleaded. "I
have just got his letter and--oh, may I?"

Ruth silently led the way to the door of the little house.

"Come in," she said.

Together they entered the sitting-room. Ruth asked her caller to
be seated, but Maud paid no attention.

"I have just got his letter," she faltered. "I--I wanted you to
know--to know that it doesn't make any difference. I--I don't
care. If he loves me, and--and he says he does--I don't care for
anything else. . . . Oh,' PLEASE be nice to me," she begged,
holding out her hands. "You are his sister and--and I love him so!
And he is going away from both of us."

So Ruth's coldness melted like a fall of snow in early April, and
the April showers followed it. She and Maud wept in each other's
arms and were femininely happy accordingly. And for at least a
half hour thereafter they discussed the surpassing excellencies of
Charlie Phillips, the certainty that Captain Hunniwell would
forgive him because he could not help it and a variety of kindred
and satisfying subjects. And at last Jed Winslow drifted into the