nd what have you to do with Ruth, or her mother?" the man asked.

Here it was! The great moment was facing him. Oliver caught his
breath, then went straight to the point.

"I want to marry your daughter, Mr. Lannithorne. We love each other
very {40} much. But--I have n't quite persuaded her, and I have n't
persuaded Mrs. Lannithorne and my father at all. They don't see it.
They say things--all sorts of dreadful things," said the boy. "You
would think they had never been young and--cared for anybody. They
seem to have forgotten what it means. They try to make us afraid--
just plain afraid. How am I to suppose that they know best about Ruth
and me?"

Lannithorne looked across at the young man long and fixedly. Then a
great kindliness came into his beaten face, and a great comprehension.
Oliver, meeting his eyes, had a sudden sense of shelter, and felt his
haunting fears allayed. It was absurd and incredible, but this man
made him feel comfortable, yes, and eager to talk things over.

{41}

"They all said you would know. They sent me to you."

Peter Lannithorne smiled faintly to himself. He had not left his sense
of humor behind him in the outside world.

"They sent you to me, did they, boy? And what did they tell you to ask
me? They had different motives, I take it."

"Rather! Ruth said you were the best man she had ever known, and if
you said it was right for her to marry me, she would. Mrs. Lannithorne
said I should ask you if you thought Ruth had a fighting chance for
happiness with me. She does n't want Ruth to marry anybody, you see.
My father--my father"--Oliver's voice shook with his consciousness
of the cruelty of what was to follow, but he forced himself to
steadiness and got the words out "said I was to ask you what a man
wants in the family of the woman {42} he marries. He said you knew
what was what, and I should ask you what to do."

Lannithorne's face was very grave, and his troubled gaze sought the
floor. Oliver, convicted of brutality and conscience-smitten, hurried
on, "And now that I've seen you, I want to ask you a few things for
myself, Mr. Lannithorne. I--I believe you know."

The man looked up and held up an arresting hand. "Let me clear the way
for you a little," he said. "It was a hard thing for you to come and
seek me out in this place. I like your coming. Most young men would
have refused, or came in a different spirit. I want you to understand
that if in Ruth's eyes, and my wife's, a