de of it
as they drew near.

"Then you will not be home till Monday," he said, taking Mrs. Levice's
hand and raising his hat; "and I am off on the early morning train.
Good-by."

As she turned in at the gate, he held out his hand to Ruth. His fingers
closed softly, tightly over hers; she heard him say almost inaudibly,--

"Till Monday."

She raised her shy eyes for one brief second to his glowing ones; and he
passed, a tall, dark figure, down the shadowy road.

When Mr. Levice returned from his game of whist, he quietly opened the
door of his daughter's bedroom and looked in. All was well; the wolf had
departed, and his lamb slept safe in the fold.

But in the dark his lamb's eyes were mysteriously bright. Sleep! With
this new crown upon her! Humble as the beautiful beggar-maid must have
felt when the king raised her, she wondered why she had been thus
chosen by one whom she had deemed so immeasurably above her. And this
is another phase of woman's love,--that it exalts the beloved beyond all
reasoning.

Chapter XVI

At six o'clock the hills in their soft carpet of dull browns and greens
were gently warming under the sun's first rays. At seven the early train
that Dr. Kemp purposed taking would leave. Ruth, with this knowledge
at heart, had softly risen and left the cottage. Close behind the depot
rose a wooded hill. She had often climbed it with the Tyrrell boys; and
what was to prevent her doing so now? It afforded an excellent view of
the station.

It was very little past six, and she began leisurely to ascend the hill.
The sweet morning air was in her nostrils, and she pushed the broad
hat form her happy eyes. She paused a moment, looking up at the wooded
hill-top, which the sun was jewelling in silver.

"Do you see something beautiful up there?"

With an inarticulate cry she wheeled around and faced Dr. Kemp within a
hand's breadth of her.

"Oh," she cried, stepping back with burning cheeks, "I did not mean--I
did not expect--"

"Nor did I," he said in a low voice; "chance is kinder to us than
ourselves--beloved."

She turned quite white at the low, intense word.

"You understood me last night--and I was not--deceived?"

Her head drooped lower till the broad brim of her hat hid her face.

With one quick step he reached her side.

"Ruth, look at me."

She never had been able to resist his compelling voice; and now with a
swift-drawn breath she threw back her head and looked up at him fa