," he managed to answer, waving the man away; "don't notice me."

The clerk, seeing his presence was undesirable, took up his position in
the doorway again.

Levice sat on. No further sound broke from him; he had clinched his
teeth hard. It had come to this, then. She loved him; it was too late.
If the man's heart alone were concerned, it would have been an easy
matter; but hers, Ruth's. God! If she really loved, her father knew
only too well how she would love. Was the man crazy? Had he entirely
forgotten the gulf that lay between them? Great drops of perspiration
rose to his forehead. Two ideas held him in a desperate struggle,--his
child's happiness; the prejudice of a lifetime. Something conquered
finally, and he arose quietly and walked slowly off.

Through the trees he heard laughter. He walked round and saw her
swinging Will Tyrrell.

"There's your father," cried Boss, from the limb of a tree.

She looked up, startled. With a newborn shyness she had endeavored to
put off this meeting with her father. She gave the swing another push
and waited his approach with beating heart.

"The boys will excuse you, Ruth, I think; I wish you to come for a short
walk with me."

At his voice, the gentle seriousness of which penetrated even to the
Tyrrell boys' understanding, she felt that her secret was known.

She laid her arm about his neck and gave him his usual morning kiss,
reddening slowly under his long searching look as he held her to him.
She followed him almost blindly as he turned from the grounds and struck
into the lane leading to the woods. Mr. Levice walked along, aimlessly
knocking off with his stick the dandelions and camomile in the hedges.
It was with a wrench he spoke.

"My child," he said, and now the stick acted as a support, "I was just
handed a note from Dr. Kemp. He has asked me for your hand."

In the pause that followed Ruth's lovely face was hidden in her hat.

"He also told me that he loves you," he continued slowly, "and that you
return his love. Will you turn your face to me, Ruth?"

She did so with dignity.

"You love this man?"

"I do." As reverently as if at the altar, she faced and answered her
father. All her love was in the eyes she raised to his. Beneath their
happy glow Levice's sank and his steady lips grew pale.

They were away from mankind in the shelter of the woods, the birds gayly
carolling their matins above them.

"And you desire to become his wife?"

Neck, face