will not quarrel, Louis. Will you get off at the next corner
with me? I have a prescription to be made up at the drug-store."

"Certainly."

If Arnold had showed anger, he was man enough not to be ashamed of it;
this is one of man's many lordly rights.

Chapter VII

Mrs. Jules Levice was slowly gaining the high-road to recovery, and many
of the restrictions for her cure had been removed. As a consequence,
and with an eye ever to Ruth's social duties, she urged her to leave her
more and more to herself.

As a matter of course, Ruth had laid the case of Bob and his
neighborhood before her father's consideration. A Jewish girl's life is
an open page to her family. Matters of small as well as of larger moment
are freely discussed. The result is that while it robs her of much of
her Christian sister's spontaneity, which often is the latter's greatest
charm, it also, through the sagacity of more experienced heads,
guards her against many indiscretions. This may be a relic of European
training, but it enables parents to instil into the minds of their
daughters principles which compare favorable with the American girl's
native self-reliance. It was as natural for Ruth to consult her father
in this trivial matter, in view of Louis's disapproval, as it would be
for her friend, Dorothy Gwynne, to sally anywhere so long as she herself
felt justified in so doing.

Ruth really wished to go; and as her father, after considering the
matter, could find no objection, she went. After that it was enough to
tell her mother that she was going to see Bob. Mrs. Levice had heard the
doctor speak of him to Ruth; and any little charity that came in her way
she was only too happy to forward.

Bob's plain, ungarnished room soon began to show signs of beauty under
Ruth's deft fingers. A pot of mignonette in the window, a small painting
of exquisite chrysanthemums on the wall, a daily bunch of fresh roses,
were the food she brought for his poet soul. But there were other
substantial things.

The day after she had replaced the coarse horse-blanket with a soft down
quilt, the doctor made one of his bi-weekly visits to her mother.

As he stood taking leave of Ruth on the veranda, he turned, with his
foot on the last step, and looked up at her as if arrested by a sudden
thought.

"Miss Levice," said he, "I should like to give you a friendly scolding.
May I?"

"How can I prevent you?"

"Well, if I were you I should not indulge Bob's lo