and
all recollection of its first design fled when I saw Ruth's cheery
face, bright and handsome as ever, beaming on me from the first
landing, and felt her warm, firm arms clasping me in an embrace of
affectionate welcome. It was my friend's home, and nothing else, from
that moment, and a very pretty, daintily-ordered home it was. She had
five rooms on the second floor, with a kitchen below: this was her
parlor in front, a bright, well-furnished room, tastefully ornamented
with pictures, some of which I recognized as her own paintings in our
school-days; and here was her dining-room to the left, with a small
guest-chamber that she hoped I would occupy when I returned. The other
rooms on the west of the parlor were hers and Nellie's--Oh, I had not
seen Nellie, her five-year-old, nor her dear husband, who was so much
better to-day, though he could not rise without difficulty; and would
I therefore come and see him?

As Ruth gave me thus a passing glance at her household arrangements,
I saw through the open door of an apartment back of the dining-room a
light shower of plaster fall to the ground, marking the oilcloth that
covered the floor, and for one instant sending out into the hall a
puff of whitish dust.

"Oh, that is one of the effects of our terribly dry climate," said
Ruth, following my glance and noticing the dust: "every little while
portions of our walls crumble and fall in like that. There is no
doubt a sad litter in Mr. Foster the clerk's room, where that shower
occurred: he has gone to the city for the day, however, and it can be
cleared before his return. Here is my husband, Jenny."

In a recess by the parlor window, on a lounge, Mr. Denham was trying
to disguise the necessity for keeping his tortured limb extended by an
appearance of smiling ease. He was a handsome, frank-faced man, with
a firm, fearless eye and a gentle, kindly mouth, and I could readily
understand my friend's look of sweet content when I saw him and her
child Nellie, who was hanging over her papa with the fond protecting
air of a precocious nurse. I sat down quickly beside them to prevent
my host's attempting to rise, and the hour that elapsed before dinner
flew by in interesting conversation.

"I am so sorry I had to go for a little while," said Ruth, returning
to announce that meal, "but my good Wang-Ho is sick to-day, and I had
to help him a little."

"Where is Lester, Ruth?" asked her husband.

"Oh, he is kind and helpful as