"What do you mean? What are you going to do with those papers?"
"You said you didn't care——"
"And I don't. They are yours to do with as you please," said the generous Rebecca Frayne.
"To punish you," Ruth said seriously, "I ought really to take you at your word," and she shook her head.
"What meanest thou, my fair young lady?" asked Rebecca, laughing.
"Read this," commanded Ruth, handing her, with the air of the stage hero "producing the papers," one of the letters she had received. "Cast your glance over this, Miss Frayne."
The other received the letter curiously, and read it with dawning surprise. She read it twice and then gazed at Ruth with almost speechless amazement.
"Well! what do you think of your Aunt Ruth now?" demanded the girl of the Red Mill, laughing.
"It—it can't be so, Ruthie!" murmured Rebecca Frayne, the hand which held the letter fairly shaking.
"It's just as so as it can be," and Ruth continued to laugh.