"I'm going to Springdale; Martin is taking me."
The doctor piloted her to a seat across the aisle from the one in which she had been sitting.
"And who is Martin?" he asked.
"He is Uncle Sidney's butler. There he is over there." She indicated Martin by a nod in his direction.
"He is a nice man, a very nice man, indeed," Ruth went on. "He looks much finer in his livery, and he is very stern and straight when he is in the dining-room though you wouldn't think it to see him now when he looks just like any one else."
"But why is he taking you to Springdale?" asked the doctor.
"Oh, because there wasn't any one else to do it and it was a good chance for him to go to see John Fox. Do you know John Fox? Uncle is away on business and Aunt Lillie has taken Bertie to Lakewood. Bertie is horrid, doctor; he broke my dear little mug that Billy gave me just because I wouldn't let him have Hetty to break up. Would you have given her to him?"
"Hardly, I think, for that purpose."
"He is a dreadfully spoiled child," said Ruth sighing, "but Aunt Lillie thought he might get ammonia or something because he had a cold, and she took him away. Then Mademoiselle wanted to go see a sick lady, so I stayed with Katie and Maria and Martin because I didn't want to go to Lakewood. Did you get my letter?" she asked suddenly.
"Why no," the doctor answered. "Have you been writing to me? Then that is a pleasure I have in store for me when I get home. You see I have been away for several days. I am just getting back from a convention. I didn't think when I got on the train here at the junction that I should see you. What were you writing to me about? Anything in particular?"