Very pale and with eyes burning, Ruth backed away, then turned and fled into the house giving but one backward fearful look. The man looked after her thoughtfully for a moment and then slowly moved away.
Ruth ran through the kitchen to her own little room which opened out of it. She took off her hat and coat and threw them on the bed; then she crowded herself behind a chair into a corner as if she would get out of sight of and as far away as possible from every one. She felt much as she did when a certain bad dream haunted her. In it she was always fleeing from a crazy man who pursued her with a sword. She was troubled and afraid. Mayfield, that was her own name before she had been given that of Brackenbury. She crouched in her corner thinking, thinking.
Who was this man? Not her father, of course, because he had said it was his niece of whom she reminded him. Any relatives that she might have had she remembered but vaguely. She had a dim recollection of a grandmother, of a Christmas day when she was about three years old and when uncles and aunts had given her presents, but a child forgets such things very soon, and relationships are difficult to grasp at a tender age.
Of course, this man might be her own uncle or perhaps there were other little Ruth Mayfields in the world. At all events, she determined to say nothing about the man to Miss Hester or Billy, for a great fear was in her heart that he might want to take her away. If he did attempt such a thing and she were warned of it, she reflected that she would hide somewhere till he gave up the search.
She sat long in her corner pondering over these dreadful possibilities till it began to grow dusk and she heard Miss Hester stirring about the kitchen, making ready for supper. Then duty called her; she must set the table, and she crept out blinking as she faced the light in the room.
"What a little mouse you have been. Were you asleep, Ruth?" said Miss Hester as she came in.
"No, Aunt Hester," returned the child soberly, "I was only thinking."
"You were so quiet that I didn't even know you were in the house. How long have you been in? I was just thinking of sending Billy to hunt you up. No wonder Dr. Peaslee calls you Miss Mouse, you slip around just like one."
"I've been in—oh, I don't know just how long. It wasn't a bit dark when I came."
"I saw you running after Stray and that was my last glimpse of you."