Ruth looked in the handsome face of her lover with wistful yearning. While alone, with her father's kind farewell appealing to her conscience, she had felt capable of a great sacrifice; but with those eyes meeting hers, with that voice pleading in her heart, she forgot everything but the promise she had made, and the overwhelming love that prompted it.
The young man read all this in those eloquent features, and would gladly have kissed the lips that still trembled between smiles and tears; but even in that solitude he was cautious.
"Now, farewell for an hour or two, and then—"
Ruth caught her breath with a quick gasp, and the color flashed back to her face, vivid as flame.
A noise among the trees startled them both. Young Hurst turned swiftly, and walked away, saying, as he went:
"Be punctual, for Heaven only knows when another opportunity will offer."
CHAPTER XIII.
ONE RASH STEP.
RUTH JESSUP hurried into the house, ran breathlessly to her chamber in the loft, and changed the coquettish dress, which gave such picturesque brightness to her beauty, for one of mingled gray and black. Not a tinge of warm color was there to betray her identity. Her small bonnet was covered by a veil so thick that no one could clearly distinguish the features underneath. In truth, her very air seemed changed, for graceful ease had given place to a timid, hesitating movement, that was entirely at variance with her character.