He entreated her to be composed, and in a little while she was calmer. Then for the first time he wrested himself from the environment of his own selfish sorrows; he put himself in her place, and understood the sacred joy which animated her. She was all impatience to see her child, but Aaron bade her restrain her impatience; he had much more to relate, which it was necessary she should hear.
"But I must see her to-night!" she cried.
"You shall see her to-night. I will take you to her."
She was fain to be satisfied with this assurance, but she would not be content till she saw a portrait of Ruth.
He gave her a cabinet photograph, and she gazed at it longingly, yearningly.
"She is beautiful, beautiful!"
"Yes, she is a beautiful girl," said Aaron, and then proceeded with the story, saying nothing, however, of what he had done for the young couple. At first she was grieved to hear that Ruth was married, but she found some consolation in the reflection that she had married into a peer's family. When Aaron related the particulars of the lawyer's visit to him, commissioned by Lord Storndale because of his stern objection to his son marrying a Jewess, she exclaimed: "But Ruth is not a Jewess!" and was appalled by the thought that her daughter was not born in wedlock. A child of shame! How would she be received? It was her turn now to fear, and Aaron, whose native shrewdness had returned to him, divined her fear; but it was not for him to moot the subject.
"My child," she said, with hot blushes on her face, "believes herself to be your daughter?"
"She does. It was my intention to undeceive her to-night."
"You know my story?"