“I forgot to tell thee, Reuben, lad,” said Fuller, “Ruth's got a bit of a tay-party this afternoon, and thee beest to stop with the rest on 'em.”
“Thank you,” said Reuben; “I shall stay with pleasure.” He felt Rachel's disapproving glance upon him, and looking up met it for a moment, and returned it with a puzzled gravity. She was standing alone at a little distance from the table, and Ruth and the two new arrivals were in the act of entering the house. Reuben obeyed the impulse which moved him, and rising from his place crossed over to where the little old lady stood. “May I ask,” he said, “how I came to fall under your displeasure, Miss Blythe?” He glanced over his shoulder to assure himself that nobody took especial note of him, and spoke in a low and guarded voice.
Miss Blythe made the most of her small figure, glanced with extreme deliberation from his eyes to his boots and back again, and, turning away, followed her niece and the two new arrivals, walking with an air of exaggerated dignity. Reuben, returning to his seat, had to make great play with his pocket-handkerchief to cover the signs of confusion which arose at this rebuff. Miss Blythe could scarcely have expressed a livelier contempt for him if he had been a convicted pick-pocket.
His share of the music went so ill after this that he excited something like consternation in the minds of his friends.
“What's come to the lad, 'Saiah,” asked Sennacherib.
“Bist a bit out o' sorts, Reuben, bisent?” said Isaiah, mildly anxious.
“I can't play to-day,” Reuben answered, almost fretfully. “Let us try again. No. There's nothing the matter. Nothing in the world. Let us try again.”
They tried again, and by dint of great effort Reuben kept control over himself and escaped further disgrace, although at one time Ruth's sympathetic, shy look almost broke him down, and at another, Rachel's stony gaze so filled him with wonderment and anger that he had much ado to save himself from falling.
Ruth retired to superintend the preparation of the tea-table within-doors, and Rachel followed her. In their absence he got on better, but it was almost as great a relief as he had ever known to find that the concert at last was over, and that he could give unrestrained attention to the thoughts which pressed upon him.
“Tea is ready,” said Ruth, standing in the doorway, and shading her eyes from the afternoon sunlight with one hand. Rachel surveyed the quartette party from the window, but Reuben could see that she was held in talk by Mrs. Sennacherib.