Arnold laughed.
"It's a clear case of hero worship," he declared. "You're going to be as bad as I have been."
"And yet," she said slowly, "it is his sister of whom I think all the time. Fenella she calls herself, doesn't she?"
"You like her, too?" Arnold asked eagerly.
"I hate her," was the low, fierce reply.
Arnold drew a little away.
"You can't mean it!" he exclaimed. "You can't really mean that you don't like her!"
Ruth clutched at his arm as though jealous of his instinctive disappointment.
"I know that it's brutally ungracious," she declared. "It's a sort of madness, even. But I hate her because she is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen here in life. I hate her for that, and I hate her for her strength. Did you see her come across the lawn to us to-night, Arnold?"
He nodded enthusiastically.