"Well,"--Ruth dropped into a chair fairly worn cut by her rage--"it was not his fault. I worried him into telling me everything. He did not want to--I must do him that justice."
"How did you worry him into betraying others?"
"You are a woman and ask that? Oh, I forgot--you are not in love--or rather, no man is in love with you. Why, you stupid little creature if a man loves a woman, he'll do anything she tells him. Besides, he did not mention names; he only told me that he got heaps of presents and letters. But I want to know who the woman is he has gone up to meet."
"I daresay there is no woman."
"My dear Jennie, you don't know men."
"Mr. Webster is devoted to you."
"So he says. Humph!"
"Ruth! Why, he shews it in every way."
"All put on!" cried Miss Cass, determined not to be pacified. "But I'll get the truth out of my father. I hear from the servants that Neil was with him in the library for three hours last night."
"Then that is the explanation. Your father has refused his consent to the marriage, and the Master has gone away."