"I really don't know," she said coldly. "I make no bargains."
"Very well," said Geoffrey, most unexpectedly, "I'll do it."
[CHAPTER IX.]
THE EMBASSY OF GEOFFREY HERON.
Within that week the house party at Hollyoaks broke up. Mr. and Mrs. Marshall returned to their own house, which was only four miles away; Jennie Brawn went back to Bedford-park and the family of nine; and Geoffrey Heron took his way to his London Chambers. So Ruth was left to the society of her father, and she made up her mind that she would say no more about Neil. Indeed, she half intimated to Mr. Cass that she might, after all, marry her other lover--an intimation which delighted the worthy merchant beyond words.
"You are a sensible girl after all, Ruth," he said. "Believe me, you would do wisely. You see my love, you could not have been really in love with Webster, since you have so soon forgotten him."
She answered him meekly enough.
"I daresay you are right, papa, Neil has behaved very badly to me, and I think no more of him."
"Poor fellow," sighed Mr. Cass!
"Really, papa," exclaimed the girl, "you are difficult to please. At your desire I have given him up: now you think I have treated him badly."