"I judge you had good success in your interview with Mr. Shepard."
"Yes," replied Mr. Frothingham: "all things considered, bad as he felt to part with his little niece, he decided that it was for the best all around, under the circumstances. He will be able to see her often, and watch her growth and progress. We are to go through the legal forms as soon as possible, so that her future will be assured in case of my death."
Ruth was so horrified at Mr. Frothingham's speaking of dying, that she came up to him, put her arm around his neck, and said, with tears in her eyes, "You aren't sick, are you?"
"Why, no, indeed!" replied Mr. Frothingham, taking her on his knee, and laughing heartily. "Do I look like it? But I might get upset in my yacht, you know, or run over by the cars; and so, you see, I ought to be just as particular how I leave my affairs, little girl, as though I wasn't one of the healthiest persons in the world."
Mrs. Frothingham, who was sitting by the side of Mrs. Le Bras, said, "Did you ever see any thing like the way that dear child has come to us, as if she was sent from Heaven, when we were mourning the loss of our own little girl of just about her age? When my husband came home that night, and told how strongly your husband had advised him to adopt a child, I felt, as he did, that it was a pretty risky matter; for we have some friends who adopted a boy from an orphan asylum a number of years ago, and he is turning out a very wild young man, almost breaking their hearts. And then, only a few days afterwards, while we were thinking the matter over, we found that this child, belonging to a nice family, whom my husband's folks thought so much of years ago, was to be sent out to work, because her aunt did not want her in the way; and, just to think! she is the daughter of the very girl of whom I have heard Henry speak admiringly so often, as his schoolmate and the nicest girl in the village. He says Ruth looks just like her. The child and he take to each other so, and she and I take to each other just the same! It almost seems like having my own little girl back. Do you see how perfectly Mary's clothes fit her? There was not a single alteration needed. And do you see how happy Henry is? He is so fond of children, especially little girls! I thought it would break his heart when Mary died, and his being so lonely has worried me more than my own loneliness."
After Mr. and Mrs. Frothingham and the children had disappeared up the road, looking back, and waving their handkerchiefs, Mr. Le Bras said,—
"What a contrast Mrs. Frothingham is to Mrs. Shepard! Mrs. Shepard is so afraid her husband will like any one except herself, that she has acted in a manner which must always cause her husband to distrust her, if not positively dislike her; while Mrs. Frothingham, by being so glad to have her husband have some child to love, and so ready to love the same child herself, and be the happier for her presence, is increasing her husband's affection and admiration for herself."
"Jealousy is such a mean trait!" replied Mrs. Le Bras; "but it carries its own punishment with it, like most other selfish traits. If Mrs. Shepard had only been wise and kind-hearted enough to have kept Ruth, and treated her as she would an own daughter, how happy she and Mr. Shepard and Ruth might have been!"
"Perhaps it is just as well, for all except Mrs. Shepard," replied Mr. Le Bras; "for it has secured a much happier life for Mr. and Mrs. Frothingham, who were suffering so keenly for the loss of their children; and Mr. Shepard cannot but be proud of the bright prospects before his little niece."
"I don't think any thing can make up for domestic discomfort," replied Mrs. Le Bras; "and I am afraid they never can be really happy at the lighthouse, with the memory of the way Mrs. Shepard treated Ruth always before her and her husband."