"There is not much fear that any one who has seen your mother would not recognise her daughter," was Mrs. Woburn's smiling reply.
"Do you think me so much like her?" asked Ruth eagerly, looking greatly pleased.
"Indeed I do. But this is our lodging. I see Julia looking out of the window."
In another minute Ruth had followed her aunt into a large cheerful sitting-room, with two bay-windows overlooking the beach and sea.
"Oh! mamma, what a shame of you to go without me!" cried a voice from the window where a young girl was standing.
"You were so late, dear," said Mrs. Woburn gently. "Here is your cousin; take her to her room; I am sure she must be tired after her long journey."
Julia, a pretty fair-haired fashionably-dressed girl, came forward and shook hands, saying, "How d'ye do, Ruth? I am glad mamma met you. Will you come upstairs?"
She led the way to a pretty bedroom, much larger than the one in which Ruth had slept at Cressleigh. There was a splendid view of the sea from the windows, and the furniture of the room was all of light polished wood; a pretty dressing-table stood between the windows, which were hung with white muslin curtains, and the hangings and cover-lids of the two little beds were snowy white.
"What a pretty room!" said Ruth, as she entered.
"Do you think so? I think it is awfully small and poky. And we are both to sleep here, which I am sure will be very inconvenient; but we couldn't get anything better, so I suppose we must put up with it. Lodgings are always the great drawback to the sea-side, you know."