"And thee preferred the fop to the serious-minded?"
"I didn't prefer anybody; but Henry Brierly was good company, which Philip wasn't always."
"Did thee know thee father had been in correspondence with Philip?"
Ruth looked up surprised and with a plain question in her eyes.
"Oh, it's not about thee."
"What then?" and if there was any shade of disappointment in her tone, probably Ruth herself did not know it.
"It's about some land up in the country. That man Bigler has got father into another speculation."
"That odious man! Why will father have anything to do with him? Is it that railroad?"
"Yes. Father advanced money and took land as security, and whatever has gone with the money and the bonds, he has on his hands a large tract of wild land."
"And what has Philip to do with that?"