CHAPTER X.
THE REALITY OF AN IDEAL.
The interview between the brother and sister was brought to an end by the coming of the sentinel, who reported that Miss Carr awaited Miss Arden.
“I will join her immediately, please say,” was Ruth’s response, and then she turned again to her brother.
“You will see me again before you go, Ruth?”
“Yes, for I will be here four days and shall ask the colonel for leave to spend an hour with you each morning and afternoon. You have made me very happy, Arden, in the promises you have made me, and I feel that you will keep them.”
A moment more and she was gone. The sentinel took his post again without the door, and just beyond Clarice Carr awaited with Major Lester and his wife. They greeted her most cordially, the major saying:
“We decided to come after you also, Miss Arden, and you must feel perfectly at home with us.”
“Yes, my dear Miss Arden, the colonel has done us a favor in allowing us to claim you while here,” Mrs. Lester remarked.
Thus greeted, Ruth felt that she was among friends, and she went to the major’s quarters as to her own home, so hospitable was their treatment of her.
Not a word was said about the prisoner, her brother, to render her unhappy, and refusing themselves to company that night, except the colonel, who called, they devoted the evening to their fair guest.