"That will be lovely, for then I can ride with you, for I must be in by seven o'clock."
"What?"
"This is an extra day off, you know."
"Are you cook, or housemaid, or what?"
"I am sewing maid," she answered. "The Varcoes have a big family of children, you know, and I have really as much as I can do with the making and mending."
"What, Varcoes the Quakers?"
"Yes. And they have really been exceedingly kind to me. They took me without references, and have done their best to make me comfortable. There are some good people in the world, Ralph."
"It would be a sorry world if there weren't," he answered. And then William Menire and his mother entered.
A few minutes later a substantial dinner was served, and for the next hour William fluttered about his guests unmindful of how his customers fared.
Had not Ralph been so busy with his own thoughts, and Ruth so taken up with her brother, they would have both seen in what direction William's inclinations lay. He would gladly have kept them both if he could, and hailed their presence as a dispensation of Providence. Ruth looked lovelier in William's eyes than she had ever done, and to be her friend was the supreme ambition of his life.