"Like so many other hopes, Ruth, it has gone out in darkness."
"You have said nothing to me about it," she said at length.
"No. I did not wish to buoy you up with hopes that might end in nothing."
"What was it you had in your mind, Ralph?" And she raised her soft, beseeching eyes to his.
"Oh, well," he said uneasily, "no harm can come of telling you now, though I did promise William that I would say nothing to you about it."
"Oh, indeed!" she said, in hurt tones. "What has he to do with it?"
"Well, as a matter of fact, he had nearly everything to do with it."
"And he had so little confidence in me that I was not to be trusted?"
"No, sis. William Menire is not that kind of man, as you ought to know by this time."
"Then why was I not to be told? Does he take me for a child?"