“Thank you,” he said, simply. A moment later he said, reining in his horse, “I say, if you think that suit means anything against your father, I’ll have it stopped.”
“No, no, Rupert; I am satisfied,” Ruth protested, with a smile.
“Because I can do it; Jack and Steve would do anything for me, and I would do anything for you. It was mainly on my account, anyhow, that they brought it, I believe,” he added. “They said I was a minor; but, you know, I’ll soon be of age—I’m seventeen now. I don’t know why boys have to be boys, anyhow! I don’t see why they can’t be men at once.”
“I think I know,” Ruth smiled, gazing at him pleasantly.
“And, I say, I want to tell you one thing about Steve. He isn’t what people take him to be. You know?—Just clever and dashing and wild and reckless. He’s the best and kindest fellow in the world. You ask Aunt Thomasia and Blair and Aunt Peggy and Uncle Waverley and old Mrs. Turley, and all the poor people about the County. And he’s as brave as Julius Cæsar. I want to tell you that of him, and you know I wouldn’t tell you if ’twa’n’t so.”
“I know,” said Ruth, looking at him more pleasantly than ever.
They were at the gate now, and Ruth invited him in; but Rupert said he had an engagement.
“There is one thing I want to ask you to do,” said Ruth, rather doubtfully.
“What is it?” he asked, brightening; and then, as she hesitated: “ Anything! I’ll do it. I’ll do anything for you, Miss Ruth; indeed, I will.”