"Come," said her visitor, "let us go down to the parlor."
"I cannot," said Ruth: "please don't ask me."
"Foolish child!" said Mrs. Tascher. "I am a thousand times sorry that I brought this thing to your notice."
"It was brought to my notice long ago," said Ruth brokenly; and Mrs. Tascher turned and went down stairs.
The doctor was leaning back in an easy-chair, completely absorbed in watching the exquisite figure at the piano and listening to the strains she evoked.
"One would think she had feeling," commented Mrs. Tascher mentally as she entered the room and swept across to the vacant seat beside the doctor, dispelling somehow, with her strong presence, the spirit of sentimentalism that pervaded the atmosphere. "Why, Doctor Ebling, are you here?" she asked: "I supposed you had gone to town. Where is Miss Stanley?"
"I—I don't know," said the doctor—honestly enough, to be sure.
"I thought you all went down to the croquet-ground?"
"Yes, we did. But she came back, and left Miss Custer and myself to finish our game."
"Oh, then I presume she is in her room.—Have you finished playing, Miss Custer?" with a smile of placid indifference as Miss Custer turned round on the piano-stool.