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"Don't, deary," she pleaded, "don't be unhappy. I'm not afraid. I'm just going to sleep, that's all, to wake in immortal dawn. I want you and him to have my things, because I love you because I've always loved you, and because I will even afterward." Ruth choked down her sobs, and Miss Ainslie drew her chair closer, taking the girl's cold hand in hers.
"No," said the other, wonderingly. "We are glad of that," was the reply. "You are exhausted, of course, but if you do not get cold you will soon be all right. Maggie," she continued, to the servant, "tell Mr. Hesden to bring in that hot toddy now. He had better put the juice of a lemon it it, too. Miss Ainslie may not be accustomed to taking it. I am Mrs.
"Teach us how to live, Miss Ainslie," said Winfield, softly, "that the end of half a century may find us young." A delicate pink suffused her cheeks and she turned her eyes to his. "I've just been happy, that's all," she answered. "It needs the alchemist's touch," he said, "to change our sordid world to gold." "We can all learn," she replied, "and even if we don't try, it comes to us once."
"He seems like a pleasant-spoken feller," remarked Aunt Jane. "You can ask him to supper to-night, if you like." "Thank you, Aunty, but we're going to Miss Ainslie's." "Huh!" snorted Mrs. Ball. "Mary Ainslie ain't got no sperrit!" With this enigmatical statement, she sailed majestically out of the room.
"Hand me the waiter, Hesden," said his mother, reprovingly, "and raise her head. Don't you see that Miss Ainslie cannot drink lying there. I never saw you so stupid, my son. I shall have to grow worse again soon to keep you from getting out of practice entirely."
Did you notice a resemblance to anybody we have met?" she inquired. "Yes," said Ida. "Of course, it may be accidental." Her companion laughed. "I don't think it is. In view of what I once told you on the subject, it's a matter I mean to investigate." She moved away; but it was Ida who first was afforded an opportunity of deciding the question, for a few minutes later Ainslie strolled toward her.
Midsummer lay upon the garden and the faint odour of mignonette and lavender came with every wandering wind. White butterflies and thistledown floated in the air, bees hummed drowsily, and the stately hollyhocks swayed slowly back and forth. "Do you know why I asked you to come today?" She spoke to Ruth, but looked at Winfield. "Why, Miss Ainslie?"
He knew by bitter experience how precarious the business of farming was, and thought that a certain salary, even though small, would always stand between his family and absolute want. 'I know not, he wrote to Ainslie, 'how the word exciseman, or, still more opprobrious, gauger, will sound in your ears.
What can I say to you, Ainslie? I have brought shame and disgrace upon a worthy man. I have blasted your life. How you must hate and loathe me! I wish to God that I had never been born!" "I neither hate nor loathe you, Jeannette," said the Professor, quietly.
"We'll have to think it over," Ruth answered. "It isn't so very simple after all." Miss Ainslie was waiting for them in the garden and came to the gate to meet them. She wore a gown of lavender taffeta, which rustled and shone in the sunlight. The skirt was slightly trained, with a dust ruffle underneath, and the waist was made in surplice fashion, open at the throat.
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