e said: "I
have been thinking, Ruth, if all young men had such good sisters as I,
how few would go far astray."

"O, Guy," she said, her eyes filling with tears, "I have been anything
but a good sister. I thought of it day and night, when you were ill, and
it nearly drove me mad."

"What do you mean, Ruth, I don't understand you. What had you to blame
yourself for?"

"The great thing, my neglect of duty. I did not hold religion up in its
true light. I lowered the standard, and you did not give it proper
respect. I wronged you, Guy, and I wronged God and my own soul. I meant
to tell you all this, but something kept me back. My inconsistent life
came up before me, and I thought I would wait until you had seen a
change in me."

"I see it _now_," he replied; "One can see changes more readily in you,
than in Agnes."

"Because there is nothing to change in her. Guy, I would give all the
world if I had it, to be the trusting Christian our Agnes is. If you had
seen her when you were ill, you would have known how wonderful she is.
She thought of everybody and everything, but never once despaired or
murmured. I think the Lord spared you because of her."

"Why?" he asked in a husky voice.

"Because, she said the other night, we must live such lives that we can
_claim_ the answer to our prayers; and that is not the kind of a life I
have been living. I did not dare to claim anything; I only _begged_ to
have you spared, and promised to lead a new life."

Guy's thin hands went up to his face and tears ran down his pale cheeks.
"Now is the time," thought Ruth, and going over to him she threw her
arms round him saying: "I went with you, Guy, dear brother say that you
will go with me. Don't let us three be separated any longer."

And this was Ruth, positive, self-possessed, Ruth. She had never refused
him anything, and how much she had done for him, he well knew, and at
what great sacrifice. He could not refuse her now, so he drew her down,
and kissing her, said: "We will go together, Ruth, God helping me."

In a few minutes Agnes came from school, her face beaming, as usual. She
looked from Guy to Ruth, then she knew.

"O, Guy, it has come at last?" she exclaimed, laughing and crying at
the same time, and in her joy kissing Guy and Ruth, again and again.
Then Miss Smithers had to know, and Guy's friend, the Rev. John Jay.

That night they opened their hearts to each other. Guy told them how
when Ruth showed her new dress