it were discovered that Mrs Bright was _not_ his sister. Ruth had
therefore made up her mind not to give the slightest hint to him, or to
any one else, about her hopes, until the matter could be settled by
bringing the two together, when, of course, they would at once recognise
each other.

Although damped somewhat by this unlooked-for interruption to her little
schemes, she did not allow her efforts to flag.

"I see," she said one day, on entering the theological library, where
Jessie, having laid down a worsted cuff which she had been knitting, was
deep in Leslie's _Short and Easy method with the Deists_, and Kate,
having dropped a worsted comforter, had lost herself in Chalmers's
_Astronomical Discourses_. "I see you are both busy, so I won't disturb
you. I only looked in to say that I'm going out for an hour or two."

"We are never too busy, darling," said Jessie, "to count _your_ visits
an interruption. Would you like us to walk with you?"

"N-no. Not just now. The fact is, I am going out on a little private
expedition," said Ruth, pursing her mouth till it resembled a cherry.

"Oh! about that little plot?" asked Jessie, laughing. Ruth nodded and
joined in the laugh, but would not commit herself in words.

"Now, don't work too hard, Kate," she cried with an arch look as she
turned to leave.

"It is harder work than you suppose, Miss Impudence," said Kate; "what
with cuffs and contradictions, comforters and confusion, worsted helmets
and worse theology, my brain seems to be getting into what the captain
calls a sort of semi-theological lop-scowse that quite unfits me for
anything. Go away, you naughty girl, and carry out your dark plots,
whatever they are."

Ruth ran off laughing, and soon found herself at the door of Mrs
Bright's humble dwelling.

Now, Mrs Bright, although very fond of her fair young visitor, had
begun, as we have seen, to grow rather puzzled and suspicious as to her
frequent inquiries into her past history.

"You told me, I think, that your maiden name was Bream," said Ruth,
after a few remarks about the weather and the prospects of the _Short
Blue_ fleet, etcetera.

"Yes, Miss Ruth," answered Mrs Bright; but the answer was so short and
her tone so peculiar that poor scheming little Ruth was quelled at once.
She did not even dare to say another word on the subject nearest her
heart at the time, and hastily, if not awkwardly, changed the subject to
little Billy.

Here indee