think that if a woman does
not attach herself to them she is by nature cold. Dare was no exception
to the rule; and though he would have preferred that there should be
less constraint in their present intercourse, that she would be a little
more shy, and a little less calm, still he was supremely happy and
proud, and only longed to proclaim the fortunate state of his affairs to
the world.

One thing about Ruth puzzled him very much, and with a vague misgiving
she saw it did so. Her interest in the Vandon cottages, and the schools,
and the new pump, had been most natural up to this time. It had served
to bring them together; but now the use of these things was past, and
yet he observed, with incredulity at first and astonishment afterwards,
that she clung to them more than ever.

What mattered it for the moment whether the pump was put up or not, or
whether the cottages by the river were protected from the floods? Of
course in time, for he had promised, a vague something would be done;
but why in the golden season of love and plighted faith revert to
prosaic subjects such as these?

Some men are quite unable to believe in any act of a woman being
genuine. They always find out that it has something to do with them. If
an angel came down from heaven to warn a man of this kind of wrath to
come, he would think the real object of her journey was to make his
acquaintance.

Ruth saw the incredulity in Dare's face when she questioned him, and her
heart sank within her. It sank yet lower when she told him one day, with
a faint smile, that she knew he was not rich, and that she wanted him to
let her help in the rebuilding of certain cottages, the plans of which
he had brought over in the summer, but which had not yet been begun,
apparently for the want of funds.

"What you cannot do alone we can do together," she said.

He agreed with effusion. He was surprised, flattered, delighted, but
entirely puzzled.

The cottages were begun immediately. They were near the river, which
divided the Slumberleigh and Vandon properties. Ruth often went to look
at them. It did her good to see them rising, strong and firm, though
hideous to behold, on higher ground than the poor dilapidated hovels at
the water's edge, where fever was always breaking out, which yet made,
as they supported each other in their crookedness, and leaned over their
own wavering reflections, such a picturesque sketch that it seemed a
shame to supplant them by suc