h a certain superficial coldness. Ruth had sometimes wondered
why the incidents, the books, which called forth emotion in others,
passed her by. The vehement passion which once or twice in her life she
had involuntarily awakened in others had met with no response from
herself. The sight of the fire she had unwittingly kindled only made her
shiver with cold. She believed herself to be cold--always a dangerous
assumption on the part of a woman, and apt to prove a broken reed in
emergency.

Charles knew her better than she knew herself. Her pride and unconscious
humble-mindedness, her frankness with its underlying reserve, spoke of a
strong nature, slow, perhaps, but earnest, constant, and, once roused,
capable of deep attachment.

And now the common lot had befallen her, the common lot of man and
womankind since Adam first met Eve in the Garden of Eden. Ruth was not
exempt.

She loved Charles.

* * * * *

When the dawn came up pale and tearful to wake the birds, it found her
still sitting by her window, sitting where she had sat all night,
looking with blank eyes at nothing. Creep into bed, Ruth, for already
the sparrows are all waking, and their cheerful greetings to the new day
add weariness to your weariness. Creep into bed, for soon the servants
will be stirring, and before long Martha, who has slept all night, and
thinks your lines have fallen to you in pleasant places and late hours,
will bring the hot water.

CHAPTER XXII.

Reserved people pay dear for their reserve when they are in trouble,
when the iron enters into their soul, and their eyes meet the eyes of
the world tearless, unflinching, making no sign.

Enviable are those whose sorrows are only pen and ink deep, who take
every one into their confidence, who are comforted by sympathy, and fly
to those who will weep with them. There is an utter solitude, a silence
in the grief of a proud, reserved nature, which adds a frightful weight
to its intensity; and when the night comes, and the chamber door is
shut, who shall say what agonies of prayers and tears, what prostrations
of despair, pass like waves over the soul to make the balance even?

As a rule, the kindest and best of people seldom notice any alteration
of appearance or manner in one of their own family. A stranger points it
out, if ever it is pointed out, which, happily, is not often, unless, of
course, in cases where advice has been disregarded, and the