"I'll look directly I get home,
and ask Mrs. Mason to write and let you know."
"Thank you," said he, only half satisfied; "I think, perhaps,
however, it might be as well not to trouble Mrs. Mason about it;
you see it would compromise me, and I am not quite determined to
purchase the picture; if you would ascertain whether the painting
is there, and tell me, I would take a little time to reflect, and
afterwards I could apply to Mrs. Mason myself."
"Very well, sir; I will see about it." So they parted.
Before the next Sunday Mrs. Wood had taken her daughter to her
distant home, to recruit in that quiet place. Ruth watched her
down the street from an upper window, and, sighing deep and long,
returned to the workroom, whence the warning voice and gentle
wisdom had departed.
CHAPTER III
SUNDAY AT MRS. MASON'S
Mr. Bellingham attended afternoon service at St. Nicholas' church
the next Sunday. His thoughts had been far more occupied by Ruth
than hers by him, although his appearance upon the scene of her
life was more an event to her than it was to him. He was puzzled
by the impression she had produced on him, though he did not in
general analyse the nature of his feelings, but simply enjoyed
them with the delight which youth takes in experiencing new and
strong emotion. He was old compared to Ruth, but young as a man;
hardly three-and-twenty. The fact of his being an only child had
given him, as it does to many, a sort of inequality in those
parts of the character which are usually formed by the number of
years that a person has lived.
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