Home, and Leonard--how strangely peaceful the two seemed! Oh, for
the rest that a dream about Leonard would bring!
Mary and Elizabeth went to bed immediately after prayers, and
Ruth accompanied them. It was planned that the gentlemen should
leave early the next morning. They were to breakfast half-an-hour
sooner, to catch the railway-train; and this by Mr. Donne's own
arrangement, who had been as eager about his canvassing, the week
before, as it was possible for him to be, but who now wished
Eccleston and the Dissenting interest therein very fervently at
the devil.
Just as the carriage came round Mr. Bradshaw turned to Ruth "Any
message for Leonard beyond love, which is a matter of course?"
Ruth gasped--for she saw Mr. Donne catch at the name; she did not
guess the sudden sharp jealousy called out by the idea that
Leonard was a grown-up man.
"Who is Leonard?" said he to the little girl standing by him; he
did not know which she was.
"Mrs. Denbigh's little boy," answered Mary.
Under some pretence or other, he drew near to Ruth; and in that
low voice which she had learnt to loathe he said--
"Our child?"
By the white misery that turned her face to stone--by the wild
terror in her imploring eyes--by the gasping breath which came
out as the carriage drove away--he knew that he had seized the
spell to make her listen at last.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE MEETING ON THE SANDS
"He will take him away from me! He will take the child from me!"
These words rang like a tolling bell through Ruth's head.
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