" Ruth spoke--
"I said that I was happy, because I had asked God to protect and
help me--and I dared not tell a lie. I was happy. Oh! what is
happiness or misery that we should talk about them now?"
Mr. Donne looked at her, as she uttered these words, to see if
she was wandering in her mind, they seemed to him so utterly
strange and incoherent.
"I dare not think of happiness--I must not look forward to
sorrow. God did not put me here to consider either of these
things."
"My dear Ruth, compose yourself! There is no hurry in answering
the question I asked."
"What was it?" said Ruth.
"I love you so, I cannot live without you. I offer you my heart,
my life--I offer to place Leonard wherever you would have him
placed. I have the power and the means to advance him in any path
of life you choose. All who have shown kindness to you shall be
rewarded by me, with a gratitude even surpassing your own. If
there is anything else I can do that you can suggest, I will do
it." "Listen to me!" said Ruth, now that the idea of what he
proposed had entered her mind. "When I said that I was happy with
you long ago, I was choked with shame as I said it. And yet it
may be a vain, false excuse that I make for myself. I was very
young; I did not know how such a life was against God's pure and
holy will--at least, not as I know it now; and I tell you the
truth--all the days of my years since I have gone about with a
stain on my hidden soul--a stain which made me loathe myself, and
envy those who stood spotless and undefiled; which made me shrink
from my child--from Mr.
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