"
"Well, twenty-four hours! Will that do?"
Ruth lifted up her head. "Mr. Davis, I am not ungrateful because
I can't thank you" (she was crying while she spoke); "let me have
a fortnight to consider about it. In a fortnight I will make up
my mind. Oh, how good you all are!"
"Very well. Then this day fortnight--Thursday the 28th--you will
let me know your decision. Mind! if it's against me, I sha'n't
consider it a decision, for I'm determined to carry my point. I'm
not going to make Mrs. Denbigh blush, Mr. Benson, by telling you,
in her presence, of all I have observed about her this last three
weeks, that has made me sure of the good qualities I shall find
in this boy of hers. I was watching her when she little thought
of it. Do you remember that night when Hector O'Brien was so
furiously delirious, Mrs. Denbigh?"
Ruth went very white at the remembrance.
"Why now, look there! how pale she is at the very thought of it!
And yet, I assure you, she was the one to go up and take the
piece of glass from him which he had broken out of the window for
the sole purpose of cutting his throat, or the throat of any one
else, for that matter. I wish we had some others as brave as she
is."
"I thought the great panic was passed away!" said Mr. Benson.
"Ay! the general feeling of alarm is much weaker; but, here and
there, there are as great fools as ever. Why, when I leave here,
I am going to see our precious member, Mr.
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