Ruth's Romance

('IIAPTEli IV. Aunt Rachel sat down on the veranda to talk after supper was over. The meadqws wero bathed in moonlight, and the river ran through them like a broad highway of silver. Beyond, tho hills rose, strong and restfnl in their might. . -_ 'The everlasting hills,' thought Rtith, as she looked away toward them, feeling something of tho peaoe whieh always seemed tö brood over them. From the garden carne the fragrance of the sweet-brier and the pinks, and every breath brought a new sense of delight. 'Did Jonas teil you that I expected another visftor?" asked Aunt Rachel, by-and-by. 'Yes,' answered Ruth. -Who is it, Aunt Rachel ? 'His name is Arthur Ford,' was Aunt Rachel's reply. 'Hig father was your father's cousin and mine, and a deíir friend.' Ruth faneied that there was a little tremble in Aunt Rachel's voice when she said that. 'I have never seen Arthur,' went on Aunt Rachel, 'but if he is like his father, I know you will like him. I hope you will,' she added, drawing Ruth's head down upon her knee. 'I hope so, too, for your sake," said Ruth. 'I hope so for your own sake,' said Aunt Rachel, and there was something in her tone that set Ruth to wondering if the plans she had spoken of iu her letter were not about this young man and herself Wheii she went down to breakfast, she found a cluster of pinks beside her plate. Aunt Rachel had risen an hour before, and brought them from the garden, with kind thoughtfulness. 'She never seemed like this before,' thought Ruth, wondering at the ehange. Her aunt had always been a (juiet, reserved woman - one that people called hard and ealculating, though to Ruth she had been kind enough, but never throwing off the reserve which had grown about her, as moss gathers upon a stone. Now she seemed groping for friendship and conlidence, as the child who dreads the dark reaches out for the first hand it sees, glad to cling to a stranger, if it only finas companionship. That day Arthur Ford came. Ho was a frank-faeed, honest-eyed fellow, with a laugh always lurking about his month, and in that laugh there was a tanio for despondent spirits.. Before hé had been there two liours, the old house had begun to echo with his laughter. Ruth caiightthe infpetion, and laughed with him, whilo Aunt Rachel looked on with a grave smile, well-pleased. 'How doyou like him?" she asked of Ruth, when thpy were alone together. 'I liko him very much,' answered Ruth. "I don't see how any one could help likeing him.' 'He has his father's face,' said Aunt Rachel, almost as if she were talking to herself. 'His face is a passport to confidenco and friendship,' said Ruth. -You would be willing te trust him the moment you looked at him. And under his fun, there is real strength of character. He makos me think of some streaflis I have see": - all ripplcs and sunshine on the surface, and you count them littlo brooks; but when you sound them you are surprised to find how deep they are. Such men seem to concéntrate cheerfulness from everything they come in contact with, and radiate it everywhere Ihey go, infusing its warmth and good cheer into lives which lack tho ability to gather or genérate it for themselves."' 'You cannot teil how glad I am to know that you have formed so favorable an opinión of him,' said Aunt Rachel. 'Perhaps I ought not to teil you yet awhile what my plans are - porhaps I ought not to teil you at all, but leave matters to take care of themselves. But there can be no harm in taking you into my confidence. I havo brought you two together, Ruth, hoping that an aequaintance may lead to marriage.' 'Oh, Aunt Rachel!' cried Ruth, with a tender thought of Robert stirring her heart; 'I am sorry you told me.' 'Why?' askod Aunt Rachel. 'He will not know.' 'But I shall, and it will be a shadow on the sunshine of my visit,' answered Ruth. 'I don't see why it need to be,' said Aunt Rachel. 'Only you and 1 know what I havo planned. If he likes you, and you return the feeling - . ' 'Bíit I can' t do that,' cried Ruth. 'I can givo him friendship, but not love. Of öourse,' it will make no difiérenos with Arthur and myself, becausel know what you havo planned for us- what F meant was, that I was sorry to know that I must disappoint you. Kno.wing that I cannot do as you would like to have mo is the shadow I spoko of.' . .'. 'But why cannot you do this?' asked Aunt Rachel. 'You aro not engaged to any one?' 'No,' answered Ruth, 'The-n, if you have no lover, why should you not accept Arthur as one, if he sees lit to offer himself ?' asked Aunt Rachel. m I' cannot think of him in that light,' said Ruth firmly. 'And he may not care for anything more than friendship from me. Oh, I ñopo he won't!' with a long breath, as if tho thought itself afforded somo relief. 'I can't understand why you say so,' said Aunt Rachel. 'You havo told mo that you havo anunusuallygood opinión of him already. Acquaintance and intimacy will be likely to strengthen this opinión. If npithorof yon aro uound by other ties, if both of yon haveconfiilence iu and respect for the other, why should this friendship not ripen iuto something dearer? Nothing would please me more. You are my nearest living relativo. Ho is the only child of one of my dearest friends. 'To you two I would like to give what I have to leave behind me.' Ruth triad to tliink of some way in which she could teil the trulh to Aunt Rachel without putting horself in an émbarrassing position. Robert had nevcr told her, in so many words, that he loved her. He had nevcr talked of marriage. But, for all that, she feit as sure that ho. loved her as she did that the moonlight lay on the Winsted Hills, that moment, and she was as certain that ho intended to make her his wife, somc day, as she was that she loved him. Bilt, feeling all this, how could she teil it to Aunt Kachel in a way that would prevent her from thinking her foolish, and perhaps unmaidenly, in counting upon a man's lovo when it had never been put into words? T - she oponed her lipa intending to teil of Robert, but a sudden restraint came upon her, aud she could not say what she intended to; 'I am very sorry, Aunt Rachel, that you have set your heart upon this, but I don't think you would insist upon it - if you knew!' A great wave of color swept over her face. She feit half ashamedof acknowledging to herself how rnuch confidenoe she had in Robert's untold love. Untold? Well, yes, in words, but in a hundred ways, and in many looks he had revealed it; and was it unmaidenly to speakorthink of love which had found expression in a language comnnn to all lovers? Perhaps not to herself, but to others it might. They would expect a formal declaration to precede an open acknowlment of such an attachment. Aud then, the affection betwecn her and Robert seemed peculiarly sacred, and to talk of it with others would bc saerilege. If I knew what? Can't you teil me, Ruth?' Aunt Rachel's voice had a sound of disappointment in it. To Ruth t seemed like a sound of displeasure. 'No, no! not now!' she said, and burst into tears. She got up presently, and went up to her room. 'Oh, I am sorry T came here,' she said, dropping down upon her kneesbesido the low window, and laying her head upon the sill. '1 know Áunt Rachel has set hor heart ipon carryingout this plan of hers, and it will grieve her if she does not. She has had such a lonely, desolate lifc that it seems wrong lo act against her wishes, and refuse to do that which will aiïord her so much pleasure; but, for Robert's sake, for my own sake, I must. To know tfiat I must disappoint her will spoil my visit, but she cannot blame me! She would respect me for doing what I must, if she only knew the truth. Oh, if Robert had only said, in so many words, that he . lovèd me, it would be easy to teil her : everything! But he never has, and it : seemed, when I started to teil her about him, as if there was really nothing to . teil, beyond tho fact that he had paid , me marked attentions and I hoped he ( meant to marry me! When she asked , if I was eugaged, I told her no; and sho ! said, 'If I had no lover!' I did not say , that. She ouglit not to have infered it! . Oh, I hope Arthur is in love, and '¦ gaged. Then she can't lay all the blame , of disappointing her on me.' PtO RE f!ONTINI7ED.