Chapter VI: Mary

"FATHER!" said Ruth at breakfast the next morning. "I want to go and make Mrs. Arundel's acquaintance. What time is she coming?"

Dr. Brown looked up from his paper with some surprise in his eyes.

"To-day?" he asked.

"Yes, to-day!" answered Ruth decidedly. "I am hoping to have a friend to-day, father!"

"My dear child, do not be in such a hurry. Wait till you get to know her. She may be the sweetest girl in the world (except a certain little girl that I love), but then, she may not. Do not be in such a hurry!"

"But I am in a hurry," persisted Ruth, smiling. "If you knew how I have longed—at least, if you could understand what I feel, you know—you dear old father, you would let 'your duckling swim on the pond'!"

"Well!" he answered good-humouredly. "The old hen, as I conclude you consider me, must stand and watch at the edge, I suppose."

"The duckling did not come to any harm, now did it, father?"

"No-o," he said reluctantly, "but the old hen never had it as her own afterwards!"

"Oh, you naughty father!" exclaimed Ruth, jumping up and coming round to kiss him. "Just as if I should be anything but your own little girl, however many friends I had!"

"Yes, yes," he assented rather absently, which Ruth instantly perceived, for he was thinking about that letter already on its way in the mail steamer to India.

"Then," she said, after a moment's hesitation, "what time is she coming? Did you hear?"

"By the four o'clock train from London."

"Then I will go down with you in the carriage and call upon her about five. Will you tell Dr. Arundel if you see him?"

"Oh, I shall see him! We shall be about together all the morning."

"Have you told him what a dear old house ours was in the town?"

"Yes; for many reasons that would be the wisest for him to take. But he will not express an opinion till his wife has seen it."

"There is that villa on the Worcester road that is very nice and modern—I wonder if he will take that?" said Ruth.

Dr. Brown was so astonished at what he called Ruth's "curiosity," that he went on reading his paper without answering, to give himself a little time to think.

This was Ruth in a new light! Perhaps he had kept her too closely shut up. It rather dismayed him.

"There! I will not worry you!" she exclaimed, quickly perceiving his troubled look, and jumping up to kiss his puckered forehead. "I shall find out all about it myself. You need not fear that I shall be too full of 'curiosity' when I see her. That is only for your benefit."

So she relapsed into silence, and soon he finished his breakfast and went to his study, where he busied himself with his books, or studied his cases, unless a chance patient should come from the country round, or make his way up from the town to catch the doctor before he started on his rounds.

Ruth meanwhile made a pretence of ordering dinner, which her mother had told her it was her duty to do. She generally went to Morris's sitting-room, and together they planned the day's doings, set the accounts right, and paid the bills. Then she went back to the preparation of her German, and at eleven o'clock was ready to start in the carriage with her father to take her lesson, walking home in time for her solitary lunch. Her father had his in the town at a pastry-cook's near his surgery, where now he had a comfortable, quiet room and nicely cooked meal ready at one o'clock.

Just outside the town, at one of the houses along the Worcester road, Dr. Brown's carriage stopped about five o'clock.

With a nod and smile at her father, Ruth alighted and ran up the flight of steps to the door. Her father, as he drove off, did not guess what a very pit-a-pat heart was beating beneath that arch, half-audacious little look!

And then, Ruth found herself being welcomed by Dr. Arundel with the words, "How kind of you to look us up! Mary, this is Miss Brown."

Then, as Mrs. Arundel came forward, he added, "I shall leave you to make acquaintance, as I have to meet Dr. Brown at the surgery at five."

He was gone in a moment, and Ruth found herself in the presence of a pleasant, rather pretty girl, with frank, dove-like eyes, and gentle, straightforward manners.

Whether she thought all that in the one shy glance she gave her, or came to the conclusion afterwards, she was not sure. But she told Morris when she reached home that she fell in love with her on the spot.