Mr. Bellingham attended afternoon service at St. Nicholas' church
the next Sunday. His thoughts had been far more occupied by Ruth
than hers by him, although his appearance upon the scene of her
life was more an event to her than it was to him. He was puzzled
by the impression she had produced on him, though he did not in
general analyse the nature of his feelings, but simply enjoyed
them with the delight which youth takes in experiencing new and
strong emotion. He was old compared to Ruth, but young as a man;
hardly three-and-twenty. The fact of his being an only child had
given him, as it does to many, a sort of inequality in those
parts of the character which are usually formed by the number of
years that a person has lived.

The unevenness of discipline to which only children are
subjected; the thwarting, resulting from over-anxiety; the
indiscreet indulgence, arising from a love centred all in one
object--had been exaggerated in his education, probably from the
circumstance that his mother (his only surviving parent) had been
similarly situated to himself.

He was already in possession of the comparatively small property
he inherited from his father. The estate on which his mother
lived was her own; and her income gave her the means of indulging
or controlling him, after he had grown to man's estate, as her
wayward disposition and her love of power prompted her. Had he
been double-dealing in his conduct towards her, had he
condescended to humour her in the least, her passionate love for
him would have induced her to strip herself of all her
possessions to add to his dignity or happiness. But although he
felt the warmest affection for her, the regardlessness which she