for once? You will go in the morning, you know."

"I wonder if Mrs. Mason would think it right--if she would allow
it?"

"No, I dare say not. But you don't mean to be governed by Mrs.
Mason's notions of right and wrong. She thought it right to treat
that poor girl Palmer in the way you told me about. You would
think that wrong, you know, and so would every one of sense and
feeling. Come, Ruth, don't pin your faith on any one, but judge
for yourself. The pleasure is perfectly innocent: it is not a
selfish pleasure either, for I shall enjoy it to the full as much
as you will. I shall like to see the places where you spent your
childhood; I shall almost love them as much as you do." He had
dropped his voice; and spoke in low, persuasive tones. Ruth hung
down her head, and blushed with exceeding happiness; but she
could not speak, even to urge her doubts afresh. Thus it was in a
manner settled. How delightfully happy the plan made her through
the coming week! She was too young when her mother died to have
received any cautions or words of advice respecting the subject
of a woman's life--if, indeed, wise parents ever directly speak
of what, in its depth and power, cannot be put into words--which
is a brooding spirit with no definite form or shape that men
should know it, but which is there, and present before we have
recognised and realised its existence. Ruth was innocent and
snow-pure. She had heard of falling in love, but did not know the
signs and symptoms thereof; nor, indeed, had she troubled her
head much about them. Sorrow had filled up her days, to the
exclusion of all lighter thoughts than the consideration of
present duties, and the remembrance of the happy time which had