This may be a relic of European training, but it enables
parents to instil into the minds of their daughters principles which
compare favorable with the American girl's native self-reliance. It was as
natural for Ruth to consult her father in this trivial matter, in view of
Louis's disapproval, as it would be for her friend, Dorothy Gwynne, to
sally anywhere so long as she herself felt justified in so doing.
Ruth really wished to go; and as her father, after considering the matter,
could find no objection, she went. After that it was enough to tell her
mother that she was going to see Bob. Mrs. Levice had heard the doctor
speak of him to Ruth; and any little charity that came in her way she was
only too happy to forward.
Bob's plain, ungarnished room soon began to show signs of beauty under
Ruth's deft fingers. A pot of mignonette in the window, a small painting
of exquisite chrysanthemums on the wall, a daily bunch of fresh roses, were
the food she brought for his poet soul. But there were other substantial
things.
The day after she had replaced the coarse horse-blanket with a soft down
quilt, the doctor made one of his bi-weekly visits to her mother.
As he stood taking leave of Ruth on the veranda, he turned, with his foot
on the last step, and looked up at her as if arrested by a sudden thought.
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