As she hurried down the walk, she recognized the doctor's carriage,
containing the doctor himself with Bob in state beside him. Two hands went
up to two respective hats as the gate swung behind her, and she advanced
with hand extended to Bob.
"You are looking much better," she exclaimed heartily, shaking the rather
bashfully outstretched hand; "your first outing, is it not?"
"Yes, lady." It had been impossible for her to make him call her by name.
"He elected to pay his first devoirs to the Queen of Roses, as he expressed
it," spoke up Kemp, with his disengaged hand on the boy's shoulder, and
looking with a puzzled expression at Ruth. Last night she had been a young
woman; this morning she was a young girl; it was only after he had driven
off that he discovered the cause lay in the arrangement of her hair.
"Thank you, Bob; presently I expect to have you paying me a visit on foot,
when we can come to a clearer understanding about my flower-beds."
"He says," returned the boy, turning an almost humbly devoted look on Kemp,
"that I must not think of gardening for some weeks. And so--and so--"
"Yes?"
"And so," explained the doctor, briskly, "he is going to hold my reins on
our rounds, and imbibe a world of sunshine to expend on some flowers--yours
or mine, perhaps--by and by.
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