He did not guess that she was feeling the meal rather a respite from a distasteful interview, which she was aware was awaiting her at its conclusion.

But all things come to an end, and so did Miss Benson's tea.
"Now, will you go and see her ?" "Yes." And so they went.

Mrs Hughes had pinned up a piece of green calico, by way of a Venetian blind, to shut out the afternoon sun; and in the light thus shaded lay Ruth, still, and wan, and white.

Even with her brother's account of Ruth's state, such death-like quietness startled Miss Benson--startled her into pity for the poor lovely creature who lay thus stricken and felled.

When she saw her, she could no longer imagine her to be an impostor, or a hardened sinner; such prostration of woe belonged to neither.