I am glad of it, that I am! They don't deserve to have the power of giving: they don't deserve that you should take it." Miss Benson went and enclosed it up, there and then; simply writing these words in the envelope, "From Ruth Hilton." "And now we wash our hands of these Bellinghams," said she, triumphantly.

But Ruth looked tearful and sad; not about returning the note, but from the conviction that the reason she had given for the ground of her determination was true--he no longer loved her.
To cheer her, Miss Benson began to speak of the future.

Miss Benson was one of those people who, the more she spoke of a plan in its details, and the more she realised it in her own mind, the more firmly she became a partisan of the project.

Thus she grew warm and happy in the idea of taking Ruth home; but Ruth remained depressed and languid under the conviction that he no longer loved her.

No home, no future, but the thought of her child, could wean her from this sorrow.