Simpson should stay and finish the packing; she could go straight to London and meet us there.

Macdonald and nurse could go with us.

Could you bear twenty miles, do you think ?" Anything to get rid of his uneasiness.

He felt that he was not behaving as he should do, to Ruth, though the really right never entered his head.

But it would extricate him from his present dilemma, and save him many lectures; he knew that his mother, always liberal where money was concerned, would "do the thing handsomely," and it would always be easy to write and give Ruth what explanation he felt inclined, in a day or two; so he consented, and soon lost some of his uneasiness in watching the bustle of the preparation for their departure.
All this time Ruth was quietly spending in her room, beguiling the waiting, weary hours, with pictures of the meeting at the end.
Her room looked to the back, and was in a side-wing away from the principal state apartments, consequently she was not roused to suspicion by any of the commotion; but, indeed, if she had heard the banging of doors, the sharp directions, the carriage-wheels, she would still not have suspected the truth; her own love was too faithful.
It was four o'clock and past, when some one knocked at her door, and, on entering, gave her a note, which Mrs Bellingham had left.
That lady had found some difficulty in wording it, so as to satisfy herself, but it was as follows: My son, on recovering from his illness, is, I thank God, happily conscious of the sinful way in which he has been living with you.