Perhaps he thought as he had saved one sister, the other ought to help him when he was in trouble.

I don't know." The fact was that Alice was a person who invited confidences, because she never betrayed them, and gave abundant sympathy in return.

There are persons, whom we all know, to whom human confidences, troubles and heart-aches flow as naturally its streams to a placid lake.
This is not a history of Fallkill, nor of the Montague family, worthy as both are of that honor, and this narrative cannot be diverted into long loitering with them.

If the reader visits the village to-day, he will doubtless be pointed out the Montague dwelling, where Ruth lived, the cross-lots path she traversed to the Seminary, and the venerable chapel with its cracked bell.
In the little society of the place, the Quaker girl was a favorite, and no considerable social gathering or pleasure party was thought complete without her.

There was something in this seemingly transparent and yet deep character, in her childlike gaiety and enjoyment of the society about her, and in her not seldom absorption in herself, that would have made her long remembered there if no events had subsequently occurred to recall her to mind.
To the surprise of Alice, Ruth took to the small gaieties of the village with a zest of enjoyment that seemed foreign to one who had devoted her life to a serious profession from the highest motives.