"Mother, I think I wouldn't say 'always' to any one until I have a profession and am as independent as he is.

Then my love would be a free act, and not in any way a necessity." Margaret Bolton smiled at this new-fangled philosophy.

"Thee will find that love, Ruth, is a thing thee won't reason about, when it comes, nor make any bargains about.

Thee wrote that Philip Sterling was at Fallkill." "Yes, and Henry Brierly, a friend of his; a very amusing young fellow and not so serious-minded as Philip, but a bit of a fop maybe." "And thee preferred the fop to the serious-minded ?" "I didn't prefer anybody; but Henry Brierly was good company, which Philip wasn't always." "Did thee know thee father had been in correspondence with Philip ?" Ruth looked up surprised and with a plain question in her eyes.
"Oh, it's not about thee." "What then ?" and if there was any shade of disappointment in her tone, probably Ruth herself did not know it.
"It's about some land up in the country.

That man Bigler has got father into another speculation." "That odious man! Why will father have anything to do with him?
Is it that railroad ?" "Yes.