CHAPTER VI.
Sidney Carton, thought Ruth, in pursuit of a sing-song girl! The idea was so incongruous that a cold little smile parted her lips.
It seemed as if each time her imagination reached out investingly, an invisible lash beat it back.

Still, she knew instinctively that all of Sidney Carton's life had not been put upon the printed page.
But to go courting a slave-girl, at the risk of physical hurt! A shudder of distaste wrinkled her shoulders.
She opened the window, for the night was mild, and sat on the floor with her chin resting upon the window-sill.

Even the stars were strangers.

Where was this kindly world she had drawn so rosily in fancy?
Disillusion everywhere.

The spinsters were not kind; they were only curious because she was odd and wore a dress thirty years out of date.