What is it all about?
Have you fallen into debt like a bad boy, and don't dare write the _pater_ ?" He looks at her and laughs.
"You see the comical side of everything, Lady Ruth.

This I fear bids fair to be a tragedy." "A tragedy! Dear me, didn't we have quite enough of that this afternoon?
What can it be?
Surely, you and the colonel--" and she colors furiously upon realizing how near she has come to betraying her thoughts.
"The colonel and I have had no words, as yet, Lady Ruth.

This affair is something that concerns my past.

Let me briefly tell you a few facts that are of especial interest to me, and may claim your attention.
"I told you I had not seen my mother since I was a child, yet she is not dead.

An unfortunate affair happened, and she was exiled from home.
Heaven knows I have ever believed her innocent.
"On several occasions, unbeknown to my stern father, I have received a line without a signature, a line that called down Heaven's blessings on my head, a line that caused me to cry like a baby.
"Thus year by year my resolve became stronger; I would find my mother, I would seek the solution of the dreadful mystery that hangs over the Craig home.
"My studies were done; I graduated at the head of the medical class and spent a year under the most eminent professors at Heidelberg.