She stood for what she was, without effort or self-consciousness.

Whether playful or serious, she was always real.
Beneath a reserved and rather quiet manner there lurked a piquant unconventionality.

The mixture of earnestness and humor, which were so closely interwoven in her nature that he could never tell which would come uppermost, had a strange attraction for him.

He had grown accustomed to watch for and try to provoke the sudden gleam of fun in the serious eyes, which always preceded a retort given with an air of the sweetest feminine meekness, which would make Ralph rub himself all over with glee, and tell Charles, chuckling, he "would not get much change out of Ruth." If only she had not been asked to Atherstone on purpose to meet him.

If only Lady Mary had not arranged it; if only Evelyn did not know it; if only Ralph had not guessed it; if only he himself had not seen it from the first instant! Ruth and Molly were the only two unconscious persons in the house.
"I wonder," said Charles to himself, "why people can't allow me to manage my own affairs?
Oh, what a world it is for unmarried men with money! Why did I not marry fifteen years ago, when every woman with a straight nose was an angel of light; when I felt a noble disregard for such minor details as character, mind, sympathy, if the hair and the eyes were the right shade?
Why did I not marry when I was out of favor with my father, when I was head over ears in debt, and when at least I could feel sure no one would marry me for my money?
Molly," as that young lady came running towards him with lingering traces of jam upon her flushed countenance, "you have arrived just in time.