Take her home as quietly as you can.”
“You will call to-morrow?” whispered Levice.
He quietly assented.
“Now be deft.” The transfer was quickly made, and nodding cheerfully, Dr. Kemp left the room.
Ruth came forward. Five minutes later Mrs. Levice opened her eyes.
“Why, what has happened?” she asked languidly.
“You fell asleep, Esther,” replied her husband, gently.
“Yes, I know; but why is Ruth in that gown? Oh—ye-es!” Consciousness was returning to her. “And who was that handsome man who was here?”
“A friend of Ruth.”
“He is very strong,” she observed pensively. She lay back in her chair for a few minutes as if dreaming. Suddenly she started up.
“What thoughtless people we are! Let us go back to the drawing-room, or they will think something dreadful has happened.”
“No, Mamma; I do not feel at all like going back. Stay here with Father while I get our wraps.”
Before Mrs. Levice could demur, Ruth had left the room. As she turned in the direction of the stairs, she was rather startled by a hand laid upon her shoulder.
“Oh, you, Louis! I am going for our wraps.”
“Here they are. How is my aunt?”
“She is quite herself again. Thanks for the wraps. Will you call up the carriage, Louis? We shall go immediately, but do not think of coming yourself.”
“Nonsense! Tell your mother you have made your adieux to Mrs. Merrill,—she understands; the carriage is waiting.”
A few minutes later the Levices and Louis Arnold quietly stole away. Mrs. Levice has had an attack of hysteria. “Nothing at all,” the world said, and dismissed it as carelessly as most of
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