Margaret Cameron

“ As his steamer was slowly warped alongside the wharf he caught sight of Ruth on the outskirts of the waiting crowd, eagerly waving a letter and motioning to him to hurry ashore.
"It's come!" she cried, breathlessly, as she led the way to a carriage. "You're just in time! It came last night. Such a letter, Uncle Ted! Such a delight of a letter! He's a Harvard man, and his name's Prescott Patterson, and he's been abroad for three years, and— ... Oh yes, grandmother's pretty well, thank you.... Yes, everything's all right at home. There!" ”

“ He liked Tennyson and Marcus Aurelius and Thackeray, and disliked Dickens. He felt at home in London and a stranger in Paris, admired Rome and loved Florence, enjoyed Holland and hated Germany. Sometimes he told her incidentally of adventures in quaint, out-of-the-way places, which he pictured vividly in few words. In these and many other ways he wrote himself upon the page, and Ruth's letters were equally self-revealing. ”

“ And Ruth needs a good time."
"Ruth has quite as much pleasure as is good for a girl," she began, firmly, but at that moment Bainbridge turned to her with just the admixture of deference and interest that she regarded as her due, and she smiled benignly upon him.
Before Royce walked back to his hotel with him the young man had accepted an invitation to dine with the women the following evening, and Ruth had promised to ride with him in the morning. ”

“ In those days not even a locomotive's whistle was heard in that languid old town, and the thin stream of visitors came by unpleasant little steamers over seas often choppy, or by rocking red stages over mountain roads choppy at best. There were no pavements and few sidewalks, and one diminutive, ramshackle street-car ambled unpunctually through State Street, from the Arlington to the wharf and back again. ”

“ Uncle Teddy, I'd sell my immortal soul for a ticket to the theater at home!"
"H'm," said Royce, watching her.
"When you're here it isn't so bad. You're the one bright spot in the whole landscape! But if I don't have some fun pretty soon—something I don't know all about before it happens ... something exciting..." She paused tragically, and Royce continued to watch her with thoughtful eyes, which presently began to twinkle.
"And you think answering a Personal will supply the missing spice of life, do you?" ”

“ Ruth!" She had whirled toward the door. "Don't go! See here, dear. You mustn't feel this way!" He spoke tenderly, and tried to lay his hand on her arm, but she backed away. "We didn't mean to hurt you ... the thing just grew beyond us. But it started as an amusement for you, and the first suggestion didn't come from us. Remember that. There's something else," he added, even more tenderly. "Kate has promised to marry me, Ruth ... and I want you to love her!"
"I won't! I hate her! I hate every one of you! You're cruel! You've all conspired ... ”

“ The nice ones may do something just for a lark, but they always have good taste about it."
Remembering with a pang the tone in which her uncle had said, "This is less a matter of morality than of taste," Ruth was silent, but within her grew a hot resentment that Royce had permitted her to indulge what now seemed an insane desire. And yet ... Prescott Patterson had shown impeccable taste.
"Are all Harvard men exactly alike?" she demanded later the same afternoon, breaking into Bainbridge's discourse about salmon-fishing. ”

“ BEING, of course, a properly-brought-up and irreproachable person yourself, you may find it difficult to believe that a really nice girl would do what Ruth Adams did—unless you happen to have known Santa Barbara before it became the happy hunting-ground of the busy rich ”

“ But there's nothing to do but ride, or drive, or sometimes dance—and grandmother doesn't like me to go to the dances, because she doesn't approve of what she calls 'the Western lack of restraint.' She's afraid evil communications will corrupt my beautiful Royce-Adams manners! ”

“ Meanwhile, as his steamer wallowed slowly northward, his niece and Bainbridge galloped over the hard, wet sands to a break in the cliffs near Ortega Hill and returned by the road, chatting blithely. They discovered that he had met during the winter several débutantes who were her friends, and, while disclaiming any desire to be regarded as "a society man," he told her of dinners and plays, skating parties and dances, of which these friends had earlier written her. ”

“ It indicated good taste and a warm sense of humor on the part of the writer—humor that occasionally flashed into wit. Royce perused it chuckling, and said, as he handed it back to her:
"Yes, my child, you've got your work cut out for you, to hold your own with that young man. That's a good letter." ”

“ Royce, after satisfying herself by various quiet tests, as well as by some talks with her son, that the young man was thoroughly high-principled, of irreproachable manners, and independent means, allowed Ruth more liberty. ”

“ People are hard on girls ... and it isn't fair! After all, we're human, just like boys!"
"Yes, of course ... and nobody really minds just a prank. But if a girl really breaks over ... well, it means a lot more than it does for a fellow, don't you think? ”

“ Royce left them, and when they heard her door close Ruth whispered, "Now!" Laughing, he went to his overcoat in the hall, returning with a paper.
"There you are," he said, handing it to her. "That one will do."
Ruth read the item he had marked:
A Young Man, of good family, college graduate, recently returned from abroad, stranger in New York, would like to correspond with a young lady of similar education and tastes. Object, matrimony. No triflers. Address P. P., Box 57, New York Scroll. "Oh, no fair!" she laughed. "He's a trifler himself!" ”

“ The longest-living author of this work died in 1947, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 76 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. ”

“ Letter received have known something was wrong cannot lose you am leaving for Santa Barbara tonight due there steamer twenty third.
P. Patterson.
Crumpling the telegram in her hand, Ruth opened the gate and walked blindly until she found herself almost at the Mission, when she turned and went back to the Arlington, where she happened to find the little street-car, which bore her leisurely to the telegraph-office. She sent this message to her uncle:
P. P. on way here. Due twenty-third. Must get away. Please be sick or something and send for us. Nearly crazy. ”