Lady Ruth

“ The man got unsteadily to his feet, holding to the edge of the door casing for support.
“So you’re the one who tripped me up,” he snarled to Ruth, ignoring Mary and her threatening gun. “Well, young lady, the next time you try it, you’ll wish you hadn’t.”
Ruth stepped close to him and in her eyes was a glitter before which his own gaze fell sullenly to the ground.
“And you might as well understand one thing,” she said in an even tone. “These girls are not as friendless and defenseless as you seem to think! You and the man, or men, back of you stop annoying them or you will be extremely sorry.” ”

“ I am proud. The Mademoiselle remember me," he exclaimed, bowing in the dark alley.
"Go on," urged Ruth, impatiently.
"It is of the leetle lady—Mademoiselle Picolet—I would speak," he said, more quickly.
"Our French teacher—yes."
"Then, knowing her, will the Mademoiselle take a small note from the poor musician to the good Picolet? 'Tis a small matter—no?"
"You want me to do this without telling anybody about it?" questioned Ruth, bluntly.
"Oui, oui, Mademoiselle! You have the discernment beyond your years. Indeed!" ”

“ Ruth obeyed the command. The Stazy staggered into the next wave. The water that came in over her bow almost drowned them, but Ruth, hanging to the steering wheel, brought the craft through the roller without swamping her.
“Good for our Ruth!” shouted Helen, as soon as she could get her breath.
[Pg 192] “Oh, Ruth! you always come to our rescue,” declared Jennie gratefully.
“Hi! I thought you were a nervous wreck, young lady,” Tom sputtered, scrambling forward to relieve her. “Get you into a tight corner, and you show what you are made of, all right.”
The girl of the Red Mill smiled at them. ”

“ Ruth turned away with aching heart, praying: “Oh, God, they need you! Come and comfort them. I don’t know how!” But somehow, on her homeward way she seemed to have met and been greeted by her Saviour.
It was so she received her baptism for the work that she was to do.
The next day permission came for her to go to France, and she entered upon her brief training. 294
“Don’t you dread to have her go?” asked a neighbor of Aunt Rhoda.
“Oh, yes,” sighed the good lady comfortably, “but then she is going in good company, and it isn’t as if all the best people weren’t doing it. ”

“ An hour later the Lanawaxa docked at Portageton. When our young friends went ashore and walked up the freight-littered wharf, Ruth suddenly pulled Helen's sleeve.
"Look there! There—behind the bales of rags going to the paper-mill. Do you see them?" whispered Ruth.
"I declare!" returned her chum. "Isn't that mysterious? It's the little foreign lady and the big man who played the harp—and how earnestly they are talking."
"You see, she knew him after all," said Ruth. "But what a wicked-looking man he is! ”

“ A man’s voice suddenly rose above the murmur in the room. The man was standing upon a little platform toward which the chairs were faced and with him were an officer in the uniform of the French Alpine chasseurs, Lady Agnes Ertyle, and Gerry Hull. For an instant the start of the speaking was to Ruth only a happy interruption postponing the problem of explanations to “Aunt Emilie”; but the next minute Ruth had forgotten all about that small matter. Gerry Hull, from his place on the platform, was looking for her. ”

“ Only she doesn’t like boys—nor understand them,” Ruth said, as she folded the letter with a sigh. “Poor Curly!”
“Come on! let’s get out on deck and see them start. I do just long to see the wonderful New York skyline that everybody talks about.”
“And the tall buildings that we couldn’t see from the taxicab window,” added Ruth.
“Who’s going to keep the key?” demanded Helen, as Ruth locked the stateroom door.
“I am. You’re not to be trusted, young lady,” laughed Ruth. “Where’s your handbag?” ”

“ Rut (Doctor) , in The Magnetic Lady, by Ben Jonson (1632) .
Ruth, the friend of Arabella, an heiress, and ward of Justice Day. Ruth also is an orphan, the daughter of Sir Basil Thoroughgood, who died when she was two years old, leaving Justice Day trustee. Justice Day takes the estates, and brings up Ruth as his own daughter. Colonel Careless is her accepted amé de cœur.—T. Knight, The Honest Thieves.
Ruthven (Lord) , one of the embassy from Queen Elizabeth to Mary Queen of Scots.—Sir W. Scott, The Abbot (time, Elizabeth) . ”

“ Wives should be keepers at home. Ruth,” continued the old lady after a short pause, “do you know I should like your looks better, if you didn’t curl your hair?”
“I don’t curl it,” said Ruth, “it curls naturally.”
“That’s a pity,” said the old lady, “you should [31] avoid everything that looks frivolous; you must try and pomatum it down. And Ruth, if you should feel the need of exercise, don’t gad in the streets. Remember there is nothing like a broom and a dust-pan to make the blood circulate.” ”

“ If my poor words have put you on the right track, dear lady, the sight of your face has gladdened my very heart to-day, and not mine only, but the hearts of the many that have good cause to love you and yours. ”

“ But there were plenty of people who said that to condemn the fair young girl of fifteen to live in that gloomy, tumble-down house, and under the guardianship of that terrible old lady, was only a shade better than burying her alive. ”

“ The lady just stepping from the pansy limousine has chosen yellow for her costume of shimmering crêpe; a rich dull ochre, with a hint of red in its flowing folds. At the neck and wrists are bits of fragile old embroidery, yellow too with age, and that melt into the flesh-tones of the wearer till they seem part of her living self; while at the slim waist-line is a narrow band of dusky rose—the kind of rose that looks faintly coated with silver—and daringly caught up high at the right side, a single mauve petunia. ”

“ Is it likely that marriage will entirely change his habits, and that he who has been wandering the world over for more than half his life will settle down to the dull life of a country gentleman? I may remain mistress of the Hall to the end of the chapter."
Aloud, Lady Longridge said, but in softened tones, "I think, Philip, you must admit that I have cause for displeasure. That your mother should know nothing of your marriage until you brought your wife under the roof to which she herself came, a bride in all honour, five-and-forty years ago, shows scant courtesy in an only son. ”

“ What was she doing on mountaintops, and on the stage of a theater if she had heart disease? He started with a feeling that he must go and put a stop to all this folly. Then he remembered the letter. She had told him another man had the right to care for her. Then she was at this moment deserted for the second time, as well as faithless to still another lover!—to how many more? And it was through him that a woman of such a life was brought into contact with Ruth! And Ruth’s parents had trusted him; they thought him a gentleman. ”

“ To Margaretta she said—
"Never mind, child. If your mother is away, you have me to look after you. You will be well taken care of, never fear. These meetings are mere matters of habit. I know by experience how well many daughters get on without seeing their mothers for many years together."
Truly she did. The visits of her own daughters had become fewer and farther between, as well as shorter in duration than of old, and the fact did not distress Lady Longridge in the least. She had cared more for her son than for anyone else. Now if she cared for anyone it was for Margaretta and Thorley. ”

“ Another bright flash of lightning and she distinctly saw the lovely Ruth all in gauzy, fluffy, shimmering, pure white, her robes full of light, too—by Cresto’s side, smiling.
“O! I never saw such dazzling, clinging, beautiful golden white robes on any one as Ruth now wore. She looked like a fairy bride, much smaller than she looked yesterday. I wondered if any angel in Heaven could dress more beautiful? It is worth a fortune just to see this wonderful sight! I am glad I came to see this resurrection of Ruth. I thank God for my clairvoyance now. O! how lovely to know there is no death! ”

“ The one great trouble of her life had chastened her beauty, and left upon her features that gentle look of melancholy which poets love to give their heroines.
Ruth had loved and lost. The man who won her girlish heart had been unworthy of her. She believed him to be an honourable English gentleman; she discovered him to be an adventurer and a scamp. ”

“ You know he—he has loved a woman.”
The Maid of Honor laughed.
“He has loved a woman,” emphasized the Fool, “and for a man, especially for a king, that is a very rare experience.”
“It was before Ermyntrude was born,” reminded the little old Lady-in-Waiting, softly; and her pretty, faded eyes lost themselves in the sunset. “Before even your mother came to be Mistress of the Robes to his mother, my dear,” she drew the girl down beside her on the ancient settle, “when I{184} myself was a slip of a girl in the Palace at Camelot, and the young Prince Richard barely through with his examinations. ”

“ Ruth, I am so miserable at times it seems to me that I shall die. I’d love to cry this minute—cry just as hard as I could, and scream, and beat my head against something hard—how do you do, Mrs. Asbury?—but instead, I have to bow from the windows to people, and remember that I am supposed to be the complaisant bride-elect of the catch of the season. It is a judgment on me, Ruth, to find that I have a heart, when I have always gone on the principle that nobody had any. Yes—how-de-do, Miss Culpepper? excuse me a minute, Ruth, while I hate that girl. ”

“ Ruth's mother bowed before the tall man. "Thou didst hear the child. It is as she says—the straw is clean and warm." The tall man bowed his head. "We shall be very glad to stay," and he helped the sweet-faced woman down from the donkey's back and led her away to the cave stable, while the little Ruth and her mother hurried up the stairs that they might send a bowl of porridge to the sweet-faced woman, and a sup of new milk, as well.
That night when little Ruth lay down in her bed, the rays of the beautiful new star shone through the window more brightly than before. ”

“ The transition from Ruth to this had been too abrupt. Ranged side by side with the bold, defiant eyes of the girl before him, he saw Ruth's clear, luminous eyes, like a saint's, gazing at him out of unplumbed depths of purity. And, somehow, he felt within him a stir of power. He was better than this. Life meant more to him than it meant to these two girls whose thoughts did not go beyond ice-cream and a gentleman friend. He remembered that he had led always a secret life in his thoughts. These thoughts he had tried to share, but never had he found a woman capable of understanding--nor a man. ”

“ And of wheat harvest - That is, she was to continue gleaning in the farm of Boaz to the end of the barley harvest; and then, when the wheat harvest began, to continue to its conclusion in the same way. In the interim, as well as each night, she lodged with her mother-in-law.
1. Ruth seems to have been a woman of a very amiable mind: she was modest, and she was industrious, and most probably a comely woman; and all these things served to attract the attention of Boaz, and to engage his affection. Her attachment also to her mother-in-law could not fail to secure his esteem. ”

“ Cameron’s automobile deposited Ruth at the Red Mill—her arrival so soon being quite unexpected to the bent old woman rocking and sewing in the cheerful window of the farmhouse kitchen.
When Ruth ran up the steps and in at the door, Aunt Alvirah was quite startled. She dropped her sewing and rose up creakingly, with a murmured, “Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!” but she reached her thin arms out to clasp her hands at the back of Ruth Fielding’s neck, and looked long and earnestly into the girl’s eyes.
“My pretty’s growing up—she’s growing up!” cried Aunt Alvirah. “She ain’t a child no more. ”

“ She appointed Ruth to continue her attendance in the fields of Boaz (v. 22) : " Let them not meet thee in any other field, for that will be construed a contempt of his courtesy." Our blessed Saviour is our Goel; it is he that has a right to redeem. If we expect to receive benefit by him, let us closely adhere to him, and his fields, and his family; let us not go to the world and its fields for that which is to be had with him only, and which he has encouraged us to expect from him. Has the Lord dealt bountifully with us? ”

“ But the housekeeper went through the open window after Bella, although in a more conventional manner, paying no heed to Ruth’s plea. The frightened girl, however, escaped her aunt’s clutch by slipping off the borrowed skirt and descending the trumpet-vine trellis by the kitchen door.
“Do let her go, Miss Timmins!” begged Ruth, as the panting woman, carrying Ruth’s skirt, returned to the window where the girl of the Red Mill stood. “She is scared to death. She was doing no harm.” ”

“ She would forget the "difficult situation" and find herself just talking with Ruth—about the death of her sister Mary's little girl, of her niece who was about to be married. There was something about Ruth that made one slip into talking to her about things one was feeling; and something in the quiet light of her tired sweet eyes made one forget about not being more than courteous. Even Laura Abbott, the nurse, found herself talking naturally to this Ruth Holland, this woman who lived with another woman's husband, who was more "talked about" than any woman in the town had ever been. ”