“So we learn to live,” was Ruth’s playful reply.  To her it was painfully clear that Mrs. Morris, very sweetly no doubt, had eluded Godfrey’s endeavors to inform her of anything not to his brother’s unqualified praise.  In the Bylow Hill group, Ruth had a way of smiling abstractedly, which was very dear to Godfrey even when it meant he had best say no more; and this smile had just said this to him when Isabel and Arthur came into view again.  As the two and the three drifted toward each other, Ruth let Leonard outstep her, and joined Godfrey with a light in her face that quickened his pulse.

After a word or two of slight import she said, as they slowly walked, “Godfrey.”

“Yes,” eagerly responded the lover.

“Down in the garden, awhile ago—­did I—­promise something?”

“You most certainly did!” She had promised that if he would let a certain subject drop she would bring it up again, herself, before he must take his leave.

“And must you go very soon, now?” she asked.

“I’ve only a few minutes left,” said the lover, with a lover’s license.

“Well, I’m ready to speak.  Of course, Godfrey, I know my heart.”

The young man smiled ruefully.  “I’ve known mine till I’m dead tired of the acquaintance.”

Other words passed, her eyes on the ground as they loitered, and after a pause she murmured:—­“But I’ve known my heart as long as you’ve known yours.”

“You’ve known—­What do you—­Oh, Ruth, look at me!”

She looked, very tenderly, although she said, “You forget we are observed.”

“Oh, observed!  Do you mean hope—­for me—­after all?”

“I mean that if you will only wait until we can get a clear light on this matter of Isabel’s—­which will most likely be by the next time you come”—­

“Oh, Ruth, Ruth, my own Ruth at last!”

“Please don’t speak so.  I’m not engaging myself to you now.”

“Oh yes, you are!  Yes, you are!  Yes—­you—­are!”

“No—­no—­no—­listen!  Listen to me, Godfrey.  I think that now, among us all, we shall manage Isabel’s affair well enough, and that the very next time—­you—­come”—­She began absently to pick her steps.

“What—­what then?”

“Then you may ask me.”

The response of the overjoyed lover was but one or two passionate words, and her sufficient reply, as they halted among their fellows, was to look across the valley with her meditative smile.  Isabel took note, but kindly gave a long sigh of admiration, and with an exalted sweep of the hand drew the gaze of the five to the beauties of the scene below.  The day was near its end.  The long shadow of the great cliff behind Bylow Hill hung over the roofs of the town and over the hither meadows.  The sun’s rays were laying their last touches upon the winding river, and upon the grainfields that extended from its farther shore.  In the upper blue rested a few peaceful clouds, changing from silver to pink, from pink to pearly gray, and on the skyline crouched in a purpling haze the round-backed mountains of another county.