She was reading to them—­with how sick and trembling a heart no words can tell.  But she could master and keep down outward signs of her emotion.  An hour more to-night (part of which was to be spent in family prayer, and all in the safety of company), another hour in the morning (when all would be engaged in the bustle of departure)—­if, during this short space of time, she could not avoid speaking to him, she could at least keep him at such a distance as to make him feel that henceforward her world and his belonged to separate systems, wide as the heavens apart.

By degrees she felt that he was drawing near to where she stood.  He was by the table examining the books that lay upon it.  Mary and Elizabeth drew off a little space, awe-stricken by the future member for Eccleston.  As he bent his head over a book he said, “I implore you; five minutes alone.”

The little girls could not hear; but Ruth, hemmed in so that no escape was possible, did hear.

She took sudden courage, and said in a clear voice—­

“Will you read the whole passage aloud?  I do not remember it.”

Mr. Hickson, hovering at no great distance, heard these words, and drew near to second Mrs. Denbigh’s request.  Mr. Bradshaw, who was very sleepy after his unusually late dinner, and longing for bedtime, joined in the request, for it would save the necessity for making talk, and he might, perhaps, get in a nap, undisturbed and unnoticed, before the servants came in to prayers.

Mr. Donne was caught; he was obliged to read aloud, although he did not know what he was reading.  In the middle of some sentence the door opened, a rush of servants came in, and Mr. Bradshaw became particularly wide awake in an instant, and read them a long sermon with great emphasis and unction, winding up with a prayer almost as long.

Ruth sat with her head drooping, more from exhaustion, after a season of effort than because she shunned Mr. Donne’s looks.  He had so lost his power over her—­his power, which had stirred her so deeply the night before—­that, except as one knowing her error and her shame, and making a cruel use of such knowledge, she had quite separated him from the idol of her youth.  And yet, for the sake of that first and only love, she would gladly have known what explanation he could offer to account for leaving her.  It would have been something gained to her own self-respect if she had learnt that he was not then, as she felt him to be now, cold and egotistical, caring for no one and nothing but what related to himself.

Home, and Leonard—­how strangely peaceful the two seemed!  Oh, for the rest that a dream about Leonard would bring!

Mary and Elizabeth went to bed immediately after prayers, and Ruth accompanied them.  It was planned that the gentlemen should leave early the next morning.  They were to breakfast half-an-hour sooner, to catch the railway-train; and this by Mr. Donne’s own arrangement, who had been as eager about his canvassing, the week before, as it was possible for him to be, but who now wished Eccleston and the Dissenting interest therein very fervently at the devil.