She sat down in one of the hall chairs, but started up again and would have liked to run away when she heard the familiar tap of the crutches on the polished floor.  It was silly to feel so embarrassed, she thought; she had meant well, at least, in what she had done, and if she had gone too far she was sorry but it couldn’t be helped now.  She tried to think only of the game they were playing and said brightly to Arthur as he approached: 

“I hope you’ve thought of something hard, for I’m so stupid I can’t think of a thing.”

“Oh, hang the game,” he answered impatiently.  “See here, Ruth, it’s not very easy for me to say things, but I’ve just been waiting for the chance to tell you that you’ve done something for me to-night that I shall never forget.”

“Oh, but I want you to forget all those horrid things I said, and I take them all back this very minute.  I think it’s very fine and brave of you to come down and act just the same as ever.”

Arthur looked as if the little speech pleased him, though, being a boy, of course he couldn’t say so.

“It’s taken three of you to reform me,” he said with a little laugh.  “Mother has tried her hand at it, and good old Ellen, and now you have put on the finishing touch.  At least, I hope it’s the finishing touch,” he added soberly.

“Of course it is.  You can never feel like shutting yourself up again when you see how they all want you, and how happy you make your mother and father.”

“I shall be an ungrateful beast if I don’t please my mother and father.  You must give me a push if you see me going backward, Ruth.  What’s the use of a borrowed sister if she can’t help a fellow along?”

“I will, and you must help me, for boys always have very strict ideas as to how their sisters should behave,” said Ruth with a mischievous twinkle.  “My, but I feel better,” she added with a sigh.  “You’ve been such an awful load on my conscience, Arthur Hamilton, that I haven’t enjoyed one minute of my party.  Now I’m going to have a good time.”

She started toward the door of the library just as Joe’s voice called from the music-room, “What under the sun are you two people taking so long about?”

Ruth flew back to Arthur in dismay.  “Oh, in another second I should have walked straight back to my own side without choosing a thing,” she gasped.  “Do think of something quick.”

Arthur shouted with laughter.  “I’d have given anything if you had,” he choked.  “I should have liked to see your face when you came to.”

“Mean boy!” she said sternly.  “You can only pay up for that by thinking of something immediately, before I count five.  One, two, three, four—–­”

“The tip of Fuzzy’s tail,” answered Arthur, making a useless grab for the object in question as its small proprietor disappeared up the stairs.

“All right.  But they’ll guess it in a minute,” declared Ruth as they took their separate ways.  Contrary to her expectations it proved a hard one, and they were all in gales of merriment before Betty, whose thoughts turned easily to cats, started the questioning in the right direction.  Charades came next, then a game proposed by Philip, and after that supper was announced.