The Squire pressed the visitors to let him send for their trunks and urged them to stay at his house, and Alice joined in the invitation, but Philip had reasons for declining.  They staid to supper, however, and in; the evening Philip had a long talk apart with Ruth, a delightful hour to him, in which she spoke freely of herself as of old, of her studies at Philadelphia and of her plans, and she entered into his adventures and prospects in the West with a genuine and almost sisterly interest; an interest, however, which did not exactly satisfy Philip—­it was too general and not personal enough to suit him.  And with all her freedom in speaking of her own hopes, Philip could not, detect any reference to himself in them; whereas he never undertook anything that he did not think of Ruth in connection with it, he never made a plan that had not reference to her, and he never thought of anything as complete if she could not share it.  Fortune, reputation these had no value to him except in Ruth’s eyes, and there were times when it seemed to him that if Ruth was not on this earth, he should plunge off into some remote wilderness and live in a purposeless seclusion.

“I hoped,” said Philip; “to get a little start in connection with this new railroad, and make a little money, so that I could came east and engage in something more suited to my tastes.  I shouldn’t like to live in the West.  Would you?

“It never occurred to me whether I would or not,” was the unembarrassed reply.  “One of our graduates went to Chicago, and has a nice practice there.  I don’t know where I shall go.  It would mortify mother dreadfully to have me driving about Philadelphia in a doctor’s gig.”

Philip laughed at the idea of it.  “And does it seem as necessary to you to do it as it did before you came to Fallkill?”

It was a home question, and went deeper than Philip knew, for Ruth at once thought of practicing her profession among the young gentlemen and ladies of her acquaintance in the village; but she was reluctant to admit to herself that her notions of a career had undergone any change.

“Oh, I don’t think I should come to Fallkill to practice, but I must do something when I am through school; and why not medicine?”

Philip would like to have explained why not, but the explanation would be of no use if it were not already obvious to Ruth.

Harry was equally in his element whether instructing Squire Montague about the investment of capital in Missouri, the improvement of Columbus River, the project he and some gentlemen in New York had for making a shorter Pacific connection with the Mississippi than the present one; or diverting Mrs. Montague with his experience in cooking in camp; or drawing for Miss Alice an amusing picture of the social contrasts of New England and the border where he had been.  Harry was a very entertaining fellow, having his imagination to help his memory, and telling his stories as if he believed them—­as perhaps he did.  Alice was greatly amused with Harry and listened so seriously to his romancing that he exceeded his usual limits.  Chance allusions to his bachelor establishment in town and the place of his family on the Hudson, could not have been made by a millionaire, more naturally.