“The boys will excuse you, Ruth, I think; I wish you to come for a short walk with me.”
At his voice, the gentle seriousness of which penetrated even to the Tyrrell boys’ understanding, she felt that her secret was known.
She laid her arm about his neck and gave him his usual morning kiss, reddening slowly under his long searching look as he held her to him. She followed him almost blindly as he turned from the grounds and struck into the lane leading to the woods. Mr. Levice walked along, aimlessly knocking off with his stick the dandelions and camomile in the hedges. It was with a wrench he spoke.
“My child,” he said, and now the stick acted as a support, “I was just handed a note from Dr. Kemp. He has asked me for your hand.”
In the pause that followed Ruth’s lovely face was hidden in her hat.
“He also told me that he loves you,” he continued slowly, “and that you return his love. Will you turn your face to me, Ruth?”
“I do.” As reverently as if at the altar, she faced and answered her father. All her love was in the eyes she raised to his. Beneath their happy glow Levice’s sank and his steady lips grew pale.
They were away from mankind in the shelter of the woods, the birds gayly carolling their matins above them.
Neck, face, and ears were suffused with color as she faltered unsteadily,--
“Oh, Father, he loves me.” Then at the wonder of it, she exclaimed, throwing her arms about his neck impulsively and hiding her face in his shoulder, “I am so happy, so happy! It seems almost too beautiful to be true.”
The old man’s trembling hand smoothed the soft little tendrils of hair that had escaped from their pins. He stifled a groan as he was thus disarmed.
“And what,” she asked, her sweet eyes holding his as she stepped back, “what do you think of Herbert Kemp, M. D.? Will you be proud of your son-in-law, Father darling?”
Levice’s hand fell suddenly on her shoulder. He schooled himself to smile quietly upon her.
“Dr. Kemp is a great friend of mine. He is a gentleman whom all the world honors, not only for his professional worth, but for his manly qualities. I am not surprised that you love him, nor yet that he loves you--except for one thing.”
“And that?” she asked, smiling confidently at him.