The Preliminaries, and Other Stories

nithorne's daughter. Peter Lannithorne was serving

s in the course of his negotiations for Ruth Lannithorne's hand. I say negotiations advisedly. Most young men in love have only to secure the consent of the girl and find enough mone

w this to be the magnanimous, manly attitude, but certainly there was no condescension in his outward bearing when he ask

" she declared, "who does n'

is were vague in his mind--and then he meant to reassure her warmly, and tell her that personal merit was the only thing that counted with him or his. He may have visualized himself as wiping away her tears and gently raising her to s

I ever saw your fathe

hat's another thing, Ollie. I will never marry an indulgent man, nor one who will l

too intelligent. He had heard that Mrs

s his fault. His fault--because he did n't make more money. We were on the edge of things, and she wanted to be in the middle, as she was used to being. Of course, she really has n't been well, but I think it's mostly nerves," said Ruth, with the terrible ha

fe. The domestic affairs of the Pickersgills ran smoothly, in affluence and peace. Oliver had never liste

are for me a

hing that ever happened except my father. He was beautiful, too; indeed, in

in the boy came to the

e, you know, and the world doesn't. I'll take what you say and do as you wish. You must n't think I'm on the oth

fully if it were really true that Providence ever let people just live their lives out like that being good, and prosperous, and generous, advancing {9} fr

had done. How could any one refuse to share such a radiant life when it was off

im about this, and know him for yourself. I know I'm asking a hard thing of you, but, truly, I believe it's best. If

1

eak to your mother

"Mother has views about getting married, Ollie. I dare say she'll want

r hear you

ung and the loving, and he had a sudden vision of their life as a long sunlit road, win

s--some day," Ruth sai

em off on his fingers. "Three of them. Seems to me that's a lot of {11} folks