Bonnets were worn over pretty heads and framed lovely hair and faces and eyes--one especially! And then again any pleasantry of her father's would tend to relieve her mind after the anxiety of the morning.

Yes, the bonnet by all means! "Oh, I never gave you your father's message," he began, laying aside his cup, quite as if he had just remembered it.

"I ought to have done so before you hung up the hat you wore a while ago." Ruth looked up, smiling: "Why ?" There was a roguish expression about her mouth as she spoke.

She was very happy this afternoon.
"He says you won't get a new bonnet all summer," continued Jack, toying with the end of the ribbon that floated from her waist.
Ruth put down her cup and half rose from her chair All the color had faded from her cheeks.
"Did he tell you that ?" she cried, her eyes staring into his, her voice trembling as if from some sudden fright.
Jack gazed at her in wonderment: "Yes--of course he did and--Why, Miss Ruth!--Why, what's the matter! Have I said anything that--" "Then something serious has happened," she interrupted in a decided tone.

"That is always his message to me when he is in trouble.