He went on to say what he would do if he were monarch of the realm, affirming that the brightest jewel of his crown would be his queen.
"Anyhow, he can't pronounce Scotch," Charles thought.
"Would be his queen," Dare repeated, with subdued emotion and an upward glance at Ruth, which she was too much absorbed in the song to see, but which did not escape Charles.

Dare's dark sentimental eyes spoke volumes of--not sermons--at that moment.
"Oh, Uncle Charles!" whispered Molly, who had been allowed to sit up about two hours beyond her nominal bedtime, at which hour she rarely felt disposed to retire--"oh, Uncle Charles! 'The brightest jewel in his crown!' Don't you wish you and me could sing together like that ?" Charles moved impatiently, and took up his paper again.
The evening passed all too quickly for Dare, who loved music and the sound of his own voice, and he had almost forgotten, until Charles left him and Ralph alone together in the smoking-room, that he had come to discuss his affairs with the latter.
"Dear me," said Evelyn, who had followed her cousin to her room after they had dispersed for the night, and was looking out of Ruth's window, "that must be Charles walking up and down on the lawn.

Well, now, how thoughtful he is to leave Mr.Dare and Ralph together.

You know, Ruth, poor Mr.Dare's affairs are in a very bad way, and he has come to talk things over with my Ralph." "I hope Ralph will make him put his cottages in order," said Ruth, with sudden interest, shaking back her hair from her shoulders.

"Do you think he will ?" "Whatever Ralph advises will be sure to be right," replied Evelyn, with the soft conviction of his infallibility which caused her to be considered by most of Ralph's masculine friends an ideal wife.