When he was in want of money his letters heretofore had made but little delay.

Had he fallen ill and died out there, or met his death suddenly, perhaps in some wild adventure under an assumed name?
Her lips tightened, and her white brows contracted over her absent eyes.

It was an old anxiety, but none the less wearing because it was old.

Ruth put it wearily from her, and took up the first book which came to her hand, to distract her attention.
It was a manual out of which Mrs.Alwynn had been reading extracts to her in the morning, while Ruth had been engaged in preparing herself to teach in the Sunday-school.

She wondered vaguely how pleasure could be derived, even by the most religious persons, from seeing favorite texts twined in and out among forget-me-nots, or falling aslant in old English letters off bunches of violets; but she was old enough and wise enough to know that one man's religion is another man's occasion of stumbling.
Books are made to fit all minds, and small minds lose themselves in large-minded books.