There was something about Ruth Wakefield that commanded the respect of even the lowest among those who knew her ... her natural refinement had been accentuated by her seclusion from the outer world and by her almost constant thought of higher and better matters than the gross and humdrum affairs of the daily life by which she was surrounded. Yet, she always entered into practical affairs with vigor and entire understanding, so that, while she was counted as a dreamer of dreams beyond the earth, yet she was acknowledged to be eminently practical and able to attend to her own business affairs with no danger of being over-reached by those with whom she dealt as to monetary matters, as her natural acumen in such matters had been sharpened by various experiences of a more or less unpleasant character, such as the loss of certain sums of money through trusting to the honor of some of those with whom she had had sympathy in their need, for she had discovered that, when it comes to money, people are very apt to forget their obligations entirely, only attending to that part of life when in need themselves and not considering the fact that, unless one gets what is one's due, at least to some extent, one cannot, on the other hand, meet one's own obligations, so that the lonely girl had learned some hard lessons by practical knowledge of human nature gained in the only school where such knowledge can be gained ... experience. But old Mage was of a far different type of womankind ... true as steel to her beloved young lady as she always called her in her thoughts, although she often found verbal fault with her to her fair and tender face ... fond of gossip and garrulous to an almost alarming extent yet she could keep a secret as inviolate as even Ruth Wakefield herself. At this moment, her great desire was to worm out of poor Estrella whatever it was that had made her own young lady faint that morning ... she was not worried about the poor girl's loss of him she had called her lover except in so far as it affected her own people as she was fond of distinguishing them, for old Mage, although uneducated and almost unaware of her own nationality as her mother had died at her birth and her father had immediately deserted her, yet prided herself on being far superior to the natives among whom she dwelt, for she had come to Cuba with the Wakefield family, having been employed by them as nurse for the small Ruth and having stuck tightly to her charge from that time on.