“I am now going downstairs to my guests. It is ten o’clock. The lunch bell will ring at one. You can then come down and join us. You can easily find your way to the dining-room—it is the back room on the north side of the house. “Thank you, madam. Yes, I can easily find it,” said Em. Mrs. Bruce went down to the drawing-room and Em. stitched for three hours, her fingers busy with her needlework, her thoughts with Ronald Bruce. She felt sure that he had instigated his mother to engage her only for the sake of having her near him, and she rejoiced in the thought. She never seriously reflected now how this love might end. It was happiness enough for the present to know that she was under the same roof with her lover, and that she would be sure to see him several times a day for weeks to come. So she sat and stitched diligently, smiling dreamily over her work until the luncheon bell rang. Then she sprang up, smoothed her dress and her hair and tripped downstairs to the dining-room where the luncheon-table was spread. CHAPTER IX “THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE” The course of true love never yet ran smooth; For either ’twould be different in blood, Or else misgrafted in respect of years. Or else it stood upon the choice of friends; Or, if there is a unity in all, War, death or sickness will lay siege to it. SHAKESPEARE. But the family had not yet assembled. There was but One person in the room, and he sprang to meet her, caught both of her hands, and would have saluted her with a kiss but that the quick, forbidding look in the young girl’s eyes arrested him. “Well, well, I won’t, then!” he said; “but, oh, Em., I am so enraptured to see you! And did I not manage beautifully? As soon as I had got home from Annapolis, where that interminable investigation detained me so long, I was postively determined to have you here! So, my dear, having purposely left the bulk of my wardrobe behind, I told my mother that I had scarcely the thread of a garment left and must have several made up immediately. My poor mother, who is as new to this neighborhood as you or I, was immediately driven to her wit’s end for the wants of a seamstress. I knew she would be! So I recommended John Palmer’s daughters, knowing full well that there was but one among them who could suit my mother. So here you are, my love; and if I succeed in my plans, from here you will never go again without me! But hush! here is somebody else,” said Ronald, as old Commodore Bruce came into the room.