"No thanks are needed. You have a good seat, and are evidently at home in the saddle. I am sorry you have not ridden before. It is the best way of getting about our Fells." "It will be a great delight to me. And if you will get the little girls two safe ponies, they and I will have many a pleasant ride together when you are away." "I'll see about it." For the rest of that day Justin was his pleasant self. He was proud of his wife's skill in horsemanship, and looked forward to a good many rides with her. She was always good company, and her delight in the lake scenery and in the lonely beauty of the Fells drew an answering chord in his heart. That evening, he joined the children in the drawing-room, and all of them sang together. Just before they were called away to bed, Josie and Georgie ran out to attend to Joshua, whom they had left in the garden. Ruffie was on his father's knee, and Anstice was putting her music by. Having done that, she was kneeling before the fire stirring it to a blaze, when Ruffie suddenly said: "Steppie, Brenda says you have a big heart and love everybody—do you?" "Oh, no, darling, I haven't as big a heart as that, I am afraid." "Well, do you love Dad?" Justin gave a slight start, then he looked across at Anstice with a little of his boy's impish mischief in his eyes. "We must have an answer, mustn't we, Ruffie; but the question isn't at my instigation, I beg to state. It's a discussion we were having yesterday as to who loves who. To Ruffie there is no middle path. You either love or hate." Anstice laughed to hide her embarrassment. "But I have a middle path, Ruffie; I always have had one." "But you do love Dad, don't you?" persisted the child. "He said yesterday he had nobody who loved him but me, and I told him there was you, and he said: 'You mustn't tell tales, sonnie, or our confidential talks will be over.'" Justin was evidently uneasy as to what might be coming from Ruffie's frank revelations. And then Anstice, still stirring the fire to hide her hot cheeks, said in her easy, pleasant way: "We all love each other, Ruffie, I hope. And if anyone is weak or ill or helpless, we must show our love, even to animals. I saw a little boy yesterday clutching hold of a kitten in spite of its cries. It wanted to go to its mother, and he wanted to keep it with him, so as he was the strongest, he used force, instead of showing love for the poor little mite." Ruffie hung his head. "I wanted to make it love me best," he said. "If it had loved me proper, it would have wanted to stay with me." Josie and Georgie appeared, and the conversation ended. But when Anstice went to give her good night kiss to Ruffie, he said to her, with an old-fashioned shake of his curly head: "I think Dad would like you to love him like you do me. He said he felt lonely sometimes. And I told him I used to, but you knowed how to kiss loneliness away. He said he wished you'd try it on him!"