She came bustling into the dining room and then stopped suddenly as though she had seen a ghost. Her master had fallen off to sleep in the easy-chair. He was smiling in his sleep, and in his hand he held an open letter. Cherry Ribbons, who was not behind the door when the bump of curiosity was served out, crept gently up behind him and read its contents over his shoulder. Two words only were written on the fair white sheet, and they were in a lady’s hand: “_Hope_. Ruth.” CHAPTER XL. THE ADRIANS GO OUT TO TEA. Mr. Gurth Egerton was a pretty constant visitor at the Adrians’, and he stood high in favour with both the master and the mistress of the house. ‘A most agreeable genileman,’ said Mrs. Adrian. ‘A great traveller, and full of aneedote,’ said Mr. Adrian. Ruth said nothing in particular. She quite agreed that Mr. Egerton was all her parents proclaimed him, and she confessed that he had made himself particularly agreeable to her. But she was not blind, and she soon began to perceive that Gurth was taking great pains to please her, and that when he spoke to her he threw a certain tone into his voice which no woman, from the days of Eve, has been able to misinterpret, unless she did so wilfully. Ruth was shrewd enough to know that Mr. Gurth Egerton was not so domesticated as to come over to the house three or four times a week for the purpose of holding Mrs. Adrians wool and discussing the relative merits of homoeopathy and allopathy with her, and she was equally certain that, much as he might have travelled, he was not so smitten with the savages as to desire constantly to discuss their habits and customs with her father. But, whatever Gurth’s motive might be, he had certainly won the friendship of the Adrians. He had even induced them to accept his hospitality, and come and take tea with him. He had so artfully worked up a description of a Patagonia; dinner-service and a North American Indian war-costume, that he had forced Mr. Adrian to exclaim, ‘Ah, I should like to see that!’ ‘Nothing easier,’ was Gurth’s quick reply. ‘Bring the ladies, and come over one afternoon to my house, and you can see the whole collection.’ Mrs. Adrian at once gave John a look which informed him he might accept. Mrs. Adrian had not been blind any more than Ruth, and recognized in the wealthy bachelor a most eligible _parti_ for her daughter. So it was arranged that Mr. and Mrs. Adrian and Ruth and Gertie should all go over to Gurth’s house one evening and take tea.