"Oh, mother, what a funny girl Nettie is!" said Katy, laughing till the tears came; "I had almost forgotten her queer ways! Oh, how grandmother _would_ have boxed your ears, Nettie!" The incorrigible Nettie cut one of her pirouettes across the room, and snapped her fingers by way of answer to this assertion. * * * * * While Ruth and her children were conversing, the two gentlemen were quite as absorbed in another corner of the apartment. "It astonishes me," said Mr. Grey to Mr. Walter, "that 'Floy' should be so little elated by her wonderful success." "It will cease to do so when you know her better," said Mr. Walter; "the map of life has been spread out before her; she has stood singing on its breezy heights--she has lain weeping in its gloomy valleys. Flowers have strewn her pathway--and thorns have pierced her tender feet. The clusters of the promised land have moistened her laughing lip--the Dead Sea apple has mocked her wasted fingers. Rainbows have spanned her sky like a glory, and storms have beat pitilessly on her defenceless head. Eyes have beamed upon her smiling welcome. When wounded and smitten, she fainted by the way, the priest and the Levite have passed by on the other side. 'Floy' knows every phase of the human heart; she knows that she was none the less worthy because poor and unrecognized; she knows how much of the homage now paid her is due to the _showy setting_ of the gem; therefore, she takes all these things at their true valuation. Then, my friend," and Mr. Walter's voice became tremulous, "amid all these 'well done' plaudits, _the loved voice is silent_. The laurel crown indeed is won, but the feet at which she fain would cast it have finished their toilsome earth-march." * * * * * "It is time we gentlemen were going; let us talk business now," said Mr. Walter, as Ruth returned from her conversation with the children. "How long did you propose remaining here, Ruth?" "For a month or so," she replied. "I have several matters I wish to arrange before bidding adieu to this part of the country, I shall try to get through as soon as possible, for I long to be settled in a permanent and comfortable home." "I shall return this way in a month or six weeks," said Mr. Walter, "and if you are ready at that time, I shall be most happy to escort you and your children to your new residence." "Thank you," said Ruth. "Good-bye, good-bye," shouted both the children, as the two gentlemen left the room. CHAPTER LXXXIII. "I don't know about holding you _both_ in my lap at once," said Ruth smiling, as Nettie climbed up after Katy.