"No. I'll be bound you've more sense than some," he grumbled. "Otherwise you wouldn't have pulled me back from that train. I'd have been run over like enough." "I'm glad you think I helped you," said Ruth simply. "Heh? What are you glad for?" "Because I like to have people feel grateful to me and like me," confessed Ruth frankly. "Hey-day!" exclaimed the old gentleman. "Here's plainness of speech. I suppose you think I am rich and that I have come to reward you?" "I thought you had come to thank me, not insult me," the girl said, with dignity. "You cannot give me money." "You are a wealthy girl, then?" "We have all the money we shall ever need," said Ruth. "It really does not matter, does it, sir? If you have thanked me sufficiently, I will go on." "Hoity-toity!" he snarled. "You are one of these very smart modern girls, I see. And wealthy, too? Where do you live?" "I am going home now, sir. You know where I live," said Ruth in surprise. "Heh? I'll go with you. I want to talk with your folks." "I really do not understand your object. I have no parents, sir," said Ruth, a little angry by this time. "If you wish to see our lawyer--" "Haven't you anybody?" "I have sisters and an aunt and a guardian--our lawyer," said Ruth not at all pleased to be obliged to satisfy the curiosity of the old man with the green umbrella. He walked on beside her and there really seemed no way to escape him. She thought it strange that he cared to come to the house again, having already been there once and interviewed Mrs. MacCall. When they came in sight of the old Corner House Ruth heard the old gentleman utter an exclamation as though he recognized it. Then, when she stopped at the gate he demanded: "So you live here?" "Of course I do," Ruth replied rather sharply for her. She opened the gate and passed through. She did not ask him to enter; but he came in just the same, green umbrella and all. He walked beside her up the path and up the steps to the door. Then as she turned to face him he grumbled: "So I suppose you're going to tell me that you are Ruth Kenway?" "That is my name, sir." "Humph! So, the boy _has_ got some sense, after all," muttered the old man. Ruth suddenly felt that there was a deep meaning in the old man's look and a reason for his curiosity. She asked faintly: "What boy, sir? Whom do you mean?" "That whippersnapper, Luke Shepard." "Oh!" Ruth exclaimed. "_You are Neighbor!_" So that is why Luke, coming half an hour later to this very front door, spied the green umbrella and Mr. Henry Northrup's great overshoes standing together on the porch of the old Corner House. Luke did not know at first whether it would be best to ring the bell or to run. He wavered for several minutes, undecided. Then suddenly Neale O'Neil, rounding the corner of the house, caught sight of him. "Hullo!" shouted the ex-circus boy. "Lost, strayed, or stolen? The girls have been looking for you. Your sister is here already."