"How did you worry him into betraying others?" "You are a woman and ask that? Oh, I forgot--you are not in love--or rather, no man is in love with you. Why, you stupid little creature if a man loves a woman, he'll do anything she tells him. Besides, he did not mention names; he only told me that he got heaps of presents and letters. But I want to know who the woman is he has gone up to meet." "I daresay there is no woman." "My dear Jennie, you don't know men." "Mr. Webster is devoted to you." "So he says. Humph!" "Ruth! Why, he shews it in every way." "All put on!" cried Miss Cass, determined not to be pacified. "But I'll get the truth out of my father. I hear from the servants that Neil was with him in the library for three hours last night." "Then that is the explanation. Your father has refused his consent to the marriage, and the Master has gone away." "Nonsense! Do you think he would give me up like that, and leave me so cold a letter? No. There is something else--a woman, I am sure. But I'll get the truth out of my father. I have as wild a temper as Aunt Inez when I am roused. I can be nice enough, Jennie, as you know, but, oh, how nasty I can be when I make up my mind!" "You have evidently made up your mind now," said Miss Brawn, who had known all about Ruth's temper when they were at school together. And at this juncture, judging from previous experience, she considered it prudent to retire, before she herself could be brought under the harrow. Ruth, left alone, did not rage any more. She put on her prettiest dress, bathed her eyes, which were reddened with tears, and went down to try and cajole her father. Mr. Cass was in the library; and one look at her face was enough to tell him why she had come. He argued, however, from her studied amiability, that she was in a particularly aggravating mood. But long experience of his mother and sister had taught him how to deal with this sinister sweetness. He was immediately on his guard; for, as he well knew, if the truth was to be got out of him, his daughter was the one to get it. "Dear papa," she said, sinking into a chair beside the desk and patting his hand. "I am in great trouble." "I know,"--determined that he would carry the war into the enemy's camp. "Mr. Webster was with me last night." Ruth started to her feet with a tragic expression on her face. "And you have forbidden our marriage!" she cried, and her air was that of a Siddons. "What else did you expect?" her father asked. "Neil is a good fellow, but he is not the son-in-law I want. And, indeed, I should be sorry, for his own sake, to see him marry you. He is too gentle and kind. What you want, my young lady, is a master." "No man shall ever master me," his daughter said, calmly. "And has he given me up without a word?"