She remembered now the horror she had felt at the idea of marrying Neil when she had come to know that his mother was--at least to all outward appearances--a murderess. She judged that if her father should be guilty then Geoffrey would feel the same towards her. Again and again she tried to find some explanation, and again and again she failed. Only by her father himself could her doubts be set at rest, and he was absent. True, he would return in three days; but how to live during that time with this hideous doubt in her mind? She could imagine now how people felt when they were going mad. Sending down an excuse for not appearing at dinner, she went to bed. To face the world, even her own small world, was more than she could bear. Her only relief was in solitude. Of course, as might have been expected, Amy came up to fuss over her and offer advice and blame her for having made herself ill in some way which Mrs. Chisel herself would have avoided. Then in came Jennie, creeping like a mouse, with soothing speech and cool hands for the burning brow of the sick girl. "I am not well dear," she said, in reply to Miss Brawn's inquiries. "All I want is a good night's rest. In the morning I shall be myself again." And with this answer Jennie had to be content. Left to herself, Ruth began her self-communings. It crossed her mind that her father, who had always been a great admirer of beauty, might have been attracted by Mrs. Jenner's good looks. But even as she thought of it she dismissed the idea with a blush of shame. Who was she to think ill of her father? But she would certainly question Mrs. Chisel about her former governess, and would learn what had been Mr. Cass's attitude towards her. Ruth, anxious to propitiate her, offered on the following morning to help with the work, but was told she could not do it as Mrs. Chisel wished. In spite of which disagreeable speech she waited patiently for an opportunity of introducing the subject of Amy's childhood and Amy's governess, and kept her temper, as best she might, under a deluge of platitudes and self-glorification on the part of her sister. At length, after having made attacks upon several of her acquaintances, the good lady indirectly introduced the subject upon which Ruth wished to speak by giving her opinion as to the incapacity of Jennie Brawn as governess. "I do not say she does not do her best," she said, magnanimously, "but, oh, dear me! Jane Brawn"--so she invariably referred to Jennie--"has no more idea of teaching than a Hottentot. I know how the thing should be done, as I have told her a dozen times, but she will not take advice." "What about your own governess?" put in Ruth, artfully. "Was she any good, Amy?" "She was excellent--as a governess," returned Mrs. Chisel, with a sniff of disparagement; "but as a woman she left much to be desired." "But, my dear Amy, how do you know that? You were only a child."