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 As in all such cases, the whole truth was never quite laid bare.

As Ruth grew to womanhood, Robert had watched her career with great interest and encouraged in every way her friendship with his own daughters, who were younger than she. It was a red-letter day to him when he discovered by mere chance the interest that she had excited in John Bishop's breast; for Friend though he professed to be, John was a Quaker of a different type, and recent events had made him more and more the friend of Robert. It was the latter who had, while keeping in the background, urged the dissolution of the partnership with William Blake, and since then had aided John in purchasing a small plantation adjoining his own, a hundred acres of upland and meadow that partly laid between the Pearson and Watson tracts.

As the day was fine and the walking excellent, Ruth and Robert were in no hurry to reach the Pearson house; they strolled rather leisurely along; so deliberately, in fact, that Ruth thought there was a purpose in it, and