Page:A Colonial Wooing.djvu/226

 that Ruth did get here, limp as a rag and all hollow-eyed with much crying and all that, but my wife got her well composed in short order, and when you came in she was still sound asleep; and this is all that I have to tell you, except that if you think I am liable before the law for what part I have taken in her rescue, do take up the matter at once, for as soon as May comes in Ruth and John Bishop will be married, if I am not altogether mistaken. Until then she will make her home with me." And Robert put on a defiant air that puzzled Matthew, who wanted to say more, but must have time to collect his thoughts.

At last he found words wherewith to express his feelings. "I was not prepared when I came for such extraordinary tidings—"

"Which," said Robert, interrupting him, "were not half so extraordinary as your own acts, for which there was no apparent reason. Isn't John Bishop an improvement over William Blake?"

Matthew paid no attention to Robert's words, and continued, "—to be thus boldly