Page:Ruth of the U.S.A. (IA ruthofusa00balm).pdf/85

 was soon to be put to use; so Ruth practiced long in signing the name. The description of Cynthia Gail as checked on the passport was almost faultless for herself; height, five feet six and a half inches; weight, 118 pounds; face, oval; eyes, blue; hair, yellow; and so with all the rest. The photograph of Cynthia Gail was pasted upon the passport and upon it was stamped the seal of the United States, as well as a red-ink stamping which went over the edge of the photograph upon the paper of the passport. It was very possible, Ruth thought, that the German girl for whom this passport was intended would have removed that picture of Cynthia Gail and substituted one of herself; to do that required an emboss seal of the United States, besides the rubber stamp of the red ink. Ruth did not doubt that the Germans possessed replicas of these and also the skill to forge the substitution. But she possessed neither.

Moreover, the photograph of Cynthia Gail seemed to Ruth even more like herself than it had at first. The difference was really more in expression than in the features themselves; and Ruth, consciously or unconsciously, had become more like that girl in the picture. She had, also, the identical dress in which the picture was taken. She determined to wear that when she presented the passport and risk the outcome. Her advantage so far had been that no one had particular reason to suspect her; she had fitted herself into the relations already arranged to take Cynthia Gail to France and they seemed capable, of their own momentum, to carry her on.

Hubert Lennon "looked by" again later in the afternoon and she asked him to tell his aunt that she was going