Round Anvil Rock | Page 8

been seen in the wilderness,--a very gem of wonderful carving and
inlaid work from Spain. As a little child she had been dressed--as no
little one of the wild wood ever had been before--in the finest fabrics
and the daintiest needlework from the looms and convents of France.
Very strange things may become familiar through use. The simple
people of Cedar House and their rude neighbors were well used to all
this. They had seen the beautiful blue-eyed baby grow to be a more
beautiful child, and the child to a most beautiful maiden, and always
surrounded by the greatest refinement and luxury that love and means
could bring into the wilderness. Naturally enough they now found
nothing to wonder at, in the daily presence of this radiant young figure
among them.
It was only for an instant that the girl and boy stood thus unseen on the
threshold of Cedar House, looking into the great room. Philip Alston
saw them almost at once. He had been watching and waiting for Ruth,
as he always was when she was out of his sight even for a moment. He
sprang up, quickly and alertly, like a strong young man, and went to
meet her with his gallant air. She held up her cheek smilingly; he bent
and kissed it, and taking her hand with his grand bow, led her across
the room. The judge and his nephew also arose, as they always did
when she came in or went out. The judge did this unconsciously,
without thinking, and scarcely knowing that he did do it; for he was a
plain man, rather awkward and very absent-minded, and deeply
absorbed in the study of his profession. William Pressley did it with
deliberate intention and self-consciousness, as he did everything that he
deemed fitting. It was his nature to give grave thought to the least thing

that he said or did. It was his sincere conviction that the smallest matter
affecting himself was of infinitely greater importance than the greatest
that could possibly concern any one else. There are plenty of people
who believe this as sincerely as he believed it, but there are few who
show the belief with his candor. When he now stood up to place a chair
for Ruth beside his own, he did the simple service as if the critical eyes
of the world had been upon him. And his manner was so consciously
correct that no one observed that the chair which he gave her was not
so comfortable as his own. He was uncommonly good-looking, also,
and tall and shapely, yet there was something about his full figure--that
vague, indescribable something--which unmistakably marks the lack of
virility in mind or body, no matter how large or handsome a man may
be. He stood for a moment after Ruth was seated, and then, seeing that
Philip Alston was about to lift a candle-stand which was heaped with
parcels, he went to aid him, and the two men together set the little table
before her. She looked at it with soft, excited cries of surprise and
delight, instantly divining that the unopened parcels and sealed boxes
contained more of the gifts which her foster-father was constantly
lavishing upon her. He smiled down at her beaming face and dancing
eyes, and then taking out his pocket-knife he cut the cords and removed
the covers of the boxes. As the wrappings fell away, there was a
shimmer of dazzling tissues, silver and gold.
"Oh! oh!" she cried.
"Just a few pretty trifles, my dear," he said. "You like them?"
"Like them!"
Repeating his words she sprang up, and running round the candle-stand,
stood on the very tips of her toes so that she might throw her arms
about his neck. He bent his head to meet her upturned face, and if ever
tenderness shone in a man's pale, grave face, it shone then in his. If
ever love--pure and unselfish--beamed from a man's eyes, it was
beaming now from those looking down in the girl's face. His tender
gaze followed her fondly as she went back to the candle-stand and
began to examine each article again more than once and with lingering
and growing delight. She found new beauties every moment, and

pointed them out to the three men and the boy who were now gathered
around her. She called the ladies also, over and over, but they did not
come, although they cast many glances at the candle-stand.
Miss Penelope was engaged in making the coffee for supper; and while
she did not consider the making of the coffee for supper quite so vital a
matter as the making of the coffee for breakfast, she still could not
think of leaving the hearth under any inducement so long as the
coffee-pot