Ruby's Reward — page 167: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

But the time was to come, and was not far distant either, when she was to stand in sore need of just such a friend as he pro- mised to be. Walter had been invited to dine with the Gordons that evening, and afterward the whole family attended the opera, to hear the renowned Christine Nilsson, and thus the delightful holiday came to an end. The next morning Mr and Mrs Rugetes returner to their home among the moun- tains, asserting that they had never enjoyed so much during their whole lives as during the ten days that they had spent with their friends in Philadelphia. After that the winter passed rapidly, but without much that is worthy of note. Spring caine, then summer, and Ruby went to the mountains, to spend several weeks with Mv and Mrs Ruggles, as she had promised to do the previous year. And hither Walter came again to pass his vaca- tion; and those two weeks were weeks never Lo be forgotten hy cither of them. Walter even yeb would not allow himsclt to apes words that would lead Ruby to pledge herself to him; yet each knew that they were all in all to each other, and there was agort of tacit understanding between them that eventually they would belong to. each other, Another yoar, Walter hoped, would give him an interest in the business, and then he would feel free to ask Ruby to give himself to him, without the fear of being regarded asa fortune-hunter by her friends and acqnaintances. October came, and one aficrnoon Mr Gordon returned to his homo locking white and wretched. “What is it, Robert?’ his wife asked, with an anxious face. comikcneoles.coun