"But you were going if we went to Morfordsburg," he persisted. He
was determined to get at the bottom of all his misgivings.
Perhaps, after all, Peter was right.
Ruth caught her breath. The name of the town had reopened a vista
which her anxiety over her father's affairs had for the moment
shut out.
"Well, but that is over now. I am going to stay here and help
daddy." Again the new fear tugged at her heart. "You are going to
stay, too, aren't you, Mr. Breen?" she added in quick alarm. "You
won't leave him, will you?--not if--" again the terrible money
loss rose before her. What if there should not be money enough to
pay Jack?
"Me! Why, Miss Ruth!"
"But suppose he was not able to--" she could not frame the rest of
the sentence.
"You can't suppose anything that would make me leave him, or the
work." This also came with an emphasis of positive certainty. "I
have never been so happy as I have been here. I never knew what it
was to be myself. I never knew," he added in softened tones, "what
it was to really live until I joined your father.
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