But it is all over at last and--
Ruth Chester was the unfolding of the first hour-petal and I got a
glimpse of a heart of gold that I feel dumb with worship to think of.
She's God's own good woman and He made her in one of His holy hours. I
wish I could have borne her, or she me, and the tenderness of her arms
was a sacrament. We two women just stood aside with life's artifices and
concealments and let our own hearts do the talking.
She said she had come because she felt that if she talked with me I
might be better able to understand Alfred when he came and that she had
seen that the judge was very determined, and she thoroughly recognized
his force of character. We stopped there while I gave her the document
to read. I suppose it was dishonorable, but I needed her protection from
it. I'm glad she had the strength of mind to walk with a head high in
the air to Judy's range and burn it up. Anything might have happened if
she hadn't. And even now I feel that only my marriage vows will close up
the case for the judge--even yet he may--But when Ruth had got done
with Alfred, she had wiped Judge Wade's appreciation of him completely
off my mind and destroyed it in tender words that burned us both worse
than Judy's fire burned the letter.
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