I will spend a few days with Ruth
and the children."
Gordon could not face the meeting between his father and Ruth. He
accompanied him to the door and gently bade him good-by, promising
to call the next day.
A singularly beautiful love the old man had bestowed on Ruth, and
she on him; for he was resistless to all the young. When he kissed
her as Frank's bride he seemed to have first fully recovered his
spirits from the shadows of his own tragedy. In her great soft
eyes with the lashes mirrored in their depths, her dimpled chin
and sensitive mouth, her refined and timid nature, the grace and
delicacy of her footsteps, he saw come back into life his own lost
love. Above all, he was fascinated by her spiritual charm, haunting
and vivid. He had never tired of boasting of his son's charming
little wife, and he loved her with a devotion as deep as that he
gave his own flesh and blood.
When she entered the room, in spite of his efforts at control,
he burst into tears as he kissed her tenderly and slipped his arm
softly around her.
"Ruth, my sweet daughter!" he sobbed.
"Father, dear!"
"You must cheer up, my little one; I've come to help you.
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