Benedictus (Volume 1) (Paperback)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1887. Excerpt: ... 155 CHAPTER VI. BENEDICTUS AND RUTH. Ruth now entered, fresh from a Greek class of which she had lately become a pupil. She did not like it; it worried her; but the idle words of an acquaintance had impelled her to strike out a path for herself in a family acknowledged to be talented. She was not talented. It was a great pity, and a great wrong, when the others had their ample share of abilities. Nor was she more than ordinarily pretty, with the prettiness of youth and health. These things grieved Ruth. She must vindicate her claim, as she said, somewhat angrily, " to be, to do, or to suffer." And as she refused to suffer by being in the background any longer, she sought an original suffering in learning Greek. It bored her immensely, and as she stood beside her step-sister the difference of expression in the two faces was remarkable. "Well, Ruth?" said Estelle, in a tone of amused questioning. "Well, Estelle," Ruth repeated, irritably, "what do you see of marvels, or beauties? what have you heard to explain your enthusiasm for that garden?" "There is a key to it." "I know there is a key. It is hardly worth while to have one for a little place of this sort, a glimpse of the heath, and a fragment of garden," said Ruth, literally. "The wide heath, the pretty garden," said her step-sister. "Has your Greek gone wrong?" "Oh no," said Ruth, so carelessly, that the carelessness was laboured, and Estelle read the reply in a contrary manner. "But, tell me, Estelle, all about the people you saw at Lady Eleanor Tyne's. And about Thyra. Did she wear what that enraptured M. Becquer calls a 'Guido smile'?" "Yes," said Estelle, smiling. "Besides that, she wore a most beautiful filigree necklace, and a white, soft, silk without any gloss on its surface. And she certainly was the most beautiful pers...