lasting fire, and to whose arms his little daughter now flew with a cry of love and delight.
No child of Mrs. Eaton's would ever have been permitted to fly at a parent like that. And this knowledge brought Edward to the conclusion that real goodness is inseparable from offishness and condescension. Whereas there seemed to be something in the wickedness of Ruggles and the inherited wickedness of his little daughter which permitted them to love each other without reticence, and to converse together like two rational human beings of the same age.
Edward accompanied them to the door.
"I've had a dandy time," said Alice. She turned upward to her father a pair of brilliant dark eyes, swimming with affection. "Did you know I got the thimble, daddy? But what do I care if I don't get married in a million years, so long as I've got you?"
Mr. Ruggles' eyes twinkled and narrowed so that crows' feet appeared at the outer corners of them.
"When we get home," he said, "we'll file off the top of your thimble and what you'll have left will be a ring—if that's what you want."
At the next dancing class, Alice, when she perceived Edward, swept down upon him, dancing as she went and holding her hands behind her back.
