'I didn't know how to tell you,' she whispered.
Ruth laughed excitedly. She felt as if a great weight had been lifted
from her shoulders, a weight which had been crushing the life out of
her. In the last few days the scales had fallen from her eyes and she
had seen clearly.
She realized now what Kirk had realized from the first, that what had
forced his life apart from hers had been the golden wedge of her
father's money. It was the burden of wealth that had weighed her down
without her knowing it. She felt as if she had been suddenly set free.
'I'm dreadfully sorry,' said Sybil feebly.
Ruth laughed again.
'I'm not,' she said. 'If you knew how glad I was you would be
congratulating me instead of looking as if you thought I was going to
bite you.'
'Glad!'
'Of course I'm glad. Everything's going to be all right again now.
Sybil dear, Kirk and I had the most awful quarrel the other day. We, we
actually decided it would be better for us to separate. It was all my
fault. I had neglected Kirk, and I had neglected Bill, and Kirk
couldn't stand it any longer. But now that this has happened, don't you
see that it will be all right again? You can't stand on your dignity
when you're up against real trouble. If this had not happened, neither
of us would have had the pluck to make the first move; but now, you
see, we shall just naturally fall into each other's arms and be happy
again, he and I and Bill, just as we were before.'
'It must be lovely for you having Bill,' said little Mrs. Bailey
wistfully. 'I wish...'
She stopped. There was a corner of her mind into which she could not
admit any one, even Ruth.
'Having him ought to have been enough for any woman.' Ruth's voice was
serious. 'It was enough for me in the old days when we were at the
studio. What fools women are sometimes! I suppose I lost my head,
coming suddenly into all that money, I don't know why; for it was not
as if I had not had plenty of time, when father was alive, to get used
to the idea of being rich. I think it must have been the unexpectedness
of it. I certainly did behave as if I had gone mad. Goodness! I'm glad
it's over and that we can make a fresh start.'
'What is it like being poor, Ruth? Of course, we were never very well
off at home, but we weren't really poor.'
'It's heaven if you're with the right man.'
Mrs. Bailey sighed.
'Bailey's the right man, as far as I'm concerned. But I'm wondering how
he will bear it, poor dear.'
Ruth was feeling too happy herself to allow any one else to be unhappy
if she could help it.
'Why, of course he will be splendid about it,' she said. 'You're
letting your imagination run away with you. You have got the idea of
Bailey and yourself as two broken creatures begging in the streets. I
don't know how badly Bailey will be off after this smash, but I do know
that he will have all his brains and his energy left.'
