"I'm not going to-night. I've got some business to attend
to here. I thought you understood. I expect you'll be all right, you two
together."
After a moment, Ruth said brightly: "Oh yes! I was quite forgetting
about your business." Which was completely untrue, since she knew
nothing of his business, and he had assuredly not informed her that he
would not return with them.
But Ruth was being very brave, haughty, and queenlike, and for this the
precise truth must sometimes be abandoned. The most precious thing in
the world to Ruth was her dignity--and who can blame her? She meant to
keep it at no matter what costs.
In a few minutes the bookstall on the platform attracted them as
inevitably as a prone horse attracts a crowd. Other people were near the
bookstall, and as these people were obviously leaving Llandudno, Ruth
and Nellie felt a certain solace. The social outlook seemed brighter for
them. Denry bought one or two penny papers, and then the newsboy began
to paste up the contents poster of the _Staffordshire Signal_,
which had just arrived. And on this poster, very prominent, were the
words:--"The Great Storm in North Wales.
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