called "flirtation," or take any delight in the exercise of those little

arts of pleasing and winning which are none the less genuine and charming

because they are not intellectual, Ruth, herself, had never suspected

until she went to Fallkill. She had believed it her duty to subdue her

gaiety of temperament, and let nothing divert her from what are called

serious pursuits: In her limited experience she brought everything to the

judgment of her own conscience, and settled the affairs of all the world

in her own serene judgment hall. Perhaps her mother saw this, and saw

also that there was nothing in the Friends' society to prevent her from

growing more and more opinionated.

When Ruth returned to Philadelphia, it must be confessed--though it would

not have been by her--that a medical career did seem a little less

necessary for her than formerly; and coming back in a glow of triumph, as

it were, and in the consciousness of the freedom and life in a lively

society and in new and sympathetic friendship, she anticipated pleasure

in an attempt to break up the stiffness and levelness of the society at

home, and infusing into it something of the motion and sparkle which were

so agreeable at Fallkill. She expected visits from her new friends, she

would have company, the new books and the periodicals about which all the

world was talking, and, in short, she would have life.

For a little while she lived in this atmosphere which she had brought

with her. Her mother was delighted with this change in her, with the

improvement in her health and the interest she exhibited in home affairs.

Her father enjoyed the society of his favorite daughter as he did few

267

The Gilded Age