CHAPTER XX. THE RECKONING

Ruth had sped home through the streets unattended, as she had come, heedless of the rude jostlings and ruder greetings she met with from those she passed; heedless, too, of the smarting of her injured hand, for the agony of her soul was such that it whelmed all minor sufferings of the flesh. In the dining-room at Lupton House she came upon Diana and Lady Horton at supper, and her appearance--her white and distraught face and blood-smeared gown--brought both women to their feet in alarmed inquiry, no less than it br…