Other Things Being Equal

Monday night had come. As Ruth half hid a pale yellow bud in her heavy, low-coiled hair, the gravity of her mien seemed to deepen. This was partially the result of her father’s...

The next day passed like a nightmare. To add to the misery of her secret, her mother began to fidget over the continued lack of any communication from her husband. Had the weath...

If Ruth, in the privacy of her heart, realized that she was sailing toward dangerous rapids, the premonition gave her no unpleasant fears. Possibly she used no lens, being conte...

At six o’clock the hills in their soft carpet of dull browns and greens were gently warming under the sun’s first rays. At seven the early train that Dr. Kemp purposed taking wo...

It was August. The Levices had purposely postponed leaving town until the gay, merry-making crowds had disappeared, when Mrs. Levice, in the quiet autumn, could put a crown to h...

Beacham’s lies in a dimple of the inner coast range, and is reached nowadays through one of the finest pieces of engineering skill in the State. The tortuous route through the m...

To dress well is to dress appropriately to time, place, and season. Having a full purse, she could humor every occasion with a change of gown; being possessed of good taste, her...

Louis Arnold, the only other member of the Levice family, had been forced to leave town on some business the morning after Mrs. Levice’s attack at the Merrill reception. He was,...

Everybody remembers the sad old comedy, as differently interpreted in its graver sentiment as there are different interpreters. Ruth had seen one who made of Shylock merely a fa...

A humming-bird dipped through the air and lit upon the palm-tree just below the open window; the long drowsy call of a crowing cock came from afar off; the sun spun down in the...

Mr. Levice, sauntering down the garden-path, saw the trio approaching. For a moment he did not recognize the gentleman in his summer attire. When he did, surprise, then pleasure...

The fire-light threw grotesque shadows on the walls. Ruth and Louis in the library made no movement to ring for lights; it was quite cosey as it was. They had both drawn near th...

“This is what I call a worldly paradise!” A girl with a face like dear Lady Disdain’s sank into a divan placed near the conservatory; her voice chimed in prettily with the music...

The note was handed to Ruth early the next morning as she stood in the kitchen beating up eggs for an omelette for her mother’s breakfast. A smile of mingled surprise and amusem...

She told her mother in a few words at luncheon that she had arranged to take Spanish lessons from a young protege of Dr. Kemp, who had been ill and was in want.

We do not live wholly through ourselves. What is called fate is but the outcome of the spinning of other individuals twisted into the woof of our own making; so no life should b...

The sun shone with its usual winter favoritism upon San Francisco this Thursday morning. After the rain the air felt as exhilarating as a day in spring. Young girls tripped fort...

Shafts of pale sunlight darted into the room and rested on Mr. Levice’s hair, covering it with a silver glory,--they trailed along the silken coverlet, but stopped there; one li...

Mrs. Levice’s gaze strayed pensively from the violets she was embroidering to Ruth’s pale face. Every time the latter stirred, her mother started expectantly; but the anxiously...

They walked directly into a bare, dark hallway. There was no one stirring, and Kemp softly opened the door of one of several rooms leading into the passage. Here a broad band of...

Herbert Kemp and Dr. Stephens stood quietly talking to Mr. Levice. The latter seemed weaker since his exertion of the morning, and his head lay back among the pillows as if the...

The Levices’ house stood well back upon its grounds, almost with an air of reserve in comparison with the rows of stately, bay-windowed houses that faced it and hedged it in on...

“Ruth,” he said softly; but she did not move. His own face showed signs of the emotions through which he had passed, but was peaceful as if after a long, triumphant struggle. He...

“I thought you would be quiet at this hour,” said Rose Delano, seating herself opposite her friend in the library, the Thursday evening after the funeral. They looked so differe...

There are few communities, comparatively speaking, with more enthusiastic theatre-lovers than are to be found in San Francisco. The play was one of the few worldly pleasures tha...

Dr. Kemp tossed the reins to his man, sprang from his carriage, and hurried into his house. “Burke!” he called while closing the door, “Burke!” He walked toward the back of the...

Mrs. Jules Levice was slowly gaining the high-road to recovery, and many of the restrictions for her cure had been removed. As a consequence, and with an eye ever to Ruth’s soci...