CHAPTER I



T     HE general verdict among people who
     knew her was that Ruth Stuyvesant was
     an unusual girl. And this did not mean
that she was extraordinarily beautiful, or even
more talented and accomplished than the aver-
age girl in her position; neither was she ec-
centric nor given to fads.
  Nevertheless, at nineteen, on the eve of mak-
ing her formal bow to the great world of so-
ciety, where she was bound to take a conspicu-
ous place on account of her father's wealth
and position, she had already given signs of
being a young woman of unusual force of
character.
  Not that she was aggressive or pushing in
the strident manner of many of the young
women of the day; aside from a quick temper,
w hich flashed out at unexpected moments at
any suggestion of unfairness or injustice, she
was unusually quiet and modest. But among
the girls of her own age it was well under-
stood that when Ruth Stuyvesant made up her
mind, argument and eloquence were alike
wasted, nothing could move her.
  People of the older generation who remem-
bered her paternal grandmother, whose fame
as a " leader " was still a tradition in New