other, when I'm away, in spite of my
hard heart."

"Well, that's true," said Mrs. Rand, looking at her daughter with wide
and rather tearful eyes. "But I'm sure I don't know why I do."

CHAPTER XI

THE LAST VIEW FROM HIGH WINDOWS

"Not without fortitude I wait ...
... I, in this house so rifted, marr'd,
So ill to live in, hard to leave;
I, so star-weary, over-warr'd,
That have no joy in this your day."

_Francis Thompson._

I

Rachel, on the morning of April 28th, received this letter from Lady
Adela:

"BEAMINSTER HOUSE,

_April 27th._

MY DEAR RACHEL,

Mother suddenly last night expressed an urgent wish to see you.
She has not been at all well during the last few days and Dr.
Christopher, who has been here since last Saturday, says that
if you can come down and see her he thinks that it would be a
comfort to her. She is sleeping very badly, but is wonderfully
tranquil and seems to like to be here again.

If you can come down to-morrow afternoon I will send to meet
the 5.32 at Ryston. That is quicker than going round to
Munckston. If I don't hear I conclude that you are coming by
that train.

My love to Roddy.

Your affectionate aunt,

ADELA BEAMINSTER."

Rachel showed the letter to Roddy.

"I'm so glad," she said, "I've been hoping that she'd send for me. I've
felt, ever since that day, that I should never be easy again if I
hadn't the chance to tell her that I see now that I--that we--were
wrong."

"She's never answered my letter," said Roddy. "Perhaps she wasn't well
enough to write. Yes, I'm glad you're going, Rachel."

She was moved by many emotions, the old lady dying, the house in whose
shadow she had spent so many of her timid, angry, adventurous young
years, the thrill that the thought of her child gave her now at every
vision of the world, the knowledge that in Roddy she, at last, had
someone in her life to whom, after every absence, however short, she was
eager to return--these things shone with new, wonderful lights around
her journey.

The April evenings were lengthening and the dusks were warm and scented.
The little station lay peacefully in the heart of green fields; across
the sky, washed clean of every colour, a dark train of birds slowly,
lazily took their flight, trees were dim with edges sharp against the
sky-line, a dog barking in the distance gave rhythm t