ear Rachel, I am so afraid I was hasty, I could not sleep without
coming to tell you how sorry I am."

"Then you are convinced? I knew you would be."

"Oh, yes, I have just been sitting by him after he was gone to bed. He
never goes to sleep till I have done that, and he always tells me if
anything is on his mind. I could not ask him again, it would have been
insulting him; but he went over it all of himself, and owned he ought
not to have put a finger on the edge of the nest, but he wanted so to
see what it was lined with; otherwise he never touched it. He says, poor
boy, that it was only your being a civilian that made you not able to
believe him, I am sure you must believe him now."

Mrs. Curtis began, in her gentle way, about the difficulty of believing
one's children in fault, but Lady Temple was entirely past accepting the
possibility of Conrade's being to blame in this particular instance. It
made her bristle up again, so that even Rachel saw the impossibility of
pressing it, and trusted to some signal confutation to cure her of her
infatuation. But she was as affectionate as ever, only wanting to be
forgiven for the morning's warmth, and to assure dear Aunt Curtis, dear
Grace, and dearest Rachel in particular, that there was no doing without
them, and it was the greatest blessing to be near them.

"Oh! and the squirting, dear Rachel! I was so sorry when I found it out,
it was only Francie and Leo. I was very angry with them for it, and I
should like to make them ask pardon, only I don't think Francie would.
I'm afraid they are very rude boys. I must write to the Major to find me
a governess that won't be very strict with them, and if she could be an
officer's daughter, the boys would respect her so much more."

CHAPTER III. MACKAREL LANE

"For I would lonely stand
Uplifting my white hand,
On a mission, on a mission,
To declare the coming vision."
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.

"Well, Grace, all things considered, perhaps I had better walk down with
you to Mackarel Lane, and then I can form a judgment on these Williamses
without committing Fanny."

"Then you do not intend to go on teaching?"

"Not while Conrade continues to brave me, and is backed up by poor
Fanny."

"I might speak to Miss Williams after church, and bring her in to
Myrtlewood for Fanny to see."

"Yes, that might do in time; but I shall make up my mind first. Poor
Fanny is so easily led that we must t