hat the catastrophe had been
unconnected with his folly. A very slight foundation would have served
her, but this Rachel would not give, honestly believing him the cause of
the accident, and also that the shock to the sense of duty higher than
he could understand had occasioned the excitement which had destroyed
the slender possibility of recovery. She pitied the unhappy man more
than she had done at first, and she was much pained by his mother's
endeavours to obtain a palliative for him, but she could not be untrue.
"Indeed," she said, "I fear no one can say it was not so; I don't think
anything is made better by blinking the reality."

"Oh, Mrs. Keith, it is so dreadful. I cannot tell my poor son. I don't
know what might be the consequence."

Tears came into Rachel's eyes. "Indeed," she said, "I am very sorry for
you. I believe every one knows that I have felt what it is to be guilty
of fatal mischief, but, indeed, indeed I am sure that to realize it all
is the only way to endure it, so as to be the better for it. Believe me,
I am very sorry, but I don't think it would be any real comfort to
your son to hear that poor Bessie had never been careful, or that I was
inexperienced, or the nurse ignorant. It is better to look at it fairly.
I hear Mr. Clare coming in. Will you see him?" she added suddenly, much
relieved.

But Mrs. Carleton did not wish to see him, and departed, thinking Alick
Keith's wife as bad as had ever been reported, and preparing an account
of her mismanagement wherewith to remove her son's remorse.

She was scarcely gone, and Rachel had not had time to speak to Mr.
Clare, before another visitor was upon her, no other than Lord Keith's
daughter, Mrs. Comyn Menteith; or, as she introduced herself, "I'm
Isabel. I came down from London to-day because it was so very shocking
and deplorable, and I am dying to see my poor little brother and uncle
Colin. I must keep away from poor papa till the doctors are gone, so I
came here."

She was a little woman in the delicately featured style of sandy
prettiness, and exceedingly talkative and good-natured. The rapid
tongue, though low and modulated, jarred painfully on Rachel's feelings
in the shaded staircase, and she was glad to shut the door of the
temporary nursery, when Mrs. Menteith pounced upon the poor little baby,
pitying him with all her might, comparing him with her own children,
and asking authoritative questions, coupled with demonstrations of her