to suit
Hester?"

"My dear, the happiest lot for a woman is marriage. And you and I are
Hester's friends. So we ought to do all we can for her happiness. That
is why I just mentioned this."

The dressing-gong began to boom.

"I must fly," said Sybell, depositing a butterfly kiss on Rachel's
forehead. And she flew.

"I wish I knew what I felt about him," said Rachel to herself. "I don't
much like hearing him called obtuse and superficial, but I suppose I
should like still less to hear Sybell praise him. I have never heard her
praise anything but mediocrity yet."

If Rachel had been at all introspective she might have found a clew as
to her feeling for Hugh in the unusual care with which she arranged her
hair, and her decision at the last moment to discard the pale-green gown
lying in state on the bed for a white satin one embroidered at long
intervals with rose-colored carnations. The gown was a masterpiece,
designed especially for her by a great French milliner. Rachel often
wondered whose eyesight had been strained over those marvellous
carnations, but to-night she did not give them a thought. She looked
with grave dissatisfaction at her pale, nondescript face and nondescript
hair and eyes. She did not know that only women with marriageable
daughters saw her as she saw herself in the glass.

As she left her room a door opened at the farther end of the same wing,
and a tall man came out. The middle-class element in her said,
"Superfine." His fastidious taste said, "A plain woman."

In another instant they recognized each other.

"Superfine! What nonsense," she thought, as she met his eager, tremulous
glance.

"A plain woman. Rachel plain!" He had met the welcome in her eyes, and
there was beauty in every movement, grace in every fold of her white
gown.

As they met the gong suddenly boomed out close beneath them, and they
could only smile at each other as they shook hands. The butler, who was
evidently an artist in his way, proved the gong to the uttermost; and
they had descended the staircase together, and had crossed the hall
before its dying tremors allowed them to speak.

As he was about to do so he saw her wince suddenly. She was looking
straight in front of her at the little crowd in the drawing-room. For an
instant her face turned from white to gray, and she involuntarily put
out her hand as if to ward off something. Then a lovely color mounted to
her cheek; she drew herself up and entered the roo