let me come in."

"Mamma will be very glad to see you," she said. Then she brought him
up and introduced him. Mrs. Ray rose from her chair and curtseyed,
muttering something as to its being a long way for him to walk out
there to the cottage.

"I said I should come, Mrs. Ray, if Miss Ray did not make her
appearance at the brewery in the morning. We had such a nice party,
and of course one wants to talk it over."

"I hope Mrs. Tappitt is quite well after it,--and the girls," said
Rachel.

"Oh, yes. You know we kept it up two hours after you were gone. I
can't say Mr. Tappitt is quite right this morning."

"Is he ill?" asked Mrs. Ray.

"Well, no; not ill, I think, but I fancy that the party put him out
a little. Middle-aged gentlemen don't like to have all their things
poked away anywhere. Ladies don't mind it, I fancy."

"Ladies know where to find them, as it is they who do the poking
away," said Rachel. "But I'm sorry about Mr. Tappitt."

"I'm sorry, too, for he's a good-natured sort of a man when he's
not put out. I say, Mrs. Ray, what a very pretty place you have got
here."

"We think so because we're proud of our flowers."

"I do almost all the gardening myself," said Rachel.

"There's nothing I like so much as a garden, only I never can
remember the names of the flowers. They've got such grand names down
here. When I was a boy, in Warwickshire, they used to have nothing
but roses and sweetwilliams. One could remember them."

"We haven't got anything very grand here," said Rachel. Soon after
that they were sauntering out among the little paths and Rachel was
picking flowers for him. She felt no difficulty in doing it, as her
mother stood by her, though she would not for worlds have given him
even a rose if they'd been alone.

"I wonder whether Mr. Rowan would come in and have some tea," said
Mrs. Ray.

"Oh, wouldn't I," said Rowan, "if I were asked?"

Rachel was highly delighted with her mother, not so much on account
of her courtesy to their guest, as that she had shown herself equal
to the occasion, and had behaved, in an unabashed manner, as a
mistress of a house should do. Mrs. Ray had been in such dread of the
young man's coming, that Rachel had feared she would be speechless.
Now the ice was broken, and she would do very well. The merit,
however, did not belong to Mrs. Ray, but to Rowan. He had the gift of
making himself at home with people, and had done much towards winning
the widow's he