a little pause. "You don't want me to go;--do
you, mamma? How would the things get done here? and you can't like
having your tea alone."

"No; I don't like that at all," said Mrs. Ray. But she hardly thought
of what she was saying. Her mind was away, working on the subject
of that young man. She felt that it was her duty to say something
to Rachel, and yet she did not know what to say. Was she to quote
Miss Pucker? It went, moreover, sorely against the grain with
her to disturb the comfort of their present happy moments by any
disagreeable allusion. The world gave her nothing better than those
hours in which Rachel was alone with her,--in which Rachel tended
her and comforted her. No word had been said on a subject so wicked
and full of vanity, but Mrs. Ray knew that her evening meal would be
brought in at half-past five in the shape of a little feast,--a feast
which would not be spread if Mrs. Prime had remained at home. At five
o'clock Rachel would slip away and make hot toast, and would run over
the Green to Farmer Sturt's wife for a little thick cream, and there
would be a batter cake, and so there would be a feast. Rachel was
excellent at the preparation of such banquets, knowing how to coax
the teapot into a good drawing humour, and being very clever in
little comforts; and she would hover about her mother, in a way very
delightful to that lady, making the widow feel for the time that
there was a gleam of sunshine in the valley of tribulation. All that
must be over for this afternoon if she spoke of Miss Pucker and the
young man. Yes; and must it not be over for many an afternoon to
come? If there were to be distrust between her and Rachel what would
her life be worth to her?

But yet there was her duty! As she sat there looking out into the
garden indistinct ideas of what were a mother's duties to her child
lay heavy on her mind,--ideas which were very indistinct, but which
were not on that account the less powerful in their operation. She
knew that it behoved her to sacrifice everything to her child's
welfare, but she did not know what special sacrifice she was at this
moment called upon to make. Would it be well that she should leave
this matter altogether in the hands of Mrs. Prime, and thus, as it
were, abdicate her own authority? Mrs. Prime would undertake such a
task with much more skill and power of language than she could use.
But then would this be fair to Rachel, and would Rachel obey her
sister? An