y explicit direction from herself,--if only she could bring
herself to give any,--Rachel would, she thought, obey. In this way
she resolved that she would break the ice and do her duty.

"Are you going into Baslehurst this evening, dear?" she said.

"Yes, mamma; I shall walk in after tea;--that is if you don't want
me. I told the Miss Tappitts I would meet them."

"No; I shan't want you. But Rachel--"

"Well, mamma?"

Mrs. Ray did not know how to do it. The matter was surrounded with
difficulties. How was she to begin, so as to introduce the subject
of the young man without shocking her child and showing an amount of
distrust which she did not feel? "Do you like those Miss Tappitts?"
she said.

"Yes;--in a sort of a way. They are very good-natured, and one likes
to know somebody. I think they are nicer than Miss Pucker."

"Oh, yes;--I never did like Miss Pucker myself. But, Rachel--"

"What is it, mamma? I know you've something to say, and that you
don't half like to say it. Dolly has been telling tales about me, and
you want to lecture me, only you haven't got the heart. Isn't that
it, mamma?" Then she put down her work, and coming close up to her
mother, knelt before her and looked up into her face. "You want to
scold me, and you haven't got the heart to do it."

"My darling, my darling," said the mother, stroking her child's soft
smooth hair. "I don't want to scold you;--I never want to scold you.
I hate scolding anybody."

"I know you do, mamma."

"But they have told me something which has frightened me."

"They! who are they?"

"Your sister told me, and Miss Pucker told her."

"Oh, Miss Pucker! What business has Miss Pucker with me? If she is
to come between us all our happiness will be over." Then Rachel rose
from her knees and began to look angry, whereupon her mother was more
frightened than ever. "But let me hear it, mamma. I've no doubt it is
something very awful."

Mrs. Ray looked at her daughter with beseeching eyes, as though
praying to be forgiven for having introduced a subject so
disagreeable. "Dorothea says that on Wednesday evening you were
walking under the churchyard elms with--that young man from the
brewery."

At any rate everything had been said now. The extent of the depravity
with which Rachel was to be charged had been made known to her in
the very plainest terms. Mrs. Ray as she uttered the terrible words
turned first pale and then red,--pale with fear and red with shame.