t any rate he encouraged himself, for
he came again the next morning when I was in Baslehurst."

"I hope Miss Rachel didn't know he was coming in your absence," said
Mrs. Rowan.

"It would look so sly;--wouldn't it?" said Mrs. Tappitt.

"No, she didn't, and she isn't sly at all. If she had known anything
she would have told me. I know what my girl is, Mrs. Rowan, and I
can depend on her." Mrs. Ray's courage was up, and she was inclined
to fight bravely, but she was sadly impeded by tears, which she now
found it impossible to control.

"I'm sure it isn't my wish to distress you," said Mrs. Rowan.

"It does distress me very much, then, for anybody to say that Rachel
is sly."

"I said I hoped she wasn't sly," said Mrs. Tappitt.

"I heard what you said," continued Mrs. Ray; "and I don't see why you
should be speaking against Rachel in that way. The young man isn't
your son."

"No," said Mrs. Tappitt, "indeed he's not;--nor yet he ain't Mr.
Tappitt's partner."

"Nor wishes to be," said Mrs. Rowan, with a toss of her head. It was
a thousand pities that Mrs. Ray had not her wits enough about her to
have fanned into a fire of battle the embers which glowed hot between
her two enemies. Had she done so they might probably have been made
to consume each other,--to her great comfort. "Nor wishes to be!"
Then Mrs. Rowan paused a moment, and Mrs. Tappitt assumed a smile
which was intended to indicate incredulity. "But Mrs. Ray," continued
Mrs. Rowan, "that is neither here nor there. Luke Rowan is my son,
and I certainly have a right to speak. Such a marriage as this would
be very imprudent on his part, and very disagreeable to me. From the
way in which things have turned out it's not likely that he'll settle
himself at Baslehurst."

"The most unlikely thing in the world," said Mrs. Tappitt. "I don't
suppose he'll ever show himself in Baslehurst again."

"As for showing himself, Mrs. Tappitt, my son will never be ashamed
of showing himself anywhere."

"But he won't have any call to come to Baslehurst, Mrs. Rowan. That's
what I mean."

"If he's a gentleman of his word, as I take him to be," said Mrs.
Ray, "he'll have a great call to show himself. He never can have
intended to come out here, and speak to her in that way, and ask her
to marry him, and then never to come back and see her any more! I
wouldn't believe it of him, not though his own mother said it!"

"I don't say anything," said Mrs. Rowan, who felt that he