te it was
that Mrs. Ray had not known how to fan that flame of anger to her own
and her daughter's advantage.

"Well, mamma," said Rachel, returning to the room as soon as she
heard the wheels of the fly in motion upon the road across the green.
She found her mother in tears,--hardly able to speak because of her
sobs. "Never mind it, mamma: of course I know the kind of things they
have been saying. It was what I expected. Never mind it."

"But, my dear, you will be broken-hearted."

"Broken-hearted! Why?"

"I know you will. Now that you have learned to love him, you'll never
bear to lose him."

"And must I lose him?"

"She says so. She says that he doesn't mean it, and that it's all
nonsense."

"I don't believe her. Nothing shall make me believe that, mamma."

"She says it would be ruinous to all his prospects, especially just
now when he has quarrelled about this brewery."

"Ruinous to him!"

"His mother says so."

"I will never wish him to do anything that shall be ruinous to
himself; never;--not though I were broken-hearted, as you call it."

"Ah, that is it, Rachel, my darling; I wish he had not come here."

Rachel went away across the room and looked out of the window upon
the green. There she stood in silence for a few minutes while her
mother was wiping her eyes and suppressing her sobs. Tears also had
run down Rachel's cheeks; but they were silent tears, few in number
and very salt. "I cannot bring myself to wish that yet," said she.

"But he has gone away, and what can you do if he does not come
again?"

"Do! Oh, I can do nothing. I could do nothing, even though he were
here in Baslehurst every day of his life. If I once thought that he
didn't wish me--to--be--his wife, I should not want to do anything.
But, mamma, I can't believe it of him. It was only yesterday that he
was here."

"They say that young men don't care what they say in that way
now-a-days."

"I don't believe it of him, mamma; his manner is so steadfast, and
his voice sounds so true."

"But then she is so terribly against it."

Then again they were silent for a while, after which Rachel ended
the conversation. "It is clear, at any rate, that you and I can do
nothing, mamma. If she expects me to say that I will give him up, she
is mistaken. Give him up! I couldn't give him up, without being false
to him. I don't think I'll ever be false to him. If he's false to me,
then,--then, I must bear it. Mamma, don't say anything t