retched I didn't know what to do at the time.
Only other things have come since, that have pretty nearly put all
that out of my mind."

"But you can't think I was wrong to go when I felt it to be right."

"I don't know how that may be," said Mrs. Ray. "If you thought it
right to go I suppose you were right to go; but perhaps you shouldn't
have had such thoughts."

"Well, mother, we won't go back to that."

"No; we won't, if you please."

"This at any rate is certain, that Rachel, in departing from our
usual ways of life, has brought great unhappiness upon herself. I'm
afraid she is thinking of this young man now more than she ought to
do."

"Of course she is thinking of him. Why should she not think of him?"

"Why, mother! Surely it cannot be good that any girl should think of
a man who thinks nothing of her!"

Then Mrs. Ray spoke out,--as perhaps she had never spoken before.

"What right have you to say that he thinks nothing of her? Who can
tell? He did think of her,--as honestly as any man ever thought of
the woman he wished to mate with. He came to her fairly, and asked
her to be his wife. What can any man do more by a girl than that? And
she didn't say a word to him to encourage him till those she had a
right to look to had encouraged him too. So she didn't. And I don't
believe any woman ever had a child that behaved better, or truer, or
more maidenly than she has done. And I was a fool, and worse than a
fool, when I allowed any one to have an evil thought of her for a
moment."

"Do you mean me, mother?"

"I don't mean anybody except myself; so I don't." Mrs. Ray as she
spoke was weeping bitterly, and rubbing the tears from her red eyes
with her apron. "I've behaved like a fool to her,--worse than a
fool,--and I've broken her heart. Not think of him! How's a girl
not to think of a man day and night when she loves him better than
herself? Think of him! She'll think of him till she's in her grave.
She'll think of him till she's past all other thinking. I hate such
cruelty; and I hate myself for having been cruel. I shall never
forgive myself, the longest day I have to live."

"You only did your duty, mother."

"No; I didn't do my duty at all. It can't be a mother's duty to break
her child's heart and to be set against her by what anybody else can
say. She was ever and always the best child that ever lived; and
she came away from him, and strove to banish him from her thoughts,
and wouldn't own to he