em all in a minute? And I believe
he'll come back and live at Baslehurst; so I do; only--"

"Only what, mamma?"

"If he's not to come back to you I'd rather that he never showed his
face here again."

"He won't come to me, mamma. Had he meant it, he would have sent me a
message."

"Perhaps he meant that he wouldn't send the message till he came
himself," said Mrs. Ray.

But she made the suggestion in a voice so full of conscious doubt
that Rachel knew that she did not believe in it herself.

"I don't think he means that, mamma. If he did why should he keep me
in doubt? He is very true and very honest, but I think he is very
hard. When I wrote to him in that way after accepting the love he had
offered me, he was angered, and felt that I was false to him. He is
very honest, but I think he must be very hard."

"I can't think that if he loved you he would be so hard as that."

"Men are different from women, I suppose. I feel about him that
whatever he might do I should forgive it. But then I feel, also, that
he would never do anything for me to forgive."

"I'll never forgive him, never, if he doesn't come back again."

"Don't say that, mamma. You've no right even to be angry with
him, because it was we who told him that there was to be no
engagement,--after I had promised him."

"I didn't think he'd take you up so at the first word," said Mrs.
Ray;--and then there was again silence for a few minutes.

"Mamma," said Rachel.

"Well, Rachel."

Mrs. Ray was still rocking her chair, and had hardly yet repressed
that faint gurgling sound of half-controlled sobs.

"I am so glad to hear you say that you--respect him, and don't
believe of him what people have said."

"I don't believe a word bad of him, except that he oughtn't to take
huff in that way at one word that a girl says to him. He ought to
have known that you couldn't write just what letter you liked, as he
could."

"We won't say anything more about that. But as long as you don't
think him bad--"

"I don't think him bad. I don't think him bad at all. I think him
very good. I'd give all I have in the world to bring him back again.
So I would."

"Dear mamma!"

And now Rachel moved away from her chair and came up to her mother.

"And I know it's been all my fault. Oh, my child, I am so unhappy!
I don't get half an hour's sleep at night thinking of what I have
done;--I, that would have given the very blood out of my veins to
make you happy."

"No