es was capable of doing
or of saying anything. And what might not happen before the day was out?

It was a stimulating situation for one so curiously compact of courage
and of nerves as the present mistress of Normanthorpe House; and for
once she really was mistress, inspecting the silver with her own eyes,
arranging the flowers with her own hands, and, what was more difficult,
the order in which the people were to sit. She was thus engaged, in her
own sanctum, when Mrs. Venables did the one thing which Rachel had not
dreamt of her doing.

She called at three in the afternoon, and sent her name upstairs.

Rachel's heart made itself felt; but she was not afraid. Something was
coming earlier than she had thought; she was chiefly curious to know
what. Her first impulse was to have Mrs. Venables brought upstairs, and
to invoke her aid in the arrangement of the table before that lady could
open fire. Rachel disliked the great cold drawing-room, and felt that
she must be at a disadvantage in any interview there. On the other hand,
if this was a hostile visit, the visitor could not be treated with too
much consideration. And so the servant was dismissed with word that her
mistress would not be a moment; nor was Rachel very many. She glanced in
a glass, but that was all; she might have been tidier, but not easily
more animated, confident, and alert. She had reached the landing when
she returned and collected all the cards which she had been trying to
arrange; they made quite a pack; and Rachel laughed as she took them
downstairs with her.

Mrs. Venables sat in solitary stiffness on the highest chair she had
been able to find; neither Sybil nor Vera was in attendance; a tableful
of light literature was at her elbow, but Mrs. Venables sat with folded
hands.

"This is too good of you!" cried Rachel, greeting her in a manner
redeemed from hypocrisy by a touch of irresistible irony. "You know my
inexperience, and you have come to tell me things, have you not? You
could not have come at a better time. How _do_ you fit in twenty-six
people at one table? I wanted to have two at each end, and it can't be
done!"

Mrs. Venables suppressed a smile suggestive of some unconscious humor in
these remarks, but sat more upright than ever in her chair, with a hard
light in the bright brown eyes that stared serenely into Rachel's own.

"I cannot say I came to offer you my assistance, Mrs. Steel. I only take
liberties with very intimate fri