"Indeed," said Mr. Touchett, well nigh disarmed by the look, "I am quite

sensible of the kindness of all you do, I only ventured to wish there

had been a little more delay, that we were more certain about this

person."

"When Colonel Keith comes back he will find out all about him, I

am sure," said Fanny, and Mr. Touchett, to whom seemed to have been

transferred Rachel's dislike to the constant quoting of Colonel Keith,

said no more.

The immediate neighbourhood did not very readily respond to the appeal

to it in behalf of the lace-makers. People who did not look into the

circumstances of their neighbours thought lace furnished a good trade,

and by no means wished to enhance its price; people who did care for the

poor had charities of their own, nor was Rachel Curtis popular enough

to obtain support for her own sake; a few five-pound notes, and a scanty

supply of guineas and half-guineas from people who were ready at any

cost to buy off her vehement eyes and voice was all she could obtain,

and with a subscription of twenty pounds each from her mother, Lady

Temple, and Grace, and all that she could scrape together of her own,

hardly seemed sufficient to meet the first expenses, and how would the

future be provided for? She calculated how much she could spare out of

her yearly income, and actually, to the great horror of her mother and

the coachman, sold her horse.

Bessie Keith was the purchaser. It was an expense that she could quite

afford, for she and her brother had been left very well off by their

father--a prudent man, who, having been a widower during his Indian

service, had been able to live inexpensively, besides having had a large

amount of prize money. She had always had her own horse at Littleworthy,

and now when Rachel was one day lamenting to her the difficulty of

raising money for the Industrial Asylum, and declaring that she would

part with her horse if she was sure of its falling into good hands,

Bessie volunteered to buy it, it was exactly what would suit her, and

she should delight in it as a reminder of dear Avonmouth. It was a pang,

Rachel loved the pretty spirited creature, and thought of her rides with

the Colonel; but how weigh the pleasure of riding against the welfare

of one of those hard-worked, half-stifled little girls, and besides, it

might be best to have done with Colonel Keith now that her mission had

come to find her. So the coachman set a purposely unreasonable value

upon poor Meg, and Rachel reduced the sum to what had been given for it

three years before; but Bessie begged her brother to look at the animal

and give his opinion.




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