Ignorant of such subjects at the best, her brain was devoid of force

even to reason out her own conjectures, or to decide what must be

impossible. She felt compelled to keep all to herself; to alarm her

mother was out of the question, when Mrs. Curtis was distressed and

shaken enough already, and to have told Grace would only have brought

her soothing promises of sharing the burthen--exactly what she did not

want--and would have led to the fact being known to the family man of

business, Mr. Cox, the very last person to whom Rachel wished to confess

the proceeding. It was not so much the humiliation of owning to him such

a fatal act of piracy upon his province, as because she believed him to

have been the cause that the poor had all this time been cheated of the

full value of the estate. He had complacently consulted the welfare

of the Curtis family, by charging them with the rent of the fields as

ordinary grass land, and it had never dawned on him that it would be

only just to increase the rent. Rachel had found him an antagonist to

every scheme she had hatched, ever since she was fifteen years old, her

mother obeyed him with implicit faith, and it was certain that if the

question were once in his hands, he would regard it as his duty to save

the Curtis funds, and let the charity sink or swim. And he was the only

person out of the house whom Rachel had seen.

As soon as--or rather before--she could bear it, the first day that her

presence was supposed not to be perilous to others, she was obliged to

have an interview with him, to enable him to prepare the case for

the quarter sessions. Nothing could be much worse for her nerves and

spirits, but even the mother was absolutely convinced of the necessity,

and Rachel was forced to tax her enfeebled powers to enable her to give

accurate details of her relations with Mauleverer, and enable him to

judge of the form of the indictment. Once or twice she almost sunk back

from the exceeding distastefulness of the task, but she found herself

urged on, and when she even asked what would happen if she were not well

enough to appear, she was gravely told that she must be--it would be

very serious if she did not make a great effort, and even her mother

shook her head, looked unhappy, but confirmed the admonition. A little

revenge or hatred would have been a great help to her, but she could not

feel them as impulses. If it had been the woman, she could have gladly

aided in visiting such cruelty upon her, but this had not been directly

chargeable upon Mauleverer; and though Rachel felt acutely that he had

bitterly abused her confidence, she drooped too much to feel the spirit

of retort. The notion of being confronted with him before all the world

at Avoncester, and being made to bring about his punishment, was simply

dreadful to her, but when she murmured some word of this to her mother,

Mrs. Curtis fairly started, and said quite fiercely, "My dear, don't let

me hear you say any such thing. He is a very wicked man, and you ought

to be glad to have him punished!"




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