"So some one said, but the Dean never calls on the officers unless there

is some introduction, or there would be no end to it. It was a mistake

letting him in to disturb Rachel. Is your mother gone up to her, my

dear?"

"No, I think she is in the cathedral yard. I just came in to see about

Rachel," said Grace, escaping.

Miss Wellwood intended going out to join her old friend; but, on going

to put on her bonnet, she saw from the window Mrs. Curtis, leaning on

the intruder's arm, conversing so confidentially that the Dean's sister

flushed with amazement, and only hoped she had mentioned him with due

respect. And under that southern cathedral wall good Mrs. Curtis took

the longest walk she had indulged in for the last twenty years, so that

Grace, and even Rachel, beholding from the window, began to fear that

the mother would be walked to death.

But then she had that supporting arm, and the moral support, that was

infinitely more! That daughter, the spoilt pet of her husband, the

subject of her pride, even when an enigma and an anxiety, whom she had

lately been forced to think of as "A maid whom there were few to praise

And very few to love," she now found loved by one at least, and praised in terms that thrilled

through and through the mother's heart in their truth and simplicity,

for that sincerity, generosity, and unselfishness. It was her own

daughter, her real Rachel, no illusion, that she heard described in

those grave earnest words, only while the whole world saw the errors and

exaggerated them, here was one who sank them all in the sterling worth

that so few would recognise. The dear old lady forgot all her prudence,

and would hardly let him speak of his means; but she soon saw that

Rachel's present portion would be more than met on his side, and that no

one could find fault with her on the score of inequality of fortune. He

would have been quite able to retire, and live at ease, but this he

said at once and with decision he did not intend. His regiment was his

hereditary home, and his father had expressed such strong wishes that

he should not lightly desert his profession, that he felt bound to it by

filial duty as well as by other motives. Moreover, he thought the change

of life and occupation would be the best thing for Rachel, and Mrs.

Curtis could not but acquiesce, little as she had even dreamt that a

daughter of hers would marry into a marching regiment! Her surrender of

judgment was curiously complete. "Dear Alexinder," as thenceforth she

called him had assumed the mastery over her from the first turn they

took under the cathedral, and when at length he reminded her that

the clock was on the stroke of one, she accepted it on his infallible

judgment, for her own sensations would have made her believe it not a

quarter of an hour since the interview had begun.




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