dy about you," said
Jacob Worse, bluntly.

The dance now began for which Rachel was otherwise engaged, and her
partner came and carried her off.

Jacob Worse stood watching her for a few minutes. He then got his coat
and went home.

He perfectly understood that by awakening these thoughts in her, he
would make the fulfilment of what was really the dream of his life
become more distant than ever. But he felt convinced that Rachel's
splendid abilities would be entirely thrown away in her present narrow
sphere; and he felt, too, that he was perfectly honest to himself, when
he said that he would not hinder her from taking the path she ought to
follow, even if he thereby destroyed his own greatest happiness. But
when he got home and was alone in his own quiet room, he was even more
dispirited. He could not but see that when Rachel came to have a proper
estimate of her own powers, she would find her present home too narrow
for her, and a marriage such as he could offer would be quite unworthy
of her.

He saw a light in the rooms at the back of the house. It was not much
past eleven; so he went over to his mother, whom he found in her
dressing-gown, busied in arranging her small remnant of hair for the
night.

It was not astonishing that the worthy Mrs. Worse's eyes kindled with
pride when she saw her tall, handsome son come in, dressed as he had
been for the ball: but when he threw himself on the sofa, and hid his
face in his hands, and said, "Oh, mother! mother!" just as he had done
in his boyhood when he had done something foolish, Mrs. Worse shook her
clenched fist against some imaginary foe in the corner of the room, and
muttered, "Is it decent to send me home a son in such a plight?"

She did not, however, say the words aloud, but went over and took his
head upon her lap, and, as she passed her fingers through his hair, she
said with her unwavering constancy, "There, my dear boy, only keep
yourself calm, and it will all come right, somehow or another."

Rachel would also have been glad enough to have been taken home at once;
but Mrs. Garman had heard that the new cook had something new in
_filets_, and they therefore had to wait until after supper.

CHAPTER XVI.

At length winter went stealing off to the northward, like a weary
monster, leaving its long train of dirty white snow patches along the
hedges, and its neutral-tinted ice pitted all over with small holes,
upon the pools. The spring followed