d joke Rachel about Luke," he said. "It seemed to
anger her very much, and she paid me out with some hard words. My mother
returned at the same moment. She asked what was the matter; I said I had
joked Rachel about Luke, and that Rachel did not like it."

"Yes, that was it," acquiesced Mrs. Verner. "I then told Rachel that in
my opinion she would have done well to encourage Luke, who was a steady
young man, and would no doubt have a little money. Upon which she began
weeping. I felt rather vexed; not a word have I been able to say to her
lately, but tears have been the answer; and I asked what had come to her
that she should cry for every trifle as if she were heart-broken. With
that, she fell into a burst of sobs, terrifying to see, and ran from the
room. I was thunderstruck. I asked John what could be the matter with
her, and he said he could only think she was going crazed."

John Massingbird nodded his head, as if in confirmation. Old Matthew
Frost spoke up, his voice trembling with the emotion that he was
striving to keep under--

"Did she say what it was that had come to her, ma'am?"

"She did not make any reply at all," rejoined Mrs. Verner. "But it is
quite nonsense to suppose she could have fallen into that wild burst of
grief simply at being joked about Luke. I could not make her out."

"And she has fallen into fretting, you say, ma'am, lately?" pursued
Matthew Frost, leaning his venerable white head forward.

"Often and often," replied Mrs. Verner. "She has seemed quite an altered
girl in the last few weeks!"

"My son's wife has said the same," cried old Matthew. "She has said that
Rachel was changed. But I took it to mean in her looks--that she had got
thinner. You mind the wife saying it, Robin?"

"Yes, I mind it," shortly replied Robin, who had propped himself against
the wall, his arms folded and his head bent. "I'm a-minding all."

"She wouldn't eat a bit o' supper," went on old Matthew. "But that was
nothing," he added; "she used to say she had plenty of food here,
without eating ours. She sat apart by the fire with one o' the little
uns in her lap. She didn't stay over long; she said the missus might be
wanting her, and she left; and when she was kissing my poor old face,
she began sobbing. Robin offered to see her home--"

"And she wouldn't have it," interrupted Robin, looking up for the first
time with a wild expression of despair. "She said she had things to get
at Mother Duff's, and shoul