business to
have leisure to help to fill up anybody else's time, and Sir William
found the blank in his own house, the unchanging loneliness, almost
unbearable.

In the meantime Rendel and his wife were beginning that page of the book
of life which Sir William had closed for ever. At last, that vision of
the future to which Rendel had clung with such steadfast hope, with such
unswerving purpose, had been fulfilled: Rachel was his wife. It was an
unending joy to him to remember that she was there; to watch for her
coming and going; to see the dainty grace of movement and demeanour, the
sweet, soft smile--her mother's smile--with which she listened as he
talked. And during those days he poured himself out in speech as he had
never been able to do before. It was a relief that was almost ecstasy to
the man who had been made reserved by loneliness to have such a
listener, and the sense of exquisite joy and repose which he felt in her
society deepened as the days went on. To Rachel, too, when once she had
made up her mind to leave her father, these days were filled with an
undreamt-of happiness. She was beginning to recover from the actual
shock of her mother's death, although, even as her life opened to all
the new impressions that surrounded her, she felt daily afresh the want
of the tender sympathy and guidance that had been her stay; but another
great love had happily come into her life at the moment she needed it
most, and a love that was far from wishing to supplant the other. The
memory of Lady Gore was almost as hallowed to Rendel as it was to his
wife: it was another bond between them. They talked of her constantly,
their reverent recollection kept alive the sense of her abiding,
gracious influence.

It was a new and wonderful experience to Rachel to have the burden of
daily life lifted from her. She had been loved in her home, it is true,
as much as the most exacting heart might demand, but since she was
seventeen it was she who had had to take thought for others, to surround
them with loving care and protection; she had always been conscious,
even though not feeling its weight, of bearing the burden of some one
else's responsibilities. And now it was all different. In the first
rebound of her youth she seemed to be discovering for the first time
during those days how young she was, in the companionship of one whose
tender care and loving protection smoothed every difficulty, every
obstacle out of her path. And a