nt to go and be rude to the lot
of them--to get in quickly you know, lest they should be rude to me
first."

Now that she had begun, it came out in a flood. "Oh! I shall make such a
mess of it all. What on earth am I to talk about to these people? What
do they want with me or I with them? What have I ever to say to anybody
except you and Dr. Chris, and even with you I'm as cross as possible
most of the time. Grandmother always thought me a complete fool, and so
I suppose I am. If people aren't kind I can't say a word, and if they
are I say far too much and blush afterwards for all the nonsense I've
poured out. It doesn't matter with you and Dr. Chris because you know
me, but the others! And always behind me there'd be grandmother! She
knows I'm going to be a failure, and she wants me to be--but just to
prove to her, just to prove!"

She jumped up, and standing in front of the window, met, furiously, a
hostile world. Her hands were clenched, her face white, her eyes
desperate.

"--Just to prove I'll be a success--I'll marry the most magnificent
husband, I'll be the most magnificent person--I'll bring it off----"

Suddenly her agitation was gone--she was laughing, looking down on her
uncle half humorously, half tenderly.

"Just because I love you and Dr. Chris, I'll do my best not to shame
you. I'll be the most decorous and amiable of Beaminsters.--No one shall
have a word to say----"

She bent down, put her arms round his neck, and kissed him. Then she sat
down on the edge of the arm-chair with her hands clasped over his knee.
Uncle John would not have loved her so dearly had he not been, on so
many occasions, frightened of her. She was often hostile in the most
curious way--so militant that he could only console himself by thinking
that her mother had been Russian, and from Russia one might expect
anything. And then, in a moment, the hostility would break into a
tenderness, an affection that touched him to the heart and made the
tears come into his eyes. But for one who loved comfort above everything
Rachel was an agitating person.

Now as he felt the pressure of her hands on his knees, he knew that he
would do anything, anything for her.

"That's all right, Rachel dear," was all that he could say. "You hold on
to me and Christopher. We'll see you through."

The little silver clock struck six. She got up from the chair and smiled
down at him. "If I hadn't got you and Dr. Chris--well--I just don't
know what w