eally
of use, for Rachel has not much taste, and I re-arranged things so that
they looked ever so much more attractive, and so brought bigger prices.
We had very happy times together, and were quite merry, sometimes
sitting down to tea on the top of boxes, with our dresses pinned up and
covered with aprons, but we never spoke of Will again. That was
finished. The last two nights they were in England Mrs Greaves and
Rachel spent in our home, and I drove down and saw them off at the
station. I knew who was going to meet them at the other end, but even
then we did not mention him. Rachel just clung tightly to me, and
whispered "_Remember_!" and that said everything. Then the train puffed
slowly out of the station, and I caught one glimpse of her white, white
face through the window. Oh! if I live to be a hundred I shall never,
never forget her, and I shall love her more than anyone else except my
very own people, but I don't think I shall ever see Rachel again in this
world!

_June 25th_.
Vere's wedding eve. My poor neglected diary must come out of hiding to
hear the record of a time so wonderful to her and to me. I have had
very little leisure for thinking of my own affairs since Rachel left,
for a wedding means a tremendous amount of work and management, when it
involves inviting relations from all parts of the world, buying as many
clothes as if you were never expected to see a shop again, and choosing
and furnishing a brand-new house. Neither mother nor Vere are strong
enough to do much running about, so all the active preparations fell to
me, and I had to go up to town to scold dressmakers and hurry up
decorators, and threaten cabinet makers, and tell plumbers and
ironmongers that they ought to be ashamed of themselves, and match
patterns, and choose trimmings, and change things that wouldn't do,
until Vere said, laughingly, that the wedding seemed far more mine than
hers. It kept me so busy that I had no time to dream until I went to
bed at nights and then I used to be awake for hours, thinking of Rachel
away at the other side of the world, happy in her mother's restored
health, and, to judge from the tone of her letters, thoroughly enjoying
the complete change of scene after the very quiet life she had led these
last years; thinking of Lorna, my dear old faithful Lorna, as good a
friend to me as ever, in spite of all the trouble I caused her. It