nt duty is at home, and I am content to
wait her pleasure. I don't go up to the house very often, as the old
gentleman is an invalid, and dislikes visitors, but we understand one
another, and are too sensible to fret because we cannot always be
together. Only when an opportunity occurs, as it did the other
morning-- Why--you understand?"

"Yes, I understand," I said slowly. I was thinking it over, and
wondering, if I were ever engaged, if I should like my _fiance_ to be
content and sensible, and quite resigned to see me seldom, and to wait
for years before we could be married. I think I would rather he were in
a hurry!

Oh, I wish I were selfless, too! I wish I could be glad for them
without thinking of myself; but I do feel so lonely and out in the cold.
I'm thankful that Vere is coming home next week, and the house will be
filled with visitors. Engaged people are no use--they are always
thinking about each other!

CHAPTER SIX.

_July 20th_.
Rachel was surprised when I told her that I knew her secret, and I don't
think she was pleased.

"Will told you! Will told you himself!" she repeated, and stared at me
in a puzzled, curious fashion, as if she wondered why on earth he should
have chosen to make a confidante of me. "It is hardly a regular
engagement, for father will not hear of my leaving home, and the waiting
may be so long that I have told Will it is not fair to bind him. He
says he is content to wait, but we agreed to speak about it as little as
possible for some time to come."

"Oh, well, I'll keep the secret. You need not be afraid that I shall
gossip about you," I told her. She wears no ring on her engagement
finger, but always, always--morning, noon and night--there is a little
diamond anchor pinned in the front of her dress. I suppose he has given
her that instead, as a symbol of hope--hope that in ten or a dozen
years, when she is an old thing over thirty, they may possibly be
married! Well, I can imagine Rachel waiting twenty years, if it comes
to that, and keeping quite happy and serene meantime; but Will Dudley is
different--so quick and energetic and keen. I could not have imagined
him so patient.

Yesterday Vere came home, bringing her friends with her, and already
Rachel and her love affair seems far away, and we live in such a bustle
and confusion that there is no time to think. I'm rather glad, for I
was getting