What she suffers--poor Rachel! She'd have given everything in the world
for a brilliant son. But you can't wonder. She's like some strong plant
that takes all the nourishment out of the ground, so that the plants
near it starve. She can't help it. She doesn't mean to be a vampire!"

Doris hardly knew what to say. Somehow she wished the vampire were not
walking with Arthur! That, however, was not a sentiment easily
communicable; and she was just turning it into something else when Miss
Field said--abruptly, like someone coming to the real point--

"Does your husband like her?"

"Why yes, of course!" stammered Doris. "She's been awfully kind to us
about the lectures, and--he loves arguing with her."

"She loves arguing with _him_!" 'said Miss Field triumphantly. "She
lives just for such half-hours as that she gave us on the lawn after
tea--and all owing to him--he was so inspiring, so stimulating. Oh,
you'll see, she'll take you up tremendously--if you want to be taken
up!"

The smiling blue eyes looked gaily into Doris's puzzled countenance.
Evidently the speaker was much amused by the Meadowses' situation--more
amused than her sense of politeness allowed her to explain. Doris was
conscious of a vague resentment.

"I'm afraid I don't see what Lady Dunstable will get out of me," she
said, drily.

Miss Field raised her eyebrows.

"Are you going then to let him come here alone? She'll be always asking
you! Oh, you needn't be afraid--" and this most candid of cousins
laughed aloud. "Rachel isn't a flirt--except of the intellectual kind.
But she takes possession--she sticks like a limpet."

There was a pause. Then Miss Field added:

"You mustn't think it odd that I say these things about Rachel. I have
to explain her to people. She's not like anybody else."

Doris did not quite see the necessity, but she kept the reflection to
herself, and Miss Field passed lightly to the other guests--Sir Luke, a
tame cat of the house, who quarrelled with Lady Dunstable once a month,
vowed he would never come near her again, and always reappeared; the
Dean, who in return for a general submission, was allowed to scold her
occasionally for her soul's health; the politicians whom she could not
do without, who were therefore handled more gingerly than the rest; the
military and naval men who loved Dunstable and put up with his wife for
his sake; and the young people--nephews and nieces and cousins--who
liked an unconventional host