he went on talking so fast
that I had not time to stop him, and after that it was not worth
while." The project of the party was also told to Mrs. Ray, and
Rachel, sitting now with her head upon her mother's lap, owned that
she would like to go to it. "Parties are not always wicked, mamma,"
she said. To this assertion Mrs. Ray expressed an undecided assent,
but intimated her decided belief that very many parties were wicked.
"There will be dancing, and I do not like that," said Mrs. Ray. "Yet
I was taught dancing at school," said Rachel. When the matter had
gone so far as this it must be acknowledged that Rachel had done much
towards securing her share of mastery over her mother. "He will be
there, of course," said Mrs. Ray. "Oh, yes; he will be there," said
Rachel. "But why should I be afraid of him? Why should I live as
though I were afraid to meet him? Dolly thinks that I should be shut
up close, to be taken care of; but you do not think of me like that.
If I was minded to be bad, shutting me up would not keep me from it."
Such arguments as these from Rachel's mouth sounded, at first, very
terrible to Mrs. Ray, but yet she yielded to them.

On the next morning Rachel was down first, and was found by her
sister fast engaged on the usual work of the house, as though nothing
out of the way had occurred on the previous evening. "Good morning,
Dolly," she said, and then went on arranging the things on the
breakfast-table. "Good morning, Rachel," said Mrs. Prime, still
speaking like a raven. There was not a word said between them about
the young man or the churchyard, and at nine o'clock Mrs. Ray came
down to them, dressed ready for church. They seated themselves and
ate their breakfast together, and still not a word was said.

It was Mrs. Prime's custom to go to morning service at one of the
churches in Baslehurst; not at the old parish church which stood in
the churchyard near the brewery, but at a new church which had been
built as auxiliary to the other, and at which the Rev. Samuel Prong
was the ministering clergyman. As we shall have occasion to know
Mr. Prong it may be as well to explain here that he was not simply
a curate to old Dr. Harford, the rector of Baslehurst. He had a
separate district of his own, which had been divided from the old
parish, not exactly in accordance with the rector's good pleasure.
Dr. Harford had held the living for more than forty years; he had
held it for nearly forty years before th