rd of reproach. But every moment of their passing life was an
unspoken reproach, so severe and heavy that the poor mother hardly
knew how to bear the burden of her fault.

As Mrs. Ray became more afraid of her younger daughter she became
less afraid of the elder. This was occasioned partly, no doubt, by
the absence of Mrs. Prime from the cottage. When there she only
came as a visitor; and no visitor to a house can hold such dominion
there as may be held by a domestic tyrant, present at all meals, and
claiming an ascendancy in all conversations. But it arose in part
also from the overwhelming solicitude which filled Mrs. Ray's heart
from morning to night, as she watched poor Rachel in her misery. Her
bowels yearned towards her child, and she longed to give her relief
with an excessive longing. Had the man been a very wolf indeed,--such
were her feelings at present,--I think that she would have welcomed
him to the cottage. In ordering his repulse she had done a deed of
which she had by no means anticipated the consequences, and now she
repented in the sackcloth and ashes of a sorrow-stricken spirit. Ah
me! what could she do to relieve that oppressed one! So thoroughly
did this desire override all others in her breast, that she
would snub Mrs. Prime without dreading or even thinking of the
consequences. Her only hopes and her only fears at the present moment
had reference to Rachel. Had Rachel proposed to her that they should
both start off to London and there search for Luke Rowan, I doubt
whether she would have had the heart to decline the journey.

In these days Mrs. Prime came to the cottage regularly twice a
week,--on Wednesdays and Saturdays. On Wednesday she came after tea,
and on Saturday she drank tea with her mother. On these occasions
much was, of course, said as to the prospect of her marriage with
Mr. Prong. Nothing was as yet settled, and Rachel had concluded, in
her own mind, that there would be no such wedding. As to Mrs. Ray's
opinion, she, of course, thought there would be a wedding or that
there would not, in accordance with the last words spoken by Mrs.
Prime to herself on the occasion of that special conversation.

"She'll never give up her money," Rachel had said, "and he'll never
marry her unless she does."

Mrs. Prime at this period acknowledged to her mother that she was not
happy.

"I want," said she, "to do what's right. But it's not always easy to
find out what is right."

"That's very t