e afraid of him?"

"No, mamma; I am not afraid of him. But he says such strange things
to me; and I would not purposely have gone out to meet him. He came
to us in the fields, and then we returned up the lane to the brewery,
and there we left the girls. As I went through the churchyard he came
there too, and then the sun was setting, and he stopped me to look at
it; I did stop with him,--for a few moments, and I felt ashamed of
myself; but how was I to help it? Mamma, if I could remember them I
would tell you every word he said to me, and every look of his face.
He asked me to be his friend. Mamma, if you will believe in me I will
tell you everything. I will never deceive you."

She was still holding her mother's arms while she spoke. Now she
held her very close and nestled in against her bosom, and gradually
got her cheek against her mother's cheek, and her lips against her
mother's neck. How could any mother refuse such a caress as that, or
remain hard and stern against such signs of love? Mrs. Ray, at any
rate, was not possessed of strength to do so. She was vanquished, and
put her arm round her girl and embraced her. She spoke soft words,
and told Rachel that she was her dear, dear, dearest darling. She was
still awed and dismayed by the tidings which she had heard of the
young man; she still thought there was some terrible danger against
which it behoved them all to be on their guard. But she no longer
felt herself divided from her child, and had ceased to believe in
the necessity of those terrible words which Mrs. Prime had used.

"You will believe me?" said Rachel. "You will not think that I am
making up stories to deceive you?" Then the mother assured the
daughter with many kisses that she would believe her.

After that they sat long into the night, discussing all that Luke
Rowan had said, and the discussion certainly took place after a
fashion that would not have been considered satisfactory by Mrs.
Prime had she heard it. Mrs. Ray was soon led into talking about Mr.
Rowan as though he were not a wolf,--as though he might possibly be
neither a wolf ravenous with his native wolfish fur and open wolfish
greed; or, worse than that, a wolf, more ravenous still, in sheep's
clothing. There was no word spoken of him as a lover; but Rachel told
her mother that the man had called her by her Christian name, and
Mrs. Ray had fully understood the sign. "My darling, you mustn't let
him do that." "No, mamma; I won't. But