"Looks are so deceitful, Rachel."
"And as for debts,—people, if they're called away by telegraph in a minute, can't pay all that they owe. There are plenty of people in Baslehurst that owe a deal more than he does, I'm sure. And he's got his share in the brewery, so that nobody need be afraid."
"Mr. Comfort didn't say that you were to quarrel with him altogether."
"Mr. Comfort! What's Mr. Comfort to me, mamma?" This was said in such a tone that Mrs. Ray absolutely started up from her seat.
"But, Rachel, he is my oldest friend. He was your father's friend."
"Why did he not say it before, then? Why—why—why—? Mamma, I can't throw him off now. Didn't I tell him that,—that,—that I would—love him? Didn't you say that it might be so,—you yourself? How am I to show my face, if I go back now? Mamma, I do love him, with all my heart and all my strength, and nothing that anybody can say can make any difference. If he owed ever so much money I should love him the same. If he had killed Mr. Tappitt it wouldn't make any difference."
"Oh, Rachel!"
"No more it would. If Mr. Tappitt began it first, it wasn't his fault."
"But Rachel, my darling,—what can we do? If he has gone away we cannot make him come back again."
"But he wrote almost immediately."