"He won't come to me, mamma. Had he meant it, he would have sent me a message."
"Perhaps he meant that he wouldn't send the message till he came himself," said Mrs. Ray.
But she made the suggestion in a voice so full of conscious doubt that Rachel knew that she did not believe in it herself.
"I don't think he means that, mamma. If he did why should he keep me in doubt? He is very true and very honest, but I think he is very hard. When I wrote to him in that way after accepting the love he had offered me, he was angered, and felt that I was false to him. He is very honest, but I think he must be very hard."
"I can't think that if he loved you he would be so hard as that."
"Men are different from women, I suppose. I feel about him that whatever he might do I should forgive it. But then I feel, also, that he would never do anything for me to forgive."
"I'll never forgive him, never, if he doesn't come back again."
"Don't say that, mamma. You've no right even to be angry with him, because it was we who told him that there was to be no engagement,—after I had promised him."
"I didn't think he'd take you up so at the first word," said Mrs. Ray;—and then there was again silence for a few minutes.
"Mamma," said Rachel.