"No, mother, I didn't think that. But I thought you were staying late with Mrs. Sturt."
"So we were,—and really I didn't think we had been so long. But, Dorothea, there was some one else over there besides Mrs. Sturt, and he kept us."
"He! What he?" said Mrs. Prime. She had not even suspected that the lover had been over there in person.
"Mr. Rowan, my dear. He has been at the farm."
"What! the young man that was dismissed from Mr. Tappitt's?"
It was ill said of her,—very ill said, and so she was herself aware as soon as the words were out of her mouth. But she could not help it. She had taken a side against Luke Rowan, and could not restrain herself from ill-natured words. Rachel was still standing in the middle of the room when she heard her lover thus described; but she would not condescend to plead in answer to such a charge. The colour came to her cheeks, and she threw up her head with a gesture of angry pride, but at the moment she said nothing. Mrs. Ray spoke.
"It seems to me, Dorothea," she said, "that you are mistaken there. I think he has dismissed Mr. Tappitt."
"I don't know much about it," said Mrs. Prime; "I only know that they've quarrelled."
"But it would be well that you should learn, because I'm sure you will be glad to think as well of your brother-in-law as possible."
"Do you mean that he is engaged to marry Rachel?"