"Oh, dear, this evening! that's very short."
"It can be put off till to-morrow if there's any good in putting it off," said Rachel. Mrs. Ray seemed to think that there might be good in putting it off, or rather that there would be harm in doing it at once.
"Do you particularly want to go, my dear?" Mrs. Ray said, after a pause.
"Yes, mamma; I should like to go." Then Mrs. Ray uttered a little sound which betokened uneasiness, and was again silent for a while.
"I can't understand why you want to go to this place,—so particularly. You never used to care about such things. You know your sister won't like it, and I'm not at all sure that you ought to go."
"I'll tell you why I wish it particularly, only—"
"Well, my dear."
"I don't know whether I can make you understand just what I mean."
"If you tell me, I shall understand, I suppose."
Rachel considered her words for a moment or two before she spoke, and then she endeavoured to explain herself. "It isn't that I care for this party especially, mamma, though I own that, after what the girls have said, I should like to be there; but I feel—"