“I can’t help it, she can’t go, and I must.”
“And you will bring down all the morning visitors that you talk of dreading.”
“We will leave you to amuse them, sir. Much better that,” he added between his teeth, “than to leave the very semblance of a secret trusted by her to that intolerable puppy—”
Rachel said no more, but when she was gone upstairs Mr. Clare detained his nephew to say, “I beg your pardon, Alick, but you should be quite sure that your wife likes this proposal.”
“That’s the value of a strong-minded wife, sir,” returned Alick; “she is not given to making a fuss about small matters.”
“Most ladies might not think this a small matter.”
“That is because they have no perspective in their brains. Rachel understands me a great deal too well to make me explain what is better unspoken.”
“You know what I think, Alick, that you are the strictest judge that ever a merry girl had.”
“I had rather you continued to think so, uncle; I should like to think so myself. Good night.”
Alick was right, but whether or not Rachel entered into his motives, she made no objection to his going to the bazaar with his sister, being absolutely certain that he would not have done so if he could have helped it.