"But I don't see how she can gain experience without working," said Luke.
"Well if you are so bent on it let her come with me to the mothers' meeting and watch how things are done. In fact she might undertake the reading, that is to say if she reads well."
"I have never heard her read, but no doubt she does. She does everything well," he added laughing.
"In fact she is perfect in your eyes," answered his mother amused at her son's blindness. "Well, let her come to the mothers' meeting to-morrow. She can't anyhow do any harm."
"Harm! No indeed. The mere look of her must do good."
"She is certainly very pretty," was the answer.
And Luke left her in good spirits, quite unconscious that his mother did not agree with his views of his wife, and that when she made the statement that anyhow Rachel could do no harm she did not intend it for a joke.
He was however disappointed that Rachel did not seem to take kindly to the idea of going to the mothers' meeting. To his surprise he had actually seen her face fall at the suggestion.
"Don't go dear if you would rather not," he said quickly, "but I fancied you might be glad of the experience. You are always telling me you want to work in the parish."
"I want to help you," she said, "but I don't see that sitting and watching your mother would be exactly a help either to you or to me." Then suddenly remembering her talk with the Bishop, she added, "But of course it is very kind of your mother to propose it. Perhaps I had better go. I should not like to appear ungrateful to her."