Rachel turned away her head with a somewhat hasty motion, pushed the book toward Elizabeth, and sat back as far as she could possibly get into her grandmother’s huge arm-chair; but she made no reply, and Elizabeth saw that something was the matter.
Thee’s not well, I’m afeard, sister ... dear sister, said she, going up to her and throwing her arms about her neck, and kissing her as a child would kiss a mother.
Rachel burst into tears.
Why! exclaimed Elizabeth ... why! ... what is the matter with thee, Rachel ... thee turns away thy head ... thee will not look at me ... what have I done, I beseech thee, dear sister ... what have I done to grieve thee? Speak to her, George ... do speak to her ... I never saw her in this way before.
Poor soul, said he, going up to her and speaking with visible emotion; but as he drew near and would have put his hand upon hers, like a brother, she pulled it away; and then as if suddenly recollecting herself, she rose up, and after a short struggle, turned to him with a smile that affected him even more than her tears, and spoke to him very kindly, and put her hand into his, and prepared to finish the chapter. It was the story of the patriarch, who, after cheating his father in his old age, and betraying his brother Esau, went away into the land of the people of the East, where in due course of time he was overreached and betrayed by his mother’s brother; and the voice of the reader was firm and clear, and her look steady, till she came to these words—
“And Laban had two daughters: the name of the elder was Lear, and the name of the younger was Rachel.
“Lear was tender-eyed, but Rachel....
Her voice quavered now, and she proceeded with visible effort and hurry.
——“But Rachel was beautiful and well favored. And Jacob loved Rachel.
A moment more—and she recovered her voice entirely, and finished the chapter without a sign of emotion, as if she knew in her own soul that Burroughs and Elizabeth were watching her as they had never watched her before.