"I will, indeed I will," said Rachel.
"What a man needs," said Lady Gore, "is some one to believe in him."
"My father will never be in want of that," said Rachel, with heartfelt conviction. "Mother," she added, "I never will forget what I am saying now, and you may believe it and you may be happy about it. I won't leave my father; he shall come first, I promise, whatever happens."
"First?" said Lady Gore gently. "No, Rachel, not that; it is right that your husband should come first."
"The people," said Rachel smiling, "whose husbands come first have not had a father and mother like mine."
There was a knock at the house door. Rachel sprang hurriedly to her feet, the colour flying into her cheeks. Lady Gore looked at her. She had never before seen in Rachel's face what she saw there now.
"I must take off my things," the girl said, catching up her gloves and veil.
"Don't be very long," said her mother.
"I'll—I'll—see," Rachel said, and she suddenly bent over her mother and kissed her, then went quickly out by one door as the other was thrown open to admit a visitor.