She waited a moment, then said gently, "Yes, I know. Rachel has been telling me."
"She has! Oh, I am so glad," Rendel said. Then he added, finding apparently an extreme difficulty in speaking at all, "And—and—do you mind?"
"That is a modest way of putting it," said Lady Gore, smiling. "No, I don't mind. I am glad."
"Are you really?" said Rendel, looking as if his life depended on the answer. "Do you mean that you really think you—you—could be on my side? Then it will come all right."
"I will be on your side, certainly," said Lady Gore; "but I don't know that that is the essential thing. I am not, after all, the person whose consent matters most."
"Do you know, I believe you are," Rendel said. "I verily believe that at this moment you come before any one else in the world." There was no need to say in whose estimation, or to mention Rachel's name.
"Well, perhaps at this moment, as you say," said Lady Gore, "it is possible, but there is no reason why it should go on always."
"She is absolutely devoted to you," Rendel said.
"Rachel has a fund," her mother said, "of loyal devotion, of unswerving affection, which makes her a very precious possession."