"So some one said, but the Dean never calls on the officers unless there
is some introduction, or there would be no end to it. It was a mistake
letting him in to disturb Rachel. Is your mother gone up to her, my
dear?"
"No, I think she is in the cathedral yard. I just came in to see about
Rachel," said Grace, escaping.
Miss Wellwood intended going out to join her old friend; but, on going
to put on her bonnet, she saw from the window Mrs. Curtis, leaning on
the intruder's arm, conversing so confidentially that the Dean's sister
flushed with amazement, and only hoped she had mentioned him with due
respect. And under that southern cathedral wall good Mrs. Curtis took
the longest walk she had indulged in for the last twenty years, so that
Grace, and even Rachel, beholding from the window, began to fear that
the mother would be walked to death.
But then she had that supporting arm, and the moral support, that was
infinitely more! That daughter, the spoilt pet of her husband, the
subject of her pride, even when an enigma and an anxiety, whom she had
lately been forced to think of as "A maid whom there were few to praise
And very few to love," she now found loved by one at least, and praised in terms that thrilled
through and through the mother's heart in their truth and simplicity,
for that sincerity, generosity, and unselfishness. It was her own
daughter, her real Rachel, no illusion, that she heard described in
those grave earnest words, only while the whole world saw the errors and
exaggerated them, here was one who sank them all in the sterling worth
that so few would recognise. The dear old lady forgot all her prudence,
and would hardly let him speak of his means; but she soon saw that
Rachel's present portion would be more than met on his side, and that no
one could find fault with her on the score of inequality of fortune. He
would have been quite able to retire, and live at ease, but this he
said at once and with decision he did not intend. His regiment was his
hereditary home, and his father had expressed such strong wishes that
he should not lightly desert his profession, that he felt bound to it by
filial duty as well as by other motives. Moreover, he thought the change
of life and occupation would be the best thing for Rachel, and Mrs.
Curtis could not but acquiesce, little as she had even dreamt that a
daughter of hers would marry into a marching regiment! Her surrender of
judgment was curiously complete. "Dear Alexinder," as thenceforth she
called him had assumed the mastery over her from the first turn they
took under the cathedral, and when at length he reminded her that
the clock was on the stroke of one, she accepted it on his infallible
judgment, for her own sensations would have made her believe it not a
quarter of an hour since the interview had begun.