MISS RACHEL LAKE BECOMES VIOLENT.
So soon as the letter which had so surprised and incensed Stanley Lake
was despatched, and beyond recall, Rachel, who had been indescribably
agitated before, grew all at once calm. She knew that she had done right. She was glad the die was cast, and that it was out of her power to retract.
She kneeled at her bedside, and wept and prayed, and then went down and
talked with old Tamar, who was knitting in the shade by the porch.
Then the young lady put on her bonnet and cloak, and walked down to
Gylingden, with an anxious, but still a lighter heart, to see her friend, Dolly Wylder.
Dolly received her in a glad sort of fuss.
'I'm so glad to see you, Miss Lake.'
'Call me Rachel; and won't you let me call you Dolly?'
'Well, Rachel, dear,' replied Dolly, laughing, 'I'm delighted you're
come; I have such good news—but I can't tell it till I think for a
minute—I must begin at the beginning.'
'Anywhere, everywhere, only if it is good news, let me hear it at once. I'll be sure to understand.'
'Well, Miss—I mean Rachel, dear—you know—I may tell you now—the
vicar—my dear Willie—he and I—we've been in great trouble—oh, such
trouble—Heaven only knows—' and she dried her eyes quickly—'money, my dear—' and she smiled with a bewildered shrug—'some debts at Cambridge—no fault of his—you can't imagine what a saving darling he is—but these were a few old things that mounted up with interest, my dear—you understand—and law costs—oh, you can't think—and indeed, dear Miss—well, Rachel—I forgot—I sometimes thought we must be quite ruined.'
'Oh, Dolly, dear,' said Rachel, very pale, 'I feared it. I thought you
might be troubled about money. I was not sure, but I was afraid; and, to
say truth, it was partly to try your friendship with a question on that
very point that I came here, and not indeed, Dolly, dear, from
impertinent curiosity, but in the hope that maybe you might allow me to
be of some use.'
'How wonderfully good you are! How friends are raised up!' and with a
smile that shone like an April sun through her tears, she stood on
tiptoe, and kissed the tall young lady, who—not smiling, but with a pale
and very troubled face—bowed down and returned her kiss.
'You know, dear, before he went, Mark promised to lend dear Willie a
large sum of money. Well, he went away in such a hurry, that he never
thought of it; and though he constantly wrote to Mr. Larkin—you have no
idea, my dear Miss Lake, what a blessed angel that man is—oh! such a
friend as has been raised up to us in that holy and wise man, words
cannot express; but what was I saying?—oh, yes—Mark, you know—it was
very kind, but he has so many things on his mind it quite escaped
him—and he keeps, you know, wandering about on the Continent, and never
gives his address; so he, can't, you see, be written to; and the
delay—but, Rachel, darling, are you ill?'
She rang the bell, and opened the window, and got some water.
'My darling, you walked too fast here. You were very near fainting.'
'No, dear—nothing—I am quite well now—go on.'
But she did not go on immediately, for Rachel was trembling in a kind of
shivering fit, which did not pass away till after poor Dolly, who had no
other stimulant at command, made her drink a cup of very hot milk.
'Thank you, darling. You are too good to me, Dolly. Oh! Dolly, you are
too good to me.'
Rachel's eyes were looking into hers with a careworn, entreating gaze, and her cold hand was pressed on the back of Dolly's.
Nearly ten minutes passed before the talk was renewed.
'Well, now, what do you think—that good man, Mr. Larkin, just as things
were at the worst, found a way to make everything—oh, blessed
mercy!—the hand of Heaven, my dear—quite right again—and we'll be so
happy. Like a bird I could sing, and fly almost—a foolish old thing—ha! ha! ha!—such an old goose!' and she wiped her eyes again.
'Hush! is that Fairy? Oh, no, it is only Anne singing. Little man has not
been well yesterday and to-day. He won't eat, and looks pale, but he
slept very well, my darling man; and Doctor Buddle—I met him this
morning—so kindly took him into his room, and examined him, and says it
may be nothing at all, please Heaven,' and she sighed, smiling still.
'Dear little Fairy—where is he?' asked Rachel, her sad eyes looking
toward the door.