judge. It would be more civil by the society, too."

"No matter, indeed I cannot; in fact, Mr. Mauleverer is coming this
morning to give his report and arrange our building plans. I want to
introduce him to Mr. Mitchell, and fix a day for going over."

Mrs. Curtis gave up in despair, and consulted her eldest daughter in
private whether there could have been any misunderstanding with
Colonel Keith to lead Rachel to avoid him in a manner that was
becoming pointed. Grace deemed it nothing but absorption into the
F. U. E. E., and poor Mrs. Curtis sighed over this fleeting away of
her sole chance of seeing Rachel like other people. Of Mr.
Mauleverer personally she had no fears, he was in her eyes like a
drawing or music-master, and had never pretended to be on equal terms
in society with her daughters, and she had no doubts or scruples in
leaving Rachel to her business interview with him, though she much
regretted this further lapse from the ordinary paths of sociability.

Rachel, on the other hand, felt calmly magnanimous in the completion
of a veritable sacrifice, for those books had afforded her much
enjoyment, and she would much like to have possessed many of those
that would be tossed aside at a cheap rate. But the constant small
expenses entailed by the first setting on foot such an establishment
as the F. U. E. E. were a heavy drain on her private purse, as she
insisted on all accounts being brought to her, and then could not
bear that these small nondescript matters should be charged upon the
general fund, which having already paid the first half-year's rent in
advance, and furnished the house, must be recruited by some
extraordinary supply before she could build. The thing could not be
done at all but by rigid economy, and she was ready to exercise it,