regard for him to take that manifestation towards you."

"Of course not," said Bessie, warmly; "I will not think of it again.
Only when the fate does overtake you, you will have me here for it,
Alick?"

He readily promised, feeling gratified at the effect of having spoken
to his sister with full recognition of her good sense.

Meantime Rachel was feeling something of what Bessie ascribed to her,
as if her sacrifice had been snatched away, and a cloud placed in its
stead. Mortification was certainly present, and a pained feeling of
having been made a fool of, whether by the Colonel or herself, her
candid mind could hardly decide; but she was afraid it was by
herself. She knew she had never felt sure enough of his attentions
to do more than speculate on what she would do if they should become
more pointed, and yet she felt angry and sore at having been exposed
to so absurd a blunder by the silence of the parties concerned.
"After all," she said to herself, "there can be no great harm done, I
have not been weak enough to commit my heart to the error. I am
unscathed, and I will show it by sympathy for Ermine. Only--only,
why could not she have told me?"

An ordeal was coming for which Rachel was thus in some degree
prepared. On the return of the party from the book club, Mrs. Curtis
came into Rachel's sitting-room, and hung lingering over the fire as
if she had something to say, but did not know how to begin. At last,
however, she said, "I do really think it is very unfair, but it was
not his fault, he says."