"Who?" said Rachel, dreamily.

"Why, Colonel Keith, my dear," said good Mrs. Curtis, conceiving that
her pronominal speech had "broken" her intelligence; "it seems we
were mistaken in him all this time."

"What, about Miss Williams?" said Rachel, perceiving how the land
lay; "how did you hear it?"

"You knew it, my dear child," cried her mother in accents of extreme
relief.

"Only this afternoon, from Bessie Keith."

"And Fanny knew it all this time," continued Mrs. Curtis. "I cannot
imagine how she could keep it from me, but it seems Miss Williams was
resolved it should not be known. Colonel Keith said he felt it was
wrong to go on longer without mentioning it, and I could not but say
that it would have been a great relief to have known it earlier."

"As far as Fanny was concerned it would," said Rachel, looking into
the fire, but not without a sense of rehabilitating satisfaction, as
the wistful looks and tone of her mother convinced her that this
semi-delusion had not been confined to herself.

"I could not help being extremely sorry for him when he was telling
me," continued Mrs. Curtis, as much resolved against uttering the
idea as Rachel herself could be. "It has been such a very long
attachment, and now he says he has not yet been able to overcome her
scruples about accepting him in her state. It is quite right of her,