sacrifice to be quite honest; and to that, Tamar, I have made up my mind
at last, thank God. Come, Tamar, and kiss me, for I am free once more.'

So that night passed peacefully.

Rachel--a changed Rachel still--though more like her early self, was now
in the tiny garden of Redman's Farm. The early spring was already showing
its bright green through the brown of winter, and sun and shower
alternating, and the gay gossiping of sweet birds among the branches,
were calling the young creation from its slumbers. The air was so sharp,
so clear, so sunny, the mysterious sense of coming life so invigorating,
and the sounds and aspect of nature so rejoicing, that Rachel with her
gauntlets on, her white basket of flower seeds, her trowel, and all her
garden implements beside her, felt her own spring of life return, and
rejoiced in the glad hour that shone round her.

Lifting up her eyes, she saw Lord Chelford looking over the little gate.

'What a charming day,' said he, with his pleasant smile, raising his hat,
'and how very pleasant to see you at your pretty industry again.'

As Rachel came forward in her faded gardening costume, an old silk shawl
about her shoulders, and hoodwise over her head, somehow very becoming,
there was a blush--he could not help seeing it--on her young face, and
for a moment her fine eyes dropped, and she looked up, smiling a more
thoughtful and a sadder smile than in old days. The picture of that smile
so gay and fearless, and yet so feminine, rose up beside the sadder smile
that greeted him now, and he thought of Ondine without and Ondine with a
soul.