There was a good deal of ceremony between the three ladies when they first found themselves together in Mrs. Ray’s parlour. Mrs. Rowan and Mrs. Tappitt were large and stiff in their draperies, and did not fit themselves easily in among Mrs. Ray’s small belongings; and they were stately in their demeanour, conscious that they were visiting an inferior, and conscious also that they were there on no friendly mission. But the interview was commenced with a show of much civility. Mrs. Tappitt introduced Mrs. Rowan in due form, and Mrs. Rowan made her little bow, if with some self-asserting supremacy, still with fitting courtesy. Mrs. Ray hoped that Mrs. Tappitt and the young ladies were quite well, and then there was a short silence, very oppressive to Mrs. Ray, but refreshing rather than otherwise to Mrs. Rowan. It gave a proper business aspect to the visit, and paved the way for serious words.
“Miss Rachel is out, I suppose,” said Mrs. Tappitt.
“Yes, she is out,” said Mrs. Ray. “But she’s about the place somewhere, if you want to see her.” This she added in her weakness, not knowing how she was to sustain the weight of such an interview alone.
“Perhaps it is as well that she should be away just at present,” said Mrs. Rowan, firmly but mildly.
“Quite as well,” said Mrs. Tappitt, as firmly, but less mildly.
“Because we wish to say a few words to you, Mrs. Ray,” said Mrs. Rowan.
“That is what has brought us out so early,” said Mrs. Tappitt. It was only half-past two now, and company visiting was never done at Baslehurst till after three. “We want to say a few words to you, Mrs. Ray, about a very serious matter. I’m sure you know how glad I’ve always been to see Rachel with my girls, and I had her at our party the other night, you know. It isn’t likely therefore that I should be disposed to say anything unkind about her.”
“At any rate not to me, I hope,” said Mrs. Ray.
“Not to anybody. Indeed I’m not given to say unkind things about people. No one in Baslehurst would give me that character. But the fact is, Mrs. Ray—”
“Perhaps, Mrs. Tappitt, you’ll allow me,” said Mrs. Rowan. “He’s my son.”
“Oh, yes, certainly;—that is, if you wish it,” said Mrs. Tappitt, drawing herself up in her chair; “but I thought that perhaps, as I knew Miss Ray so well—”
“If you don’t mind, Mrs. Tappitt—” and Mrs. Rowan, as she again took the words out of her friend’s mouth, smiled upon her with a smile of great efficacy.
“Oh, dear, certainly not,” said Mrs. Tappitt, acknowledging by her concession the superiority of Mrs. Rowan’s nature.
“I believe you are aware, Mrs. Ray,” said Mrs. Rowan, “that Mr. Luke Rowan is my son.”
“Yes, I’m aware of that.”
“And I’m afraid you must be aware also that there have been some—some—some talkings as it were, between him and your daughter.”
“Oh, yes. The truth is, ma’am, that he has offered himself to my girl, and that she has accepted him. Whether it’s for good or for bad, the open truth is the best, Mrs. Tappitt.”
“Truth is truth,” said Mrs. Tappitt; “and deception is not truth.”
“I didn’t think it had gone anything so far as that,” said Mrs. Rowan—who at the moment, perhaps, forgot that deception is not truth; “and in saying that he has actually offered himself, you may perhaps—without meaning it, of course—be attributing a more positive significance to his word than he has intended.”
“God forbid!” said Mrs. Ray very solemnly. “That would be a very sad thing for my poor girl. But I think, Mrs. Rowan, you had better ask him. If he says he didn’t intend it, of course there will be an end of it, as far as Rachel is concerned.”
“I can’t ask him just at present,” said Mrs. Rowan, “because he has gone up to London. He went away yesterday afternoon, and there’s no saying when he may be in Baslehurst again.”
“If ever—,” said Mrs. Tappitt, very solemnly. “Perhaps he has not told you, Mrs. Ray, that that partnership between him and Mr. T. is all over.”
“He did tell us that there had been words between him and Mr. Tappitt.”
“Words indeed!” said Mrs. Tappitt.
“And therefore it isn’t so easy to ask him,” said Mrs. Rowan, ignoring Mrs. Tappitt and the partnership. “But of course, Mrs. Ray, our object in this matter must be the same. We both wish to see our children happy and respectable.” Mrs. Rowan, as she said this, put great emphasis on the last word.
“As to my girl, I’ve no fear whatever but what she’ll be respectable,” said Mrs. Ray, with more heat than Mrs. Tappitt had thought her to possess.
“No doubt; no doubt. But what I’m coming to is this, Mrs. Ray; here has this boy of mine been behaving foolishly to your daughter, as young men will do. It may be that he has really said something to her of the kind you suppose—”
“Said something to her! Why, ma’am, he came out here and asked my permission to pay his addresses to her, which I didn’t answer because just at that moment Rachel came in from Farmer Sturt’s opposite—”
“Farmer Sturt’s!” said Mrs. Tappitt to Mrs. Rowan, in an under voice and nodding her head. Whereupon Mrs. Rowan nodded her head also. One of the great accusations made against Mrs. Ray had been that she lived on the Farmer Sturt level, and not on the Tappitt level;—much less on the Rowan level.
“Yes—from Farmer Sturt’s,” continued Mrs. Ray, not at all understanding this byplay. “So I didn’t give him any answer at all.”
“You wouldn’t encourage him,” said Mrs. Rowan.
“I don’t know about that; but at any rate he encouraged himself, for
