to see my mother. She'll kiss me, and sigh, and feel martyred. In
a month or two she'll call on me at the office. 'Why don't you and
your wife come to see me, James?' 'Would you like us to, Mother?
We fancied you were angry at us.' 'I am sorry, my son, of course,
but I have never been angry. Will you come to-morrow night?' And
when we go, my dear, you'd never dream that there was anything
amiss, I assure you!"

"I'll make her love me!" said Rachael, smiling tenderly.

"Perhaps some day you'll have a very powerful argument," he said
with a significant glance that brought the quick blood to her
face. "Mother couldn't resist that!"

She did not answer. It was a part of this new freshness and purity
of aspect that she could not answer.

"You asked about Margaret Clay," the doctor remembered presently.
"She was the same old sixpence, only growing up now; she owns to
nineteen--isn't she more than that? She always did romance and
yarn so much about herself that you can't believe anything."

"She's about twenty-one, perhaps no more than twenty," Rachael
said, after some thought. "Did they say anything about Parker and
Leila?"

"No, but the old lady can't do much harm there. She'll not last
another six months. She may leave Margaret a slice, but it won't
be much of a slice, for Parker could fight if it was. Leila's
pretty safe. We'll have to go to that wedding, by the way!"