144 WYLDER'S HAJVD.
a great deal poorer than you; and I never said I gave her
sixpence, did I? I have not got it to give, and I don't
think she's fool enough to expect it; and, to say the
truth, I don't care. I only advise you. There are some
cheerful little cottages near the Green, in Gylingden, and
I venture to think, this is one of the very gloomiest
and most uncomfortable places you could have selected to
live in."
Rachel looked drearily toward the 'window and sighed
— it was almost a groan.
"It was cheerful always till this frightful week changed
everything. Oh! why, why, why did you ever come?"
She threw back her pale face, biting her lip, and even in
that deepening gloom her small pearly teeth glimmered
white; and then she burst into sobs and an agony of
tears.
Captain Lake knew something of feminine paroxysms.
Rachel was not given to hysterics. He knew this burst
of anguish was unaffected. He was rather glad of it.
When it was over he expected clearer weather and a calm.
So he waited, saying now and then a soothing word or
two. "There — there — there, Radie — there's a good
girl. Never mind — there — there."
With Rachel this weakness did not last long. It was a
gust—violent—soon over; and the "o'er-charged"
heart and brain were relieved. And she pushed open the
window, and stood for a moment in the chill air, and
sighed, and whispered a word or two over the closing
flowers of her little garden toward the darkening glen,
and with another great sigh closed the window, and re-
turned.
- " Can I do anything, Radie? You're better now. I
knew you would be. Shall I get some water from your
room?"