of not worrying Rachel about every fold, every plait, every bow, in a manner that from any one else would have been unbearable; but those tears had frightened Rachel into a penitent submission that endured with an absolute semblance of cheerfulness each of these torments.  The languor and exhaustion had been driven away, and feverish excitement had set in, not so much from the spirit of defiance that the two elder ladies had expected to excite, as from the having been goaded into a reckless determination to sustain her part.  No matter for the rest.

It often happened in these parties that the ladies would come in from the country in reasonable time, while their lords would be detained much later in court, so when the cathedral clock had given notice of the half-hour, Mrs. Curtis began to pick up fan and handkerchief, and prepare to descend.  Rachel suggested there would be no occasion so to do till Grace’s return, since it was plain that no one could yet be released.

“Yes, my dear, but perhaps—­don’t you think it might be remarked as if you chose to keep out of sight?”

“Oh, very well.”

Rachel followed her mother down, sustained by one hope, that Captain Keith would be there.  No; the Deanery did not greatly patronize the barracks; there was not much chance of any gentleman under forty, except, perhaps, in the evening.  And at present the dean himself and one canon were the entire gentleman element among some dozen ladies.  Everybody knew that the cause of delay was the trial of the cruel matron, and added to the account of Rachel’s iniquities their famished and weary state of expectation, the good Dean gyrating among the groups, trying to make conversation, which every one felt too fretful and too hungry to sustain with spirit.  Rachel sat it out, trying to talk whenever she saw her mother’s anxious eyes upon her, but failing in finding anything to say, and much doubting whether her neighbours liked talking to her.

At last gentlemen began to appear in twos and threes, and each made some confidence to the womankind that first absorbed him, but no one came in Rachel’s way, and the girl beside her became too unfeignedly curious to support even the semblance of conversation, but listened for scraps of intelligence.  Something was flying about respecting “a gentleman who came down by the train,” and something about “Lady Temple” and “admirable,” and the young lady seized the first opportunity of deserting Rachel, and plunging into the melee.  Rachel sat on, sick with suspense, feeling utterly unable to quit her seat.  Still they waited, the whole of the party were not arrived, and here was the curfew ringing, and that at the Deanery, which always felt injured if it were seven o’clock before people were in the dining-room!  Grace must be upstairs dressing, but to reach her was impossible!