But to Rachel it was almost more than she could bear. She had looked forward to a quiet happy time with her father's best friend. To make such a fuss over him was perfectly unnecessary. She wanted to show him her little house, and to assure him that she was trying to follow out his fatherly advice. Now she felt that all was altered. She saw that even Polly felt the hurrying and exciting influence in the house. The girl was looking worried and disappointed as Mrs. Greville called her hither and thither telling her to do this or that, and not leaving her a moment's peace. Her face was crimson and its expression one full of anxiety. She was no longer enjoying running about at her mistress's behest, and entering into all the pleasure shown by her at the coming of her father's best friend, (for Rachel had informed Polly of many things about her home life that she knew would interest her faithful and devoted little maid), but she was straining every nerve that things should be properly done for the arrival of a very grand gentleman who would notice every little mistake she made. Besides, what worried the girl was the fact that her own dear Mistress seemed to have lost her good spirits since the early morning. The sun had gone out of her face; and disappointment and chagrin had taken its place. Mrs. Greville had a very kind heart and if she had had the faintest idea of the disappointment she was giving to her daughter-in-law, she would have put on her gloves and disappeared at once. But she was not sensitive to her environment. Though she noticed that Rachel was graver than usual, she supposed the gravity was caused by anxiety that all should go well, and congratulated herself that she had come in to help so early in the morning, as her daughter-in-law seemed rather helpless and worried. The more Mrs. Greville bustled about, the more lifeless Rachel became. All her energy had evaporated. She felt there was nothing for her to do as all was being done by her competent mother-in-law. Even the arranging of the flowers was not left entirely to her. Having placed them gracefully with their long stalks in the flower vase, she put them in the centre of the luncheon table and was admiring them, when Mrs. Greville came into the room, her hands laden with dishes. Putting them on the sideboard she turned and looked critically at Rachel's flowers; then quick as thought lifted them out of the water and breaking their stalks put them again into the vase on the table, pressing them down so that the blossoms might all be even. "There! they look better so and more tidy," she said, whilst Rachel stood by too astonished and taken by surprise even to expostulate.