“You have every right, Lady Jennings, to know all about Miss Davison’s movements,” answered he frankly; “but as I feel that you are asking me questions to which she herself has given you an insufficient answer, I feel, don’t you see, as if I would rather not say more than this: that I met her not far from where I had left her before, and that I understood she had been detained on business connected with her work.” He felt, as he said this, that he wished it were not so true as he feared it was. Lady Jennings half smiled. She approved of his attitude, but remained unsatisfied with that of her protégé. “She works too hard,” said Gerard suddenly after a silence. “I have noticed a great change in her looks. Her face now has a worried expression. I think she wants a long rest, and I wish she could take it; but I suppose while she is earning so much it’s impossible.” The old lady turned upon him with a strange look. “Yes, I suppose she does earn a great deal,” she said rather dryly. “She seems to spend a great deal, at any rate.” “Yes. If she supports her mother and sister,” said Gerard valiantly. But the old lady shrugged her shoulders. “Oh, one may make too much of that,” she said quickly. “She spends money on herself too. She dresses magnificently. It wouldn’t have been thought proper when I was young, for an unmarried girl to spend so much on her clothes. However, things are altered now, I suppose!” “She dresses in excellent taste,” observed Gerard. “Oh yes. You take a great interest in Rachel, Mr. Buckland?” The words were a challenge, and Gerard took it up promptly. “Greater than I have ever in my life taken in a woman before,” said he. She shrugged her shoulders slightly. “If I took an interest in any man who was in want of a wife,” said she, “and who thought of looking in this direction, I should recommend him to choose the younger sister rather than the elder. Of course she’s very young, but she’s a sweet girl, and if she has less character, what she has is more amiable than her sister’s.” Lady Jennings spoke with as much ill-nature as it was in her to show, though that was not very much. Gerard, however, took fire and made a brave stand for his own choice. “Miss Lilian is a lovely girl,” he said, “but pretty and charming as she is, I confess that a woman of more character has still greater charm for me. Now Miss Rachel has not only her beauty, but she has something besides, some soul, some capacity for deep feeling which, while no doubt it makes her miserable sometimes, makes her interesting too.” “She can be miserable no doubt, as well as other people,” said Lady Jennings rather dryly; “but I think she has probably a still greater capacity for making others miserable.” “Certainly she would make a man miserable if he were head over ears in love with her and she didn’t care for him,” replied Gerard quickly; “for he would never be likely to find any girl to take exactly the place she had made for herself in his heart.”