'I think, Radie, we have both courage--_you_ have certainly; you have shown it, darling, and you must cease to blame yourself; I think you a _heroine_, Radie; but you know _I_ see with the wild eyes of the Brandons.' 'I am grateful, Dorcas, that you don't hate me. Most women I am sure would abhor me--yes, Dorcas--_abhor_ me.' 'You and I against the world, Radie!' said Dorcas, with a wild smile and a dark admiration in her look, and kissing Rachel again. 'I used to think myself brave; it belongs to women of our blood; but this is no common strain upon courage, Radie. I've grown to fear Stanley somehow like a ghost; I fear it is even worse than he says,' and she looked with a horrible enquiry into Rachel's eyes. 'So do _I_, Dorcas,' said Rachel, in a firm low whisper, returning her look as darkly. 'What's done cannot be undone,' said Rachel, sadly, after a little pause, unconsciously quoting from a terrible soliloquy of Shakespeare. 'I know what you mean, Radie; and you warned me, with a strange second-sight, before the evil was known to either of us. It was an irrevocable step, and I took it, not seeing all that has happened, it is true; but forewarned. And this I will say, Radie, if I _had_ known the worst, I think even that would not have deterred me. It was madness--it _is_ madness, for I love him still. Rachel, though I know him and his wickedness, and am filled with horror--I love him desperately.' 'I am very glad,' said Rachel, 'that you do know everything. It is so great a relief to have companionship. I often thought I must go mad in my solitude.' 'Poor Rachel! I think you wonderful--I think you a heroine--I do, Radie; you and I are made for one another--the same blood--something of the same wild nature; I can admire you, and understand you, and will always love you.' 'I've been with William Wylder and Dolly. That wicked attorney, Mr. Larkin, is resolved on robbing them. I wish they had anyone able to advise them. Stanley I am sure could save them; but he does not choose to do it. He was always so angry when I urged him to help them, that I knew it would be useless asking him; I don't think he knows what Mr. Larkin has been doing; but, Dorcas, I am afraid the very same thought has been in his mind.' 'I hope not, Radie,' and Dorcas sighed deeply. 'Everything is so wonderful and awful in the light that has come.'