Thereafter she escaped
incontinently, but successfully, as she had entered; closed the hidden
door behind her, and restored _The Faerie Queene_ very carefully to its
place. Rachel no longer proposed to join the select band of those who
have read that epic through.
CHAPTER XIV
BATTLE ROYAL
She went to her own rooms to think and to decide; and what she first
thought and then decided was sensible enough. She was thankful she had
not been caught like Fatima in the forbidden room; not that she lacked
the courage to meet the consequences of her acts, but it would have put
her in the wrong and at a disadvantage at the first crash of battle. And
a battle royal Rachel quite expected; nor had she the faintest intention
of disguising what she had done; but it was her husband who was to be
taken aback, for a change.
The Steels dined alone, as usual, or as much alone as a man and his wife
with a butler and two footmen are permitted to be at their meals. Steel
was at his best after these jaunts of his to Northborough and the club.
He would come home with the latest news from that centre of the
universe, the latest gossip which had gone the rounds on 'Change and at
lunch, the newest stories of Mr.
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