Steel. I only take
liberties with very intimate friends."
"Then I wonder what can have brought you!"
And Rachel returned both the smile and the stare with irritating
self-control.
"I will tell you," said Mrs. Venables, weightily. "There is a certain
thing being said of you, Mrs. Steel; and I wish to know from your own
lips whether there is any truth in it or none."
Rachel held up her hands as quick as thought.
"My dear Mrs. Venables, you can't mean that you are bringing me a piece
of unpleasant gossip on the very afternoon of my first dinner-party?"
"It remains with you," said Mrs. Venables, changing color at this hit,
"to say whether it is mere gossip or not. You must know, Mrs. Steel,
though we were all quite charmed with your husband from the moment he
came among us, we none of us had the least idea where he came from nor
have we yet."
"You are speaking for the neighborhood?" inquired Rachel, sweetly.
"I am," said Mrs. Venables.
"Town _and_ county," murmured Rachel. "And you mean that nobody in the
district knew anything at all about my husband?"
"Not a thing," said Mrs. Venables.
"And yet you called on him; and yet you took pity on him, poor lonely
bachelor that he was!"
This shaft also left its momentary mark upon the visitor's complexion.
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