Henderson to assist her into the wide old vehicle without any
further change of expression. When once in, she gazed around, then leaned
forward on the slippery old green leather seat.
"Can't Peletiah come?" she gasped; "there's lots o' room."
"No," said Mrs. Henderson. "Now be a good girl"--all her fears returning as
she saw Rachel's face.
Simmons starting up the horses, that, although an old pair, yet liked to
set off with a flourish, the movement bounced Rachel violently against the
back of her seat and knocked her bonnet over her face. This gave her
something to think of, and changed her terror to a deep displeasure. When
the drive was ended, therefore, and the brougham, after its progress
through an avenue of fine old trees, was brought to a standstill before the
ancestral mansion where Miss Parrott's father and grandfather had lived
before her, the visitor was in no condition to enjoy the pleasures thrust
upon her.
Miss Parrott, in the stiff, black silk gown that she had worn the day when
she called at the parsonage, met her on the big stone steps. She put out a
hand in a long, black lace mitt, "I am very glad to see you, child," she
said, in old-time hospitality.
But no hospitality, old-time or any other, had a pleasant effect on Rachel.
She gave a glance up and around the big, gloomy gray, stone house, with a
wild thought of rushing down the avenue and home to the parsonage.
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