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 This was Rachel's answer.

And just as the music began, the recreant Willis appeared. He hated now the very sound of the music. That one unfortunate quadrille into which he had been beguiled on board the barge, had not only lowered him from his high, disconsolate position in the world, but it had lowered him in his own eyes. He knew in his inmost soul, that the fascinations of Rachel had lured him into that incongruous levity.

"Mary, the dear departed shade," was not only on the point of being superseded, but the figurative shade which she had thrown over him, seemed to be departing too. This would not do. He had thought it all well over during the week; Rachel was handsome, perhaps rich, though that had become a matter of doubt; and to do him justice, he was not influenced by wealth. She had shown much sense and good feeling in the advice she had guardedly given him on the day of the water-party, when she had proposed their dancing together, as a cloak to her more