In little things and great, with
people she loved, and people she hated (and she did both with equal
heartiness), Miss Rachel always went on a way of her own, sufficient for
herself in the joys and sorrows of her life. Over and over again I have
heard my lady say, "Rachel's best friend and Rachel's worst enemy are,
one and the other--Rachel herself."
Add one thing more to this, and I have done.
With all her secrecy, and self-will, there was not so much as the shadow
of anything false in her. I never remember her breaking her word; I
never remember her saying No, and meaning Yes. I can call to mind, in
her childhood, more than one occasion when the good little soul took
the blame, and suffered the punishment, for some fault committed by a
playfellow whom she loved. Nobody ever knew her to confess to it, when
the thing was found out, and she was charged with it afterwards. But
nobody ever knew her to lie about it, either. She looked you straight
in the face, and shook her little saucy head, and said plainly, "I won't
tell you!" Punished again for this, she would own to being sorry for
saying "won't;" but, bread and water notwithstanding, she never told
you.
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