Presently her mother came in , carrying a small basket . `` Here is something for you , Rachel . One of the boys from the harbor brought it up . He was bound to give it into your own hands -- said that was his orders . I just took it and sent him to the right-about -- told him I 'd give it to you at once , and that that was all that was necessary . '' She spoke coldly . She knew quite well who had sent the basket , and she resented it ; but her resentment was not quite strong enough to overcome her curiosity . She stood silently by while Rachel unpacked the basket . Rachel 's hands trembled as she took off the cover . Two huge pink-spotted shells came first . How well she remembered them ! Beneath them , carefully wrapped up in a square of foreign-looking , strangely scented silk , was the dragon teapot . She held it in her hands and gazed at it with tears gathering thickly in her eyes . `` Your father sent that , '' said Isabella Spencer with an odd sound in her voice . `` I remember it well . It was among the things I packed up and sent after him . His father had brought it home from China fifty years ago , and he prized it beyond anything . They used to say it was worth a lot of money . '' `` Mother , please leave me alone for a little while , '' said Rachel , imploringly . She had caught sight of a little note at the bottom of the basket , and she felt that she could not read it under her mother 's eyes .
Mrs. Spencer went out with unaccustomed acquiescence , and Rachel went quickly XXXXX the window , where she read her letter by the fading gleams of twilight .
Beneath after for from into of that to under with