He wo n't come . '' Rachel made no response . Now that the battle was over , and the victory won , she found herself tremulously on the verge of tears . She rose quickly and went upstairs to her own room , a dim little place shadowed by the white birches growing thickly outside -- a virginal room , where everything bespoke the maiden . She lay down on the blue and white patchwork quilt on her bed , and cried softly and bitterly . Her heart , at this crisis in her life , yearned for her father , who was almost a stranger to her . She knew that her mother had probably spoken the truth when she said that he would not come . Rachel felt that her marriage vows would be lacking in some indefinable sacredness if her father were not by to hear them spoken . Twenty-five years before this , David Spencer and Isabella Chiswick had been married . Spiteful people said there could be no doubt that Isabella had married David for love , since he had neither lands nor money to tempt her into a match of bargain and sale . David was a handsome fellow , with the blood of a seafaring race in his veins . He had been a sailor , like his father and grandfather before him ; but , when he married Isabella , she induced him to give up the sea and settle down with her on a snug farm her father had left her . Isabella liked farming , and loved her fertile acres and opulent orchards . She abhorred the sea and all that pertained to it , less from any dread of its dangers than from an inbred conviction that sailors were `` low '' in the social scale -- a species of necessary vagabonds . In her eyes there was a taint of disgrace in such a calling . David must be transformed into a respectable , home-abiding tiller of broad lands . For five years all went well enough . If , at times , David 's longing for the sea troubled him , he stifled it , and listened not to its luring voice . He and Isabella were very happy ; the only drawback to their happiness lay in the regretted fact that they were childless . Then , in the sixth year , came a crisis and a change .
Captain Barrett , an old crony XXXXX David 's , wanted him to go with him on a voyage as mate .
For at before bespoke if in of since to with