She gave her shoulders a shrug , and wrote Aunt Jane 's name down on the wedding list in her large , somewhat untidy handwriting -- a handwriting which always seemed to irritate her mother . Rachel never could understand this irritation . She could never guess that it was because her writing looked so much like that in a certain packet of faded letters which Mrs. Spencer kept at the bottom of an old horsehair trunk in her bedroom . They were postmarked from seaports all over the world . Mrs. Spencer never read them or looked at them ; but she remembered every dash and curve of the handwriting . Isabella Spencer had overcome many things in her life by the sheer force and persistency of her will . But she could not get the better of heredity . Rachel was her father 's daughter at all points , and Isabella Spencer escaped hating her for it only by loving her the more fiercely because of it . Even so , there were many times when she had to avert her eyes from Rachel 's face because of the pang of the more subtle remembrances ; and never , since her child was born , could Isabella Spencer bear to gaze on that child 's face in sleep . Rachel was to be married to Frank Bell in a fortnight 's time . Mrs. Spencer was pleased with the match . She was very fond of Frank , and his farm was so near to her own that she would not lose Rachel altogether . Rachel fondly believed that her mother would not lose her at all ; but Isabella Spencer , wiser by olden experience , knew what her daughter 's marriage must mean to her , and steeled her heart to bear it with what fortitude she might . They were in the sitting-room , deciding on the wedding guests and other details . The September sunshine was coming in through the waving boughs of the apple tree that grew close up to the low window . The glints wavered over Rachel 's face , as white as a wood lily , with only a faint dream of rose in the cheeks . She wore her sleek , golden hair in a quaint arch around it . Her forehead was very broad and white . She was fresh and young and hopeful . The mother 's heart contracted in a spasm of pain as she looked at her .
How like the girl was to -- XXXXX -- to the Spencers !
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