nding, found herself capable of eating
her dinner. The stillness was intense for a few minutes. Bessie glanced
at one or two of the intent faces preparing crab with a close devotion
to the process that assured satisfaction in the result, and then she
caught Lady Latimer's eye. They both smiled, and suddenly the talk broke
out all round; my lady beginning to inquire of the rector concerning
young Musgrave of Brook, whether he knew him. Bessie listened with
breathless interest to this mention of her dear comrade.

"Yes, I know him, in a way--a clever youth, ambitious of a college
education," said Mr. Wiley. "I have tried my best to dissuade him, but
his mind is bent on rising in the world. Like little Christie, the
wheelwright's son, who must be an artist."

"Why discourage young Musgrave? I heard from his father a few days ago
that he had won a scholarship at Hampton worth fifty pounds a year,
tenable for three years."

"That is news, indeed! Moxon has coached him well: I sent him to poor
Moxon. He wanted to read with me, but--you understand--I could not
exactly receive him while Lord Rafferty and Mr. Duffer are in my house.
So I sent him to poor Moxon, who is glad of a pupil when he can get
one."

"I wish Mr. Moxon better preferment. As for young Musgrave, he must have
talent. I was driving through Brook yesterday, and I called at the
manor-house. The mother is a modest person of much natural dignity. The
son was out. I left a message that I should be glad to see him, and do
something for him, if he would walk over to Fairfield."

"He will not come, I warrant," exclaimed Mr. Wiley. "He is a radical
fellow, and would say, as soon as look at you, that he had no wish to be
encumbered with patronage."

"He would not say so to Lady Latimer," cried Bessie Fairfax. Her voice
rang clear as a bell, and quite startled the composed, refined
atmosphere. Everybody looked at her with a smile. My lady exchanged a
glance with her niece.

"Then young Musgrave is a friend of yours?" she said, addressing her
little guest.

"We are cousins," was Bessie's unhesitating reply.

"I was not aware of it," remarked her grandfather drily.

Bessie was not daunted. Mrs. Musgrave was Mrs. Carnegie's elder sister.
Young Musgrave and the young Carnegies called cousins, and while she was
one of the Carnegies she was a cousin too. Besides, Harry Musgrave was
the nephew of her father's second wife, and their comradeship dated from
his visits