. They are
radicals every one."

"And is not she also a radical? She talks of the emancipation of women
by keeping them at school till one-and-twenty, of the elevation of the
masses, and the mutual improvement of everybody not in the peerage."

"You are making game of her, like my Arthur. No, she is not a radical;
that is all her _hum_. I believe Lord Angleby was something of the sort,
but I don't understand much about politics."

"Only for the present occasion we are blue?" said Bessie airily.

"Yes--all blue," echoed Mrs. Stokes. "Sky-blue," and they both laughed.

"You must agree at what hour you will go into Norminster on Monday--the
half-past-eleven train is the best," Colonel Stokes said.

"Cannot we go to-morrow?" his wife asked.

"No, it is Saturday, market-day;" and his suggestion was adopted.

When the visit was over, in the pleasantness of the late afternoon,
Bessie walked through the gardens and across the park with these
neighbors to Abbotsmead. A belt of shrubbery and a sunk fence divided
the grounds of the lodge from the park, and there was easy
communication by a rustic bridge and a wicket left on the latch. "I hope
you will come often to and fro, and that you will seek me whenever you
want me. This is the shortest way," Mrs. Stokes said to her. Bessie
thanked her, and then walked back to the house, taking her time, and
thinking what a long while ago it was since yesterday.

Yesterday! Only yesterday she was on board the Foam that had brought her
from France, that had passed by the Forest--no longer ago than
yesterday, yet as far off already as a year ago.

Thinking of it, she fell into a melancholy that belonged to her
character. She was tired with the incidents of the day. At dinner Mr.
Fairfax seemed to miss something that had charmed him the night before.
She answered when he spoke, but her gayety was under eclipse. They were
both relieved when the evening came to an end. Bessie was glad to escape
to solitude, and her grandfather experienced a sense of vague
disappointment, but he supposed he must have patience. Even Jonquil
observed the difference, and was sorry that this bright young lady who
had come into the house should enter so soon into its clouds; he was
grieved too that his dear old master, who betrayed an unwonted humility
in his desire to please her, should not at once find his reward in her
affection. Bessie was not conscious that it would have been any boon to
him. She had no