on, her master, and Miss Julia Gardiner."

"Miss Julia Gardiner!" exclaimed Bessie in a low, astonished voice.

Mrs. Betts, with an indifference that a more cunning young lady than
hers would have felt to be carefully prepared, proceeded with her
information: "Yes, miss; you met the lady, I think? The gentleman is
many years older, but a worthy gentleman. And she is a most sweet lady,
which, where there is children to begin with, is much to be considered.
She has no fortune, but there is oceans of money on his side--oceans."

Bessie did not jump to the conclusion that it was therefore a mercenary
marriage, as she had done in another case. She forgot, for the moment,
her interest in the Forest news, and though she seemed to be
contemplating her beautiful dress for the evening laid out upon the bed,
the pensive abstraction of her gaze implied profounder thoughts. Mrs.
Betts busied herself with various little matters--sewed on faster the
rosette of a white shoe, and the buttons on the gloves that were to be
worn with that foam of silvery tulle. What Bessie was musing of she
could not herself have told; a confused sensation of pain and pity was
uppermost at first. Mrs. Betts stood at a distance and with her back to
her young mistress, but she commanded her face in the glass, and saw it
overspread slowly by a warm soft blush, and the next moment she was
asked, "Do you think she will be happy, Mrs. Betts?"

"We may trust so, miss," said the waiting-woman, still feigning to be
fully occupied with her duties to her young lady's pretty things. "Why
should she not? She is old enough to know her mind, and will have
everything that heart can desire--won't she?"

Bessie did not attempt any answer to this suggestive query. She put the
newspaper aside, and stretched herself with a sigh along the couch,
folding her hands under her cheek on the pillow. Her eyes grew full of
tears, and so she lay, meditating on this new lesson in life, until Mrs.
Betts warned her that it was time to dress for dinner. Miss Fairfax had
by this date so far accustomed herself to the usages of young ladies of
rank that Mrs. Betts was permitted to assist at her toilette. It was a
silent process this evening, and the penetration of the waiting-woman
was at fault when she took furtive glances in the mirror at the subdued
face that never smiled once, not even at its own beauty. She gave Lady
Angleby an exact account of what had passed, and added for
interpret