rfax, her bright spirit and loving,
unselfish disposition, but he found it impossible to flatter himself
that she would ever willingly become his wife. Lady Angleby insisted
that honor demanded a renewal of his offer, but Elizabeth never gave him
an opportunity; and there was an end of his uncertainties when she said
one day to his sister (after receiving an announcement of her own
approaching marriage to Mr. Forbes), "And there is nothing now to stand
between your brother and Miss Julia Gardiner. I am truly glad grandpapa
left him an independence, they have been so faithful to each other."

Miss Burleigh looked up surprised, as if she thought Bessie must be
laughing at them. And Bessie was laughing. "Not quite constant perhaps,
but certainly faithful," she persisted. But Mr. Cecil Burleigh had
probably appreciated her blossoming youth more kindly than his dear
Julia had appreciated her autumnal widower. Bessie meant to convey that
neither had any right to complain of the other, and that was true. Miss
Burleigh carried Miss Fairfax's remarks to her brother, and after that
they were privately agreed that it would be poor Julia after all.

Mr. Laurence Fairfax insisted that his niece should live at Abbotsmead,
and continue in possession of the white suite until she was of age. He
was her guardian, and would take no denial.

"It wants but three months to that date," she told him.

"Your home is here until you marry, Elizabeth," he rejoined in a tone
that forbade contradiction. "You shall visit Lady Latimer, but subject
to permission. Remember you are a Fairfax. Though you may go back to the
Forest, it is a delusion to imagine that you can live comfortably in the
crowded household where you were happy as a child. You have been six
years absent; three of them you have spent in the luxurious ease of
Abbotsmead. You have acquired the tastes and habits of your own class--a
very different class. You must look to me now: your pittance is not
enough for the common necessaries of life."

"Not so very different a class, Uncle Laurence, and fortunately I am not
in bondage to luxurious ease," Bessie said. "But I will not be perverse.
Changes come without seeking, and I am of an adaptable disposition. The
other day I was supposed to be a great heiress--to-day I have no more
than a bare competence."

"Not even that, but if you marry suitably you may be sure that I shall
make you a suitable settlement," rejoined her kinsman. Bessie