lived in the hope of a meeting again
with Janey some day, and what a delightful thing it was to meet thus--to
find that her dear little comrade at school was married to Harry
Musgrave's best friend! Janey had heard from her husband all the story
of Bessie's faithful love, but she was too timid and self-doubting to be
very cordial or responsive. Bessie therefore talked for both--promised
herself a renewal of their early friendship, and expressed an hospitable
wish that Mr. Christie would bring his wife to visit them in Italy next
year when he took his holiday. Christie promised that he would, and
thought Miss Fairfax more than ever good and charming; but Janey was
almost happier when Bessie rode away with Mr. Carnegie and she was
permitted to retire into seclusion again under the white umbrella. The
artist had chosen him a helpmeet who could be very devoted in private
life, but who would never care for his professional honors or public
reputation. Bessie heard afterward that the master-mariner was dead,
and the place in her heart that he had held was now her husband's. With
her own more expansive and affectionate nature she felt a genial warmth
of satisfaction in the meeting, and as she trotted along with the doctor
she told him about Janey at school, and thought herself most fortunate
to have been riding with him that morning.

"For I really fear the little shy creature would never have come near me
had I not fallen in with her where she could not escape," said she.

"Christie has been even less ambitious in his marriage than yourself,
Bessie," was the doctor's reply. "That one-idead little woman may
worship him, but she will be no help. She will not attract friends to
his house, even if she be not jealous of them; and he will have to go
out and leave her at home; and that is a pity, for an artist ought to
live in the world."

"She is docile, but not trustful. Oh, he will tame her, and she will try
to please him," said Bessie cheerfully. "She fancied that I must have
forgotten her, when there was rarely a day that she did not come into my
mind. And she says the same of me, yet neither of us ever wrote or made
any effort to find the other out."

"Let us hope that you have both contracted a more serviceable friendship
in another direction," said the doctor, and Bessie laughed. She was
aware that his estimate of feminine friendship was not exalted.

About half a mile farther, where a byroad turned off towards Fairfield