l Saturday
week."

Bessie felt a pang of disappointment; she was going home on the
Thursday, and would just miss him. What a pity! He had been so kind and
friendly to her during her visit at The Grange, and she would have liked
to have seen him. She wondered vaguely if he would be disappointed too
when he heard that she had gone. It was thoughtless of Mrs. Sefton to
invite Miss Shelton, but most likely she had done it on purpose to keep
her stepson away. Edna had told her rather sorrowfully the other day
that her mother did not understand Richard any better.

"He is never at his ease with her, and so he never appears to advantage
in her presence," she said. "Poor Ritchie! I am afraid he has a dull
life at The Grange!"

Bessie was afraid so too, but she dared not say so; she could only
appeal to Edna's generosity, and beg her to consider that she owed a
duty to her brother. But she could not say much on this point. A girl
cannot well enter the lists on a young man's behalf; however sensible
and free from nonsense she may be, she is bound by a sense of
conventionality; and though in her heart Bessie was very sorry for
Richard, very much interested in his behalf, she felt her pity must be
kept to herself.

Bessie was not ashamed to own her disappointment, and she was human
enough to bear a grudge against the offending Miss Shelton, who proved
to be an old governess of Edna's, and a most worthy woman.

In consequence of Edna's temporary indisposition, which made her languid
in the morning, the family breakfast was unusually late, and was rarely
ready before ten. It was Bessie's habit, therefore, to go out, after an
early cup of cocoa, for an hour's solitary walk; she enjoyed this more
than any other part of the day. The Parade was almost deserted at the
time, and she met few people. She loved to stroll down to the beach and
watch the waves rolling on the shore; the cold, fresh air invigorated
her, and her old color returned. Her mother would have been at rest
about her if she could have seen the girl's strong, elastic step, or
noticed how the sea breezes had brought back her fresh color. Bessie
would return from these morning walks with refreshed spirits and
vigorous, youthful appetite that Edna good-naturedly quizzed.

"You would be hungry, too, if you had swallowed those delicious sea
breezes," Bessie would answer, nothing daunted by these remarks, and she
persevered in these early strolls.

The morning after the