" Bessie, though conscious of
her wickedness, saw no harm in extenuating it.
"If there had been twenty, what matter? Would I have let you pass me? If
I had not found courage to seek you here--and it required some courage,
and some perseverance, too--why, I should have missed you altogether."
Bessie laughed: here were they sparring as if they had parted no longer
ago than yesterday! Then she blushed, and all at once they came to
themselves, and began to be graver and more restrained.
"My friends are Fordyce and Craik; they have gone to study the Tapestry.
I said I would look in at it later with you, Bessie: I counted on you
for my guide," announced Harry with native assurance.
Bessie launched a supplicatory glance at madame, then hazarded a
doubtful consent, which did not provoke a denial. After that they moved
to the garden-end of the _salon_, and seated themselves in friendly
proximity. Then Bessie asked to be told all about them at home. All
about them was not a long story. The doctor's family had not arrived at
the era of dispersion and changes; the three years that had been so
long, full, and important to Bessie had passed in his house like three
monotonous days. The same at Brook.
"The fathers and mothers, yours and mine, are not an hour altered,"
Harry Musgrave said. "The boys are grown. Jack is a sturdy little
ruffian, as you might expect; no boy in the Forest runs through so many
clothes as Jack--that's the complaint.
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