I shall send them word at home, and some of
them are sure to come and meet me there."
The letter was written and despatched, and in due course of post arrived
an answer from Mr. Carnegie. He would come to Hampton certainly, and his
wife would come with him, and perhaps one of the boys: they would come
or go anywhere for a sight of their dear Bessie. But, fond, affectionate
souls! they were all doomed to disappointment. Mr. Cecil Burleigh wrote
earlier than was expected that he had intelligence from Kirkham to the
effect that Mr. Frederick Fairfax would be at Havre with his yacht on or
about a certain day, that he would come to Caen and himself take charge
of his niece, and carry her home by sea--to Scarcliffe understood, for
Kirkham was full twenty miles from the coast.
"Oh, how sorry I am! how sorry they will be in the Forest!" cried
Bessie. "Is there no help for it?"
Madame was afraid there was no help for it--nothing for it but
submission and obedience. And Bessie wrote to revoke all the cheerful
promises and prospects that she had held out to her friends at
Beechhurst.
CHAPTER XIII.
_BESSIE LEARNS A FAMILY SECRET._
Canon Fournier went to Etretat by himself, for madame was bound to
escort her pupil to Caen, to prepare her for her departure to England,
and with her own hands to remit her into those of her friends. Caen is
suffocatingly hot in August--dusty, empty, dull.
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