Colonel and Mrs.
Stokes came, and Mr. Forbes and his mother, who lived with him (for he
was unmarried), a most agreeable old lady. It was much like other
dinner-parties in the country. The guests were all of one mind on
politics and the paramount importance of the landed interest, which gave
a delightful unanimity to the conversation. The table was round, so that
Miss Fairfax did not appear conspicuous as the lady of the house, but
she was not for that the less critically observed. Happily, she was
unconscious of the ordeal she underwent. She looked lovely in the face,
but her dress was not the elaborate dress of the other ladies; it was
still her prize-day white muslin, high to the throat and long to the
wrists, with a red rose in her belt, and an antique Normandy gold cross
for her sole ornament. The cross was a gift from Madame Fournier. Mr.
Cecil Burleigh, being seated next to her, was most condescending in his
efforts to be entertaining, and Bessie was not quite so uneasy under his
affability as she had been on board the yacht. Mrs. Stokes, who had
heard much of the Tory candidate, but now met him for the first time,
regarded him with awe, impressed by his distinguished air and fine
manners. But Bessie was more diffident than impressed. She did not talk
much; everybody else was so willing to talk that it was enough for her
to look charming. Once or twice her grandfather glanced towards her,
wishing to hear her voice--which was a most tunable voice--in reply to
her magnificent neighbor, but Bessie sat in beaming, beautiful silence,
lending him her ears, and at intervals giving him a monosyllabic reply.
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