"I did good unconsciously, and blush to find it
fame," said she.
A fear that her brother's success with Miss Fairfax might be doubtful,
though his election was sure, flashed at that instant into Miss
Burleigh's mind. Bessie's manner was not less charming, but it was much
more intrepid, and at intervals there was a strain of fun in it--of
mischief and mockery. Was it the subacid flavor of girlish caprice,
which might very well subsist in combination with her sweetness, or was
it sheer insensibility? Time would show, but Miss Burleigh retained a
lurking sense of uneasiness akin to that she had experienced when she
detected in Miss Fairfax, at their first meeting, an inclination to
laugh at her aunt--an uneasiness difficult to conceal and dangerous to
confess. Not for the world would she, at this stage of the affair, have
revealed her anxiety to her brother, who held the even tenor of his
way, whatever he felt--never obtrusive and never negligent. He treated
Bessie like the girl of sense she was, with courtesy, but without
compliments or any idle banter; and Bessie certainly began to enjoy his
society. He improved on acquaintance, and made the hours pass much more
pleasantly at Brentwood when he was there than they passed in his
absence. This was promising. The evening's dinner-party would have been
undeniably heavy without the leaven of his wit, for Mr. Logger, that
well-known political writer, had arrived from London in the course of
the afternoon, and Lady Angleby and he discoursed with so much solemn
allusion and innuendo on the affairs of the nation that it was like
listening surreptitiously at a cabinet council.
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