Cecil Burleigh began to agree with him. Miss Burleigh did the same.
It was settled already that the recent disclosure must make no
alteration in the family compact. Mr. Cecil Burleigh interposed a firm
veto when its repeal was hinted at. Every afternoon, one excepted, he
called on Miss Fairfax to report the progress of his canvass,
accompanied by his sister, and Bessie always expressed herself glad in
his promising success. But it was with a cool cheek and candor shining
clear in her blue eyes that she saw them come and saw them go; and both
brother and sister felt this discouraging. The one fault they found in
Miss Fairfax was an absence of enthusiasm for themselves; and Bessie was
so thankful that she had overcome her perverse trick of blushing at
nothing. When she took her final leave of them before quitting Minster
Court, Mr. Cecil Burleigh said that he should probably be over at
Abbotsmead in the course of the ensuing week, and Bessie was glad as
usual, and smiled cordially, and hoped that blue would win--as if he
were thinking only of the election!
He was thinking of it, and perhaps primarily, but his interest in
herself was becoming so much warmer and more personal than it had
promised to be that it would have given him distinct pleasure to
perceive that she was conscious of it.
The report of Mr. Laurence Fairfax's private marriage had spread through
city and country, but Bessie went back to Kirkham without having heard
it discussed except by Mrs.
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