Bessie went to Castlemount under escort of Mrs. Betts. Mrs. Chiverton
was rejoiced to welcome her. "I like Miss Fairfax, because she is
honest. Her manner is a little brusque, but she has a good heart, and we
knew each other at school," was her reason given to Mr. Chiverton for
desiring Bessie's company. They got on together capitally. Mrs.
Chiverton had found her course and object in life already, and was as
deeply committed to philanthropic labors and letters as either Lady
Latimer or Lady Angleby. They were both numbered amongst her
correspondents, and she promised to outvie them in originality and
fertility of resource. What she chiefly wanted at Castlemount was a good
listener, and Bessie Fairfax, as yet unprovided with a vocation, showed
a fine turn that way. She reposed lazily at the end of Mrs. Chiverton's
encumbered writing-table, between the fire and the window, and heard her
discourse with infinite patience. Bessie was too moderate ever to join
the sisterhood of active reformers, but she had no objection to their
activity while herself safe from assaults. But when she was invited to
sign papers pledging herself to divers serious convictions she demurred.
Mrs. Chiverton said she would not urge her. Bessie gracefully
acquiesced, and Mrs. Chiverton put in a more enticing plea: "I can
scarcely expect to interest you in my occupations all at once, but they
bring to me often the most gratifying returns.
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