"You are quite sure you will not miss me, grandpapa--quite sure you can
do without me?" she affectionately pleaded.
"Yes, yes, I can do without you. I shall miss you, and shall be glad to
see you home again, but you have deserved your holiday, and Lady Latimer
might feel hurt if I refused to let you go."
Before leaving Woldshire, Bessie went to Norminster. The old house in
Minster Court was more delightful to her than ever. There was another
little boy in the nursery now, called Richard, after his grandfather.
Bessie had to seek Mrs. Laurence Fairfax at the Manor House, where Lady
Eden was celebrating the birthday of her eldest son. She was seated in
the garden conversing with a young Mrs. Tindal, amidst a group of
mothers besides, whose children were at play on the grass. Mr. Laurence
Fairfax was a man of philosophic benevolence, and when advances were
made to his wife (who had a sense and cleverness beyond anything that
could have been expected in anything so bewilderingly pretty) by ladies
of the rank to which he had raised her, he met them with courtesy, and
she had now two friends in Lady Eden and Mrs. Tindal, whose society she
especially enjoyed, because they all had babies and nearly of an age.
Bessie told her grandfather where and in what company she had found her
little cousins and their mother. The squire was silent, but he was not
affronted. No results, however, came of her information, and she left
Abbotsmead the next morning without any further reference to the family
in Minster Court.
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