"You
know we love you; mind you keep your word. It is time I was going back
to Fairfield, the evening is closing in."
The door opened and Mrs. Musgrave entered. "Well, children, are you
ready?" she inquired cheerfully. "We are all thinking you have had quite
time enough to tell your secrets, and the doctor has been wanting to
leave for ever so long."
"Bessie has been administering a lecture, mother, and giving me some
serious advice; she would send me to the antipodes," said her son.
Bessie made a gentle show of denial, and they came forward from the
window.
"Never mind him, dear, that is his teasing way: I know how much to
believe of his nonsense," said Mrs. Musgrave. "But," she added more
gravely, turning to Harry, "if Bessie agrees with your mother that there
is no sense in destroying your health by poring over dusty law in London
when there are wholesome light ways of living to be turned to in sweet
country air, Bessie is wise. I wish anybody could persuade him to tell
what is his objection to the Church. Or he might go and be a tutor in
some high family, as Lady Latimer suggested. He is well fitted for it."
"Did Lady Latimer suggest that, mother?" Harry asked with sharp
annoyance in his voice and look.
"She did, Harry; and don't let that vex you as if it was a coming-down.
For she said that many such tutors, when they took orders, got good
promotion, and more than one had been made a bishop.
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