Cecil Burleigh, when her mother was probably mending the
boys' socks, and longing for an hour or two of her company at
Beechhurst, and Harry Musgrave was looking in every afternoon at the
doctor's to see if, by good luck, she had gone over. Bessie was made
aware of this last circumstance, and she reckoned it up with a daily
accumulating sense of injury against my lady and her client. Mr. Cecil
Burleigh found out before long that he was losing rather than gaining in
her esteem. Miss Fairfax became not only stiff and cold, but perverse,
and Lady Latimer began to feel that it was foolishly done to bring her
to Fairfield. She had been put in the way of the very danger that was to
be averted. Mr. Harry Musgrave showed to no disadvantage in any company;
Miss Fairfax had not the classic taste; Lady Angleby's tactics were a
signal failure; her nephew it was who suffered diminution in the ordeal
she had prescribed for his rival; and the sooner, therefore, that Miss
Fairfax, "a most determined young lady," was sent back to Woldshire, the
better for the family plans.
"I shall not invite Elizabeth Fairfax to prolong her visit," Lady
Latimer said to Mr. Cecil Burleigh, who in his own mind was sorry she
had made it. "I am afraid that her temper is masterful." My lady was
resolved to think that Bessie was behaving very ill, not reflecting that
a young lady pursued by a lover whom she does not love is allowed to
behave worse than under ordinary circumstances.
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