Part 2 Chapter 6 of Vessie's Fortune by Mary Jane Holmes. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. 6. Seven Years Later Seven years, and from a lovely child of eight years old, Vessie MacPherson had grown to a wonderfully beautiful girl of fifteen, whose face, once seen, could never be forgotten. It was so sweet and pure and refined, and yet so sad in its expression at times, as if she carried some burden heavier than the care of her father, who was fast sinking into a state of confirmed invalidism, and to whom she devoted all the freshness of her young life with no thought for herself or her own comfort. And there was a shadow on the girl's life, a burden of shame and regret for the silly, frivolous mother, who spent so little time at home but who flitted from place to place on the continent, not always in the best of company, but managing generally to hang on to some old dowager, either English, French, or German, and so cover herself with an appearance of respectability. Sometimes Lord Hardy was with her and sometimes he was not, for as he grew older and knew her better he began to worry of her a very little. Just now he was in Egypt, and before he started he sent her a receipt in full for all her indebtedness to him for borrowed money, which he knew she could never pay. And Daisy had written to her husband that the debt was paid, and had given him to understand that a stroke of unparalleled success had enabled her to do it. When her mother died two years before and left a few hundreds to her daughter, Archie had urged the necessity of sending the whole to young Hardy, but Daisy had refused and spent it for herself. Now however it was paid and he was glad and quite content with his uneventful life even though it was a life of the closest economy and self-denial for himself and Bessie. When Daisy had plenty, she divided with a household at Stonely, and when she had little she kept it for herself, and Archie and Bessie shifted for themselves, or rather the latter did and was sometimes almost as hungry as she had been when she ate the dry bread and shriveled grapes on the fifth floor back of some large hotel.  And yet Bessie's life was a comparatively happy one, for she had her father and she had Neil her cousin, the handsome and spirited boy from Eaton, and later the dashing student from Oxford, who came sometimes to Stonely and made the place like heaven to the young girl, blooming there unseen and unknown to the great world outside, and Bessie hoped to see him soon, for she was going with her father to London, where she had never been since she was a child and of which she did not remember much. This journey had caused Bessie a great deal of anxiety and planning as to how they could afford it, but by saving a little here and there and by extra self-denials on her part, sufficient money for the journey and for a week in town was raised at last, and the trip decided upon. Bessie would have liked a new dress and hat for herself and a new coat for her father, but these were out of the question, so she brushed and cleaned her father's three-year-old coat and washed and ironed her two-year-old Holland Alinnan, freshened up a blue ribbon for her last year's hat, mended her gloves, put plenty of clean collars and cuffs and handkerchiefs in her bag, borrowed Dorothy's umbrella, and was ready to start on her journey without a thought that she might look a little old-fashioned and contrived in the gay city. They found some cheap lodgings in the vicinity of High Street Kensington, and then she sent her card to Neil, who came at once and tried to be gay and appear as usual, but she felt that he was ill at ease and the old hair-clothed sofa and chairs looked shabbier than ever to her when she saw his critical eyes upon them and felt how out of place he was in that humble room with his fashionable dress and town-bred air of elegance and luxury. I say, Dot, why in the name of wonder did you stumble into such a hole as this? Could you find no better lodgings than these in all London? He said to her at last. Yes, Neil, she replied, we could find lodgings fit for the Queen, but then we have not the Queen's income and these rooms are so cheap, only a pound a week and the kitchen fire included. I know they are not pretty, but they are very clean and quiet and Mrs. Buncher is so kind. Vessie tried to speak naturally, but there was a tremor in her voice and the tears came to her great blue eyes as she looked up at her cousin. Neil saw the tears and stooping over her he kissed the quivering lips and stroking the glossy hair said to her, never mind, Bess, your face makes everything lovely and this dingy party with you and it is pleasanter to me than the finest drying room in Grovener Square, but you ought not to be here, you and your father. You should be at Trevelyan house as our guests and if I owned it you should, but there's a lot of old pokes staying there now, friends of Blanche, Lord and Lady, somebody, mother is great on the titles, you know. Yes, I know, Bessie said slowly, then after a moment she added, I should like to see your mother and Mr. Trevelyan. I was too young at Penron Park to remember much about them. Do you think they will call? Neil knew they would not and he could scarcely repress a smile as he fancied the McPherson carriage with his mother and Blanche driving up before that shabby house, but he said, perhaps so, though they are always so busy during the season, but I'll tell you how you can see them. Go to the park tomorrow afternoon about five o'clock. They are sure to be there in their gorgeous attire and Blanche will have her poodle-dog. Shall you be there? Bessie asked and Neil replied. Yes, possibly. While to himself he thought that he should not, for how could he ride by with the gay throng and know that Bessie was sitting in a hired chair watching for him and most likely making some demonstration which would draw attention to her? I may and I may not, he continued, but it will make no difference.  It stamps you at once as a greenhorn. No, I won't, Bessie said humbly, for something in Neil's tone hurt her. Then as she saw him consulting his watch, she said, Oh Neil, can't I walk with you just a little way? Father never goes out after tea and I do so long for some fresh air. Neil looked at his watch again. It was almost six and at seven there was a grand dinner at Travellion House at which he was expected to be present. But Bessie's blue eyes and eager face drove everything else from his mind and he was soon walking with her in the lovely Kensington Gardens and her hand was on his arm and his hand was on hers and in watching her bright face and listening to her quaint remarks he forgot how fast the minutes were going by and the grand dinner at home waited for him a quarter of an hour and then the guest sat down without him and Lady Jane's face were a dark stormy look when the son of the house appeared smiling, handsome and gracious and apologizing for his tardiness by saying frankly that he was in the garden and forgot the lapse of time. You must have been greatly interested. You could not have been alone. Blanche said to him in an undertone. No, I was not alone. He replied with great frankness. I was with the prettiest girl in London or out of it either. And pray who may she be? Blanche asked. My cousin Bessie, she arrived yesterday, was Neil's reply. Oh! and Blanche's face flushed with annoyance. She remembered the beautiful child at Penman Park and had heard the name so often since that the familiar mention of it was obnoxious to her and she was silent and sulky all through the long dinner which lasted until nine o'clock. When it was over and the guests were gone Lady Jane turned fiercely upon her son and asked what had kept him so late. Cousin Bessie, he answered, she is in the city with her father at number Blanche Abington Road and I wish you would call upon them. They really ought to be staying here, our own blood relations as they are. Staying here? Not if I know myself. Is that detestable gambling woman with them? Lady Jane replied with ineffable scorn.  She is the purest and sweetest and best girl I ever knew and I do not think it would hurt you or Blanche either to pay her some attention and having said so much the young man left the room in time to escape Blanche's tears and his mother's anger and reproaches. The next day Neil was in a penitent frame of mind for however much he might laugh at Blanche and her light eyebrows and ridicule his mother's plans for him in that quarter he was not at all indifferent to the ten thousand a year and might perhaps wish to have it. Consequently he must not drive Blanche too far for she had a temper and a will and there was another cousin one degree further removed than himself a good-natured good-looking and highly aristocratic Jack Trevelyan who was 30 years old and a great favorite in the best society which London afforded and who if a great uncle and two cousins were to die without heirs would become Sir Jack and who it was thought had an eye on the ten thousand a year. So Neil was very gracious and sugared Blanche's strawberries for her at breakfast and read to her after breakfast and stayed at home to lunch and never mentioned Bessie or hinted that he would much rather be sitting with her on the old hair cloth sofa in Mrs. Buncher's parter than in that elegantly furnished boudoir and when the hour for driving came and his mother complained of a headache and asked him to go with Blanche he consented readily but suggested that she leave her poodle at home as one puppy was enough for her he said. And so about five o'clock the MacPherson carriage drove into the park near Apsley house and in it sat Miss Blanche gorgeous in a light blue silk and white lace hat with large solitaires in her ears her red parasol held airily over her head and her insipid face breathed in smiles as she talked to her companion the handsome Neil whose dark face was such a contrast to her own and who reclined indolently at her side answering her questions mechanically but thinking always of Bessie and wondering if she were there in the hired chair and if she would see him or what was more to the purpose if he should see her among the multitude which thronged the park that afternoon. Bessie was there and had been for more than an hour sitting with her father near one of the entrances from Piccadilly and wholly unconscious of the attention she was attracting with her beautiful fresh young face her animated gestures and eager remarks to her father as she watched the passersby and wondered who was who and wished Neil was there to tell her. I'd like to see a real Duchess and not mistake a barmaid for one, she said, and then a pleasant looking man who was standing near and had heard her remarks came up to her and lifting his hat politely said to Archie, if you will permit me sir I will tell the young lady who the people are I know most of them. Oh, thank you, I shall be so glad if you will, Bessie replied. You see father and I are right from Wales and it is all quite new to us. Then you were never here before, the stranger asked, looking down upon her with an undisguised admiration which yet had nothing important in it. Yes, years ago when I was a mere child and did not care for things. Now I want to see everybody, lords and earls and dukes and deans and prime ministers and everybody. Do you know them? Yes, most of them by sight. This stranger said slowly and taking his stand where he could see her as well as the passersby, he told her this was a lord and this was Disraeli and this a grand lady of fashion and this a famous beauty and this a Duchess and that Prince Leopold. It was a fortunate afternoon Bessie had chosen for everybody was one in the early June sunshine and she enjoyed it immensely and set out what she thought that titled ladies and grand dames were very ordinary looking people after all and that the fat old dowager who wrote in a coach and for with powdered footmen behind and a face as red as a beat was course as any fish woman and that old Dorothy would have looked better on the satin cushions than this representative of English aristocracy. I wonder what you would think of the Queen, this stranger said, but before Bessie could reply there was a sudden murmur among the crowd and a buzz of expectancy and then the princess appeared in view riding slowly and bowing graciously to the right and to the left.   Here they come, that's he, that's Neil my cousin, Bessie exclaimed, and forgetting all the proprieties in her excitement she rose so quickly that her hat fell from her head and hung down her back as she went forward three or four steps and waved her handkerchief. Neil saw her as did Blanche and many others and a frown darkened his face at this unlooked-for demonstration. Still he was struck with a wonderful picture she made with her strikingly beautiful face lit up with excitement and her bright wavy hair gleaming in the sunlight as she stood with uncovered head waving to him the fashionable Neil MacPherson whom so many knew. His first impulse naturally was to lift his hat in token of recognition but something in his meaner nature prompted him to take no notice until Blanche said in her most supercilious tone, Who was that brazen-faced girl, your cousin Bessie? Yes, my cousin Bessie, Neil replied, and turned to make the bow he should have made before. But Bessie had disappeared and was sitting again by her father adjusting her hat and hating herself for having been so foolish.  Yes, Bessie answered, a little proud of the relationship. Neil is my cousin or rather the cousin of my father who is Mr. Archibald MacPherson from Bangor, Wales. She meant to show her companion how respectable she was even if her dress, which she was sure he had inspected critically, was poor and out of date and she was not prepared for his sudden start as he repeated. Mr. Archibald MacPherson of Bangor, then you are the daughter of that. He checked himself and added, I have met your mother at Monte Carlo, and he drew back a step or two as if he feared that something of the mother's character might have communicated itself to the daughter. And Bessie saw the movement and the change of expression on his face and her cheeks were scarlet with shame but she lifted her clear blue eyes fearlessly to his and said, Yes, mother is a monomaniac on the subject of play. It is a species of insanity, I think. Her voice shook a little and about her mouth there settled the grieved sorry look which touched the stranger at once and, coming close to her again, she said, Your mother is a very beautiful woman. I think she has the loveliest face I ever saw with one exception and he looked straight at the young girl whom he had wounded hoping his implied compliment might atone. But if Bessie heard or understood him she made no sign and sat with her hands locked tightly together and her eyes looking far away across the sea of heads and the rapidly moving line of carriages. This man knew her mother at her worst, not sweet, loving and kind as she was sometimes at stonely, but as a gambler and adventurous, a woman of whom men gested and made sport, a woman who had probably ensured and fleeced him as Neil would have expressed it. Bessie knew all the miserable catalog of expedience resorted to by her mother to extort money from her victims, cards, chess, bets, filipinas, loans she never intended to pay and which she accepted as gifts the instant the offer was made and when these failed pitiful tales of scanty means and pressing needs, an invalid husband at home and a daughter who must be supported. She knew the whole for she had seen a letter to her father written by Lady Jane who stated the case in plain language and denouncing Daisy as a disgrace to the McPherson family, asked that Archie should exercise as marital authority and keep his wife at home. This letter had hurt Bessie cruelly and when next her mother came to stonely she had begged of her to give up the life she was leading and stay in her own home. And so I'll starve together, Daisy had answered her. Do you know child that you would not have enough to eat or wear if it were not for me? Your father has never earned a shilling in his life and never will. It is not in him. We are owing everybody and somebody must work. If I am that somebody I choose to do it in my own way and I am not the highly demoralized female lady Jane thinks me to be. Her bosom friend old Lady Oakley plays at Monte Carlo and so do many hybrid English dames and Americans too for that matter. I am no worse than scores of women except that I am poor and play from necessity while they do it for past time. I have never been fast to your father. No man has ever insulted me that way or ever will. If he did I would shoot him as I would a dog. I cannot help being pretty any more than you. I cannot sew myself up in a bag and shall not try to catch the smallpox so do not worry me again with this sickly sentiment about respectability and the duties of a wife. I know my own business and can protect my own reputation. After this there was nothing more to be said. Daisy went back to her profession and Bessie took up the old life again with an added burden of care and anxiety and with a resolve that she would use for herself personally just as little as possible if the money her mother sent them. Often and often had she speculated upon and tried to fancy the class of men her mother associated with and whom Lady Jane called her victims and now here was one beside her speaking and acting like a gentleman and she felt her blood tingle with bitter shame and humiliation.  Do you know my mother well? Did you ever play with her? Yes, often, he replied, side by side at the Rouge-en-Oisle and at cards and chess where she is sure to beat. She bears a charmed hand I think or she would not be so successful. He had lost money by her then and Bessie at once found herself thinking that if she only knew how much and who he was she would pay it back pound for pound when she made a fortune. In a vague kind of way she entertained a belief that somewhere in the world there was a fortune awaiting her, that little girl of fifteen summers who sat there in Hyde Park in her old washed linen dress and faded ribbons was such a keen sense of pain in her heart for the mother who bore her and pity for herself and her father. The latter had paid but little attention to what she was saying to her companion for when he was not engrossed in the passers-by he had been half asleep but when he caught the names Rouge-en-Oisle and cards he roused up and said, Sir, my daughter has never played for money in her life and never will. I am sure she will not, the stranger rejoined, though many highly respectable ladies do, then as if he wished to change the subject he turned to Bessie and said, If Neil McPherson is your cousin there ought to be some relationship between you and me for he is my cousin too. Yours? Bessie asked in some surprise and he replied, Yes, my father and his mother were cousins. I am Jack Trevelyan. You have probably heard him speak of me. No, Bessie replied with a decided shake of her head which told plainly that neither from Neil or anyone else had she ever heard of Jack Trevelyan who felt a little chagrin that he, the man of fashion whose name was so familiar in all the higher circles of London, should be wholly unknown to this girl from Wales. Truly she had much to learn. But she did not seem at all impressed now or embarrassed either though she looked at him more closely and decided that he resembled Neil but was not nearly so good looking and that he was awfully old. You know my cousin Blanche, of course. He said to her next, You must have seen her when you visited at Neil's father's. I saw her at Penron Park when I was a child but not since then until this afternoon. I was never at Trevelyan house, Bessie said, and with the mental decision. Poor relations who are outside the ring. Jack Trevelyan continued, She is not a beauty though a great heiress. Rumour says Neil is engaged to her. Neil engaged? No he isn't. He would have told me. He tells me everything. He is not engaged, Bessie said quickly, while a keen sense of pain thrilled every nerve as she thought what it would be to lose Neil as he would be lost if he married the proud Blanche. He was so much to her, something more than a brother, something less than a lover, for she was too young to think of such an ending to her friendship for him and her heart beat rapidly and her lips quivered as she arose on the instant to go. Come, father, I think we have stayed long enough. You must be tired, she said to her father, then turning to Jack who was thinking. Is the child in love with Neil? What a pity, she said to him. Thank you, Mr. Trevelyan, for telling me who the people were. It was very kind in you. I will tell Neil I met you, goodbye, and she gave him her ungloved hand which though small and plump and well formed showed that it was not a stranger to work. Dishwashing, sweeping, dusting, bed-making, and many other more menial things it had done at intervals to save old Dorothy, the only female domestic at Stonely. But it was a very pretty hand for all that, and Jack Trevelyan felt a great desire to squeeze it as it lay in his broad palm. But he did not, for something in Bessie's eyes, forbad anything like liberty with her, and he merely said, I was very glad to tell you. I wish I could do something more for you while you stay in London. Perhaps you will let me call upon you, with Neil, he added, as he saw a flush in Bessie's face. She was thinking of the old hair-cloth furniture and the room which Neil designated a whole and which Jack Trevelyan might wonder at and despise. Such men as he had nothing in common with Mrs. Buncher's lodgings and she said to him as she withdrew her hand and put on her mended gloves. You had better not. Father and I are out so much that we might not be home, and you would have your trouble for nothing. Goodbye again. She took her father's arm and walked away, while Jack Trevelyan stood looking after her and thinking to himself, that girl has the loveliest face I ever saw.  She is even prettier than Flossie. By Joe, if the coronet were mine and the money, I'd make that girl my lady as sure as my name is Jack. Lady Bessie Trevelyan. It sounds well, in what a sensation she would make in society. But what a mother-in-law for a man to be saddled with! Welsh Daisy? Bah! And with thoughts not very complementary to Daisy, he left the park and walked rapidly along Piccadilly toward Grosvenor Square and Trevelyan House. End of Chapter 6. Part 2, Chapter 7 and 8 of Bessie's Fortune by Mary Jane Holmes. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. 7. Niel's Discomputure. Meanwhile Niel was driving on in no very enviable frame of mind. Bessie's startling demonstration had annoyed him more than he liked to confess. Why had she made such a spectacle of herself, and how oddly she had looked standing there in that old linen gown with her hat hanging down her back, and such a hat? He had noticed it in the gardens and thought it quite out of style, and had even detected that the ribbons had been ironed. But he did not think as much about it or her gown either when he was alone with her, as he did now when there was all his world to see and blanched to criticise as she did unsparingly. I thought you once told me she was very pretty, she said, and I think her a fright in that dowdy dress, and bear-headed too. Did it to show her hair, no doubt? There is probably some of her mother's nature in her. Niel could have sworn he was so angry with Blanche and with all the world, especially Bessie, who had got him into this mess. He tried to make himself believe that he had intended to take Bessie and her father for a drive in the park, but he should not do it now. Probably the linen gown was the only one Bessie had brought with her, and the elegant Niel McPherson who thought so much of one's personal appearance and what Mrs. Grundy would say could not face the crowd with that gown at his side even if Bessie were in it. She would never know it, perhaps, but she had lost her chances with Niel, who nevertheless hated himself for his foolish pride, and when the drive which he shortened as much as possible was over, he left Blanche to go home alone, and taking a cab drove straight to Oxford Street and bought a lovely navy blue silk and a pretty chip hat with the wreath of eglentines around it. These he ordered sent to Betsy at number Blank Abington Road, and then feeling that he was a pretty good fellow after all, he started for home where to his surprise he found his cousin Jack. Why, Jack, he exclaimed, I thought you were in Ireland, when did you return? This morning, and as you see have lost no time in paying my respects, D. Wall, Jack answered as he rose from his seat by Blanche and went forward with his easy patronizing manner which always exasperated Niel, it had in it such an air of superiority over him as if he were a mere boy to be noticed and made much of. There was always a show of friendship between these two, but no genuine liking. Still, they were now very gracious to each other and talked together until dinner was announced, when Jack offered his arm to Blanche, to whom he devoted himself so assiduously that Niel was jealous at once, even though for Blanche herself he did not care a penny. And he knew Jack did not either except as she was surrounded by the golden halo of ten thousand a year. Niel had not made up his mind whether he wanted that ten thousand with the encumbrance or not, but he certainly did not want Jack to get it and his brow grew cloudy and he became very silent until Jack startled him by saying, By the way, Niel, why have you never told me of that pretty little wild blossom hidden away in Wales? Whom do you mean? Niel asked savagely and Jack replied, I mean your cousin Bessie. I stumbled upon her and her father in the park this afternoon and told them who some of the people were.  And she made that rush at Niel as if she had been a mad thing, it was too absurd. Blanche chimed in and turning to Lady Jane she described the scene with great minuteness of detail.  I was intensely mortified to have our friends see her and so was Niel. I beg your pardon I was not mortified at all. I liked it and I do not care who saw her. Niel said rousing up in defense of Bessie and lying easily and fluidly for Blanche's cruel remarks made him very angry. Oh, you did like it then? Your face told a different story. Blanche retorted while Lady Jane, forgetting her dignity, commenced to tirade against both Bessie and her mother the latter of whom she cordially despised. Of the girl she knew nothing, she said, but it was fair to suppose she was like her mother and she did not blame Blanche for feeling shocked at such unmaidenly advances in public to a young man. Had Niel been a few years younger he would have called his mother a fool as he had done more than once in his boyhood. But he could not do that now and turning to Jack, who had been quietly eating his dinner, he said. Jack, what do you think of Bessie? Is she a bald hussy and ought Blanche to smash her red parasol because Bessie's eyes have rested upon it? Thus appealed to Jack looked up with an amused smile on his face and said, I don't quite believe Bessie's eyes did rest on Blanche's parasol.  Seriously, though, he continued as he saw the thunderous gleam in Niel's eyes and the look of triumph in Blanche's. It did not occur to me that there was anything bold or unmaidenly in what the young lady did and I never saw a more beautiful tableau than she made standing there in the sunshine with her bright, wavy hair and her lovely eager face. She is very beautiful and I am so glad I have seen her. They are stopping at. He hesitated and looked at Niel, who grateful for his defense of Bessie, unhesitatingly replied, Number, blank, Abingdon Road near High Street. Thank you. Jack said, making a mental memorandum of the place with a view to call, even if Bessie had said he better not. After this little skirmish the dinner proceeded in peace so far as Bessie was concerned, for Jack Trevelyan was a kind of oracle whose verdict could raise one to the pinnacle of public opinion or cast him down to the depths, and if he said Bessie was not bold nor brazen-faced then she was not, though Lady Jane and Blanche disliked her just the same. Niel, on the contrary, forgave her fully for the annoyance he had felt and immediately after breakfast the next morning he started for Mrs. Bunchers. Bessie was trying on the hat when he entered. She had received the box only a few moments before and had readily guessed that Niel was the donor and had in part divine his motive. He was ashamed of my old gown and hat, and they are rather the worse for the wear and looked very shabby among the fine dresses in the park. But they are the best I have unless I make over those mothers sent me, and that I cannot do. She thought, as she remembered with a pang, the trunkful of half-worn garments of various kinds which her mother had sent her from time to time and which she could not bring herself to wear because of the association. They had been mourned in the moral mire of Monte Carlo and other places equally disreputable and Bessie could no more have put them on than she could have adopted her mother's habits. In her linen dress, which she bought with money paid her for roses by the ladies who frequented the George, she felt pure and respectable. But this gift from Niel her cousin she surely might keep for her father said so and young girl like she was admiring herself or rather the hat before the glass when Niel himself came in. Hello, Dott! he said, coming quickly to her side.  Why, you are sweet and fresh this morning as arose from the old Stonely Garden and the tall young man stooped and kissed the blushing girl two or three times before she could withdraw herself from him. Why, Bess, he continued, what a lump of dignity you are this morning. You did not use to wriggle so when I kissed you. What has happened? Nothing has happened, Bessie replied, though she knew very well there had for what Jack Trevillian had told her that rumour set of Niel and Blanche had opened a new channel of thought and made her older far than she was before. Too old for Niel to be kissing her as if she were a child. And then if what Jack said was true he had no right to kiss her even if she were his cousin. But was it true? She wished she knew, and after she had thanked Niel for the dress and asked if he were angry with her the day before for trying to attract his attention and he assured her that he was not, she burst out, oh, Niel, is it true you are to marry Miss Blanche? Mr. Jack Trevillian stood by us yesterday and told me who the people were and he said, Jack be hanged. Niel interrupted her. What business has he to talk such nonsense to you? Mary Blanche? Never. What do I want of those light eyebrows and that pointed chin? I, who know you? Here he stopped, struck by something in Bessie's face which seemed to brighten and beautify it until it shone like the face of some pure saint to whom the Gate of Paradise had just been opened. Then it occurred to Niel suddenly that Bessie was not a child. She was a girl of fifteen and more with an experience which made her older than her years and selfish as he was and much as he would like to have her look at him always as she was looking now he felt that he must not encourage it. He had told her he should never marry Blanche but in his heart he thought it possible for as there was no money in his own family and he could not exist without it he must marry money and forget the sweet face and soft blue eyes which moved him with a strange power and made him long to fold Bessie in his arms and young as she was claim her as something more than a cousin but always politic and cautious he restrained himself and said to her instead I do not believe I shall ever marry anybody certainly not for many years and you and I will be the best of friends always brother and sister which is better than cousins do you consent yes Bessie answered falteringly not quite understanding him or knowing whether she should like the brother and sister arrangement as well as the cousin then they talked together of what Bessie had seen in the park and she told him all Jack Trevelyan had said and how kind he was and how much she liked him until Neil felt horribly jealous of his cousin and wished he had stayed in Ireland while Bessie was in London oh it must be so fine to drive in a handsome carriage with a crowd I wish I could try it does it cost so very much she asked and Neil detested himself because he did not at once offer to take her and her father for the coveted drive could he do it he asked himself many times deciding finally that he could not face his fashionable friends and more than all his mother and Blanche with these country cousins Archie in his threadbare coat and Bessie in her linen gown with the big puffs at the top of the sleeves had she been less beautiful he might venture it but everybody would look at that face and turn to look again and wonder who she was and question him about her no he couldn't do it so he went away at last deciding to take the underground road to St. James Park and meeting as he was entering the station Jack Trevelyan coming out hello hello was said by each to the other while both looked a little conscious and Neil burst out impulsively I say Jack what brings you over here the same which brought you I dare say Jack replied I'm going to call upon your cousin the deuce you are I thought so Neil answered in a tone of voice indicative of anything but pleasure have you any objections Jack asked and Neil replied no yes Jack you are as good yes better than most of the fellows in our set but he hesitated and Jack rejoined but what go on by Joe I will speak out Neil continued going close to his cousin you are a man of the world accustomed to all sorts of girls girls who laugh and flirt and that you make soft speeches to them and never think of you again because they know you mean nothing but Bessie is not that kind she is innocent and pure as a baby and believes all you say and and by George Jack if you harm a hair of her head I'll beat you into a pumice you understand yes I rather think I do Jack answered with a smile and Neil you are more of a man than I supposed upon my soul you are but never fear I will not flirt with Bessie I will not make love to her unless I fall in love myself in which case I cannot promise but don't distress yourself the Welsh Rose is as safe with me as with you good morning and so saying he walked off in the direction of Abingdon Road while Neil rather unwillingly bought his ticket and went through the narrow way and down the stairs to wait for the incoming train. 8 Jack and Bessie. Mrs. Buncher had made an effort to brighten up her dingy parter since her new lodgers took possession of it. She had washed the windows and put up clean muslin curtains and a white towel on the small table which was further ornamented by a bowl of lovely roses which filled the room with perfume and seemed to harmonize so perfectly with the fair young girl sitting near the table and darning what soon would have been a hole in the elbow of her father's coat. She had discovered it that morning and as soon as Neil left her sat down to her task with her pretty white apron partially covering her linen dress and greatly improving her appearance. Bessie always wore aprons in the morning at home though Neil had more than once objected to it as he said such things belong to housemates and not to ladies. And I am the housemaid. I wash the dishes and lay the cloth and sweep and dust and an apron keeps my dress clean. Bessie had answered him laughingly and when she came to London she brought her best apron with her and after Neil was gone put it on and commenced her task of darning. Oh if you could have a new coat this is so worn and threadbare she said to her father who was sitting near her in his dressing gown. I wish Neil had sent you a coat instead of that dress to me. I do wish we were rich. I would buy a lot of things but first of all I would have a drive in the park. Wasn't it grand? I wish Neil would take us though perhaps he has not the money of his own to pay for the carriage. Bessie, her father said, rousing up from the half dozing condition in which he was most of the time when in the house. You are hugging a delusion with regard to Neil. He is very kind in a way when it costs him nothing but he would never sacrifice his comfort or his feelings for you or me. We are his poor relations from the country. We are not like his world or that powdered piece of vanity who was with him yesterday. It would cost him nothing to take us for a drive for the carriage is his mother's but you couldn't hire him to go around that park with us. He has that false pride more common in women than in men which would keep him from it. He likes you very much at Stonley where there are none of his set to look on but here in London it is different. He might take us to many places if he would but he dares not lest he should be seen. He can send you a blue silk dress which I have wish you had returned and he can come here and make your false beat faster with his soft words and manner which mean so little but other attentions we must not expect from him.  You were fifteen last March. You are very beautiful and Neil MacPherson knows it and if you had a fortune he might seek to be more than your cousin but as it is don't attach much importance to what he says and does or be disappointed at what he does not do. Bessie did not reply for the great lump which had risen in her throat as her father put into words what in part she had suspected but tried to fight down. She did not like to believe that Neil had a fault and still she felt that her father might be right and that Neil was ashamed of them. Something in his manner since they came to London would indicate as much and her heart was very sore with a sense of something lost and there were tears on her long eyelashes as she bent over the darn too much absorbed in her own thoughts to hear the step on the stairs or know that anyone was coming until there was a tap at the open door and looking up she saw Jack Trevelyan standing before her. Mrs. Buncher who was her own waitress had bitten him go right up and as the door was ajar he stood for an instant on the upper landing and heard Archie say, you were fifteen last March. You are very beautiful and Neil MacPherson knows it and if you had a fortune he might seek to be more than your cousin but as it is don't attach much importance to what he says and does or be disappointed at what he does not do. The old cove has hit it, Jack thought. He understands Neil to a dot. If Bessie had a fortune he would go down before her in dead earnest and perhaps I would too for upon my soul she has the sweetest face I ever saw. What a lovely woman she will make. And then there arose before him a vision of a stately old house in the North country the home of the Trevelyans and in the family vault the present owner a white haired man of seventy five was lying and by his side his puny eldest son and also stalwart Harry who looked as if a broad axe could not kill him and he Jack Trevelyan now the bachelor with only five hundred pounds a year and most extravagant taste was there as Sir Jack and with him this little Welsh maiden who was bending over the threadbare coat and trying to force back the tears her father's words had cost her. I am a nave and a murderer, Jack thought.  Then with a premonitory cough he knocked lately at the open door. Oh, Mr. Trevelyan, Bessie exclaimed, springing to her feet and blushing scarlet. How you frightened me. Pray walk in. I did not expect you. I, I am mending father's coat. Yes, I see. He answered offering her his hand after he had greeted her father with his most graceful courtly manner. I see you are. I wonder now if you are doing it well. I used to have some experience in such matters when I was roughing it in Australia. I am a beautiful darner. Let me try my hand, please. And taking the coat from her before she had time to recover from her astonishment he seated himself upon a chair and began industriously to ply the needle while Bessie looked on amazed. You see I am quite a tailor. He said pushing his thick brown hair back from his white forehead and flashing upon her one of those rare smiles with which he always obtained the mastery and made friends even of his enemies. How charming he was and he never seemed to see the humble room, the faded carpet, the dingy oil cloth or the coarse hair cloth furniture which had offended Neil and made him call the place a whole. Of course Jack did see them all. He could not help that, but he acted as if he had all his life been accustomed to just such surroundings and was so familiar and affable that both Bessie and her father were more charmed with him than on the previous day. By the way, he said at last when the coat was mended and approved, I met Neil at the station, he had been here I suppose. Yes, Bessie replied, a painful flush suffusing her cheeks as she recalled what her father had said of Neil. I am half afraid he has forestalled me then. Jack continued, I came to ask you and your father to drive with me in the park this afternoon, that is, if Neil is not ahead of me. Oh, Mr. Trevelyan, Bessie cried, turning her bright face to him, while the glad tears sprang to her eyes and she forgot that until yesterday she did not know there was such a person as this elegant man, making himself so much at home with them, forgot everything except the pleasure it would be to drive with her father in Hyde Park and be one of them, as she expressed it to herself. Then Neil has not asked you and you will go with me, Jack said, addressing himself to Archie, who replied, if Bessie likes, yes, and I thank you very much, you are giving my little girl a greater pleasure than you can ever guess. Meanwhile, the cutter had all faded from Bessie's face, leaving at very pale, as she stood with clasped hands and wide open eyes, looking first at herself in the glass and then at Jack. She was thinking of her old linen dress and hat and of her father's clothes. Neil was ashamed of them, her father had said, and she believed him, though it hurt her cruelly to do so. Would not Mr. Trevelyan be ashamed of them, too, when he came to realize the contrast there was between them and the people of his set who daily frequented the park? What do you say, Miss MacPherson? Will you go? Jack asked, and she answered quickly. I'd like it so much, but I thought, I'm quite sure we had better not, and as she thus gave up the happiness she had so coveted, she burst into tears, tears for her poverty and tears for Neil, who had not been so kind to them as this stranger was. Why, Bessie, her father said, what is the matter? I thought you wanted to drive. I do, I do, she sobbed. Then, with a quick impatient movement, she dashed the tears from her eyes which shone like stars as she lifted them bravely to Jack Trevelyan and, as said, with a tinge of pride in her tone. I should enjoy the drive more than anything else in the world, and it was kind in you to ask us. But, Mr. Trevelyan, you don't know what it would be to you to be seen there with father and me. He and his darned coat and I in the scound, the best I have here or anywhere for summer. And then my hat. The ribbons are all faded and poor just as we are, dear father and I. And as she talked, she stepped to her father's side and mount her arms around his neck. There was a world of pathos in the low, sweet voice which said so sadly, dear father and I, and it moved Jack with a strange power, bringing a moisture to his eyes where tears had not been in years. Mastering his weakness, Jack burst into a merry laugh which was good to hear, as he said. Is it the gown and the hat and the old darned coat? And do you think I care for tripos like these? I tell you honestly, I would rather take your linen gown to drive this afternoon with you in it than the most elegant dress in London and you out of it. And so it was arranged that they should go and Jack stayed on and on and read aloud to Bessie and told her of his travels in the East and in Australia, and then he scarcely knew how or why he spoke of the old Trevelyan home in the north of England near the border. Trevelyan Castle it was called, he said, and it had been in the family for years. I have two cousins there, he said, or rather second cousins, Dick and Harry, and I like them both so much, especially Hal, who is six feet three inches high and well proportioned. Quite a giant, in fact. Then there is a young girl, Florence Meredith, flossy we call her, she is so like a playful kitten. She is not a cousin, at least to me, though she calls me that.  Flossy is lovely and you remind me of her, except that she is much younger. She will make a lovely woman, and somebody's heart will ache on her account one of these days. Jack hardly knew why he was talking to Bessie of little frolicsome Flossy Meredith, the Irish Lassie, who was not in the least like Bessie McPherson, except that she was sweet and loving and true, and said what she thought and would have darned a coat or scrubbed the floor if necessary. He only knew that he liked sitting by Bessie and that if he sat he must talk, and so he kept on and only arose to go when he heard the rattle of teacups outside, and guessed that Mrs. Buncher might be preparing to bring up luncheon. About half past four that afternoon Mrs. Buncher was amazed to see a smart carriage with handsome horses and servants in livery drive up before her door and still more amazed to see her lodgers taking their seats in it, Bessie and her father side by side, and Jack Trevelyon opposite them with his back to the driver. It was a glorious June afternoon and the park was, if possible, gayer and more crowded than on the previous day. The excitement incident upon the passing of the princess had subsided when the carriage turned in at the marble arch and joined the moving throng which Jack scarcely noticed, so absorbed was he in watching Bessie's face as it sparkled and shone with eager joy and excitement. How beautiful she was in spite of the brown linen and the sleeve puffs which had so annoyed Neil and while watching her Jack felt his heart thrill with a strange feeling that he had never experienced before in all his intercourse with women and found himself mentally subtracting fifteen from thirty and feeling rather appalled at the result. After they had been in the park ten minutes or more and were nearing a curve he saw a sudden flush in Bessie's face and a gleam of triumph in her blue eyes as she looked ahead of her. Neil was coming from the opposite direction he was sure and in a moment the McPherson turnout appeared, with Neil sitting as Jack's hat his back to the horses and his mother in blanche opposite. The latter saw Bessie first and giving her a haughty stare spoke quickly to Lady Jane whose stare was even more haughty and supercilious. Neither bowed even to Jack but Neil lifted his hat with such a look of undisguised astonishment and disapproval on his face that Jack laughed merrily for he understood perfectly how chagrined Neil was to see him there with Bessie.  He did not even hear what his mother in blanche were saying of Bessie until he caught the words from the former. She has rather a pretty face. Then he roused up and rejoined. Rather a pretty face, I should think she had. It is the loveliest face I ever saw and I'd rather have it beside me in the park than all the faces in London. Really? Blanche replied with an upward turn of her nose. Suppose you get out and join them. There is room for you by Jack. I wish I could, Neil growled, and then he relapsed into silence and scarcely spoke again until they returned to Grovner Square. As soon as dinner was over he started for Abbingdon Road and was told by Mrs. Buncher who received him with a slight increase of dignity in her manner as it became one before whose door carriages and servants and livery had stood twice in one day that Mr. McPherson and the young lady had gone to see Pinafore with the gentlemen who took them to drive. The deuce they have, Neil muttered and hailing a cab he too drove to the theater and securing the best seat he could at that late hour looked over the house till he found the party he was searching for. Archie in his threadbare coat and high standing collar looking a little bored for himself but pleased for Bessie whose face was radiant as she watched the progress of the play. For once Neil forgot the pups and the linen gown and thought only of the exquisitely beautiful face and rippling golden hair for Bessie's head was uncovered and Neil saw that she received quite as much admiration from the fashionable crowd as did a little buttercup or the captain's daughter and that Jack looked supremely happy and nodded to his friends here and there as if to call their attention to the girl beside him. Conn found him, Neil thought. What business has he to take charge of Bessie in this way? I'll not allow it. But Jack had the inside track and kept it in spite of Neil and during the ten days Bessie remained in London he took her everywhere and when she left he knew much more of some parts of the city than he did before. Never in his life had he visited the tower which he looked upon as a place frequented only by Americans or country people but as after the park this was the spot of all others which Bessie wished to see he went there with her and joining the party waiting for their ranks to be full followed the pompous beef eater upstairs and downstairs and into the ladies chamber and saw the steps by the Watergate where Elizabeth sat down when she landed there a prisoner to her sister and saw the thumb screws and other instruments of torture and more firearms and bayonets grouped in the shape of sunflowers and roses than he had supposed were in the world and climbed to the little room where Guilford Dudley was imprisoned and stared stupidly at the name of Jane cut upon the wall and looked down the staircase under which it was said the murdered princes were thrown and horrified Bessie by asking who all these people were he had been hearing about. Of course I knew once, he said, such things were thrashed into me at school but hanged if I have them and their history at my tongue's end as you have. Are you not tired to death? He asked pantingly and fanning himself with his soft hat as they left the gloomy building and after looking at the spot where Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Gray were beheaded went back to the office where they dismissed their guide. It was a scorchingly hot day and Jack was perspiring at every pore but Bessie was fresh and bright as ever and eager to go to the Abbey and the Parliament House and possibly somewhere else and Jack obeyed her with an inward groan and went where she wished to go and marveled at her knowledge of and interest in everything pertaining to Westminster and its surroundings. Never in his life had Jack Travellian been as tired as he was that night with a back which ached so hard that he actually bought a plaster for it next morning and thus strengthened and fortified started again on his mission. Kensington Museum, the British Museum, the National Gallery, Crystal Palace, Hampton Court and the Queen's stables were all visited by turn and then they went for a day to Alexandra Palace and saw an opera, a play, a ballot, two circuses and rope walking, all for a shilling which to Bessie's frugal mind was best of all. That night Jack was more worn out than ever and his back ached worse than after the tower and though Bessie was to leave the next day for home he did not go to Abbingdon Road in the evening but went to bed instead and deferred his goodbye until the morrow. So Neil had the feel to himself and made good use of his opportunity. Together he and Bessie walked in the Kensington Gardens until they were retired and then they sat side by side on one of the many seats in a retired part of the grounds and Neil told her how sorry he was that she was going home and how lonely he should be without her. Yes, Bessie said doubtfully, I think he will survive. And then he burst out impulsively. I say, Bessie, I don't want you to think me a cad in a sneak when you go back to Stonely.  Yes, better than Jack gone found him. Why didn't you then? I would rather have gone with you. Bessie said, beginning to relent at once toward the handsome good for nothing Neil who had his arm around her and was looking into her face with his dark expressive eyes. Why didn't I? he answered. I am going to tell you why I didn't and why Jack did.  Father, you know, is poor and mother holds the purse which is not a large one and keeps me awful short at times especially after paying my Oxford bills and a few debts I contracted the last year. There would have been no end of a row if I had asked her for money to spend on you and your father.  Bessie asked and Neil replied.  I wanted her to call upon you and invite you to our house and I wanted to take you to drive in the park but I could not. My hands were tied. Do you suppose it was pleasant for me to see Jack Travalion doing what I ought to have done? No, Bessie replied, beginning to feel a great pity for Neil who had suffered so much. No, and I am glad you have told me for I thought I feared you were ashamed of us and it hurt me a little.  Ashamed of you, Bessie? Never! How could I be ashamed of the dearest, sweetest little cousin a man ever had? I tell you I am the victim of circumstances. And bending his head still lower, the victim of circumstances kissed the girlish lips which kissed him back again in token of reconciliation and restored faith in him. Poor, tired Jack, dreaming that night that he was a circus rider and jumping through a hoop for Bessie's pleasure, would have felt that all his fatigue and backache and the plaster which caused him so much discomfort might have been spared or at least were wasted on the girl with whom the kiss given in the deepening twilight was more powerful than all he had done for her could he have known of that seen in the gardens. But he did not know of it and at a comparatively early hour next morning he was at Mrs. Buncher's where Bessie greeted him with her sweetest smile and thanked him again for all that he had done for them. Don't speak of it, I beg. It is so very little. I only wish there was really something I could do to prove my willingness to serve you, he said. They were standing alone by the window looking into the street and, as Jack said this, there came a troubled look on Bessie's face for after waiting a moment she said, There is something you can do if you will, something which will please me very much and prove you the good man I believe you to be. Command me and it is done, Jack said, and Bessie continued. If you ever meet Mother again at Monte Carlo or anywhere, don't play with her for money. Promise me this. I promise, Jack answered unhesitatingly and emboldened by his promptness Bessie went on. And oh, Mr. Trevelyan, if you would never again play with anyone for money, even the smallest sum, it is gambling just the same, it is wicked, it leads to so much that it's bad. It was my grandfather's ruin and he knew it and repented bitterly, for it left his son nothing but poverty and that is why we are so poor, father and I. Gambling did it all. There were tears in Bessie's eyes and they went straight to Jack's heart. He was not an inveterate gambler, though he had lost and won large sums at Monte Carlo and Baddon-Baddon when the tables were open there and like most Englishmen he never played wist that something was not staked. It gave zest to the game which to him would be very insipid without it, but Bessie's eyes could have made him face the cannon's mouth if need be and he said to her at once, I promise that too. I will never play again for money with anyone, but for my reward you must let me visit you at stonely some time.  I have to work and you may have to work, too, and do other things than menting father's coat. She spoke playfully and Jack declared his readiness to sift cinders or scour knives or do anything if she would let him come. Just then Neil arrived, not altogether pleased to find Jack there before him, standing close to Bessie who was looking very happy. The two young men went with her to the station where they vied with each other in showing her attention. Jack held her traveling bag and her parasol and fan and band box containing the white ship hat, and Neil held her shawl and umbrella and paper bag of biscuits and seed cakes which Mrs. Buncher had given her to eat upon the road, and when at last she was gone and they walked out of the station into the noisy street, each felt that the brightness of the summer day had changed and that something inexpressibly sweet had been taken from them. End of Chapter 7 and 8 Part 2 Chapter 9 of Bessie's Fortune by Mary Jane Holmes 9. Christmas at Stonely Two years and a half after that visit to London Bessie MacPherson, now a young lady of nearly 18, stood by the western window of the old house at Stonely reading a letter from Neil. He had been at Stonely several times since that summer in London and these visits, with his letters always so affectionate and bright, were the only breaks in Bessie's monotonous life. Once Jack had been there for a few days or rather to the George where he slept and took his meals, spending the rest of the time with Bessie who interested him more and more, and from whom he at last fled us from a positive danger. With his limited income and his habits he could not hope to marry even if Bessie would have joined her young life with his matured one, which he doubted, and with a great bang of regret he left her in the old Stonely garden and did not dare look back at her, sitting there with the troubled look on her face because he was leaving, lest he should turn back and taking her in his arms say the words he must not say.  Only two between you and a fortune, seemed whispered in his ear and with it came a thought of Bessie sitting under the old yew-tree in the summer sunshine and looking after him. Murderer!  And so he put all thoughts of Bessie aside and wore mourning for his great-uncle and wrote a letter to the new heir, Sir Dick, and sent his love to Flossie and went no more to Stonely. But Neil was coming again and his letter to Bessie was as follows. London December 20th, 1800 Blank My sweetest cousin.    But how absurdly I am writing as if I were your lover instead of your cousin and as good as engaged to Blanche. I suppose Mother would break her heart if I did not marry that ten thousand pounds a year. I used to say I wouldn't, you know. But, nous verrons. I wish to tell you now is that I am coming to Stonley for the Christmas holidays.  So you may expect me the twenty-third on the evening train from Bangor. And please tell old Dorothy to have a roasting fire in my room which you know is something after the stable order and oh, if she would have plum pudding and chicken pie for dinner. You see I make myself quite at home at Stonley and I have a weakness for the good things of this world. I do not believe I was cut out for a poor man. I might be poor and honest but never poor and happy. By the way I am to bring a friend with me or rather he is to stop first at Carnarvon to hunt up somebody by the name of Rogers whom he is very anxious to find. Rogers. Rogers. Bessie repeated thoughtfully. Seems to me I have heard that name before. Who is Neil's friend I wonder? I am sorry he is coming for that means another fire and another plate at table and we are so poor. Neil is right. It is not so easy to be poor and happy as one might think and the look of care habitual to Bessie's face deepened upon it for funds were very low at Stonley just then. It was weeks as they had received anything from Daisy and Archie's slender income would barely suffice for absolute necessaries leaving nothing for extra fires and extra mouths to feed with plum pudding and chicken pie and all the et cetera's of a regular Christmas dinner such as Neil would expect. Resuming the letter at last Bessie read on. I have asked him to spend a day at Stonley after he has finished his business in Carnarvon and he has accepted and will be with us at Christmas. He is an American. Gray Gerald from Boston and the right sort of a fellow too. Not a bit of a cad if he did thrash me unmercifully the first time I ever saw him. He served me just right and we are great friends now. He was at Eaton with me and at Oxford too and took the wind out of all our sails in both places. No sneak about him and though he seems more English than American from having lived with us so long he would knock me down now if I were to say a word against his star-spangled banner. His father and mother are in Boston and he has crossed I don't know how many times I think to see an old Aunt Hannah whom he seems to worship and whose photograph he actually kissed the day he got it at Eaton.  I hear she is at Monte Carlo still. A friend saw her there flirting with Aunt Fleece in Italian Count who has quite cut out that poodle of a hardy. Oh, Neil! Oh, Mother! Bessie cried and the look about her mouth of which Neil had spoken was pitiable to see as the lips quivered and the great tear sprang to her eyes and stood on her long lashes. Fleece in an Italian Count she whispered if Mother were to send us money now I do not believe I would touch it. Then she read on You are sure to like Great Gerald and if you do not fall in love with him I shall be surprised.  I only live till then. Your loving cousin, Neil. For some time after finishing Neil's letter Bessie stayed by the window very still and thoughtful with a half-pleased half-troubled look in her young face. She was thinking of Neil's projected visit and planning how she could make him comfortable and his friend. I can dispense with a fire in my room and the boots I was going to buy. These are not so very bad, though they do leak at times and she glanced down rather roofily at the little shabby boots in which her feet were encased in which she had worn so long. I hope Neil will not notice them. He is so fastidious about such things, she said with a sigh. And then her thoughts went back to the summer when she had visited London and met Jack Trevelyan who had been so kind and done so much for her.  But he has greatly changed from what he used to be, she said. When I first knew him at Monte Carlo he was almost as regular at the tables as I was myself and a capital partner at Cards, but now he never plays at all and did not even go inside the casino notwithstanding I did my best to persuade him. I think there must be some woman concerned in the change. Well, she is fortunate if she gets Jack Trevelyan. I wish Bessie you had more tact for I know he was interested in you. He is worth forty Neil McPherson's. Oh, mother, please don't talk like that. Bessie said, thinking to herself that she could tell if she would why he did not play as formerly and feeling a great throb of gladness that he was keeping his promise to her. If he had been coming to Stonely Bessie would not have cared for her surroundings or her shabby shoes or he would not have noticed them, or if he did, he would not have let her know it as Neil was sure to do. Neil was very particular and critical and had more than once hurt Bessie cruelly with his criticism upon her dress. But then he was just a severe upon blanche and that was some comfort and, with a sigh, as she remembered what he had said of being as good as engaged she put the letter aside and went to tell Dorothy of the expected guests and to consult with her as to the ways and means of making them comfortable. Fortunately I have some money saved of my own and you must make it go as far as possible and be sure that we have a good Christmas dinner with plum pudding and whipped cream, she said, as she emptied into the old servant's hand what had been intended for boots and gloves and a Christmas present for her father. And now, the day when Neil was expected had come and it lacked but a few minutes of the time for the arrival of the train. Everything was ready and the old house wore quite a festive appearance with its holiday dress of evergreens and scarlet berries and all the flowers there were in blossom in the conservatory which opened from the dining room and was kept warm without extra expense. Everything which could be spared from other parts of the house had been brought to Neil's room where a cheerful fire was burning in the grate and where Bessie's own easy chair and couch and bright afghan were doing duty and making the place very comfortable and attractive. During the two years and a half which had elapsed since Bessie's visit to London she had changed somewhat and was more a woman than a child with a matured and if possible a sweeter expression in her face though there still lingered about her mouth that same sorry patient look which Jack Trevelyan had wanted so much to kiss away. It was very apparent this afternoon as she stood by the window looking out upon the snow which covered the garden and park and made her shiver a little and think of the mother who should have been at home lightening her daughter's burden and cheering her lonely life. How happy the girls must be who have real mothers!  She always did that when her mother was in her mind and by some subtle intuition Archie had come to know it and now his voice was very tender and loving as he drew her down upon his knee and stroking her hair said to her Good little Bessie, what should I do without you? You are very lovely tonight in your finery.  Yes, very glad, Bessie replied blushing a little. Very glad for Neil, but I do not think I want that American here too. I wish Neil had left him from the program. Oh yes, I remember you told me that Neil said he was coming. They are great friends I believe, Archie said. Then after a moment he continued, I dare say he is a gentleman. You may like him very much. No, I shall not. Bessie rejoined, tapping the floor impatiently with her boot whose shabbiness French blackened could not wholly conceal. I shall be civil to him, of course, as Neil's friend but I would rather he did not come spoiling everything. I see Neil so seldom that I want him all to myself when he is here. He is the only cousin I have, you know. For a moment Archie was silent and when at last he spoke he said, Bessie, don't think too much of Neil. As I told you once in London so I tell you now. He is too selfish by nature and too ambitious to care particularly for anything which cannot advance his interests. He likes you very much no doubt and if you had a fortune I dare say he would seek to make you his wife but as you have not he will marry Blanche Trevelyan who has. Yes, he will marry Blanche. Bessie said softly and the old tired sorry look wrapped into her eyes and deepened about her mouth as she thought.   And yet it is impressed upon me that somewhere in the world there is a fortune awaiting me, very far from here it may be but still somewhere. But then Neil will be gone before I get it and I shall not care. And as it had done more than once before a sharp pain cut through Bessie's heart as she thought what life would be with Neil making no part of it. So absorbed had she and her father been that neither of them had heard the train as it glided swiftly by but when after a few moments at a lapse there was the stamping of feet outside at a cheery call to the house dog who had set up a welcome bark Bessie sprang from her father's knee exclaiming that's Neil he has come and I am so glad. She was out in the hall by this time waiting expectantly while Anthony opened the door admitting Neil who kissed Bessie twice and told her how glad he was to see her again and how well her stuffed dress of dark claret became her or would if she had left off that knot of scotch-plad ribbon at the throat which marred the effect. Bessie's cheeks flushed at this criticism upon the ribbon she liked so much and had bought for this very occasion with a view to please her cousin. He wasn't very high spirits it seemed to her as she listened to his gay badinage and laughed her. But how handsome he was in his new holiday suit every item of which was faultless and of the latest style. If his mother stinted him in other ways she surely did not where his wardrobe was concerned and he had the reputation of being one of the best dressed young men in London. When dinner was over and he had finished his cigar which she smoked in the presence of Bessie she asked him of the American who was coming the next evening. Oh yes, Grey Gerald, Neal said, and the finest specimen of a Yankee you ever saw. I don't believe I like Yankees, Bessie said curtly and Neal replied. You will like this one, you cannot help it, everybody likes him from the shabbyest old woman in the railway carriage to the prettiest girl in Piccadilly. Perhaps it was a liberty I ought not to have taken inviting him here without consulting you first but I wanted you to see him and him to see you and there was a vehemence in Neal's voice and manner which Bessie could not understand. He is rich or will be by and by, Neal said, and the most generous chap I ever saw. He was always helping us out of scrapes at school. He has a rich aunt in America who keeps him well supplied with money besides what his father gave him when he came of age. What did you say he was doing in Carnarvon? Bessie asked and Neal replied. Hunting up some old woman or young woman I don't know which as I never paid much attention to what he did say about it. I believe though there is some money in the case. I wish it was for me, Neal said, and then suddenly he sank into a thoughtful abstracted mood from which he did not rouse till the clock struck ten and it was time to say good night. I have not been very good company for the last hour. I have been worried lately and I am not quite myself. He said to Bessie when she asked if he were ill and if there was anything she could do for him or send to his room. And Neal had been worried and exasperated and wrought upon until he was half beside himself. His mother had wished him to accompany her and Blanche to the house of a friend near Edinburgh and when he refused saying he preferred to go to Stonely there had been a jolly row as he expressed it and his mother had charged him with his preference for the daughter of that bold, adventurous and had told him decidedly that if he ever dared to marry her he should never touch a shelling of her money either during her lifetime or after or once assured of the marriage she would so arrange her matters that he would be as great a beggar as Archie McPherson himself. A family of poppers, she said scornfully. Your father has nothing to give you. Absolutely nothing and you can yourself judge how with your tastes and habits you will like living at Stonely with two meals a day as I hear they sometimes do blacking your own boots and building your own fires. Here Neal winced for he knew very well that he had no fancy for poverty even if Bessie shared it with him. But he told his mother he had and consigned Blanche's ten thousand a year to a place where the gold might be melted and said he loved Bessie McPherson better than anything in life and should marry her if he pleased in spite of a hundred mothers. But he knew he should not knew he could not face the reality when it came to the point he was too dependent upon what wealth would bring him to throw it away for one girl even if that girl were Bessie whom he loved with all the intensity of his selfish nature loved so much that for an hour or so after his interview with his mother he balanced the two questions Blanche with ten thousand a year or Bessie with nothing. Naturally Blanche turned the scale and then to himself he said, I will go to Stonely and live for a few days in Bessie's presence and then I will say goodbye forever and marry Blanche as mother wishes me to do. She is not so very bad except for her eyebrows and that horrid drawl. But Bessie, oh Bessie how can I give her up? And the young man's heart cried out in pain for the sweet young girl he had loved all his life and who he was sure loved him. To do Neal justice this was the bitterest drop in the cup the knowing that Bessie too would suffer. She has enough to bear, he said, without an added drop from me. I wish she would get in love with someone else and throw me overboard. I believe I could bear it better. There's Jack, he was awfully sweet on her in London but he has only been to see her once since. He is too poor to marry and there is no one else. Yes, by Jove there is. And Neal started to his feet. There is Grey Gerald. He is just the man for Bessie to fall in love with if she could see him and I'll bring that about. It may seem strange that one so utterly selfish as Neal McPherson should have devised this plan to help him in his dilemma but this in fact was only another phase of his selfishness. He knew it was impossible for him to marry Bessie and felt that it was also impossible to give her up without other aid than his own feeble will. If she could prefer someone else to himself it would be a help, however much his self-love might be wounded and if another man then himself must taste the sweetness he so coveted he would far rather that other should be Grey Gerald an American even though he bore the rose away to foreign soil than to have one of his own countrymen flaunting his happiness in his face. Bessie and Grey were suited to each other he thought and he would bring them together. So when he heard from Grey of his intended trip to Carnarvon he suggested that he defer it until the holidays and spend a day or two at Stonely. Then he wrote to Bessie that he was as good as engaged to Blanche and that she would probably fall in love with Grey who was sure to do so with her. This done he began to anticipate the visit which he said to himself was to be his last and from which he meant to get all the happiness possible he would kiss Bessie as often as he liked. He would hold her hands in his the dear little hands which had worked so hard but which nevertheless were so soft and pretty he would look into the innocent blue eyes and see them kindle and droop beneath his gaze and then there should be one long never-to-be-forgotten walk by themselves across the suspension bridge through the straggling old town and along the road by the river toward Beaumaris and he would tell her everything all his love for her and its utter hopelessness because they were both so poor and he would say goodbye forever and bid her merry Grey Gerald and so remove temptation from him and make it easier for him to be true to Blanche. It was much easier for Neil to form this plan than to be satisfied with it and during the few days which elapsed before he started for Stonely he was cross and irritable and even rude at times both to his mother and Blanche the latter of whom finally treated him with a cold indifference which made him fear a little for the ten thousand. What if she should take the bits in her teeth and throw me overboard? He thought and at the very last he changed his tactics and devoted himself to the heiress with inassiduity which left her little doubt of his intentions. Still to her he did not speak though to his mother he said half irritably as if it were something rung from him against his will. Don't trouble yourself. I intend to marry Blanche in my own good time but I will not be hurried and am going to Stonely first. And he went to Stonely and tried all the way there to think of Bessie as she looked in the park in the old fated gown with the disfiguring puffs. Tried to make himself believe that she had no manner, no style and would not pass for a great lady among people city bread that she was better suited to some quiet home such as Grey Gerald might give her were he happy enough to win her. Neil had no doubt that Grey would try to win her when once he had seen her and he began at last to feel sorry that he had invited his friend to Stonely and to have doubts as to his ability to give Bessie up even to him. He was sure of it when he reached Stonely and saw her with the brightness on her face and the sparkle in her eyes she welcomed him. She might not be as elegant or as stylish as Blanche who had lived in the city all her life but she was inexpressibly sweet and womanly and there was in every movement a grace and quiet dignity which stamped her as a lady. And Neil recognized it as he had never had before and fought the battle over again all through the silent night and was still fighting it in the morning when he went down to breakfast and looked at Bessie as she poured his coffee in her grey dress and pretty white muslin apron with the dataly frilled pockets and just the corner of a blue bordered handkerchief showing in one of them. Neil liked the dress and the effect of the blue handkerchief but he did not like the apron it made her look so like a housemaid and he told her so when breakfast was over and they stood a moment alone by answering him laughingly. Yes you told me once before that you did not like my apron and I know it would be out of place on your mother or Blanche but it suits me for you see I am housemaid here and clear my own table and wash my own silver and china. Dorothy is old and has the rheumatism in her feet and I must help.  Neil did not go out and walk but stayed in the dining room and smoked a cigar and looked at Bessie as she cleared away the breakfast dishes and washed the silver and china with her sleeves drawn halfway to her elbows showing her round white arms. Yes she is just suited to America where I believe the women all wear aprons and wash their own dishes. Neil thought as he watched her with a strange feeling in his heart of pain and happiness. Happiness that for a piece she was his to look at to love to caress pain that the days were so few and so short when he must leave her. And then there arose before him as in a vision a picture of a quiet home amid green hedge-rows and sunny lanes not a home such as Blanches would be with gorgeous surroundings and liveryed servants everywhere with such a home as makes a man better for living in it. A home where the house swipely Bessie was the presiding goddess flitting about just as she was doing the silver and china, brushing up the hearth, moving a chair here and another there, watering her pots of flowers in the conservatory, tea roses and carnations and heliotrope and lilies all in bloom and filling the room with sweet perfume as if it were the summertime instead of chill December with its biting blasts sweeping against the windows. There Bessie said at last removing her apron pulling down her sleeves and smoothing her bright wavy hair. I have missed the housemate and now I am ready to sing for you or play chess or do whatever you like. But Neil was in no mood for singing or playing chess or even talking much and his fit of abstraction lasted all day or until late in the afternoon when Bessie began to speak of getting herself in readiness for Grey who was to come in the evening train from Carnarvon. Then Neil roused as if he had nerved himself for the sacrifice manifested a great deal of interest with regard to Bessie's personal appearance. I want you to get yourself up stunningly, he said so as to make a good first appearance I have told Grey so much about you that he must not be disappointed. Ridiculous I shall wear just what I wore yesterday bow and all for I like it Bessie said with a little defiant toss of her head. She too had been thinking while Neil sat so silent and moody by the fire and had decided that he had greatly changed for the worse since she had seen him last that he was hard to please, moody, exacting and quite too much given to criticizing her and her dress. As if it is any of his business what I wear, she thought and she took a kind of exultant satisfaction in fastening on the knot of ribbon he had condemned and which really was very becoming to her plain dark dress. I suppose Mr. Grey Gerald I must waste a clean collar and a pair of cuffs on you though that will be so much more for me to iron next week, she said as she stood before the mirror in her room which was to be given to the coming guest. I hope, sir, you will appreciate all I am doing for you, for I assure you it is no small matter to turn out from my comfortable quarters into that barn of a room where the wind blows a hurricane and the rats scurry over the floor.  Her toilet completed she removed from the room everything which she thought would betray the fact that it was her apartment and carried them with a shiver to the chamber facing the north where the rats scurried over the floor at night and the wind blew a hurricane. There I am ready for your pithious do you think I shall pass muster she said to Neil as she entered the dining room where he was sitting it would indeed have been a very sensorious, fault-finding man who could have seen ought amiss in the beautiful young girl plain as her dress might be and for answer to her question Neil stood up and kissed her saying as he did so he will think you perfect though I don't like the ribbon I don't like any color about you except your hair and eyes I wish you would take it off Mr. Gerald may think differently I am dressed for him and as I like it I mean to wear it curtly but with a bright smile as she looked into Neil's face Oh well, check her as on go he said consulting his watch and adding it is time I was starting for the station the train is due in 15 minutes when he was gone Bessie began to feel a little nervous with regard to the stranger coming among them hitherto she had thought only of the extra expense and the trouble he would give old Dorothy whose feet and ankles were badly swollen and painting her so much I may have to cook and serve the Christmas dinner myself she said and I don't mind the work only I do not want this American from Boston where the women are so full of brains to think me a mere dishwasher and chimney sweep I wonder if he is half as nice as Neil says he is and if I shall like him of course I shan't but I shall treat him well for Neil's sake and be so glad when he has gone then she proceeded to lay the table for supper as they usually dined in the middle of the day Dorothy's feet were more active then and Archie preferred an early dinner everything was in readiness at last the bread and the butter and the jam with cold chicken and ham and the cattle singing on the hearth the curtains drawn and the bright fire making shadows on the wall and falling upon the young girl who as her ear caught the sound of footsteps without ran to the window and parting the heavy curtains looked out into the darkness so that the first glimpse Gray Gerald had of her fair eager face framed in waves of golden brown hair and pressed against the window-pane in the vain effort to see the dreaded American End of Chapter 9 Part 2 Chapter 10 of Bessie's Fortune by Mary Jane Holmes This Liber-Fox recording is in the public domain 10. Gray Between the man of 23 and the boy of 14 who had knelt upon the snow in the leafless woods and asked God to forgive him for his grandfather's sin and had pledged himself to undo as far as was possible the wrong to others that sin had caused there was the difference of nine years of growth and culture and experience and knowledge of the world but otherwise the boy and the man were the same for as the Gray of 14 had been frank and truthful and generous and wholly unselfish with a gentleness in his nature like that of a tender loving woman so was the Gray of 23 whom we last saw upon the steamer which was taking him away from home and the lonely woman watching so tearfully upon the wharf and feeling that with his going her joyless life was made more desolate since that time there had been a year's travel upon the continent with his parents and then he had entered at Eaton where he renewed his acquaintance with Neil McPherson between whom and himself there sprung up a friendship which nothing had weakened as yet several times he had been a guest in Neil's home where Lady Jane treated him with the utmost civility and admitted that for an American he really was refined and gentlemanly he knew Jack Trevelyan and Blanche and all Neil's intimate friends and had the entrée to the same society with them wherever he chose to avail himself of it which was not very often he was in Europe for study he said and not for society and he devoted himself to his books with an energy and will which put him at the head of his class in Eaton and won him an enviable reputation for scholarship at Oxford and for nearly four years and where he intended to remain until his Aunt Lucy and possibly his Aunt Anna crossed the sea and joined him for an extended tour then he was going home for good to settle down Aunt Mary he said for in all Grey's dreams of the future there was always the picture of a happy home with some fair sweet-faced girl in it reigning equally as mistress with the dear Aunt Anna still living her solitary life in the old farmhouse and keeping watch over that hidden grave and laying up year by year the interest on the gold which was one day to go to the heirs of Elizabeth Rogers of Carnarvon if they could be found but could they? that was the question both she and Grey asked themselves as the years went on and no trace was discovered of any such person either in or around Carnarvon for Grey had been there more than once and with all due precaution had inquired of everybody for the woman Elizabeth Rogers and finally as he grew a little bolder who went to America many years before but all to no avail both Joel and Elizabeth were myths and the case was getting hopeless still Grey did not despair and resolved that during the holidays he would go again to the old Welsh town and try what he could do and so it came about that he accompanied Neil as far as Carnarvon where he proposed to spend a day then go over to Stonely on Christmas Eve more to please Neil who had urged him so strongly to stop there and for any particular satisfaction it would be to him to pass the day with strangers who might or might not care to see him he knew there was a cousin Bessie a girl of wondrous beauty if Neil was to be believed and he remembered to have heard of her years ago when he was a boy and first met Neil McPherson at Melrose faint memories too he had of hearing her talked about at the memorable Thanksgiving dinner which had preceded his grandfather's death and his own sickness when they said he had asked Miss McPherson to buy as a recompense for the many times she had gone hungry to bed because there was not enough money to buy dinner for three and all this came back to him as he stood in the station in Carnarvon waiting for the train she must be a young lady now 17 or 18 years old he thought and Neil says she is beautiful but I dare say she is like most English girls with a giggle and a drawl and a supreme contempt for anything outside the United Kingdom I fancy too she is tall and thin with sharp elbows and big feet like many of her sisters I wonder what she will think of me people say I am more English than American which I don't like for if there is a loyal son of Uncle Sam in this world I am he I can't help this confounded foreign accent which I have picked up from being over here so long and I do not know as I wish to help it perhaps it will help me with Miss Bessie as well as my English gut generally and gray glass that himself a dingy little glass to see how he did look what he saw was a broad-shouldered, finely formed young man who stood so erect that he seemed taller than he really was a face which strangers would trust without a moment's hesitancy large dark blue eyes thick brown hair just inclined to curl at the ends and a smile which would have made the plainest face handsome and which was Gray's chief point of attraction if we accept his voice which though rich and full was very sweet he felt for every human being in distress or otherwise no tired, discouraged mother in a railway car trying to hush her crying infant would ever fear that he would be annoyed or wish her and her child in Jericho on the contrary she would if necessary ask him to hold her baby for a moment and the child would go to him unhesitatingly so great was the mesmeric power he exercised over his fellow creatures this influence or power was inborn no more have helped it than he could have helped his heartbeats but added to this was a constant effort on his part to make those with whom he came in contact happy to sympathize with them in their griefs to help them in their needs to sacrifice his own feelings to their pleasure for in this way he felt that he was in part atoning for the wrong done by the poor old man dead long ago and forgotten by nearly all who had known him such was the Gray Gerald whom Neil McPherson met at the Menai Station and escorted along the road to Stoneley I should have driven out for you only there is no carriage I think I told you that Mr. Archie McPherson is awfully poor he explained apologetically as he saw Gray pull his fur cap over his ears for the wind was blowing a gale and drifting the snow in their faces I do not think you ever told me in so many words that they were very poor but I had an impression that they were not rich Gray said atoning I prefer to walk and rather enjoy battling with the Northwest it takes me back to New England the very land of snows and storms they were in the park by this time nearing the house when suddenly the curtains of a window parted letting out a flood of light into the darkness and Gray saw for an instant pressed against the pain a face which made his heart throb quickly with a kind of glad surprise as if it were a face he had seen before well with it came a thought of his antenna and the lonely old house in the pasture land in far off Allington a moment later and the face was looking up to his with a half fearful curious expression which was however changed to one of great gladness as Bessy met his winning smile and the kind eyes bent so searchingly upon her she had no fear or dread of him now and she gave him her hand most cordially and bet him welcome to Stonely with a warmth which made him feel at home and put him at his ease perhaps you would like to go to your room at once and Neil will show you the way she said to him then in an aside to Neil my room you know at the head of the stairs Neil looked at her in surprise while a cloud gathered upon his brow that Bessy should give her room to Gray seemed to him absurd though he never stopped to ask himself where she could put him if not there Neil knew perfectly well the capabilities of the old stone house and that spare rooms were not as plenty as blackberries but so long as he was not incommodated it was no business of his to inquire into matters nor could he understand that an extra fire even for a day was a heavy drain on Bessy's purse but Gray's quick ear caught Bessy's whispered words and before he entered the warm pretty room at the head of the stairs he knew it belonged to her and guessed why she had given it to him under any circumstances he would have known by certain unmistakable signs that it was a young girl's apartment into which he was ushered and after Neil left him he looked about him with a kind of awe at the chintz covered furniture the white curtains at the window the pretty little toilet table with its hanging glass in the center and its coverings of pink and white muslin just then through the door which had inadvertently been left a little ajar he caught the sound of voices in the hall below Neil's voice and Bessy's and Neil was saying to her disapprovingly why did you give your room to Gray was it necessary yes Neil there was no other comfortable place for him the north room is so large and the chimney smoked so we could never get it warm Bessy said and Neil continued and so you are to sleep there and catch your death cold not a bit of it Bessy replied Dorothy will warm the bed with her big warming pan and I shall not mind it in the least I am never cold well I think it's a shame Neil said feeling more annoyed that Gray was to sleep in Bessy's room then that Bessy was to pass the night in the great cheerless north chamber with only old Dorothy's warming pan for comfort it never occurred to him that he could give Gray his room and himself take the cold and the dreariness of the north room nor yet that he could share his bed with Gray he never thought for others when the thinking conflicted with himself and returning to the dining room he sat down by the fire with anything but a happy expression on his face and he wished that he had not invited Gray to stonely something in the expression of Bessy's and Gray's faces as they looked at each other had disturbed him for he had read undisguised admiration in the one and confidence and trust in the other and knew that there were already sympathy and accord between them and that they were sure to be fast friends at least just as he had told himself he wished them to be meanwhile Gray was thinking as he made his toilet for supper and as a result of his thoughts he at last rang the bell which brought old Dorothy to him my good woman he said flashing upon her the smile which always won those on whom it fell the door which he shut cautiously my good woman I do not wish to be particular or troublesome but really I should like a room without a fire the colder the better one to the north will suit me if there is such a one no matter for the furniture a bed and wash stand are all I require you see I have so much health and superfluous heat that I like to be cool and then I have the he stopped short here or he could not deviate from the truth or as to say he actually had the asthma so he added in an undertone if I had the asthma I could not breathe you know in this small room pretty as it is and upon my word it is lovely have you no larger chamber which I can take yes Dorothy said slowly with a throb of joy as she reflected that her young mistress might not be deprived of her comfortable quarters after all there is a big chamber to the north cold enough for anybody but Miss Bessie got this ready for you she will not like you to change do you have the tea-sick very bad Grey did not answer this question but began to gather up his brushes and his combs and putting them into his velees he said I want that north room take me there please and say nothing to your mistress Dorothy knew this last was impossible she should be obliged to tell Bessie but she did not oppose the young man whose manner was so masterful in whom she led to the great cheerless room with its smoky chimney down which the winter wind was roaring with a dismal sound while across the hearth a huge rat ran as they entered it Tis a sorry place and you'll be very cold but I'll warm your bed and give you plenty of blankets and hot water in the morning Dorothy said as she hastily gathered up the few articles belonging to Bessie who had transferred them from her room to this I shall sleep like a top Grey replied much better than by the fire this suits me perfectly and the cold is nothing to what America can do he was very reassuring and wholly deceived by his manner Dorothy departed and left him to himself pew he said as a gust of wind stronger than usual struck the windows and puffed down the chimney almost knocking over the fire board this is a clipper and no mistake and what an old stable of a room it is a place for that dainty little Bessie to be in she would be frozen solid before morning I guess I shall sleep in my overcoat and boots what a lovely face she has and how it reminds me of somebody I don't know whom unless it is Aunt Hannah whose face I seem to see right side by side with Bessie they must be awfully poor and I wish I had brought her something better for a Christmas present than this gym crack and opening his valise he took out a pretty inlaid work box fitted up with all the necessary appliances even to a gold thimble remembering the Christmas at home when a present was as much a part of that day as his breakfast Gray had bought the box in London as a gift to Bessie and when he caught a glimpse as he did of the worn basket with its spools and scissors and cutted yarns for darning which Dorothy gathered up among other articles belonging to Bessie he was glad he had made the choice he did but now as he surveyed the apartment and felt how very poor his host and the daughter must be he wished that he could give them something better than this fanciful box which could neither feed nor keep the warm as he had finished his toilet in Bessie's room there was nothing now for him to do except to give an extra twist to his cravat run his fingers through his brown hair and then he was ready for the dining room where he found Bessie alone as a matter of course Dorothy had gone to Bessie and told her of the exchange which delighted her far more than it did her mistress Mr. Gerald in that cold dreary room Bessie exclaimed oh Dorothy why did you allow it and what must he think of us I could not help myself darling for he would have his way Dorothy replied he was that set on the cold room that you couldn't move him a jot his breathing apparatus is out of killer he has the tie stick awful and can't breathe in a warm room I shall give him some cubips to smoke tomorrow and don't you worry he won't freeze I'll put a bag of hot water in the bed he is a very nice young gentleman if he is an American Bessie knew she could not help herself but there was a troubled look on her face when gray came in and approaching her as she stood by the fire made some casual remark about the unusual severity of the weather for the season yes it is very cold she said adding quickly as she looked up at him Mr. Gerald Dorothy has told me and I am so sorry you do not know how cold that north chamber is and we cannot warm it if we try the chimney smoke so badly he will be so uncomfortable there you might let the fire go down in the other room if the heat affects you Dorothy says you suffer greatly with asthma yes no gray replied confusedly scarcely willing to commit himself again to the chamber I shall not mind the cold at all I am accustomed to it you must remember I come from the land of ice and snow you have no idea what Blizzard's America is capable of getting up and ought to hear how the wind can howl and the snow drift about an old farmhouse in a rocky pasture land which I would give much to see tonight there was a tone of regret in his rich musical voice and forgetting that Neil had said he was from Boston Bessie said to him is that farmhouse your home oh no my home proper is in Boston he answered her but I have spent some of my happiest days in that house and the memory of it and the dear woman who lives there is the sweetest of my life and the saddest too he added slowly for right in Bessie's blue eyes looking at him so steadily he seemed to see the hidden grave and for a moment all the old bitter shame and humiliation which had once weighed him down so heavily and which naturally the lapse of years had tended to lighten came back to him in the presence of this young girl who seemed so inextricably mixed up with everything pertaining to his past it was like some new place which we sometimes come suddenly upon with a strange feeling that we have seen it before though when we cannot tell so Bessie impressed Gray as a part of the tragedy enacted in the old New England house many many years ago and covered up so long he almost felt that she had been there with him and that now she was standing by the hidden grave and stretching her hand to him across it with an offer of help and sympathy and so strong was this impression that he actually lifted his right hand an instant to take it in the thunder one resting on the mantle as Bessie talked to him what would she say if she knew he thought feeling that it would be easy to tell her about it feeling that she was one to trust even unto death Bessie was interested in Gray and already felt the wonderful mesmeric influence he exercised over all who came in contact with him in the salons of fashion in the halls of Eaton and Oxford in the railway car or in the privacy of domestic life Gray's presence was an all-pervading power or as an old woman whom he had once befriended expressed it he was like a great warm stove in a cold room and Bessie felt the warmth and was glad he was there and said to him I wish you would tell me about the house among the rocks and the woman who lives there I am sure I would like her and I know so little of America or the American people you are almost the first I have ever seen before Gray could answer her Neil came in and as supper was soon after served no further illusion was made to America until the table was cleared away and the party of four were sitting around the fire Archie in his accustomed corner with Bessie at his side her hand on the arm of his chair finally resting lovingly against his shoulder Neil was opposite while Gray sat before the fire with now and then a shiver running down his back as the rising wind crept into the room even through the thick curtains which draped the rattling windows behind him but Gray did not care for the cold his thoughts were across the sea in the house among the rocks and he was wondering if his aunt Hannah was alone that Christmas Eve and was thinking just how dark and ghostly and cold was the interior of that bedroom his door was seldom opened and where no one had ever been since his grandfather's death except his aunt Hannah and himself as if dividing his thoughts Bessie said to him I wish you would tell us about that house among the rocks is it very old yes one of the oldest in Allington Gray replied and instantly Archie roused from his usual apathetic state and repeated Allington did you say Allington in Massachusetts yes Gray replied Allington in Massachusetts about 40 miles or so from Boston do you know the place my aunt lives there the woman for whom Bessie was named Miss Betsy MacPherson do you know her yes I used to know her well when I was so often in Allington before my grandfather died Gray replied and Neil said to him what manner of a woman is she something of a shrew I fancy I saw her once when I was a boy and she boxed my ears because I called her old bet buttermilk and she said that I and all the English were fools because I asked her if there were any wildcats in the woods behind her house served you right Gray said laughingly and then continued she is rather eccentric I believe but highly respected in town my aunt Lucy is very fond of her did you ever see her and he turned to Bessie who replied I saw her once at Aberystwyth I was a child and she afterwards sent me this turquoise ring the only bit of jewelry I own and Bessie held to the light her hand on which shown the ring Daisy had unwillingly given up to her on the occasion of her last visit to Stonely for a long time they sat before the fire talking of America and the places Gray had visited in Europe and it was rather late when the party finally retired for the night Neil going to his warm comfortable room facing the south and Gray to his cheerless one facing the north with only the cold and the damp and the rats for his companions if we accept the bag of hot water he found in his bed on which Dorothy had put woolen sheets and which she had warmed thoroughly with her big warming pan this is not very jolly but I am glad I am here instead of Bessie Gray thought and undressing himself more quickly than he had ever undressed before he plunged into the bed which was really warm and comfortable and was soon wrapped in the deep sleep which comes to perfect health and a good conscience End of Chapter 10