"He had no fascination for me; it was an effort sometimes."
"You must have been carrying on a correspondence with Mr. Harry Musgrave all this while."
"We have corresponded during the last year," said Bessie calmly.
"I blame myself that I ever gave the opportunity for a renewal of your old friendliness. That is the secret of your wilfulness."
"I loved Harry best—that is the secret of it," said Bessie; and she turned away to close the discussion.
It was a profound mortification to Lady Latimer to hear within the week from various quarters that Mr. Cecil Burleigh was at Ryde, and to all appearance on the happiest terms with Miss Julia Gardiner. And in fact they were quietly married one morning by special license, and the next news of them was that they were travelling in the Tyrol.
It was about a week after this, when Bessie was spending a few hours with her mother, that she heard of Harry Musgrave's arrival at Brook. It was the doctor who brought the intelligence. He came into the little drawing-room where his wife and Bessie were sitting, and said, "I called at Brook in passing and saw poor Harry."
"Well, Thomas, and how is he?" inquired Mrs. Carnegie in the anxious tone a kind voice takes when asking after the health of a friend who may be in a critical way. Bessie dropped her work and looked from one to the other.
The doctor did not answer directly, but, addressing Bessie, he said, "You must not be shocked, my dear, when you see Harry Musgrave."
"What is the matter? I have heard nothing: is he ill again?" cried Bessie.