furiously indignant at the Wileys pretending to any concern in her
affairs. Towards Lady Latimer she was more indulgent. They spent many
hours in company, and told all their experiences. Harry talked of dons
and proctors, of work and play, of hopes and projects, of rivals and
friends. Bessie had not so much to tell: she showed him the _classe_ and
her place there, and introduced him to Janey. They visited all the
public gardens and river-side walks. They were beautiful young people,
and were the observed of many observers. The sagacious _curé_ of St.
Jean's, the confessor and director at the school, saw them by chance on
the morning of a day when he had a mission to Bayeux. What more natural
than that he should call upon Madame Fournier at her uncle the canon's
house? and what more simple than that he should mention having met the
English _belle_ and her cousin of the dangerous sex?

Bessie Fairfax and Janey Fricker attended vespers regularly on Sunday
afternoons at the church of St. Jean; but they were not amongst the fair
penitents who whispered their peccadilloes once a fortnight in the
_curé's_ ear--he secluded in an edifice of chintz like a shower-bath,
they kneeling outside the curtain with the blank eyes of the Holy Mother
upon them, and the remote presence of a guardian-teacher out of hearing.
But he took an interest in them. No overt act of proselytism was
permitted in the school, but if an English girl liked vespers instead of
the second service at the Temple, her preference was not discouraged.
Bessie attended the Protestant ordinances at stated seasons, and went to
vespers and benediction besides. The _curé_ approved of her ingenuous
devotion. Once upon a time there had been Fairfaxes faithful children
of the Church: this young lady was an off-set of that house, its heiress
and hope in this generation; it would be a holy deed to bring her, the
mother perhaps of a new line, within its sacred pale.