effect that Mr. Frederick Fairfax would be at Havre with his yacht on or
about a certain day, that he would come to Caen and himself take charge
of his niece, and carry her home by sea--to Scarcliffe understood, for
Kirkham was full twenty miles from the coast.

"Oh, how sorry I am! how sorry they will be in the Forest!" cried
Bessie. "Is there no help for it?"

Madame was afraid there was no help for it--nothing for it but
submission and obedience. And Bessie wrote to revoke all the cheerful
promises and prospects that she had held out to her friends at
Beechhurst.




CHAPTER XIII.

_BESSIE LEARNS A FAMILY SECRET._


Canon Fournier went to Étretât by himself, for madame was bound to
escort her pupil to Caen, to prepare her for her departure to England,
and with her own hands to remit her into those of her friends. Caen is
suffocatingly hot in August--dusty, empty, dull. Mr. Frederick
Fairfax's beautiful yacht, the Foam, was in port at Havre, but it was
understood that a week would elapse before it could be ready to go to
sea again. It had met with some misadventure and wanted repairs. Mr.
Frederick Fairfax came on to Caen, and presented himself in the Rue St.
Jean, where he saw Bessie in the garden. Two chairs were brought out for