adaptation of the wing which contained the octagon parlor and
dining-room: from the outside the harmony of construction was not
disturbed. The library adjoined the banqueting-room on the north, and
overlooked a fine expanse where the naturalization of American trees and
shrubs had been the hobby of the Fairfaxes for more than one generation.
The flower-garden was formed in terraces on the south, and was a mixture
of Italian and old English taste. The walls were a mingled tapestry of
roses, jessamine, sweet clematis, and all climbing plants hardy enough
to bear the rigors of the northern winter. Trimmed in though ever so
closely in the fall of the year, in the summer it bushed and blossomed
out into a wantonly luxuriant, delicious variety of color and fragrance.
If here and there a bit of gray stone showed through the mass, it
seemed only to enhance the loveliness of the leaf and flower-work.

Bessie Fairfax stood to admire its glowing intricacy, and with a
remarkable effort of candor exclaimed, "I think this is as pretty as
anything in the Forest--as pretty as Fairfield or the manor-house at
Brook;" which amused her grandfather, for the south front of the old
mansion-house of Abbotsmead was one of the most grandly picturesque
specimens of domestic architecture to be found in the kingdom.

In such perambulations time slips away fast. The squire looked at his
watch. It was eleven o'clock; at half-past he was due at a magistrate's
meeting two miles off; he must leave Bessie to amuse herself until
luncheon at two. Bessie was contented to be left. She replied that she
would now go indoors and write to her mother. Her grandfather paused an
instant on her answer, then nodded acquiescence and went away in haste.
Was he disappointed that she said nothing spontaneous? Bessie did not
give that a thought, but she said in her letter, "I do believe that my
grandfather wishes me to be happy here"--a possibility which had not