"Now for your grandfather's companion, Bessie: what was he like?"

"I did not notice. He was like everybody else--like Mr. Judson at the
Hampton Bank."

"That would be our correspondent, the lawyer, Mr. John Short of
Norminster."

Mr. Carnegie dropt the subject after this. His wife launched at him a
deprecating look, as much as to say, Would there not be vexation enough
for them all, without encouraging Bessie to revolt against lawful
authority? The doctor, who was guided more than he knew, thereupon held
his peace.




CHAPTER VI.

_AGAINST HER INCLINATION._


Mr. Fairfax was not a man of sentimental recollections. Nevertheless, it
did occur to him, as the twilight deepened, that somewhere in the
encumbered churchyard that he was looking down upon lay his son Geoffry
and Geoffry's first wife, Elizabeth. He felt a very lonely old man as he
thought of it. None of his sons' marriages were to boast of, but
Geoffry's, as it turned out, was the least unfortunate of any--Geoffry's
marriage with Elizabeth Bulmer, that is. If he had not approved of that
lady, he had tolerated her--pity that he had not tolerated her a little