workhouse, and Mr. Carnegie was not the doctor to neglect a sick poor
man for any business with a rich one that could wait. He had bidden his
wife receive the lawyer, and was leaving her to appoint the time when
Bessie directed his attention to her grandfather. With a sudden movement
he turned his horse, touched his hat with his whip-handle, and said,
"Sir, are you Mr. Fairfax?" The stranger assented. "Then here is our
Bessie, your granddaughter, ready to make your acquaintance. My wife
will see your agent. As for myself, I have an errand elsewhere this
morning." With that, and a reassuring nod to Bessie, the doctor started
off at a hard trot, and the two, thus summarily introduced, stood
confronting one another with a wall, the road, and a gate between them.
There was an absurdity in the situation that Bessie felt very keenly,
and blushes, mirth, and vexation flowed over her tell-tale visage as she
waited holding the gate, willing to obey if her grandfather called her,
or to stay till he came.

By a singular coincidence, while they were at a halt what to do or say,
Lady Latimer advanced up the village street, having walked a mile from
her house at Fairfield since breakfast. She was an early riser and a
great walker: her life must have been half as long again as the lives of
most ladies from the little portion of it she devoted to rest. She was
come to Beechhurst now on some business of school, or church, or parish,
which she assumed would, unless by her efforts, soon be at a deadlock.
But years will tell on the most vigorous frames, and my lady looked so
jaded that, if she had fallen in with Mr. Carnegie, he would have
reminded her, for her health's sake, that no woman is indispensable. She
gave Bessie that sweet smile which was flattering as a caress, and was
about to pass on when something wistful in the child's eyes arrested her
notice. She stopped and asked if there was any more news from Woldshire.
Bessie's round cheeks were two roses as she replied that her grandfather