Bessie's face clouded at a word of changes. "Don't fret, Bessie, we'll
none of us forget you," said the kind father. But this was too much for
her tender heart. She pushed back her chair and ran out of the room. For
the last hour the tears had been very near her eyes, and now they
overflowed. Mrs. Musgrave followed to comfort her.

"To go all amongst strangers!" sobbed Bessie; and her philosophy quite
failed her when that prospect recurred in its dreadful blankness.
Happily, the time of night did not allow of long lamentation. Presently
Harry called at the stair's foot that it was seven o'clock. And she
kissed his mother and bade Brook good-bye.

The walk home was through the Forest, between twilight and moonlight.
The young men talked and Bessie was silent. She had no favor towards
young Christie previously, but she liked his talk to-night and his
devotion to Harry Musgrave, and she enrolled him henceforward amongst
those friends and acquaintances of her happy childhood at Beechhurst
concerning whom inquiries were to be made in writing home when she was
far away.




CHAPTER IX.

_FAREWELL TO THE FOREST._


A few days after his meeting with Bessie Fairfax at Brook, young
Christie left at the doctor's door a neat, thin parcel addressed to her