The Vicissitudes of Bessie Fairfax

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The Vicissitudes of Bessie Fairfax

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by Holme Lee and Harriet Parr This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: The Vicissitudes of Bessie Fairfax
Author: Holme Lee and Harriet Parr
Release Date: November 17, 2005 [EBook #17086]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE VICISSITUDES OF BESSIE FAIRFAX.
A NOVEL.
BY
HOLME LEE
(MISS HARRIET PARR),
AUTHOR OF "SYLVAN HOLT'S DAUGHTER," "KATHIE BRAND," ETC.
"Not what we could wish, but what we must even put up with."
PHILADELPHIA:
PORTER & COATES.

CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
I. HER BIRTH AND PARENTAGE 5 II. THE LAWYER'S LETTER 10 III. THE COMMUNITY OF BEECHHURST 15 IV. A RIDE WITH THE DOCTOR 29 V. GREAT-ASH FORD 37 VI. AGAINST HER INCLINATION 46 VII. HER FATE IS SEALED 59 VIII. BESSIE'S FRIENDS AT BROOK 65 IX. FAREWELL TO THE FOREST 77 X. BESSIE GOES INTO EXILE 80 XI. SCHOOL-DAYS AT CAEN 89 XII. IN COURSE OF TIME 98 XIII. BESSIE LEARNS A FAMILY SECRET 112 XIV. ON BOARD THE "FOAM" 117 XV. A LITTLE CHAPTER BY THE WAY 124 XVI. A LOST OPPORTUNITY 127 XVII. BESSIE'S BRINGING HOME 135 XVIII. THE NEXT MORNING 145 XIX. NEIGHBORS TO ABBOTSMEAD 152 XX. PAST AND PRESENT 160 XXI. A DISCOVERY 170 XXII. PRELIMINARIES 177 XXIII. BESSIE SHOWS CHARACTER 188 XXIV. A QUIET POLICY 194 XXV. A DINNER AT BRENTWOOD 198 XXVI. A MORNING AT BRENTWOOD 209 XXVII. SOME DOUBTS AND FEARS 216 XXVIII. IN MINSTER COURT 223 XXIX. LADY LATIMER IN WOLDSHIRE 228 XXX. MY LADY REVISITS OLD SCENES 235 XXXI. A SUCCESS AND A REPULSE 241 XXXII. A HARD STRUGGLE 254 XXXIII. A VISIT TO CASTLEMOUNT 256 XXXIV. BESSIE'S PEACEMAKING 266 XXXV. ABBOTSMEAD IN SHADOW 273 XXXVI. DIPLOMATIC 282 XXXVII. SUNDAY MORNING AT BEECHHURST 285 XXXVIII. SUNDAY EVENING AT BROOK 294 XXXIX. AT FAIRFIELD 305 XL. ANOTHER RIDE WITH THE DOCTOR 311 XLI. FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES 318 XLII. HOW FRIENDS MAY FALL OUT 323 XLIII. BETWEEN THEMSELVES 328 XLIV. A LONG DULL DAY 336 XLV. THE SQUIRE'S WILL 343 XLVI. TENDER AND TRUE 349 XLVII. GOODNESS PREVAILS 360 XLVIII. CERTAIN OPINIONS 365 XLIX. BESSIE'S LAST RIDE WITH THE DOCTOR 372 L. FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE 381

THE VICISSITUDES OF BESSIE FAIRFAX.
CHAPTER I.
_HER BIRTH AND PARENTAGE._
The years have come and gone at Beechhurst as elsewhere, but the results of time and change seem to have almost passed it by. Every way out of the scattered forest-town is still through beautiful forest-roads--roads that cleave grand avenues, traverse black barren heaths, ford shallow rivers, and climb over ferny knolls whence the sea is visible. The church is unrestored, the parsonage is unimproved, the long low house opposite is still the residence of Mr. Carnegie, the local doctor, and looks this splendid summer morning precisely as it looked in the splendid summer mornings long ago, when Bessie Fairfax was a little girl, and lived there, and was very happy.
Bessie was not akin to the doctor. Her birth and parentage were on this wise. Her father was Geoffry, the third and youngest son of Mr. Fairfax of Abbotsmead in Woldshire. Her mother was Elizabeth, only child of the Reverend Thomas Bulmer, vicar of Kirkham. Their marriage was a love-match, concluded when they had something less than the experience of forty years between them. The gentleman had his university debts besides to begin life with, the lady had nothing. As the shortest way to a living he went into the Church, and the birth of their daughter was contemporary with Geoffry's ordination. His father-in-law gave him a title for orders, and a lodging under his roof, and Mr. Fairfax grudgingly allowed his son two hundred a year for a maintenance.
The young couple were lively and handsome. They had done a foolish thing, but their friends agreed to condone their folly. Before very long a south-country benefice, the rectory of Beechhurst, was put in Geoffry's way, and he gayly removed with his wife and child to that desirable home of their own. They were poor, but they were perfectly contented. Nature is sometimes very kind in making up to people for the want of fortune by an excellent gift of good spirits and good courage. She was very kind in this way to Geoffry Fairfax and his wife Elizabeth; so kind that everybody wondered with great amazement what possessed that laughing, rosy woman to fall off in health, and die soon after the birth of a second daughter, who died also, and