"Indeed I will!" And on this they clasped hands fervently.
"Bessie, can we go to Italy together this winter? I dare not go alone: I
must have you to take care of me," pleaded Harry.
"I will take care of you, Harry." Bessie was smiling, tearful, blushing,
and Harry said she was a dear, good girl, and he thanked her.
After that there was some exposition of ways and means, and Bessie,
growing rosier and rosier, told Harry the story of that famous nest-egg,
concerning which she had been put to the blush before. He was very glad
to hear of it--very glad indeed, and much relieved, for it would make
that easy which he had been dwelling on as most of all desirable, but
hampered with difficulties that he could not himself remove. To see him
cheer up at this practical point was delightful to Bessie; it was like
his generous warm heart, equally open to give and to receive. She felt
almost too happy, and blessed the simple forethought of the doctor which
would justify them in remitting all care and anxiety to a future at
least two years off, and afford Harry leisure and opportunity to regain
his health and courage, and look about him for another vocation than
that he had chosen originally.
"And you will find it, Harry, and perhaps you will love it better than
London and dusty law. I am sure I shall," prophesied Bessie gayly.
Harry laughed at her obstinate prejudice; she pointed out that the
result had proved it a shrewd prejudice; and then they fell upon Italy
and talked travel-talk with the sanguine anticipations of young people
endowed with limitless curiosity and a genuine taste for simple
pleasures and each other's society. Harry's classical learning would be
everywhere available for the enhancement of these pleasures.
At this stage of their previsions Mrs. Musgrave intervened, and Bessie
became conscious that the shades of evening were stealing over the
landscape. Mrs. Musgrave had on her bonnet, and was prepared to walk
with Bessie on the road to Fairfield until they should meet Mr. Musgrave
returning from Hampton, who would accompany her the rest of the way.
Harry wished to go in his mother's stead, but she was peremptory in
bidding him stay where he was, and Bessie supported her. "No, Harry, not
to-night--another time," she said, and he yielded at once.
"I'm sure his mother thanks you," said Mrs. Musgrave as they went out.
"He was so jaded this morning when he arrived that the tears came into
his eyes at a word, and Mr. Carnegie said that showed how thoroughly
done he is."
Tears in Harry's eyes! Bessie thought of him with a most pitiful
tenderness. "Oh," she said, "we must all be good to him: he does not
look so ill to me as he looks tired. We must keep up his spirits and his
hope for himself. I see no cause for despair."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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