“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.”

“You are young, Bessie Fairfax, and it is easy for you to hope that everything will turn out for the best, but it is a sore trial for his father and me to have our expectation taken away.  If Harry would have been advised when he left college, he would never have gone to London.  But it is no use talking of that now.  I wish we could see what he is to do for a living; he will fret his heart out doing nothing at Brook.”

“Oh, Mrs. Musgrave, with a quire of paper and one of your gray goosequills Harry will be preserved from the mischief of doing nothing.  You must let me come over and cheer him sometimes.”

“If things had turned out different with my poor son, all might have been different.  You have a good, affectionate disposition, Bessie, and there is nobody Harry prizes as he prizes you; but a young man whose health is indifferent and who has no prospects—­what is that for a young lady?” Mrs. Musgrave began to cry.

“Don’t cry, dear Mrs. Musgrave; if you cry, that will hurt Harry worse than anything,” said Bessie energetically.  “He feels his disappointment more for his father and you than for himself.  His health is not so bad but that it will mend; and as for his prospects, it is not wise to impress upon him that the cloud he is under now may never disperse.  ’A cheerful heart doeth good like a medicine.’  Have a cheerful heart again.  It will come with trying.”

They had not yet met Mr. Musgrave, though they were nearly a mile on the road, but Bessie would not permit the poor mother to walk any farther with her.  They parted with a kiss.  “And God for ever bless you, Bessie Fairfax, if you have it in your heart to be to Harry what nobody else can be,” said his mother, laying her tremulous hands on the girl’s shoulders.  Bessie kissed her again and went on her way rejoicing.  This was one of the happiest hours her life had ever known.  She was not tempted to dwell wantonly on the dark side of events present, and there were so many brighter possibilities in the future that she could entirely act out the divine precept to let the morrow take thought for the things of itself.