They went walking hither and thither about the steep, windy streets.  Bessie fell behind.  Now and then there was an encounter with other gentlemen, brief, energetic speech, inquiry and answer, sally and rejoinder, all with one common subject of interest—­the Norminster election.  Scarcliffe is a fine town, and there was much gay company abroad that afternoon, but Bessie was too miserable to be amused.  Her uncle Laurence was the one of the party who was so fortunate as to discover this.  He turned round on a sudden recollection of his stranger niece, and surprised a most desolate look on her rosy face.  Bessie confessed her feelings by the grateful humility of her reply to his considerate proposal that they should turn in at a confectioner’s they were passing and have a cup of tea.

“My father is as full of this election as if he were going to contest the city of Norminster himself,” said he.  “I hope you have a blue bonnet?  You will have to play your part.  Beautiful ladies are of great service in these affairs.”

Bessie had not a blue bonnet; her bonnet was white chip and pink may—­the enemy’s colors.  She must put it by till the end of the war.  Tea and thick bread and butter were supplied to the hungry couple, and about four o’clock Mr. Fairfax called for them and hurried them off to the train.  Mr. Laurence went on to Norminster, dropping the squire and Elizabeth at Mitford Junction.  Thence they had a drive of four miles through a country of long-backed, rounded hills, ripening cornfields, and meadows green with the rich aftermath, and full of cattle.  The sky above was high and clear, the air had a crispness that was exhilarating.  The sun set in scarlet splendor, and the reflection of its glory was shed over the low levels of lawn, garden, and copse, which, lying on either side of a shallow, devious river, kept still the name of Abbotsmead that had belonged to them before the great monastery at Kirkham was dissolved.

Mr. Fairfax was in good-humor now, and recovered from his momentary loss of self-possession at the sight of his granddaughter so thoroughly grown up.  Also, election business at Norminster was going as he would have it, and bowling smoothly along in the quiet, early evening he had time to think of Elizabeth, sitting bolt upright in the carriage beside him.  She had a pretty, pensive air, for which he saw no cause—­only the excitement of novelty staved off depression—­and in his sarcastic vein, with doubtful compliment, he said, “I did not expect to see you grown so tall, Elizabeth.  You look as healthy as a milkmaid.”

She was very quick and sensitive of feeling.  She understood him perfectly, and replied that she was as healthy as a milkmaid.  Then she reverted to her wistful contemplation of the landscape, and tried to think of that and not of herself, which was too pathetic.