d not be regretted, could not
be; hers was a character, and hers a smile, firmly assuring him of that.

He told Mr. Romfrey that he should be glad to meet Colonel Halkett and
Cecilia. Business called him to Holdesbury. Thence he betook himself to
Dr. Shrapnel's cottage to say farewell to Jenny Denham previous to her
departure for Switzerland with her friend Clara Sherwin. She had never
seen a snow-mountain, and it was pleasant to him to observe in her eyes,
which he had known weighing and balancing intellectual questions more
than he quite liked, a childlike effort to conjure in imagination the
glories of the Alps. She appeared very happy, only a little anxious about
leaving Dr. Shrapnel with no one to take care of him for a whole month.
Beauchamp promised he would run over to him from Holdesbury, only an hour
by rail, as often as he could. He envied her the sight of the Alps, he
said, and tried to give her an idea of them, from which he broke off to
boast of a famous little Jersey bull that he had won from a rival, an
American, deeply in love with the bull; cutting him out by telegraph by
just five minutes. The latter had examined the bull in the island and had
passed on to Paris, not suspecting there would be haste to sell him.
Beauchamp, seeing the bull advertized, took him on trust, galloped to the
nearest telegraph station forthwith, and so obtained possession of him;
and the bull was now shipped on the voyage. But for this precious bull,
however, and other business, he would have been able to spend almost the
entire month with Dr. Shrapnel, he said regretfully. Miss Denham on the
contrary did not regret his active occupation. The story of his rush from
the breakfast-table to the stables, and gallop away to the station, while
the American Quaker gentleman soberly paced down a street in Paris on the
same errand, in invisible rivalry, touched her risible fancy. She was
especially pleased to think of him living in harmony with his uncle--that
strange, lofty, powerful man, who by plot or by violence punished
opposition to his will, but who must be kind at heart, as well as
forethoughtful of his nephew's good; the assurance of it being, that when
the conflict was at an end he had immediately installed him as manager of
one of his estates, to give his energy play and make him practically
useful.

The day before she left home was passed by the three in botanizing, some
miles distant from Bevisham, over sand country, marsh