1 files changed, 10134 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/25727-8.txt b/25727-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ddb760f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/25727-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,10134 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Vagabondia, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world 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.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll
+have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using
+this ebook.
+
+
+
+Title: Vagabondia       1884
+
+Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett
+
+Release Date: June 8, 2008 [EBook #25727]
+Last Updated: December 28, 2015
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VAGABONDIA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+VAGABONDIA
+
+By Frances Hodgson Burnett
+
+JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY - 1884
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+
+AUTHOR'S NOTE.
+
+VAGABONDIA.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I. ~ IN WHICH WE HOLD COUNSEL.
+
+CHAPTER II ~ IN THE CAMPS OF THE PHILISTINES.
+
+CHAPTER III. ~ IN WHICH THE TRAIN IS LAID.
+
+CHAPTER IV. ~ A LILY OF THE FIELD.
+
+CHAPTER V. ~ IN WHICH THE PHILISTINES BE UPON US.
+
+CHAPTER VI. ~ "WANTED, A YOUNG PERSON."
+
+CHAPTER VII. ~ IN WHICH A SPARK IS APPLIED.
+
+CHAPTER VIII. ~ THE BEGINNING OF THE ENDING.
+
+CHAPTER IX. ~ IN WHICH WE ARE UNORTHODOX.
+
+CHAPTER X. ~ IN SLIPPERY PLACES.
+
+CHAPTER XI. ~ IN WHICH COMES A WIND WHICH BLOWS NOBODY GOOD.
+
+CHAPTER XII. ~ IN WHICH THERE IS AN EXPLOSION.
+
+CHAPTER XIII ~ A DEAD LETTER.
+
+CHAPTER XIV. ~ SEVEN LONG YEARS, BELOVED, SEVEN LONG YEARS.
+
+CHAPTER XV. ~ IN WHICH WE TRY SWITZERLAND.
+
+CHAPTER XVI. ~ IF YOU SHOULD DIE.
+
+CHAPTER XVII. ~ DO YOU KNOW THAT SHE IS DYING?
+
+CHAPTER XVIII. ~ GRIF!
+
+CHAPTER XIX. ~ ROSE COLOR.
+
+
+
+AUTHOR'S NOTE.
+
+This my first novel was written several years ago, and published
+(without any revision by me) first in a ladies' magazine under the name
+of "Dorothea," and afterwards in book form as "Dolly." For reasons not
+necessary to state here, all control over the book had passed from
+my hands. It has been for some time out of print; but, having at last
+obtained control of the copyright, I have made such corrections as
+seemed advisable, given it the name I originally intended for it, and
+now issue it through my regular publishers.
+
+FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT.
+
+Washington, November, 1883.
+
+
+
+VAGABONDIA.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I. ~ IN WHICH WE HOLD COUNSEL.
+
+It was a nondescript sort of a room, taking it altogether. A big, sunny
+room, whose once handsome papering and corniceing had grown dingy, and
+whose rich carpeting had lost its color and pile in places, and yet
+asserted its superiority to its surroundings with an air of lost
+grandeur in every shabby medallion. There were pictures in abundance on
+the walls, and more than one of them were gems in their way, despite the
+evidence all bore to being the work of amateurs. The tables were carved
+elaborately, and the faded, brocaded chairs were of the order _pouf_,
+and as inviting as they were disreputable in appearance; there was
+manuscript music among the general litter, a guitar hung from the wall
+by a tarnished blue and silver ribbon, and a violin lay on the piano;
+and yet, notwithstanding the air of free-and-easy disorder, one could
+hardly help recognizing a sort of vagabond comfort and luxury in the
+Bohemian surroundings. It was so very evident that the owners must enjoy
+life in an easy, light-hearted, though perhaps light-headed fashion; and
+it was also so very evident that their light hearts and light heads rose
+above their knowledge of their light purses.
+
+They were congregated together now, holding a grand family council
+around the centre-table, and Dolly was the principal feature, as usual;
+and, embarrassing as the subject of said council was, not one of them
+looked as if it was other than a most excellent joke that Dolly, having
+been invited into the camps of the Philistines, should find she had
+nothing to put on to grace the occasion. And as to Dolly,--well, that
+young person stood in the midst of them in her shabby, Frenchy little
+hat, slapping one pink palm with a shabby, shapely kid glove, her eyes
+alight, her comical dismay and amusement displaying itself even in the
+arch of her brows.
+
+"And so the Philistine leader pounced upon me herself," she was saying.
+"You know the 'Ark,' Phil? Well, they were all in the Ark,--the Rev.
+Bilberry in front, and the boys and girls filling up the corners; so you
+may imagine the effect produced when they stopped, and Lady Augusta
+bent over the side to solemnly proclaim her intention of inviting me
+to partake of coffee and conversation on Friday night, with an air of
+severely wondering whether I would dare to say 'No!'"
+
+"Why did n't you say it?" said Aimée. "You know it will be an awful
+bore, Dolly. Those Bilberry clan gatherings always are. You have said so
+yourself often enough."
+
+"Of course I have," returned Dolly. "And of course it will be, but
+it would be dreadfully indiscreet to let the Bilberry element know I
+thought so. The Bilberry doors once closed against us, where is our
+respectability, and Phil's chance of success among the Philistines? It
+is bad enough, of course, but there is reason to be thankful that I am
+the only victim. The rest of you would be sure to blunder into the B.
+B. B.'s [meaning the Bilberry black books], and that _would_ be an
+agreeable state of affairs. 'Toinette, look at Tod, he is sitting in the
+coal-box eating Phil's fusees."
+
+In 'Toinette we find Mrs. Phil, a handsome creature, young enough to
+have been in the school-room, but with the face and figure of a Greek
+goddess, and a pair of eyes lovely enough to haunt one's dreams as a
+memory for a lifetime, and as to the rest, an inconsistent young madcap,
+whose beauty and spirit seemed only a necessary part of the household
+arrangements, and whose son and heir, in the person of the enterprising
+Tod (an abbreviate of Theodore), was the source of unlimited domestic
+enjoyment and the object of much indiscreet adoration. It was just like
+Philip Crewe, this marrying on probabilities; and it was equally like
+the rest of them to accept the state of affairs as an excellent joke,
+and regard the result as an exquisite piece of pleasantry. 'Toinette
+herself was only another careless, unworldly addition to the family
+circle, and enjoyed her position as thoroughly as the rest did; and as
+to Tod, what a delicate satire upon responsibilities Tod was, and how
+tranquilly he comported himself under a _régime_ which admitted of free
+access into dangerous places, and a lack of personal restraint which
+allowed him all the joys the infantile mind can revel in!
+
+At Dolly's exclamation Toinette rushed at him in his stronghold, and
+extricated him from the coal-box with demonstrations of dismay.
+
+"Look at his white dress!" she wailed pathetically. "I only put it on a
+few minutes ago; and he has eaten two dozen fusees, if this was n't an
+empty box when he found it. I hope they won't disagree with him, Phil."
+
+"They won't," said Phil, composedly. "Nothing does. Dust him, and
+proceed to business. I want to hear the rest of Dolly's story."
+
+"I _think_," said Mollie, "that he ate Shem and Ham this morning, for I
+could only find Japheth after he had been playing with his Noah's Ark.
+Go on, Dolly."
+
+"Wait until I have taken off my things," said Dolly, "and then we 'll
+talk it over. We must talk it over, you know, if I am to go."
+
+She took off her hat, and then laid her shawl aside,--a little scarlet
+shawl, draped about her figure and tossed over one shoulder smartly,
+and by no means ungracefully,--and so stood revealed; and it must be
+admitted she was well worth looking at. Not a beauty, but a fresh,
+wholesome little body, with a real complexion, an abundance of hair,
+and large-irised, wide-awake eyes, changeable as to color, because
+capricious in expression; the sort of girl, in fact, who would be likely
+to persuade people ultimately that, considering circumstances, absolute
+beauty could be easily dispensed with, and, upon the whole, would rather
+detract from the general charm of novelty, which, in her case, reigned
+supreme.
+
+"It is n't the mere fact of being a beauty that makes women popular,"
+she would say; "it's the being able to persuade people that you are
+one,--or better than one. Don't some historians tell us that Cleopatra
+had red hair and questionable eyes, and yet she managed to blind the
+world so completely, that no one is sure whether it is true or not, and
+to this day the generality of people are inclined to believe that it
+was her supernatural beauty that dragged Marc Antony to the dust at her
+feet."
+
+Aimée's face was more nearly perfect than Dolly's; Mollie's was more
+imposing, child as she was; 'Toinette threw her far into the shade in
+the matter of statuesque splendor; but still it was Dolly who did all
+the difficult things, and had divers tragic adventures with questionable
+adorers, whose name was legion, and who were a continual source of
+rejoicing and entertainment to the family.
+
+Having tossed hat and shawl on to the table, among the manuscript music,
+paint-brushes, and palettes, this young person slipped into the most
+comfortable chair near the fire, and, having waited for the rest to
+seat themselves, proceeded to open the council. Mollie, who was sixteen,
+large, fair, beautiful, and not as tidy as she might have been, dropped
+into a not ungraceful position at her feet. Aimée, who was a little
+maiden with a tender, _spirituelle_ face, and all the forethought of
+the family, sat near, with some grave perplexity in her expression.
+'Toinette and Tod, _posed_ in the low nursery-chair,--the girl's firm,
+white arm flung around the child,--swung lightly to and fro, fit models
+for an artist.
+
+"You would make a first-class picture,--the lot of you," commented Phil,
+amicably.
+
+"Never mind the picture," said Mollie, drawing her disreputable slippers
+up under her wrapper. "We want to hear how Dolly thinks of going to
+the Bilberrys'. Oh, Dolly, how heavenly it would be if you had a
+turquoise-blue sat--"
+
+"Heavenly!" interrupted Dolly. "I should think so. Particularly
+celestial for Lady Augusta, who looks mahogany-colored in it, and
+peculiarly celestial for a poor relation from Vagabondia. It would be
+as much as my reputation was worth. She would never forgive me. You must
+learn discretion, Mollie."
+
+"There is some consolation in knowing you can't get it," said 'Toinette.
+"You won't be obliged to deny yourself or be indiscreet. But what _are_
+you going to wear, Dolly?"
+
+"That is for the council to decide," Dolly returned. "First, we must
+settle on what we want, and then we must settle on the way to get it."
+
+"Other people go the other way about it," said Aimée.
+
+"If we were only rich!" said Mollie.
+
+"But it is a most glaringly patent fact that we are not," said Dolly.
+"There is one thing certain, however,--it must be white."
+
+"A simple white muslin," suggested 'Toinette, struggling in the grasp of
+the immortal Tod,--"a simple white muslin, with an equally simple wild
+flower in your hair, _à la_ Amanda Fitzallan. How the Dowager Bilberry
+_would_ like that."
+
+"And a wide blue sash," suggested Mollie. "And the sleeves tied up with
+bows. _And_ tucks, Dolly. Girls, just think of Dolly making great eyes
+at an eligible Philistine, in white muslin and a sash and tucks!"
+
+She was a hardened little sinner, this Dolly, her only redeeming point
+being that she was honest enough about her iniquities,--so honest
+that they were really not such terrible iniquities after all, and were
+regarded as rather good fun by the _habitués_ of Vagabondia proper. She
+laughed just as heartily as the rest of them at Mollie's speech. She
+could no more resist the temptation of making great eyes at eligible
+Philistines than she could help making them at the entertaining but
+highly ineligible Bohemians, who continually frequented Phil's studio.
+The fear of man was not before her eyes; and the life she had led had
+invested her with a whimsical yet shrewd knowledge of human nature, and
+a business-like habit of looking matters in the face, which made her
+something of a novelty; and when is not novelty irresistible? And as to
+the masculine Philistines,--well, the audacity of Dolly's successes in
+the very midst of the enemy's camp had been the cause of much stately
+demoralization of Philistine battalions.
+
+At her quietest she created small sensations and attracted attention;
+but in her wicked moods, when she was in a state of mind to prompt her
+to revenge the numerous small slights and overt acts of lofty patronage
+she met with, the dowagers stood in some secret awe of her propensities,
+and not without reason. Woe betide the daring matron who measured swords
+with her at such times. Great would be her confusion and dire her fall
+before the skirmish was over, and nothing was more certain than that she
+would retire from the field a wiser if not a better woman. After being
+triumphantly routed with great slaughter on two or three occasions,
+the enemy had discovered this, and decided mentally that it was more
+discreet to let "little Miss Crewe" alone, considering that, though it
+was humiliating to be routed, even by one of their own forces, it was
+infinitely more so to be routed by an innocent-looking young person,
+whose position was questionable, and who actually owed her vague shadow
+of respectability to her distant but august relative, the Lady Augusta
+Decima Crewe Bilberry, wife of the Rev. Marmaduke Sholto Bilberry, and
+mother of the plenteous crop of young Bilberrys, to whom little Miss
+Crewe was music teacher and morning governess.
+
+So it was that Mollie's joke about the tucks and white muslin gained
+additional point from the family recollection of past experiences.
+
+"But," said Dolly, when the laugh had subsided, "it won't do to
+talk nonsense all day. Here 's where we stand, you know. Coffee and
+conversation on Friday night on one side, and nothing but my draggled
+old green tarlatan on the other, and it's Tuesday now."
+
+"And the family impecuniosity being a fact well established in the
+family mind," began Phil, with composure.
+
+"But that 's nonsense," interrupted Aimée. "And, as Dolly says, nonsense
+won't do now. But," with a quaint sigh, "we always _do_ talk nonsense."
+
+But here a slight diversion was created. Mrs. Phil jumped up, with
+an exclamation of delight, and, dropping Tod on to Mollie's lap,
+disappeared through the open door.
+
+"I will be back in a minute," she called back to them, as she ran
+up-stairs. "I have just thought of something."
+
+"Girls," said Mollie, "it's her white merino."
+
+And so it was. In a few minutes she reappeared with it,--a heap of soft
+white folds in her arms, and a yard or so of the train dragging after
+her upon the carpet,--the one presentable relic of a once inconsistently
+elaborate bridal trousseau, at present in a rather tumbled and rolled-up
+condition, but still white and soft and thick, and open to unlimited
+improvement.
+
+"I had forgotten all about it," she said, triumphantly. "I have never
+needed it at all, and I knew I never should when I bought it, but it
+looked so nice when I saw it that I could n't help buying it. I once
+thought of cutting it up into things for Tod; but it seems to me, Dolly,
+it 's what you want exactly, and Tod can trust to Providence,--things
+always come somehow."
+
+It was quite characteristic of Vagabondia that there should be more
+rejoicing over this one stray sheep of good luck than there would have
+been over any ninety and nine in the ordinary folds of more prosperous
+people. And Mrs. Phil rejoiced as heartily as the rest. It was her turn
+now, and she was as ready to sacrifice her white merino on the shrine
+of the household impecuniosity as she would be to borrow Dolly's best
+bonnet, or Mollie's shoes, or Aimée's gloves, when occasion demanded
+such a course. So the merino was laid upon the table, and the council
+rose to examine, comment, and suggest.
+
+"A train," said Dolly, concisely; "no trimming, and swan's-down. Even
+the Bilberry could n't complain of that, I 'm sure."
+
+Mollie, resting her smooth white elbows on the table in a comfortably
+lounging posture, regarded the garment with great longing in her drowsy
+brown eyes.
+
+"I wish it was white satin," she observed, somewhat irrelevantly, "and
+I was going to wear it at a real ball, with real lace, you know, and a
+court train, and flowers, and a fan."
+
+Dolly looked down at her handsome childish face good-naturedly. She
+was such an incongruous mixture of beauty and utter simplicity, this
+easy-going baby of sixteen, that Dolly could not have helped liking her
+heartily under any circumstances, even supposing there had been no tie
+of relationship between them.
+
+"I wish it was white satin and you were going to wear it," she said.
+"White satin is just the sort of thing for you, Mollie. Never mind, wait
+until the figurative ship comes in."
+
+"And in the interval," suggested Aimée, "put a stitch or so in that
+wrapper of yours. It has been torn for a week now, and Tod tumbles over
+it half a dozen times every morning before breakfast."
+
+Mollie cast her eyes over her shoulder to give it an indifferent glance
+as it rested on the faded carpet behind her.
+
+"I wish Lady Augusta would mend things before she sends them to us," she
+said, with sublime _naïveté_, and then, at the burst of laughter which
+greeted her words, she stopped short, staring at the highly entertained
+circle with widely opened, innocent eyes. "What are you laughing at?"
+she said. "I 'm sure she might. She is always preaching about liking to
+have something to occupy her time, and it would be far more charitable
+of her to spend her time in that way than in persistently going into
+poor houses where the people don't want her, and reading tracts to them
+that they don't want to hear."
+
+Dolly's appreciation of the audacity of the idea reached a climax in an
+actual shriek of delight.
+
+"If I had five pounds, which I have not, and never shall have," she
+said, "I would freely give it just to see Lady Augusta hear you say
+that, my dear. Five pounds! I would give ten--twenty--fifty, if need be.
+It would be such an exquisite joke."
+
+But Mollie did not regard the matter in this light. To her
+unsophisticated mind Lady Augusta represented nothing more than
+periodical boredom in the shape of occasional calls, usually made
+unexpectedly, when the house was at its worst, and nobody was especially
+tidy,--calls invariably enlivened by severe comments upon the evil
+propensities of poor relations in general, and the shocking lack of
+respectability in this branch of the order in particular. Worldly wisdom
+was not a family trait, Dolly's half-whimsical assumption of it being
+the only symptom of the existence of such a gift, and Mollie was the
+most sublimely thoughtless of the lot. Mrs. Phil had never been guilty
+of a discreet act in her life. Phil himself regarded consequences less
+than he regarded anything else, and Aimée's childish staidness and
+forethought had certainly not an atom of worldliness in it. Accordingly,
+Dolly was left to battle with society, and now and then, it must be
+admitted, the result of her brisk affrays did her no small credit.
+
+For a very short space of time the merino was being disposed of to an
+advantage; Dolly seating herself in her chair again to renovate the
+skirt; Aimée unpicking the bodice, and Mollie looking on with occasional
+comments.
+
+"Here is Griffith," she said, at last, glancing over her shoulder at
+a figure passing the window; and the next minute the door was opened
+without ceremony, and "Grif" made his appearance upon the scene.
+
+Being called upon to describe Griffith Donne, one would hardly feel
+inclined to describe him as being imposing in personal appearance. He
+was a thin, undersized young man, rather out at elbows and shabby of
+attire, and with a decided air of Bohemia about him; but his youthful
+face was singularly pleasing and innocent, and his long-lashed,
+brown-black eyes were more than good-looking,--they were absolutely
+beautiful in a soft, pathetic way,--beautiful as the eyes of the
+loveliest of women.
+
+He came into the room as if he was used to coming into it in an
+every-day fashion; and Dolly, looking up, gave him a smile and a nod.
+
+"Ah, you are all here, are you?" he said. "What is on hand now? What is
+all this white stuff for?" And he drew a chair up close by Dolly's side,
+and lifted the merino in his hand.
+
+"For Friday night," answered Aimée. "Bilberry's again, Griffith. Coffee
+and conversation this time."
+
+Griffith looked at Dolly inquiringly, but Dolly only laughed and
+shrugged her plump shoulders wickedly.
+
+"Look here," he said, with a disapproving air, "it ain't true, is it,
+Dolly? You are not going to make a burnt-offering of yourself on the
+Bilberry shrine again, are you?"
+
+But Dolly only laughed the more as she took the merino from him.
+
+"If you want a breadth of merino to hold, take another one," she
+said. "I want that. And as to being a burnt-offering on the shrine of
+Bilberry, my dear Griffith, you must know it is policy," and immediately
+went on with her unpicking again, while Griffith, bending over in an
+attitude more remarkable for ease than grace, looked on at her sharp
+little glancing scissors with an appearance of great interest.
+
+It would perhaps be as well to pause here to account for this young
+man's evident freedom in the family circle. It was very plain that he
+was accustomed to coming and going when he pleased, and it was easy to
+be adduced from his manner that, to him, Dolly was the chief attraction
+in the establishment. The fact was, he was engaged to Dolly, and had
+been engaged to her for years, and in all probability, unless his
+prospects altered their aspect, would be engaged to her for years to
+come. In past time, when both were absurdly young, and ought to have
+been at school, the two had met,--an impressionable, good-natured,
+well-disposed couple of children, who fell in love with each other
+unreasoningly and honestly, giving no thought to the future. They
+were too young to be married, of course, and indeed had not troubled
+themselves about anything so matter of fact; they had fallen in love,
+and enjoyed it, and, strange to say, had been enjoying it ever since,
+and falling in love more deeply every day of their affectionate,
+inconsequent, free-and-easy lives. What did it matter to them that
+neither owned a solitary sixpence, for which they had not a thousand
+uses? What did it matter to Dolly that Griffith's literary career had so
+far been so unremunerative that a new suit is as an event, and an extra
+shilling an era? What did it matter to Griffith that Dolly's dresses
+were re-trimmed and re-turned and re-furbished, until their reappearance
+with the various seasons was the opening of a High Carnival of jokes?
+Love is not a matter of bread and butter in Vagabondia, thank Heaven!
+Love is left to Bohemia as well as to barren Respectability, and, as
+Griffith frequently observed with no slight enthusiasm, "When it comes
+to figure, where's the feminine Philistine whose silks and satins and
+purple and fine raiment fit like Dolly's do?" So it went on, and the
+two adored each other with mutual simplicity, and, having their little
+quarrels, always made them up again with much affectionate remorse, and,
+scorning the prudential advice of outsiders, believed in each other and
+the better day which was to come, when one or the other gained worldly
+goods enough to admit of a marriage in which they were to be happy in
+their own way,--which, I may add, was a way simple and tender, unselfish
+and faithful, enough.
+
+It was quite evident, however, that Griffith was not in the best of
+spirits this morning. He was not as sanguine as Dolly by nature, and
+outward influences tended rather to depress him occasionally. But he
+never was so low-spirited that Dolly could not cheer him, consequently
+he always came to her with his troubles; and to her credit, be it said,
+she never failed to understand and deal with them tenderly, commonplace
+though they were. So she understood his mood very well to-day. Something
+had gone wrong at "the office." ("The office" was the editorial den
+which swallowed him up, and held him in bondage from morning until
+night; appropriating his labor for a very small pecuniary compensation,
+too, it may be added.) "Old Flynn," as the principal was respectfully
+designated, had been creating one of his periodical disturbances, or he
+had been snubbed, which, by the way, was not a rare event, and to poor
+Griffith slights were stings and patronage poison. He could not laugh at
+the enemy and scorn discomfiture as Dolly could, and the consequence of
+an encounter with the Philistines on his part was usually a desperate
+fit of low spirits, which made him wretched, bitter, and gloomy by
+turns.
+
+This morning it appeared that his spirits had reached their lowest ebb,
+and before many minutes had passed he was pouring forth his tribulations
+with much frankness and simplicity. Mr. Griffith Donne's principal trial
+was the existence of an elderly maiden aunt, who did not approve of him,
+and was in the habit of expressing her disapproval in lengthy epistolary
+correspondence, invariably tending to severe denunciation of his mode of
+life, and also invariably terminating with the announcement that unless
+he "desisted" (from what, or in what manner, not specified) she should
+consider it her bounden duty to disinherit him forthwith. One of these
+periodical epistles, having arrived before he had breakfasted, had
+rather destroyed Griffith's customary equanimity, and various events of
+the morning had not improved his frame of mind; consequently he came to
+Dolly for comfort.
+
+"And she's coming to London, too," he ended, after favoring the
+assemblage with extracts from the letter. "And, of course, she will
+expect me to do the dutiful. Confound her money! I wish she would build
+an asylum for irate, elderly spinsters with it, and retire into it
+for the remainder of her natural life. I don't want it, and"--with
+praiseworthy ingenuousness--"I shouldn't get it if I did!"
+
+"But," said Dolly, when they found themselves alone for a few minutes,
+"it would be an agreeable sort of thing to have, Griffith, upon the
+whole, wouldn't it?"
+
+They were standing close together by the fire, Griffith with his arm
+thrown round the girl's waist, and she with both her plump, flexible
+hands clasped on his shoulder and her chin resting on them, and her big,
+round eyes gazing up into his. She was prone to affectionate, nestling
+attitudes and coaxing ways--with Griffith it may be understood--her
+other adorers were treated cavalierly enough.
+
+"A nice sort of thing," echoed Griffith. "I should think it would. I
+should like to have it for your sake. I don't care for it so much for
+myself, you know, Dolly, but I want the time to come when I can buy you
+such things as Old Flynn's nieces wear. It would n't be a waste of good
+material on such a figure as yours. I have an idea of my own about a
+winter dress I intend you to have when we are rich,--a dark blue velvet,
+and a hat with a white plume in, and one of those muff affairs made of
+long white silky fur--"
+
+"Angora," said Dolly, her artless enjoyment of the idea shining in her
+eyes. "Angora, Griffith."
+
+"I don't know what it's called," answered Griffith, "but it is exactly
+your style, and I have thought about it a dozen times. Ah, if we were
+only rich!"
+
+Dolly laughed joyously, clasping her hands a little closer over his
+shoulder. Their conversations upon prospects generally ended in some
+such pleasantly erratic remarks. They never were tired of supposing
+that they were rich; and really, in default of being rich, it must be
+admitted that there is some consolation in being in a frame of mind
+which can derive happiness from such innocent day-dreams.
+
+"Just think of the house we would have," she said, "and the fun we could
+all have together, if you and I were rich and--and married, Griffith.
+We should be happy if we were married, and not rich, but if we were rich
+_and_ married--goodness, Griffith!" and she opened her eyes wide and
+looked so enjoyable altogether, that Griffith, being entirely overcome
+by reason of the strength of his feelings upon the subject, caught her
+in both arms and embraced her heartily, and only released her in an
+extremely but charmingly crushed and dishevelled condition, after he had
+kissed her about half a dozen times.
+
+It did not appear, upon the whole, that she objected to the proceeding.
+She took it quite naturally and unaffectedly, as if she was used to
+it, and regarded it as a part of the programme. Indeed, it was quite
+a refreshing sight to see her put both her little hands up to her
+disarranged hair and settle the crimps serenely.
+
+"We should have the chances to find true people if we were rich," she
+said. "And then we could take care, of Aimée and Mollie, and help them
+to make grand marriages."
+
+But that very instant Griffith's face fell somewhat.
+
+"Dolly," he said, "have you never thought--not even _thought_ that you
+would like to have made a grand marriage yourself?" And though there
+was not the least shade of a reason for the change in his mood, it was
+glaringly evident that he was at once rendered absolutely prostrate with
+misery at the thought.
+
+These sudden pangs of remorse at his own selfishness in holding the girl
+bound to him, were his weakness, and Dolly's great difficulty was to
+pilot him safely through his shoals of doubt and self-reproach, and she
+had her own way of managing it. Just now her way of managing it was to
+confront him bravely, coming quite close to him again, and taking hold
+of one of his coat buttons.
+
+"I have thought of it a hundred times," she said, "but not since I have
+belonged to you; and as I have belonged to you ever since I was fifteen
+years old, I should think what I thought before then can hardly have the
+right to trouble us now. _You_ never think of marrying any one but me,
+do you, Griffith?"
+
+"Think of marrying any one else!" exclaimed Griffith, indignantly. "I
+would n't marry a female Rajah with a diamond--"
+
+"I know you wouldn't," Dolly interrupted. "I believe in you, Griffith.
+Why won't you believe in me?" And the eyes lifted to his were so
+perfectly honest and straightforward that the sourest of cynics must
+have believed them, and Griffith was neither sour nor a cynic, but
+simply an unsuccessful, affectionate, contradictory young man, too
+susceptible to outward influences for his own peace of mind.
+
+He was a _very_ unfortunate young man, it may as well be observed at
+once, and his misfortunes were all the harder to bear because he was not
+to blame for them. He had talent, and was industrious and indefatigable,
+and yet, somehow or other, the Fates seemed to be against him. If he
+had been less honest or less willing, he might perhaps have been more
+successful; but in his intercourse with the world's slippery ones he
+customarily found himself imposed upon. He had done hard work for which
+he had never been paid, and work for which he had been paid badly; he
+had fought honestly to gain footing, and, somehow or other, luck had
+seemed to be against him, for certainly he had not gained it yet. Honest
+men admired and respected him, and men of intellectual worth prophesied
+better days; but so far it had really seemed that the people who were
+willing to befriend him were powerless, and those who were powerful
+cared little about the matter. So he alternately struggled and
+despaired, and yet retained his good nature, and occasionally enjoyed
+life heartily in defiance of circumstances. With every member of the
+Crewe household he was popular, from Tod to Mrs. Phil. His engagement
+to Dolly they regarded as a satisfactory arrangement. That he was barely
+able to support himself, and scarcely possessed a presentable suit of
+clothes, was to their minds the most inconsequent of trifles. It was
+unfortunate, perhaps, but unavoidable; and their sublime trust in the
+luck which was to ripen in all of them at some indefinite future time,
+was their hope in this case. Some time or other he would "get into
+something," they had decided, and then he would marry Dolly, and they
+would all enjoy the attendant festivities. And in the mean time they
+allowed the two to be happy, and made Griffith welcome, inviting him to
+their little impromptu suppers, and taking care never to be _de trop_ on
+the occasion of _tête-à-tête_ conversations.
+
+The _tête-à-tête_ of the morning ended happily as usual. Dolly went back
+to her unpicking, and Griffith, finding his ghost of self-reproach laid
+for the time being, watched her in a supremely blissful state of mind.
+He never tired of watching her, he frequently told her in enthusiastic
+confidence. The charm in Dolly Crewe was her adaptability; she was
+never out of place, and it had been said that she suited herself to her
+accompaniments far oftener than her accompaniments suited themselves
+to her. Seeing her in a shabby dress, seated in the shabby parlor, one
+instinctively felt that shabbiness was not so utterly unbearable after
+all, and acknowledged that it had a brightness of its own. Meeting her
+at a clan gathering in the camps of the Philistines, one always found
+her in excellent spirits, and quite undamped in her enjoyment of the
+frequently ponderous rejoicings. In the Bilberry school-room, among
+dog-eared French grammars and lead-pencilled music, education did not
+appear actually dispiriting; and now, as she sat by the fire, with the
+bright, sharp little scissors in lier hand, and the pile of white merino
+on her knees and trailing on the hearth-rug at her feet, Griffith found
+her simply irresistible. Ah! the bliss that revealed itself in the
+prospect of making her Mrs. Donne, and taking possession of her
+entirely! The joy of seeing her seated in an arm-chair of his own, by
+a fire which was solely his property, in a room which was nobody else's
+paradise! He could imagine so well how she would regard such a state of
+affairs as a nice little joke, and would pretend to adapt herself to
+her position with divers daring witcheries practised upon himself to the
+dethroning of his reason; how she would make innocent, wicked speeches,
+and be coaxing and dazzling and mock-matronly by turns; and above all,
+how she would enjoy it, and make him enjoy it, too; and yet sometimes,
+when they were quiet and alone, would drop all her whimsical little airs
+and graces, and make such tender, unselfish, poetic little speeches,
+that he would find himself startled in life wonder at the depth
+and warmth and generosity of her girlish heart. He often found her
+surprising him after this manner, and the surprise usually came when he
+had just been most nearly betrayed into thinking of her as an adorable
+little collection of witcheries and whimsicalities, and forgetting that
+she had other moods. More than once she had absolutely brought tears
+into his eyes, and a thrill to his heart, by some sudden, pathetic,
+trustful speech, made after she had been dazzling and bewildering for
+hours with her pretty coquetries and daring flashes of wit. No one but
+Griffith ever saw her in these intense moods. The rest of them saw her
+intense enough sometimes but the sudden, uncontrollable flashes of light
+Griffith saw now and then, fairly staggered him. And the poor fellow's
+love for her was something akin to adoration. There was only this one
+woman upon earth to him, and his whole soul was bound up in her. It was
+for her he struggled against disappointment, it was for her he hoped,
+it was only the desperate strength of his love for her that made
+disappointment so terribly bitter to him. Certainly his love made him
+better and sweeter-tempered and more energetic than he would have been
+if his life had not been so full of it. His one ambition was to gain
+success to lay at her feet. To him success meant Dolly, and Dolly meant
+Paradise, an honest Paradise, in which primeval bliss reigned supreme
+and trial was unknown. Consequently the bright little scissors glanced
+before his eyes a sort of loadstar.
+
+"I did n't tell you that nephew of Old Flynn's had come back, did I?" he
+said, at length.
+
+"No," answered Dolly, snipping diligently. "You never mentioned him.
+What nephew, and where did he come from?"
+
+"A fellow of the name of Gowan, who has been travelling in the East for
+no particular reason for the last ten years. He called on Flynn, at the
+office, today, for the first time; and if I had been called upon to
+kick him out, I should have regarded it as a cheerful and improving
+recreation."
+
+"Why?" laughed Dolly. "Is he one of the Philistines?"
+
+"Philistine!" echoed Griffith, with disgust. "I should think so. A
+complacent idiot in a chronic state of fatigue. Drove up to the door
+in a cab,--his own, by the way, and a confoundedly handsome affair it
+is,--gave the reins to his tiger, and stared at the building tranquilly
+for at least two minutes before he came in, stared at Old Flynn when he
+_did_ come in, stared at me, shook hands with Old Flynn exhaustedly, and
+then subsided into listening and paring his nails during the remainder
+of the interview."
+
+"Which might or might not be discreet under the circumstances," said
+Dolly. "Perhaps he had nothing to say. Never mind, Grif. Let us console
+ourselves with the thought that we are not as these utterly worthless
+explorers of the East are," with a flourish of the scissors.
+
+"Better is a dinner of herbs in Vagabondia, with a garnish of
+conversation and _bon-mots_, than a stalled ox among the Philistines
+with dulness."
+
+But about an hour after Griffith had taken his departure, as she was
+bending over the table, industriously clipping at the merino, a thought
+suddenly crossed her mind, which made her drop her scissors and look up
+meditatively.
+
+"By the way," she began, all at once. "Yes, it must be! How was it I
+did not think of it when Grif was talking? I am sure, it was Gowan, Lady
+Augusta said. To be sure it was. Mollie, this exploring nephew of
+the Flynns is to partake of coffee and conversation with us at the
+Bilberrys' on Friday, if I am not mistaken, and I never remembered it
+until now."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II ~ IN THE CAMPS OF THE PHILISTINES.
+
+A TOILET in Vagabondia was an event. Not an ordinary toilet, of course,
+but a toilet extraordinary,--such as is necessarily called forth by some
+festive gathering or unusual occasion. It was also an excitement after
+a manner, and not a disagreeable one. It made demands upon the inventive
+and creative powers of the whole family, and brought to light hidden
+resources. It also aroused energy, and, being a success, was rejoiced
+over as a brilliant success. Respectability might complacently retire
+to its well-furnished chamber, and choose serenely from its unlimited
+supply of figurative purple and legendary fine linen, without finding a
+situation either dramatic or amusing; but in Vagabondia this was not the
+case. Having contrived to conjure up, as it were, from the secret places
+of the earth an evening dress, are not gloves still necessary? and,
+being safe as regards gloves, do not the emergencies of the toilet
+call for minor details seemingly unimportant, but still not to be done
+without? Finding this to be the case, the household of Crewe rallied all
+its forces upon such occasions, and set aside all domestic arrangements
+for the time being. It was not impossible that Dolly should have
+prepared for a rejoicing without the assistance of Mollie and Aimée,
+Mrs. Phil and Tod, with occasional artistic suggestions from Phil and
+any particular friend of the family who chanced to be below-stairs,
+within hearing distance. It might not have appeared an impossibility, I
+should say, to ordinary people, but the household of Crewe regarded
+it as such, and accordingly, on the night of the Bilberry gathering,
+accompanied Dolly in a body to her tiring-room.
+
+Upon the bed lay the merino dress, white, modest, and untrimmed,
+save for the swan's-down accompaniments, but fitting to a shade and
+exhibiting an artistic sweep of train.
+
+"It is a discreet sort of garment," said Dolly, by way of comment;
+"and it is 'suitable to our social position.' Do you remember when
+Lady Augusta said that about my black alpaca, girls? Pleasant little
+observation, was n't it? 'Toinette, I trust hair-pins are not injurious
+to infantile digestive organs. If they are, perhaps it would be as well
+to convince Tod that such is the case. What is the matter, Mollie?"
+
+Mollie, leaning upon the dressing-table in her favorite attitude, was
+looking rather discontented. She was looking very pretty, also, it might
+be said. Her sleepy, warm brown eyes, being upraised to Dolly, showed
+larger and warmer and browner than usual; the heavy brown locks,
+tumbling down over her shoulders, caught a sort of brownish, coppery
+shade in the flare of gas-light; there was a flush on her soft cheeks,
+and her ripe lips were curved in a lovely dissatisfaction. Hence Dolly's
+remark.
+
+"I wish I was going," said the child.
+
+Dolly's eyes flew open wide, in a very sublimity of astonishment.
+
+"Wish you were going?" she echoed. "To the Bilberrys'?"
+
+Mollie nodded.
+
+"Yes, even there. I want to go somewhere. I think I should enjoy myself
+a little anywhere. I should like to see the people, and hear them talk,
+and find out what they do, and wear an evening dress."
+
+Dolly gazed at her in mingled pity and bewilderment.
+
+"Mollie," she said, "you are very innocent; and I always knew you were
+very innocent; but I did not know you were as innocent as this,--so
+utterly free from human guile that you could imagine pleasure in a
+Bilberry rejoicing. And I believe," still regarding her with that
+questioning pity, "--I believe you really _could_. I must keep an eye on
+you, Mollie. You are too unsophisticated to be out of danger."
+
+It was characteristic of her good-natured sympathy for the girl that it
+should occur to her the next minute that perhaps it might please her to
+see herself donned even in such modest finery as the white merino. She
+understood her simple longings after unattainable glories so thoroughly,
+and she was so ready to amuse her to the best of her ability. So she
+suggested it.
+
+"Put it on, Mollie," she said, "and let us see how you would look in it.
+I should like to see you in full dress."
+
+The child rose with some faint stir of interest in her manner and went
+to the bed.
+
+"It wouldn't be long enough for me if it wasn't for the train," she
+said; "but the train will make it long enough nearly, and I can pull it
+together at the waist."
+
+She put it on at the bedside, and then came forward to the toilet-table;
+and Dolly, catching sight of her in the glass as she advanced, turned
+round with a start.
+
+Standing in the light; the soft heavy white folds draping themselves
+about her statuesque curves of form as they might have draped themselves
+about the limbs of some young marble Grace or Goddess, with her white
+arms and shoulders uncovered, with her unchildish yet youthful face,
+with her large-irised eyes, her flush of momentary pleasure and half
+awkwardness, she was just a little dazzling, and Dolly did not hesitate
+to tell her so.
+
+"You are a beauty, Mollie," she said. "And you are a woman in that
+dress. If you were only a Bilberry now, what a capital your face would
+be to you, and what a belle you would be!"
+
+Which remarks, if indiscreet, were affectionate, and made in perfect
+good faith.
+
+But when, having donned the merino herself, she made her way down the
+dark staircase to the parlor, there was a vague ghost of uneasiness in
+her mind, and it was the sight of Mollie in full dress which had aroused
+it.
+
+"She is so very pretty," she said to herself. "I scarcely knew how very
+pretty she was until I turned round from the glass to look at her. What
+a pity it is that we are not rich enough to do her justice, and let her
+enjoy herself as other girls do. And--and," with a little sigh, "I am
+afraid we are a dreadfully careless lot. I wonder if Phil ever thinks
+about it? And she is so innocent and ignorant too. I hope she won't fall
+in love with anybody disreputable. I wish I knew how to take care of
+her."
+
+And yet when she went into the parlor to run the gauntlet of family
+inspection, and walked across the floor to show the sweep of her train,
+and tried her little opera hood on Tod before putting it on herself, a
+casual observer would certainly have decided that she had never had
+a serious thought in her life. Griffith was there, of course. At
+such times his presence was considered absolutely necessary, and his
+admiration was always unbounded. His portion it was to tuck her under
+his arm and lead her out to the cab when the train and wraps were
+arranged and the hood put on. This evening, when he had made her
+comfortable and shut the door, she leaned out of the window at the last
+moment to speak to him.
+
+"I forgot to tell you, Griffith," she said, "Lady Augusta said something
+about a Mr. Gowan to Mr. Bilberry the other day when she invited me. I
+wonder if it is the Gowan you were telling me about? He is to be there
+to-night."
+
+"Of course it is," answered Griffith, with sudden discontent. "He is
+just the sort of fellow the Bilberrys would lionize."
+
+It was rather incorrect of Dolly to feel, as she did, a sudden flash
+of anticipation. She could not help it. This intense appreciation of a
+novel or dramatic encounter with an eligible Philistine was her great
+weakness, and she made no secret of it even with her lover, which was
+unwise if frank.
+
+She gave her fan a wicked flirt, and her eyes flashed as she did it.
+
+"A mine of valuable information lies unexplored before me," she said.
+"I must make minute inquiries concerning the habits and peculiarities of
+the people of the East. I shall take the lion in tow, and Lady Augusta's
+happiness will be complete."
+
+Griffith turned pale--his conquering demon was jealousy.
+
+"Look here, Dolly," he began.
+
+But Dolly settled herself in her seat again, and waved her hand with an
+air of extreme satisfaction. She did not mean to make him miserable,
+and would have been filled with remorse if she had quite understood the
+extent of the suffering she imposed upon him sometimes merely through
+her spirit, and the daring onslaughts she made upon people for whom she
+cared little or nothing. She understood his numerous other peculiarities
+pretty thoroughly, but she did not understand his jealousy, for the
+simple reason that she had never been jealous in her life.
+
+"Tell the cabman to drive on," she said, with a flourish. "There is balm
+to be found even in Bilberry."
+
+And when the man drove on she composed herself comfortably in a corner
+of the vehicle, in perfect unconsciousness of the fact that she had left
+a thorn behind, rankling in the bosom of the poor fellow who watched her
+from the pavement.
+
+She was rather late, she found, on reaching her destination. The parlors
+were full, and the more enterprising of the guests were beginning to
+group themselves in twos and threes, and make spasmodic efforts at
+conversation. But conversation at a Bilberry assemblage was rarely a
+success,--it was so evident that to converse was a point of etiquette,
+and it was so patent that conversation was expected from everybody,
+whether they had anything to say or not.
+
+Inoffensive individuals of retiring temperament, being introduced to
+each other solemnly and with ceremony, felt that to be silent was to be
+guilty of a glaring breach of Bilberry decorum, and, casting about in
+mental agony for available remarks, found none, and were overwhelmed
+with amiable confusion. Lady Augusta herself, in copper-colored silk of
+the most unbending quality and make, was not conducive to cheerfulness.
+Yet Dolly's first thought on catching sight of her this evening was a
+cheerful if audacious one.
+
+"She looks as if she was dressed in a boiler," she commented, inwardly.
+"I wonder if I shall ever live so long--I wonder if I ever _could_ live
+long enough to submit to a dress like that. And yet she seems to be
+almost happy in the possession of it. But, I dare say, that is the
+result of conscious virtue."
+
+It was a very fortunate thing for Dolly that she was not easily
+discomposed. Most girls entering a room full of people, evidently
+unemployed, and in consequence naturally prone to not too charitable
+criticism of new-comers, might have lost self-possession. Not so Dolly
+Crewe. Being announced, she came in neither with unnecessary hurry nor
+timidly, and with not the least atom of shrinking from the eyes turned
+toward her; and, simple and unassuming a young person as she appeared
+on first sight, more than one pair of eyes in question found themselves
+attracted by the white merino, the white shoulders, the elaborate
+tresses, and the serene, innocent-looking orbs.
+
+Lady Augusta advanced slightly to meet her, with a grewsome rustling of
+copper-colored stiffness. She did not approve of Dolly at any time, but
+she specially disapproved of her habit of setting time at defiance and
+ignoring the consequences.
+
+"I am very glad to see you," she said, with the air of a potentate
+issuing a proclamation. "I _thought_"--somewhat severely--"that you were
+not coming at all."
+
+"Did you?" remarked Dolly, with tranquillity.
+
+"Yes," returned her ladyship. "And I could not understand it. It is nine
+o'clock now, and I _believe_ I mentioned eight as the hour."
+
+"I dare say you did," said Dolly, unfurling her small downy fan, and
+using it with much serene grace; "but I wasn't ready at eight. I hope
+you are very well."
+
+"Thank you," replied her ladyship, icily. "I am very well. Will you
+go and take a seat by Euphemia? I allowed her to come into the room
+to-night, and I notice that her manner is not so self-possessed as I
+should wish."
+
+Dolly gave a little nod of acquiescence, and looked across the room
+to where the luckless Euphemia sat edged in a corner behind a row of
+painfully conversational elderly gentlemen, who were struggling with
+the best intentions to keep up a theological discourse with the Rev.
+Marmaduke. Euphemia was the eldest Miss Bilberry. She was overgrown
+and angular, and suffered from chronic embarrassment, which was not
+alleviated by the eye of her maternal parent being upon her. She was one
+of Dolly's pupils, and cherished a secret but enthusiastic admiration
+for her. And, upon the whole, Dolly was fond of the girl. She was
+good-natured and unsophisticated, and bore the consciousness of her
+physical and mental imperfections with a humility which was almost
+touching to her friend sometimes. Catching Dolly's eye on this occasion,
+she glanced at her imploringly, and then, catching the eye of her
+mother, blushed to the tips of her ears, and relapsed into secret
+anguish of mind.
+
+But Dolly, recognizing her misery, smiled reassuringly, and made her
+way across the room to her, insinuating herself through the theological
+phalanx.
+
+"I am so glad you are here at last," said the girl. "I was so afraid
+you would n't come. And oh, how nice you look, and how beautifully you
+manage your train! I could never do it in the world. I should be sure
+to tumble over it. But nothing ever seems to trouble you at all. You
+haven't any idea how lovely you were when you went across the room to
+mamma. Everybody looked at you, and I don't wonder at it."
+
+"They would have looked at anybody," answered Dolly, laughing. "They had
+nothing else to do."
+
+"That is quite true, poor things," sighed Euphemia, sympathetically.
+"You don't know the worst yet, either. You don't know how stupid they
+are and can be, Dolly. That old gentleman near the screen has not spoken
+one word yet, and he keeps sighing and wiping the top of his bald head
+with his pocket-handkerchief until I can't keep my eyes off him, and I
+am afraid he has noticed me. I don't mean any harm, I'm sure, but I have
+got nothing to do myself, and I can't help it. But what I was going to
+say was, that people looked at you as they did not look at others who
+came in. You seem different some way. And I'm sure that Mr. Gowan of
+mamma's has been staring at you until it is positively rude of him."
+
+Dolly's slowly moving fan became stationary for a moment.
+
+"Mr. Gowan," she said. "Who is Mr. Gowan?"
+
+"One of mamma's people," answered Euphemia, "though I'm sure I can't
+quite understand how he can be one of them. He looks so different from
+the rest. He is very rich, you know, and very aristocratic, and has
+travelled a great deal He has been all over the world, they say. There
+he is at that side-table."
+
+Dolly's eyes, travelling round the assemblage with complacent
+indifference, rested at last on the side-table where the subject of
+Euphemia's remarks sat.
+
+He really was an eligible Philistine, it seemed, despite Griffith's
+unflattering description of him.
+
+He was a long-limbed, graceful man, with an aquiline face and superb
+eyes, which at this moment were resting complacently upon Dolly herself.
+It was not exactly admiration, either, which they expressed, it was
+something of a more entertaining nature, at least so Dolly found it,--it
+was nothing more nor less than a slowly awakening interest in her which
+paid her the compliment of rising above the surface of evident boredom
+and overcoming lassitude. It looked as if he was just beginning to study
+her, and found the game worth the candle. Dolly met his glance with
+steadiness, and as she met it she measured him. Then she turned to
+Euphemia again and fluttered the fan slowly and serenely.
+
+"He's nice, is n't he?" commented the guileless Phemie. "If the rest of
+them were like him, I don't think we should be so stupid, but as it is,
+you know, he can't talk when there is nobody to talk to."
+
+"No," said Dolly. "One could hardly expect it of him. But I wonder why
+he does not say something to that thin lady in the dress-cap."
+
+"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Phemie, "I don't wonder in the least. That is Miss
+Berenice MacDowlas, Dolly."
+
+"Miss Berenice MacDowlas!" echoed Dolly, with a start. "You don't say
+so?"
+
+"Yes," answered Euphemia. "Do you know her? You spoke as if you did."
+
+"Well--yes--no," answered Dolly, with a half laugh. "I should say I know
+somebody who does."
+
+And she looked as if she was rather enjoying some small joke of her own.
+The fact was that Miss MacDowlas was no other than Griffith's amiable
+aunt. But, of course, it would not have done to tell this to Euphemia
+Bilberry. Euphemia's ideas on the subject of the tender passion were
+as yet crude and unformed, and Dolly Crewe was not prone to sentimental
+confidences, so, as yet, Euphemia and indeed the whole Bilberry family,
+remained in blissful ignorance of the very existence of such a person as
+Mr. Griffith Donne.
+
+If personal appearance was to be relied upon, Miss MacDowlas was not a
+promising subject for diplomatic beguiling.
+
+"We have no need to depend upon her," was Dolly's mental decision. "One
+glimpse of life in Vagabondia would end poor Griffith's chances with
+her. I wonder what she would think if she could see Tod in all his glory
+when 'Toinette and Phil are busy painting."
+
+And her vivid recollection of the personal adornments of Tod at such
+times brought a smile to her lips.
+
+She made herself very comfortable in her corner, and, exerting herself
+to her utmost to alleviate Euphemia's sufferings, succeeded so far
+that the girl forgot everything else but her enjoyment of her friend's
+caustic speeches and satirical little jokes. Dolly was not afraid of
+results, and, standing in due awe of public opinion, gave herself up to
+the encouraging of any shadow of amusement quite heartily. She was so
+entertaining in a small way upon this occasion, that Euphemia's frame of
+mind became in some degree ecstatic. From her place of state across
+the room, Lady Augusta regarded them with disapproval. It was so very
+evident that they were enjoying themselves, and that this shocking
+Dorothea Crewe was not to be suppressed. (Dorothea, be it known, was
+Dolly's baptismal name, and Lady Augusta held to its full pronunciation
+as a matter of duty.) It was useless, however, to disapprove. Behind the
+theological phalanx Dolly sat enthroned plainly in the best of spirits,
+and in rather a dangerous mood, to judge from outward appearances. There
+was nothing of the poor relation about her at least. The little snowy
+fan was being manipulated gracefully and with occasional artistic
+nourishes, her enjoyable roulades of laughter tinkled audaciously, her
+white shoulders were expressive, her gestures charming, and, above all,
+people were beginning to look at her admiringly, if not with absolute
+envy. Something must be done.
+
+Lady Augusta moved across the room, piloting her way between people on
+ottomans and people on chairs, rustling with awe-inspiring majesty;
+and, reaching the corner at last, she spoke to the daring Dolly over the
+heads of the phalanx.
+
+"Dorothea," she said, "we should like a little music."
+
+This she had expected would be a move which could not fail to set the
+young person in her right place. It would show her that her time was not
+her own, and that she was expected to make herself useful; and it would
+also set to rights any little mistake lookers-on might have previously
+labored under as to her position. But even this did not destroy Dolly's
+equanimity. She finished the small joke she had been making to Phemie,
+and then turned to her august relative with a sweet but trying smile.
+
+"Music?" she said. "Certainly." And arose at once.
+
+Then Lady Augusta saw her mistake. It was only another chance for Miss
+Dolly to display herself to advantage, after all. When she arose from
+her seat in the corner, and gave a glance of inspection to her train
+over her bare white shoulder, people began to look at her again; and
+when she crossed the room, she was an actual Sensation,--and to create
+a sensation in the Bilberry parlors was to attain a triumph. Worse than
+this, also, as her ladyship passed the bald-headed individual by
+the screen, that gentleman--who was a lion as regarded worldly
+possessions--condescended to make his first remark for the evening.
+
+"Pretty girl, that," he said. "Nice girl,--fine figure. Relative?"
+
+"My daughter's governess, sir," replied her ladyship, rigidly.
+
+And in Dolly's passage across the room another incident occurred which
+was not lost upon the head of the house of Bilberry. Near the seat of
+Mr. Ralph Gowan stood a vacated chair, which obstructed the passage to
+the piano, and, observing it, the gentleman in question rose and removed
+it, bowing obsequiously in reply to Dolly's slight gesture of thanks,
+and when she took her place at the instrument he moved to a seat near
+by, and settled himself to listen with the air of a man who expected to
+enjoy the performance.
+
+And he evidently did enjoy it, for a very pleasant little performance it
+was. The songs had a thrill of either pathos or piquancy in every
+word and note, and the audience found they were listening in spite of
+themselves.
+
+When they were ended, Ralph Gowan sought out Lady Augusta in her
+stronghold, and placidly proposed being introduced to her young guest;
+and since it was evident that he intended to leave her no alternative,
+her ladyship was fain to comply; and so, before half the evening was
+over, Dolly found herself being entertained as she had never been
+entertained before in the camps of the Philistines at least. And as to
+the Eastern explorer, boredom was forgotten for the time, and he gave
+himself up entirely to the amusing and enjoying of this piquant young
+person with the white shoulders.
+
+"Crewe," he said to her during the course of their first conversation.
+"I am sure Lady Augusta said 'Crewe.' Then you are relatives, I
+suppose?"
+
+"Poor relations," answered Dolly, coolly, and without a shadow of
+discomfiture. "I am the children's governess. Trying, is n't it?"
+
+Ralph Gowan met the gaze of the bright eyes admiringly. Even at this
+early period of their acquaintance he was falling into the snare
+every other man fell into,--the snare of finding that Dolly Crewe was
+startlingly unlike anybody else.
+
+"Not for the children," he said. "Under such circumstances education
+must necessarily acquire a new charm."
+
+"Thank you," said Dolly.
+
+When supper was announced, Lady Augusta made another attack and was
+foiled again. She came to their corner, and, bending over Dolly, spoke
+to her in stage-whisper.
+
+"I will bring young Mr. Jessup to take you into the supper-room,
+Dorothea," she said.
+
+But Dolly's plans were already arranged, and even if such had not been
+the case she would scarcely have rejoiced at the prospect of the escort
+of young Mr. Jessup, who was a mild young idiot engaged in the study of
+theology.
+
+"Thank you, Lady Augusta," she said, cheerfully, "but I have promised
+Mr. Gowan."
+
+And Lady Augusta had the pleasure of seeing her leave the room a minute
+later, with her small glove slipped through Ralph Gowan's arm, and the
+plainly delighted face of that gentleman inclined attentively toward the
+elaborate Frenchy coiffure.
+
+At the supper-table little Miss Crewe was a prominent feature. At her
+end of the table conversation flourished and cheerfulness reigned. Even
+Euphemia and young Mr. Jessup, who had come down together in a mutual
+agony of embarrassment, began to pluck up spirit and hazard occasional
+remarks, and finally even joined in the laughter at Dolly's witticism.
+
+People lower down the table glanced up across the various dishes, and
+envied the group who seemed to set the general heaviness and discontent
+at defiance.
+
+Dolly, accompanied by coffee and cakes, was more at home and more
+delightful than ever, so delightful, indeed, that Ralph Gowan began to
+regard even Lady Augusta with gratitude, since it was to her he was, to
+some extent, indebted for his new acquaintance.
+
+"She is a delightful--yes, a delightful girl!" exclaimed young Mr.
+Jessup, confidentially addressing-Euphemia, and blushing vividly at his
+own boldness. "I never heard such a laugh as she has in my life. It
+is actually exhilarating. It quite raises one's spirits," with mild
+_naïveté_.
+
+Euphemia began to brighten at once. She could talk about Dolly Crewe if
+she could talk about nothing else.
+
+"Oh, but you have n't seen _anything_ of her yet," she said, in a burst
+of enthusiasm. "If you could only see her every day, as I do, and hear
+the witty things she says, and see how self-possessed she is, when other
+people would be perfectly miserable with confusion, there would be no
+wonder at your saying you never saw anybody like her. _I_ never did, I
+am sure. And then, you know, somehow or other, she always looks so well
+in everything she wears,--even in the shabbiest things, and her things
+are nearly always shabby enough, for they are dreadfully poor. She is
+always finding new ways of wearing things or new ways of doing her hair
+or--or something. It is the way her dresses fit, I think. Oh, dear, how
+I do wish the dressmaker could make mine fit as hers do! Just look at
+that white merino, now, for instance. It is the plainest dress in the
+room, and there is not a bit of fuss or trimming about it, and yet
+see how soft the folds look and how it hangs,--the train, you know.
+It reminds me of a picture,--one of those pictures in fashionable
+monthlies,--illustrations of love stories, you know."
+
+"It is a very pretty dress," said young Mr. Jessup, eying it with great
+interest. "What did you say the stuff was called?"
+
+"Merino," answered Phemie.
+
+"Merino," repeated Mr. Jessup. "I will try and remember. I should like
+my sister Lucinda Maria to have a dress like it."
+
+And he regarded it with growing admiration just tempered by the effect
+of a mental picture of Lucinda Maria, who was bony and of remarkable
+proportions, attired in its soft and flowing counterpart, with white
+swan's-down adorning her bare shoulders.
+
+"May I ask," said Miss MacDowlas, at the bottom of the table, to Lady
+Augusta,--"may I ask who that young lady with the fresh completion
+is,--the young lady in white at the other end?"
+
+"That is my governess," replied her ladyship, freezingly. "Miss Dorothea
+Crewe."
+
+And Miss MacDowlas settled her eye-glass and gave Miss Dorothea Crewe
+the benefit of a prolonged examination.
+
+"Crewe," she said, at length. "Poor relation, I suppose?" with some
+sharpness of manner. Dignity was lost upon Miss MacDowlas.
+
+"A branch of my family who are no great credit to it," was the majestic
+rejoinder.
+
+"Oh, indeed," was the lady's sole remark, and then Miss MacDowlas
+returned to her coffee, still, however, keeping her double eye-glass
+across her nose and casting an occasional glance at Dolly.
+
+And just at this particular moment Dolly was unconsciously sealing
+Ralph Gowan's fate for him. Quite unconsciously, I repeat, for the
+most serious of Dolly's iniquities were generally unconscious. When
+she flirted, her flirtations were of so frank and open a nature, that,
+bewildered and fascinated though her victims might be, they must have
+been blind indeed to have been deceived, and so there were those who
+survived them and left the field safe, though somewhat sore at heart.
+But when she was in her honest, earnest, life-enjoying moods, and meant
+no harm,--when she was simply enjoying herself and trying to amuse her
+masculine companion, when her gestures were unconscious and her speeches
+unstudied, when she laughed through sheer merriment and was charmingly
+theatrical because she could not help it and because little bits of
+pathos and comedy were natural to her at times, then it was that the
+danger became deadly; then it was that her admirers were regardless
+of consequences, and defied results. And she was in just such a mood
+to-night.
+
+"Come and see us?" she was saying. "Of course you may; and if you
+come, you shall have an insight into the domestic workings of modern
+Vagabondia. You shall be introduced to half a dozen people who toil not,
+neither do they spin successfully, for their toiling and spinning seems
+to have little result, after all. You shall see shabbiness and the spice
+of life hand-in-hand; and, I dare say, you will find that the figurative
+dinner of herbs is not utterly destitute of a flavor of _piquancy_.
+You shall see people who enjoy themselves in sheer defiance of
+circumstances, and who find a pathos in every-day events, which, in the
+camps of the Philistines, mean nothing. Yes, you may come if you care
+to." And Ralph Gowan, looking down at the changeful eyes, saw an almost
+tender light shining in their depths,--summoned up all at once perhaps
+by one of those inexplicable touches of pathos of which she had spoken.
+
+But even coffee and conversation must come to an end at last, and so the
+end of this evening came. People began to drop away one by one, bidding
+their hostess good-night with the air of individuals who had performed
+a duty, and were relieved to find it performed and disposed of for the
+time being. So Dolly, leaving her companion with a bright farewell,
+and amiably disposing of Lady Augusta, slipped up-stairs to the
+retiring-room for her wraps. In the course of three minutes she
+came down again, the scarlet shawl draped around her, and the highly
+ornamental hood donned. She was of so little consequence in the Bilberry
+household that no one met her when she reappeared. Even the servants
+knew that her convenience or inconvenience was of small moment, so the
+task of summoning her cab would have devolved upon herself, had it not
+been for a little incident, which might have been either an accident
+or otherwise. As she came down the staircase a gentleman crossed the
+threshold of the parlor and came to meet her,--and this gentleman was no
+other than Ralph Gowan.
+
+"Let me have the pleasure of putting you into your--"
+
+"Cab," ended Dolly, with a trill of a laugh,--it was so evident that
+he had been going to say "carriage." "Thank you, with the greatest of
+pleasure. Indeed, it is rather a relief to me, for they generally keep
+me waiting. And I detest waiting."
+
+He handed her into her seat, and lingered to see that she was
+comfortable, perhaps with unnecessary caution; and then, when she gave
+him her hand through the window, he held it for a moment longer than was
+exactly called for by the exigencies of the occasion.
+
+"You will not forget that you have given me permission to call," he
+said, hesitating slightly.
+
+"Oh, dear no!" she answered. "I shall not forget. We are always glad to
+see people--in Vagabondia."
+
+And as the cab drove off, she waved the hand he had held in an airy
+gesture of adieu, gave him a bewildering farewell nod, and, withdrawing
+her face from the window, disappeared in the shadow within.
+
+"Great Jove!" meditated Ralph Gowan, when he had seen the last of her.
+"And this is a nursery governess,--a sort of escape-valve for the spleen
+and ill moods of that woman in copper-color. She teaches them French and
+music, I dare say, and makes those spicy little jokes of hers over
+the dog-eared arithmetic. Ah, well! such is impartial Fortune," And he
+strolled back into the house again, to make his adieus to Lady Augusta,
+with the bewitching Greuze face fresh in his memory.
+
+But, for her part, Dolly, having left him behind in the Philistine camp,
+was nestling comfortably in the dark corner of her cab, thinking of
+Griffith, as she always did think of him when she found herself alone
+for a moment.
+
+"I wonder if he will be at home when I get there," she said. "Poor
+fellow! he would find it dull enough without me, unless they were all
+in unusually good spirits. I wonder if the time ever will come when we
+shall have a little house of our own, and can go out together or stay at
+home, just as we like."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III. ~ IN WHICH THE TRAIN IS LAID.
+
+"After a holiday comes a rest day." The astuteness of this proverb
+continually proved itself in Vagabondia, and this was more particularly
+the case when the holiday had been Dolly's, inasmuch as Dolly was
+invariably called upon to "fight her battles o'er again," and recount
+her experiences the day following a visit, for the delectation of the
+household. Had there appeared in the camps a Philistine of notoriety,
+then that Philistine must play his or her part again through the medium
+of Dolly's own inimitable powers of description or representation;
+had any little scene occurred possessing a spice of flavoring, or
+illustrating any Philistine peculiarity, then Dolly was quite equal to
+the task of putting it upon the family stage, and re-enacting it with
+iniquitous seasonings and additions of her own. And yet the fun was
+never of an ill-natured sort. When Dolly gave them a correct embodiment
+of Lady Augusta in reception of her guests, with an accurate description
+of the "great Copper-Boiler costume," the bursts of applause meant
+nothing more than that Dolly's imitative gifts were in good condition,
+and that the "great Copper-Boiler costume" was a success. Then, the
+feminine mind being keenly alive to an interest in earthly vanities, an
+enlargement on Philistine adornments was considered necessary, and Dolly
+always rendered herself popular by a minute description of the reigning
+fashions, as displayed by the Bilberry element. She found herself quite
+repaid for the trouble of going into detail, by the unsophisticated
+pleasure in Mollie's eyes alone, for to Mollie outward furnishings
+seemed more than worthy of description and discussion.
+
+Accordingly, the morning after Lady Augusta's _conversazione_, Dolly
+gave herself up to the task of enlivening the household. It was Saturday
+morning, fortunately, and on Saturday her visits to the Bilberry mansion
+were dispensed with, so she was quite at liberty to seat herself by
+the fire, with Tod in her arms, and recount the events of the evening.
+Somehow or other, she had almost regarded him as a special charge
+from the first. She had always been a favorite with him, as she was a
+favorite with most children. She was just as natural and thoroughly at
+home with Tod in her arms, or clambering over her feet, or clutching at
+the trimmings of her dress, as she was under any other circumstances;
+and when on this occasion Griffith came in at noon to hear the news, and
+found her kneeling upon the carpet with outstretched hands teaching the
+pretty little tottering fellow to walk, he felt her simply irresistible.
+
+"Come to Aunt Dolly," she was saying. "Tod, come to Aunt Dolly." And
+then she looked up laughing. "Look at him, Griffith," she said. "He has
+walked all the way from that arm-chair." And then she made a rush at
+the child, and caught him in her arms with a little whirl, and jumped
+up with such a light-hearted enjoyment of the whole affair that it was
+positively exciting to look at her.
+
+It was quite natural--indeed, it would have been quite unnatural if she
+had not found her usual abiding-place in her lover's encircling arm
+at once, even with Tod conveniently established on one of her own,
+and evidently regarding his own proximity upon such an occasion as
+remarkable if nothing else. That arm of Griffith's usually _did_ slip
+around her waist even at the most ordinary times, and long use had
+so accustomed Dolly to the habit that she would have experienced some
+slight feeling of astonishment if the familiarity had been omitted.
+
+It was rather a surprise to the young man to find that Miss MacDowlas
+had appeared upon the scene, and that she had partaken of coffee and
+conversation in the flesh the evening before.
+
+"But it's just like her," he said. "She is the sort of relative who
+always _does_ turn up unexpectedly, Dolly. How does she look?"
+
+"Juvenescent," said Dolly; "depressingly so to persons who rely upon her
+for the realizing of expectations. A very few minutes satisfied me that
+I should never become Mrs. Griffith Donne upon _her_ money. It is a
+very fortunate thing for us that we are of Vagabondian antecedents,
+Griffith,--just see how we might trouble ourselves, and wear our
+patience out over Miss MacDowlas, if we troubled ourselves about
+anything. This being utterly free from the care of worldly possessions
+makes one touchingly disinterested. Since we have nothing to expect, we
+are perfectly willing to wait until we get it."
+
+She had thought so little about Ralph Gowan,--once losing sight of
+him, as he stood watching her on the pavement, that in discussing other
+subjects she had forgotten to mention him, and it was only Mollie's
+entrance into the room that brought him upon the carpet.
+
+Coming in, with her hair bunched up in a lovely, disorderly knot, and
+the dimple on her left cheek artistically accentuated by a small patch
+of black, the youngest Miss Crewe yet appeared to advantage, when, after
+appropriating Tod, she slipped down into a sitting posture with him on
+the carpet, in the midst of the amplitude of folds of Lady Augusta's
+once gorgeous wrapper.
+
+"Have you told him about the great Copper-Boiler costume, Dolly?" she
+said, bending down so that one brown tress hung swaying before Tod's
+eyes. "Has she, Griffith?"
+
+"Yes," answered Griffith, looking at her with a vague sense of
+admiration. He shared all Dolly's enthusiasm on the subject of Mollie's
+prettiness.
+
+"Was n't it good? I wish I was as cool as Dolly is. And poor Phemie--and
+the gentleman who made love to you all the evening, Dolly. What was his
+name? Was n't it Gowan?"
+
+Griffith's eyes turned toward Dolly that instant.
+
+"Gowan!" he exclaimed. "You didn't say anything about him. You didn't
+even say he was there."
+
+"Did n't she?" said Mollie, looking up with innocently wide-open eyes.
+"Why, he made love to her all--"
+
+"I wish you would n't talk such rubbish, Mollie," Dolly interrupted
+her--a trifle sharply because she understood the cloud on her lover's
+face so well. "Who said Mr. Gowan made love to me? Not I, you may be
+sure. I told you he talked to me, and that was all."
+
+"You did not tell _me_ that much," said Griffith, dryly.
+
+It would scarcely have been human nature for Dolly not to have fired a
+little then, in spite of herself. She was constitutionally good-natured,
+but she was not seraphic, and her lover's rather excusable jealousy
+was specially hard to bear, when, as upon this occasion, it had no real
+foundation.
+
+"I did not think it necessary," she said; "and, besides, I forgot;
+but if you wish to know the particulars," with a stiff little air
+of dignity, "I can give them you. Mr. Gowan was there, and found the
+evening stupid, as every one else did. There was no one else to talk to,
+so he talked to me, and when I came home he put me into the cab. And,
+the fact is, he is a good-natured Philistine enough. That is all, I
+believe, unless you would like me to try to record all he said."
+
+"No, thank you," answered Griffith, and instantly began to torture
+himself with imagining what he really had said, making the very natural
+mistake of imagining what he would have said himself, and then giving
+Ralph Gowan credit for having perpetrated like tender gallantries. He
+never could divest himself of the idea that every living man found
+Dolly as entrancing as he found her himself. It could only be one man's
+bitter-sweet portion to be as desperately and inconsolably in love with
+her as he was himself, and no other than himself, or a man who might be
+his exact prototype, could have cherished a love at once so strong and
+so weak. There had been other men who had loved Dolly Crewe,---adored
+her for a while, in fact, and imagined themselves wretches because they
+had been unsuccessful; but they had generally outlived their despair,
+and their adoration, cooling for want of sustenance, had usually settled
+down into a comfortable admiring liking for the cause of their
+misery, but it would never have been so with Griffith. This ordinary,
+hard-working, ill-paid young man had passionate impulse and hidden power
+of suffering enough in his restive nature to make a broken hope a
+broken life to him. His long-cherished love for the shabbily attired,
+often-snubbed, dauntless young person yclept Dorothea Crewe was the
+mainspring of his existence. He would have done daring deeds of valor
+for her sake, if circumstances had called upon him to comport himself
+in such tragic manner; had he been a knight of olden time, he would just
+have been the chivalrous, hotheaded, but affectionate young man to have
+entered the lists in his love's behalf, and tilted against tremendous
+odds, and died unvanquished; but living in the nineteenth century, his
+impetuosity, being necessarily restrained, became concentrated upon one
+point, and chafed him terribly at times. Without Dolly, he would have
+been without an object in life; with Dolly, he was willing to face
+any amount of discouragement and misfortune; and at this stage of his
+affection--after years of belief in that far-off blissful future--to
+lose her would have brought him wreck and ruin.
+
+So when Dolly, in the full consciousness of present freedom from
+iniquity, withdrew herself from his encircling arm and turned her
+attention to Tod and Mollie, he was far more wretched than he had any
+right to be, and stood watching them, and gnawing his slender mustache,
+gloomy and distrustful.
+
+But this could not last long, of course. They might quarrel, but they
+always made friends; and when in a short time Mollie, doubtless feeling
+herself a trifle in the way, left the room with the child, Dolly's
+impulsive warm-heartedness got the better of her upon this occasion as
+upon all others.
+
+She came back to her lover's side and laid her hand on his arm.
+
+"Don't let us quarrel about Ralph Gowan, Griffith," she said. "It was my
+fault; I ought to have told you."
+
+He fairly crushed her in his remorseful embrace almost before she had
+finished her appeal. His distrust of her was as easily overcome as it
+was roused; one touch of her hand, one suspicion of a tremor in her
+voice, always conquered him and reduced him to penitent submission.
+
+"You are an angel," he said, "and I am an unfeeling clod. No other woman
+would bear with me as you do. God bless you, Dolly."
+
+She nestled within his arms and took his caresses almost gratefully.
+Perhaps it would have been wiser to have shown him how deep a sting his
+want of faith gave her sometimes, but she was always so glad when their
+misunderstandings were at an end, that she would not have so revenged
+herself upon him for the world. The cool, audacious self she exhibited
+in the camps of the Philistines was never shown to Griffith; in her
+intercourse with him she was only a slightly intensified edition of the
+child he had fallen in love with years before,--a bright, quick-witted
+child, with a deep nature and an immense faculty for loving and clinging
+to people. Dolly at twenty-two was pretty much what she had been at
+fifteen, when they had quarrelled and made up again, loved each other
+and romanced over the future brilliancy of prospect which now seemed
+just as far off as ever.
+
+In five minutes after the clearing away of the temporary cloud, they
+were in a seventh heaven of bliss, as usual. In some of his wanderings
+about town, Griffith had met with a modest house, which would have been
+the very thing for them if they had possessed about double the income of
+which they were at present in receipt. He often met with houses of this
+kind; they seemed, in fact, to present themselves to his longing vision
+every week of his life; and I think it rather to his credit to mention
+that he never failed to describe them to Dolly, and enlarge upon their
+merits with much eloquence. Furniture warehouses also were a source of
+some simple pleasure to them. _If_ they possessed the income (not that
+they had the remotest prospect of possessing it), and rented the house,
+naturally they would require furniture, and it was encouraging to
+know that the necessary articles might be bought _if_ the money was
+forthcoming. Consequently a low-priced table or a cheap sofa was a
+consolation, if not a source of rejoicing, and their happiest hours were
+spent in counting the cost of parlor carpets never to be purchased,
+and window curtains of thin air. They even economized sternly in minor
+matters, and debated the expenditure of an extra shilling as closely as
+if it had been a matter entailing the deepest anxiety; and on the whole,
+perhaps, practical persons might have condemned their affectionate,
+hopeful weakness as childish and nonsensical, but they were happy in the
+indulgence of it, at all events, and surely they might have been engaged
+in a less tender and more worldly pastime. There were other people,
+perhaps, weak and imprudent themselves it may be, who would have seen a
+touch of simple pathos in this unconsciously shown faith in Fortune and
+her not too kindly moods.
+
+"Old Flynn ought to raise my salary, you know, Dolly," said Griffith. "I
+work hard enough for him, confound him!" somewhat irrelevantly, but with
+laudable and not unamiable vigor. He meant no harm to "Old Flynn;" he
+would have done a good-natured thing for him at any moment, the mild
+expletive was simply the result of adopted custom. "There is n't a
+fellow in the place who does as much as I do. I worked from seven in
+the morning till midnight every day last week, and I wrote half his
+editorials for him, and nobody knows he does n't get them up himself. If
+he would only give me two hundred instead of one, just see how we could
+live."
+
+"We could live on a hundred and fifty," put in Dolly, with an air of
+practical speculation which did her credit, "if we were economical."
+
+"Well, say a hundred and fifty, then," returned Griffith, quite as
+seriously, "for we should be economical. Say a hundred and fifty. It
+would be nothing to him,--confound him!--but it would be everything in
+the world to us. That house in the suburbs was only thirty pounds,
+taxes and all, and it was just the very thing we should want if we were
+married."
+
+"How many rooms?" asked Dolly.
+
+"Six, and kitchen and cupboards and all that sort of contrivances. I
+asked particularly--went to see the landlord to inquire and see what
+repairing he would do if we wanted the place. There is a garden of a
+few yards in the front, too, and one or two rose-bushes. I don't know
+whether they ever bloom, but if they do, you could wear them in your
+hair. I thought of that the minute I saw them. The first time I saw you,
+Dolly, you had a rose in your hair, and I remember thinking I had never
+seen a flower worn in the same way. Other girls do n't wear things as
+you wear them somehow or other."
+
+Dolly acknowledged the compliment with a laugh and a coaxing,
+patronizing little squeeze of his arm. 
+
+"You think they don't," she said, "you affectionate old fellow, that is
+it. Well, and what did the landlord say? Would he beautify?"
+
+"Well, yes, I think he would if the matter was pressed," said Griffith,
+returning to the subject with a vigor of enjoyment inspiriting to
+behold. "And, by the way, Dolly, I saw a small sofa at a place in town
+which was just the right size to fit into a sort of alcove there is in
+the front parlor."
+
+"Did you inquire the price?" said Dolly.
+
+"Well--no," cheerfully; "but I can, if you would like to know it. You
+see, I had n't any money, and did n't know when I should have any, and
+I felt rather discouraged at the time, and I had an idea the price would
+make me feel worse, so I did not go in. But it was a comfortable, plump
+little affair, covered with green,--the sort of thing I should like to
+have in our house, when we have one. It would be so comfortable to throw
+one's self down on to after a hard day's work, particularly if one had a
+headache."
+
+"Yes," said Dolly; and then, half unconsciously and quite in spite of
+herself, the ghost of a sigh escaped her. She could not help wishing
+things were a trifle more real sometimes, bright and whimsically
+unworldly as she was.
+
+"What did that mean?" Griffith asked her.
+
+She wakened up, as it were, and looked as happy as ever in an instant,
+creeping a trifle closer to him in her loving anxiety to blind him to
+the presence of the little pain in her heart.
+
+"Nothing," she said, briskly. And then--"We don't want much, do we,
+Griffith?"
+
+"No," said Griffith, a certain grim sense of humor getting the better of
+him. "And we have n't got it."
+
+She laughed outright at the joke quite enjoyably. Even the grimmest of
+jocosities wins its measure of respect in Vagabondia, and besides,
+her laugh removed the impression her sigh might have created. She was
+herself again at once.
+
+"Never mind," she said. (It was always "never mind.") "Never mind, it
+will all come right in the end. Humble merit _must_ be rewarded, and if
+humble merit isn't, we can only console ourselves with the reasonable
+reflection that there must be something radically wrong with the state
+of society. Who knows whether you may not 'get into something,' as Phil
+says, which may be twenty times better than anything Old Flynn can give
+you!" with characteristic Vagabondian hopefulness.
+
+Just at this juncture Phil himself entered, or, rather, half entered,
+for he only put his head--a comely, curled head surmounted by a
+disreputable velvet cap--half into the room.
+
+"Oh, you are here, are you?" he said. "You are the fellow I want. I am
+just touching up something I want to show you. Come into the studio for
+a minute or so, Grif."
+
+"It is that picture Mollie sat for," he explained, as they followed him
+into the big, barren room, dignified by the name of studio. "I have just
+finished it."
+
+Mollie was standing before the picture herself when they went in to look
+at it, but she did not turn round on hearing them. She had Tod in her
+arms yet, but she seemed to have forgotten his very existence in her
+preoccupation. And it was scarcely to be wondered at. The picture was
+only a head,--Mollie's own fresh, drowsy-eyed face standing out in
+contrast under some folds of dark drapery thrown over the brown hair
+like a monk's cowl, two or three autumn-tinted oak leaves clinging to
+a straying tress,--but it was effective and novel enough to be a
+trifle startling. And Mollie was looking at it with a growing shadow of
+pleasure in her expression. She was slowly awakening to a sense of its
+beauty, and she was by no means dissatisfied.
+
+"It is lovely!" Dolly cried out, enthusiastically.
+
+"So it is," said Griffith. "And as like her as art can make it. It's a
+success, Phil."
+
+Phil stepped back with a critical air to give it a new inspection.
+
+"Yes, it is a success," he said. "Just give me a chance to get it hung
+well, and it will draw a crowd next season. You shall have a new dress
+if it does, Mollie, and you shall choose it yourself."
+
+Mollie roused herself for a moment, and lighted up.
+
+"Shall I?" she said; and then all at once she blushed in a way that
+made Dolly stare at her in some wonder. It seemed queer to think that
+Mollie--careless child Mollie--was woman enough to blush over anything.
+
+And then Aimée and 'Toinette came in, and looked on and admired just as
+openly and heartily as the rest, only Aimée was rather the more reticent
+of the two, and cast furtive glances at Mollie now and then. But Mollie
+was in a new mood, and had very little to say; and half an hour after,
+when her elder sister went into the family sitting-room, she found her
+curled up in an easy-chair by the fire, looking reflective. Dolly went
+to the hearth and stood near her.
+
+"What are you thinking about?" she asked.
+
+Mollie stirred uneasily, and half blushed again.
+
+"I don't know," she answered.
+
+"Yes, you do," contradicted Dolly, good-naturedly. "Are you thinking
+that it is a pleasant sort of a thing to be handsome enough to be made a
+picture of, Mollie?"
+
+The brown eyes met hers with an innocent sort of deprecating
+consciousness. "I--I never thought about myself in that way before,"
+admitted Mollie, naively.
+
+"Why," returned Dolly, quite sincerely, "you must have looked in the
+glass."
+
+"Ye-es," with a slow shake of the head; "but it did n't look the same
+way in the glass,--it did n't look as nice."
+
+Dolly regarded her with a surprise which was not unmingled with
+affectionate pity. She was not as unsophisticated as Mollie, and never
+had been. As the feminine head of the family, she had acquired a certain
+shrewdness early in life, and had taken a place in the household the
+rest were hardly equal to. There had been no such awakening as this for
+her. At fourteen, she had been fully and complacently conscious of the
+exact status of her charms and abilities, physical and mental. She had
+neither under-nor over-rated them. She had smiled back at her reflection
+in her mirror, showing two rows of little milk-white teeth, and being
+well enough satisfied with being a charming young person with a secure
+complexion and enviable self-poise. She understood herself, and
+attained perfection in the art of understanding others. Her rather
+sharp experience had not allowed _her_ to look in the glass in guileless
+ignorance of what she saw there, and perhaps this made her all the
+fonder of Mollie.
+
+"What kind of a dress are you going to choose if Phil buys you one?" she
+asked.
+
+"Maroon," answered Mollie. "Oh!" with a little shuddering breath of
+desperate delight, "how I wish I could have a maroon silk!"
+
+Dolly shook her head doubtfully.
+
+"It wouldn't be serviceable, because you could only have the one, and
+you could n't wear it on wet days," she said.
+
+"I should n't care about its being serviceable," burst forth innocent
+Vagabondia, rebelling against the trammels of prudence. "I want
+something pretty. I do so detest serviceable things. I would stay in the
+house all the wet days if I might have a maroon silk to wear when it was
+fine."
+
+"She is beginning to long for purple and fine linen," sighed Dolly, as
+she ran up to her bedroom afterward. "The saints forefend! It is a bad
+sign. She will fall in love the next thing. Poor, indiscreet little
+damsel!"
+
+But, despite her sage lamentations, there was even at that moment a plan
+maturing in her mind which was an inconsistent mixture of Vagabondia's
+goodnature and whim. Mollie's fancy for the maroon silk had struck her
+as being artistic, and there was not a Crewe among them who had not
+a weakness for the artistic in effect. Tod himself was imaginatively
+supposed to share it and exhibit preternatural intelligence upon the
+subject. In Dolly it amounted to a passion which she found it impossible
+to resist. By it she was prompted to divers small extravagances at
+times, and by it she was assisted in the arranging of all her personal
+adornments. It was impossible to slight the mental picture of Mollie
+with maroon drapery falling about her feet, with her cheeks tinted with
+excited color, and with that marvel of delight in her eyes. She could
+not help thinking about it.
+
+"She would be simply incomparable," she found herself soliloquizing.
+"Just give her that dress, put a white flower in her hair and set her
+down in a ballroom, or in the dress circle of a theatre, and she would
+set the whole place astir. Oh, she must have it."
+
+It was very foolish and extravagant of course; even the people who are
+weakly tolerant enough to rather lean toward Dorothea Crewe, will
+admit this. The money that would purchase the maroon garment would have
+purchased a dozen minor articles far more necessary to the dilapidated
+household; but while straining at such domestic gnats as these articles
+were, she was quite willing and even a trifle anxious to swallow
+Mollie's gorgeous camel. Such impulsive inconsistency was
+characteristic, however, and she betook herself to her bedroom with the
+intention of working out the problem of accommodating supply to demand.
+
+She took out her purse and emptied its contents on to her
+dressing-table. Two or three crushed bills, a scrap or so of
+poetry presented by Griffith upon various tender occasions, and a
+discouragingly small banknote, the sole remains of her last quarter's
+salary The supply was not equal to the demand, it was evident. But she
+was by no means overpowered. She was dashed, but not despairing. Of
+course, she had not expected to launch into such a reckless piece of
+expenditure all at once, she had only thought she might attain her
+modest ambition in the due course of time, and she thought so yet. She
+crammed bills and bank-note back into the purse with serene cheerfulness
+and shut it with a little snap of the clasp.
+
+"I will begin to save up," she said, "and I will persuade Phil to help
+me. We can surely do it between us, and then we will take her somewhere
+and let her have her first experience of modern society. What a
+sensation she would create in the camps of the Philistines!"
+
+She descended into the kitchen after this, appearing in those lower
+regions in the full glory of apron and rolled-up sleeves, greatly to the
+delight of the youthful maid-of-all-work, who, being feeble of intellect
+and fond of society, regarded the prospect of spending the afternoon
+with her as a source of absolute rejoicing. The "Sepoy," as she was
+familiarly designated by the family, was strongly attached to Dolly, as,
+indeed, she was to every other member of the household. The truth was,
+that the usefulness of the Sepoy (whose baptismal name was Belinda) was
+rather an agreeable fiction than a well-established fact. She had been
+adopted as a matter of charity, and it was charity rather than any
+recognized brilliance of parts which caused her to be retained. Phil had
+picked her up on the streets one night in time gone by, and had brought
+her home principally because her rags were soaked and she had asserted
+that she had nowhere to go for shelter, and partly, it must be
+confessed, because she was a curiosity. Having taken her in, nobody was
+stern enough to turn her out to face her fate again, and so she stayed.
+Nobody taught her anything in particular about household economy,
+because nobody knew anything particular to teach her. It was understood
+that she was to do what she could, and that what she could not do
+should be shared among them. She could fetch and carry, execute small
+commissions, manage the drudgery and answer the door-bell, when she was
+presentable, which was not often; indeed, this last duty had ceased
+to devolve upon her, after she had once confronted Lady Augusta with
+personal adornments so remarkable as to strike that august lady dumb
+and rigid with indignation upon the threshold, and cause her, when she
+recovered herself, to stonily, but irately demand an explanation of the
+gratuitous insult she considered had been offered her. Belinda's
+place was in the kitchen, after this, and to these regions she usually
+confined herself, happily vigorous in the discharge of her daily duties.
+She was very fond of Dolly, and hailed the approach of her days of
+freedom with secret demonstrations of joy. She hoarded the simple
+presents of finery given her by that young person with care, and
+regarded them in the light of sacred talismans. A subtle something in
+her dwarfed, feeble, starved-out nature was stirred, it may be, by the
+sight of the girl's life and brightness; and, apart from this, it
+would not have been like Dolly Crewe if she had not sympathized, half
+unconsciously, half because she was constitutionally sympathetic, with
+even this poor stray. If she had been of a more practical turn of mind,
+in all probability she would have taken Belinda in hand and attacked the
+work of training her with laudable persistence; but, as it was, private
+misgivings as to the strength of her own domestic accomplishments caused
+her to confine herself to more modest achievements. She could encourage
+her, at least, and encourage her she did with divers good-natured
+speeches and a leniency of demeanor which took the admiring Sepoy by
+storm.
+
+Saturday became a white day in the eyes of Belinda, because, being a
+holiday, it left Dolly at liberty to descend into the kitchen and apply
+herself to the study of cookery as a science, with much agreeable bustle
+and a pleasant display of high spirit and enjoyment of the novelty of
+her position. She had her own innocent reasons for wishing to become a
+proficient in the art, and if her efforts were not always crowned with
+success, the appearance of her handiwork upon the table on the
+occasion of the Sunday's dinner never disturbed the family equilibrium,
+principally, perhaps, because the family digestion was unimpaired. They
+might be jocose, they had been ironical, but they were never severe,
+and they always addressed themselves to the occasionally arduous task
+of disposing of the viands with an indifference to consequences which
+nothing could disturb.
+
+"One cannot possibly be married without knowing something of cookery,"
+Dolly had announced oracularly; "and one cannot gain a knowledge of
+it without practising, so I am going to practise. None of you are
+dyspeptic, thank goodness, so you can stand it. The only risk we run is
+that Tod might get hold of a piece of the pastry and be cut off in the
+bloom of his youth; but we must keep a strict watch upon him."
+
+And she purchased a cookery book and commenced operations, and held
+to her resolve with Spartan firmness, encouraged by private but
+enthusiastic bursts of commendation from Griffith, who, finding her out,
+read the tender meaning of the fanciful seeming whim, and was so touched
+thereby that the mere sight of her in her nonsensical little affectation
+of working paraphernalia raised him to a seventh heaven of bliss.
+
+When she made her entrance into the kitchen on this occasion, and began
+to bustle about in search for her apron, Belinda, who was on her knees
+polishing the grate, amidst a formidable display of rags and brushes,
+paused to take breath and look at her admiringly.
+
+"Are yer goin' to make yer pies 'n things, Miss Dolly?" she asked.
+"Which, if ye are, yer apern 's in the left 'and dror."
+
+"So it is," said Dolly. "Thank you. Now where is the cookery book?"
+
+"Left 'and dror agin," announced Belinda, with a faint grin. "I allus
+puts it there."
+
+Whereupon Dolly, making industrious search for it, found it, and applied
+herself to a deep study of it, resting her white elbows on the dresser,
+and looking as if she had been suddenly called upon to master its
+contents or be led to the stake. She could not help being intense and in
+earnest even over this every-day problem of pies and puddings.
+
+"Fricassee?" she murmured. "Fricassee was a failure, so was mock-turtle
+soup; it looked discouraging, and the fat _would_ swim about in a way
+that attracted attention. Croquettes were not so bad, though they were
+a little stringy; but beef _à la mode_ was positively unpleasant. Jugged
+hare did very well, but oyster _pâtés_ were dubious. Veal pie Griffith
+liked."
+
+"There's somebody a-ringin' at the door-bell," said Belinda, breaking
+in upon her. "He's rung twict, which I can go, mum, if I ain't got no
+smuts."
+
+Dolly looked up from her book.
+
+"Some one is going now, I think," she said. "I hope it is n't a
+visitor," listening attentively.
+
+But it was a visitor, unfortunately. In a few minutes Mollie came in,
+studiously perusing a card she held in her hand.
+
+"Ralph," she proclaimed, coming forward slowly. "Ralph Gowan. It's Lady
+Augusta's gentleman, Dolly, and he wants to see you."
+
+Dolly took the card and looked at it, giving her shoulders a tiny shrug
+of surprise.
+
+"He has not waited long," she said; "and it is rather inconvenient, but
+it can't be helped. I suppose I shall have to run up-stairs and present
+him to Phil."
+
+She untied her apron, drew down her sleeves, settled the bit of ribbon
+at her throat, and in three minutes opened the parlor door and greeted
+her visitor, looking quite as much in the right place as she had done
+the night before in the white merino.
+
+"I am very glad to see you," she said, shaking hands with him, "and I
+am sure Phil will be, too. He is always glad to see people, and just now
+you will be doubly welcome, because he has a new picture to talk about.
+Will you come into the studio, or shall I bring him here? I think it had
+better be the studio at once, because you will be sure to drift there in
+the end,--visitors always do."
+
+"The studio let it be, if you please," answered Gowan, wondering, just
+as he had done the night before, at the indescribable something in
+her manner which was so novel because it was so utterly free from any
+suggestion of affectation. It would have been a difficult matter to tell
+her that he had not come for any other reason than to see herself again,
+and yet this really was the case.
+
+But his rather fanciful taste found Phil a novelty also when she led him
+into the studio, and presented him to that young man, who was lying upon
+a couch with a cigar in his mouth.
+
+Phil had something of the same cool friendliness of deportment, and,
+being used to the unexpected advent of guests at all hours, was quite
+ready to welcome him. He had the same faculty for making noticeable
+speeches, too, and was amiable, though languid and _débonnaire_, and by
+no means prone to ceremony. In ten minutes after he had entered the room
+Ralph Gowan understood, as by magic, that, little as the world was to
+these people, they had, in their Bohemian fashion, learned through sheer
+tact to comprehend and tolerate its weaknesses. He examined the pictures
+on the walls and in the folios, and now and then found himself roused
+into something more than ordinary admiration. But he was disappointed in
+one thing. He failed in accomplishing the object of his visit.
+
+After she had seen that Phil and the paintings occupied his attention to
+some extent, Dolly left them.
+
+"I was beginning to think about pies and puddings when you came," she
+said, "and I must go back to them. Saturday is the only day Lady Augusta
+leaves me, in which to improve in branches of domestic usefulness," with
+an iniquitous imitation of her ladyship's manner.
+
+After which she went down to the kitchen again and plunged into culinary
+detail with renewed vigor, thinking of the six-roomed house in the
+suburbs, and the green sofa which was to fit into the alcove in the
+front parlor, growing quite happy over the mental picture, in blissful
+unconsciousness of the fact that a train had been that day laid, and
+that a spark would be applied that very night through the medium of a
+simple observation made by Phil to her lover.
+
+"Gowan was here this morning, Grif, and Dolly brought him into the
+studio. He's not a bad sort of fellow for a Philistine, and he seems
+to know something about pictures. I should n't be surprised if he came
+again."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV. ~ A LILY OF THE FIELD.
+
+THIS was the significant and poetic appellation which at once attached
+itself to Ralph Gowan after his first visit to the studio in Bloomsbury
+Place, and, as might have been expected, it was a fancy of Dolly's, the
+affixing of significant titles being one of her _fortes_.
+
+"The lilies of the field," she observed, astutely, "are a distinct
+class. They toil not, neither do they spin, and yet Solomon in all his
+glory was not arrayed like one of these. Yes, my young friends, Mr.
+Ralph Gowan is a lily of the field."
+
+And she was not far wrong. Twenty-seven years before Mr. Ralph Gowan
+had been presented to an extended circle of admiring friends as the sole
+heir to a fortune large enough to have satisfied the ambitions of half
+a dozen heirs of moderate aspirations, and from that time forward his
+lines had continually fallen in pleasant places. As a boy he had been
+handsome, attractive, and thoroughbred, and consequently popular; his
+good looks made him a favorite with women, his good fortune with men;
+his friends were rather proud of him, and his enemies were powerless
+against him; he found it easy to be amiable because no obstacles to
+amiability lay in his path; and altogether he regarded existence as a
+comfortable enough affair.
+
+At school his fellows had liked him just as boys as well as men are apt
+to like fortunate people; and as he had grown older he had always found
+himself a favorite, it may be for something of the same reason. But
+being, happily, a gentleman by nature, he had not been much spoiled by
+the general adulation. Having been born to it, he carried himself easily
+through it, scarcely recognizing the presence of what would have been
+patent to men less used to popularity. He was fond of travelling, and so
+had amused himself by comfortably arranging uncomfortable journeys and
+exploring pleasantly those parts of the earth which to ordinary tourists
+would appear unattainable.
+
+He was not an ordinary young man, upon the whole, which was evinced by
+his making no attempt to write a book of travels, though he might safely
+have done so; and really, upon the whole, "lily of the field" though
+chance had made him, he was neither useless nor purposeless, and rather
+deserved his good luck than otherwise.
+
+Perhaps it was because he was not an ordinary individual that his fancy
+was taken by the glimpse he had caught of life in Vagabondia. It was
+his first glimpse of the inner workings of such a life, and its
+novelty interested him. A girl of twenty-two who received attention and
+admiration in an enjoyable, matter-of-fact manner, as if she was used
+to and neither over- nor under-valued it, who could make coffee and
+conversation bearable and even exciting, who could hold her own against
+patronage and slights, and be as piquant and self-possessed at home as
+in society, who could be dazzling at night and charming in the morning,
+was novelty enough in herself to make Bloomsbury Place attractive, even
+at its dingiest, and there were other attractions aside from this one.
+
+Phil in the studio, taking life philosophically, and regarding the world
+and society in general with sublime and amiable tolerance, was as unique
+in his way as Dolly was in hers; his handsome girl-wife, who had come
+in to them with her handsome child in her arms, was unique also; Mollie
+herself, who had opened the door and quite startled him with the mere
+sight of her face,--well, Mollie had impressed him as she impressed
+everybody. And he was quite observant enough to see the element of
+matter-of-fact, half-jocular affection that bound them one to another;
+he could not help seeing it, and it almost touched him. They were not a
+sentimental assembly, upon the whole, but they were fond of each other
+in a style peculiar to themselves, and ready to unite in any cause which
+was the cause of the common weal. The family habit of taking existence
+easily and regarding misfortunes from a serenely philosophical
+standpoint, amused Ralph Gowan intensely. It had spiced Dolly's
+conversation, and it spiced Phil's; indeed, it showed itself in more
+than words. They had banded themselves against unavoidable tribulation,
+and it could not fail to be beautifully patent to the far-seeing mind
+that, taking all things together, tribulation had the worst of it.
+
+They were an artistic study, Ralph Gowan found, and so, in his character
+of a "lily of the field," he fell into the habit of studying them, as
+an amusement at first, afterwards because his liking for them became
+friendly and sincere.
+
+It was an easy matter to call again after the first visit,--people
+always did call again at Bloomsbury Place, and Ralph Gowan was no
+exception to the rule. He met Phil in the city, and sauntered home with
+him to discuss art and look at his work; he invited him to first-class
+little dinners, and introduced him to one or two men worth knowing;
+in short, it was not long before the two were fond of each other in
+undemonstrative man fashion. The studio was the sort of place Gowan
+liked to drop into when time hung heavily on his hands, and consequently
+hardly a week passed without his having at least once or twice dropped
+into it to sit among the half dozen of Phil's fellow Bohemians, who were
+also fond of dropping in as the young man sat at his easel, sometimes
+furiously at work, sometimes tranquilly loitering over the finishing
+touches of a picture. They were good-natured, jovial fellows, too, these
+Bohemian visitors, though they were more frequently than not highly
+scented with the odor of inferior tobacco, and rarely made an
+ostentatious display in the matter of costume, or were conspicuously
+faultless in the matter of linen; they failed to patronize the
+hairdresser, and were prone to various convivialities, but they were
+neither vicious nor vulgar, and they were singularly faithful to their
+friendships for each other. They were all fond of Phil, and accordingly
+fraternized at once with his new friend, adopting him into their circle
+with the ease of manner and freedom of sentiment which seemed the
+characteristic of their class; and they took to him all the more kindly
+because, amateur though he was, he shared many of their enthusiasms.
+
+Of course he did not always see Dolly when he went. During every other
+day of the week but Saturday she spent her time from nine in the morning
+until five in the afternoon in the rather depressing atmosphere of
+the Bilberry school-room. She vigorously assaulted the foundations of
+Lindley Murray, and attacked the rules of arithmetic; she taught Phemie
+French, and made despairing but continuous efforts at "finishing" her
+in music. But poor Phemie was not easily "finished," and hung somewhat
+heavily upon the hands of her youthful instructress; still, she was
+affectionate, if weak-minded, and so Dolly managed to retain her good
+spirits.
+
+"I believe they are all fond of me in their way," she said to
+Griffith,--"all the children, I mean; and that is something to be
+thankful for."
+
+"They couldn't help being fond of you," returned the young man. "Did any
+human being ever know you without being fond of you?"
+
+"Yes," said Dolly; "Lady Augusta knows me; and I do not think--no," with
+a cheerfully resigned shake of the head, which did not exactly express
+deep regret or contrition, "I really do not think Lady Augusta is what
+you might call overwhelmed with the strength of her attachment for me."
+
+"Oh, Lady Augusta!" said Griffith. "Confound Lady Augusta!"
+
+Griffith was one of the very few people who did not like Ralph Gowan,
+and perhaps charitably inclined persons will be half inclined to
+excuse his weakness. It was rather trying, it must be admitted, for a
+desponding young man rather under stress of weather, so to speak, to
+find himself thrown into sharp contrast with an individual who had
+sailed in smooth waters all his life, and to whom a ripple would have
+been a by no means unpleasant excitement; it was rather chafing to
+constantly encounter this favorite of fortune in the best of humors,
+because he had nothing to irritate him; thoroughbred, unruffled, and
+_débonnaire_ because he had nothing of pain or privation to face;
+handsome, well dressed, and at ease, because his income and his tastes
+balanced against each other accommodatingly. Human nature rose up
+and battled in the Vagabondian breast; there were times when, for the
+privilege of administering severe corporeal chastisement to Ralph
+Gowan, Griffith would have sacrificed his modest salary with a Christian
+fortitude and resignation beautiful to behold. To see him sitting in one
+of the faded padded chairs, roused all his ire, and his consciousness of
+his own weakness made the matter worse; to see him talking to Dolly, and
+see her making brisk little jokes for his amusement, was worse still,
+and drove him so frantic that more than once he had turned quite pale in
+his secret frenzy of despair and jealousy, and had quite frightened the
+girl, though he was wise enough to keep his secret to himself. It was
+plain enough that Gowan admired Dolly, but other men had admired her
+before; the sting of it was that this fellow, with his cool airs and
+graces and tantalizing repose of manner, had no need to hold back if
+he could win her. There would be no need for him to plan and pinch and
+despair; no need for faltering over odd shillings and calculating odd
+pence; _he_ could marry her in an hour if she cared for him, and he
+could surround her with luxuries, and dress her like a queen, and make
+her happy, as she deserved to be. And then the poor fellow's heart would
+beat fiercely, and the very blood would tremble in his veins, at the
+mere thought of giving her up.
+
+One night after they had been sitting together, and Gowan had just left
+the room with Phil, Dolly glanced up from her work and saw her lover
+looking at her with a face so pale and wretched that she was thrown into
+a passion of fear.
+
+She tossed her work away in a second, and, making one of her little
+rushes at him, was caught in his arms and half suffocated. She knew
+the instant she caught sight of his face what he was suffering, though
+perhaps she did not know the worst.
+
+"Oh, why will you?" she cried out, in tears, all at once. "It is cruel!
+You are as pale as death, and I know--I know so well what it means."
+
+"Tell me you will never forget what we have been to each other,"
+he said, when he could speak; "tell me you don't care for that
+fellow,--tell me you love me, Dolly, tell me you love me."
+
+She did not hesitate a moment; she had never flirted with Griffith
+in her life, and she knew him too well to try him when he wore that
+desperate, feverish look of longing in his eyes. She burst into an
+impetuous sob, and clung to him with both hands.
+
+"I love you with all my soul," she said. "I will never _let_ you give
+me up; and as to forgetting, I might die, but I could never forget. Care
+for Ralph Gowan! I love _you_, Griffith, I love _you!_"
+
+"And you don't regret?" he said, piteously. "Oh, Dolly, just think of
+what _he_ could give you; and then think of our hopeless dreams about
+miserable six-roomed houses and cheap furniture."
+
+"You will make me hate him," cried Dolly, her gust of love and pity
+making her fierce. "I don't want anything anybody could give me. I only
+want you, _dear_ old fellow,--_darling_ old fellow," holding him fast,
+as if she would never let him go, and shedding a shower of impassioned,
+tender tears. "Oh, my darling, only wait until I am your own wife, and
+see how happy I will be, and how happy I will make you,--for I _can_
+make you happy,--and see how I will work in our little home for your
+sake, and how content I will be with a little. Oh, what must I do to
+show you how I love you! Do you think I could have cared for Ralph Gowan
+all these years as I have cared for you? No indeed; but I shall care for
+you forever, and I would wait for you a _thousand_ years if I might only
+be your wife, and die in your arms at the end of it."
+
+And she believed every word she said, too, and would have been willing
+to lay down her young life to prove it, extravagant as it may all sound
+to the discreet. And she quite believed, too, that she could never have
+so loved any other man than this unlucky, jealous, tempestuous one; but
+I will take the liberty of saying that this was a mistake, for, being
+an impassioned, heart-ruled, unworldly young person, it is quite likely
+that if Ralph Gowan had stood in Mr. Griffith Donne's not exactly
+water-tight shoes, she would have clung to him quite as faithfully, and
+believed in his perfections quite as implicitly, and quite as scornfully
+would have depreciated the merits of his rival; but chance had arranged
+the matter for her years before, and so Mr. Griffith was the hero.
+
+"Ralph Gowan!" she flung out. "What is Ralph Gowan, or any other man on
+earth, to me? Did I love _him_ before I knew what love was, and scarcely
+understood my own heart? Did I grow into a woman loving _him_ and
+clinging to _him_ and dreaming about him? Have I ever had any troubles
+in common with _him_? Did we grow up together, and tell each other all
+our thoughts and help each other to bear things? Let him travel in the
+East, if he likes,"--with high and rather inconsistent disdain,--"and
+let him have ten thousand a year, if he will,--a hundred thousand
+millions a year wouldn't buy me from you--my own!" In another burst,
+"Let him ride in his carriage, if he chooses,"--rather, as if such
+a course would imply the most degraded weakness; but, as I have said
+before, she was illogical, if affectionate,--"let him ride in his
+carriage. I would rather walk barefoot through the world with you
+than ride in a hundred carriages, if every one of them was lined with
+diamonds and studded with pearls."
+
+There was the true flavor of Vagabondia's indiscretion and want of
+forethought in this, I grant you; but such speeches as these were Dolly
+Crewe's mode of comforting her lover in his dark moods; at least, she
+was sincere,--and sincerity will excuse many touches of extravagance.
+And as to Griffith, every touch of loving, foolish rhapsody dropped upon
+his heart like dew from heaven, filling him with rapture and drawing him
+nearer to her than before.
+
+"But," he objected,--a rather weak objection, offered rather weakly,
+because he was so full of renewed confidence and bliss,--"but he is a
+handsomer fellow than I am, Dolly, and it must be confessed he has good
+taste."
+
+"Handsomer!" echoed Dolly. "What do I care about his beauty? He is n't
+_you_,--that is where he fails to come up to the mark. And as to his
+good taste, do you suppose for a second that I could ever admire the
+most imposing 'get-up' by Poole, as I love this threadbare coat of
+yours, that I have laid my cheek against for the last three years?" And
+she bent down all at once and kissed the shabby sleeve.
+
+"No," she said, looking up the next minute with her eyes as bright
+as stars. "We have been _given_ to each other, that is it. It was n't
+chance, it was something higher. We needed each other, and a higher
+power than Fate bound us together, and it was a power that is n't cruel
+enough to separate us now, after all these years have woven our lives in
+one chord, and drawn our hearts close, and taught us how to comfort and
+bear with each other. I was given to you because I could help to make
+your life brighter,--and you were given to me because you could help to
+brighten mine, and God will never part us so long as we are true."
+
+The coat sleeve came into requisition again then, as it often did. Her
+enthusiastic burst ended in a gush of heart-full tears, and she hid her
+face on the coat sleeve until they were shed; Griffith in the mean time
+touching her partly bent head caressingly with his hand, but remaining
+silent because he could not trust himself to speak.
+
+But she became quieter at last, and got over it so far as to look up and
+smile.
+
+"I could n't give up the six-roomed house and the green sofa, Griffith,"
+she said. "They are like a great many other things,--the more I don't
+get them the more I want them. And the long winter evenings we are to
+spend together, when you are to read and I am to sew, and we are both to
+be blissfully happy. I could n't give those up on any account. And how
+could I bear to see Ralph Gowan, or any one else, seated in the orthodox
+arm-chair?"
+
+The very idea of this latter calamity occurring crushed Griffith
+completely. The long winter evenings they were to spend together were
+such a pleasant legend. Scarcely a day passed without his drawing a
+mental picture of the room which was to be their parlor, and of the
+fireside Dolly was to adorn. It required only a slight effort of
+imagination to picture her shining in the tiny room whose door closed
+upon an outside world of struggling and an inside world of love and
+hope and trust. He imagined Dolly under a variety of circumstances,
+but nothing pleased and touched him so tenderly as this fireside
+picture,--its ideal warmth and glow, and its poetic placing of Dolly
+as his wife sitting near to him with her smiles and winsome ways
+and looks--his own, at last, unshared by any outsiders. Giving that
+long-cherished fancy up would have killed him, if he could have borne
+all the rest. And while these two experienced the recorded fluctuations
+of their romance in private, Ralph Gowan had followed Phil into the
+studio.
+
+They found Mollie there on going into the room; and Mollie lying upon
+the sofa asleep, with her brown head upon a big soft purple cushion,
+was quite worthy a second glance. She had been rather overpowered in the
+parlor by the presence of Ralph Gowan, and, knowing there was a fire
+in the studio, and a couch drawn near it, she had retired there, and,
+appropriating a pile of cushions, had dropped asleep, and lay there
+curled up among them.
+
+Seeing her, Gowan found himself smiling faintly. Mollie amused him just
+as she amused Dolly. It was so difficult a matter to assign her any
+settled position in the world; She was taller than the other girls,
+and far larger and more statuesque; indeed, there were moments when she
+seemed to be almost imposing in presence, but this only rendered her
+still more a charming incongruity. She might have carried herself like a
+royal princess, but she blushed up to the tips of her ears at a glance,
+and was otherwise as innocently awkward as a beauty may be. She was not
+fond of strangers either, and generally lapsed into silence when spoken
+to. Public admiration only disconcerted her, and made her pout, and the
+unceremonious but friendly compliments of Phil's brethren in art were
+her special grievance.
+
+"They stare at me, and stare at me, and stare at me," she complained,
+pettishly, to Dolly, "and some of them say things to me. I wish they
+would attend to their pictures and leave me alone."
+
+But she had never evinced any particular dislike to Ralph Gowan. She was
+overpowered by a secret sense of his vast superiority to the generality
+of mankind, but she rather admired him upon the whole. She liked to hear
+him talk to Dolly, and she approved of his style. It was such a novel
+sort of thing to meet with a man who was not shabby, and whose clothes
+seemed made for him and were worn with a grace. He was handsome, too,
+and witty and polite, and his cool, comfortable manner reminded her
+vaguely of Dolly's own. So she used to sit and listen to the two as they
+chatted, and in the end her guileless admiration of Dolly's eligible
+Philistine became pretty thoroughly established.
+
+When the sound of advancing footsteps roused her from her nap she woke
+with great tranquillity, and sat up rubbing her drowsy eyes serenely for
+a minute or so before she discovered that Phil had a companion. But when
+she did discover that such was the fact she blushed all over, and looked
+up at Ralph Gowan in some naïve distress.
+
+"I did n't know any one was coming," she said, "and I was so comfortable
+that I fell asleep. It was the cushions, I think."
+
+"I dare say it was," answered Gowan, regarding her sleep-flushed cheeks
+and exquisite eyes with the pleasure he always felt in any beauty,
+animate or inanimate. "May I sit here, Mollie?" and then he looked at
+her again and decided that he was quite right in speaking to her as he
+would have spoken to a child, because she _was_ such a very child.
+
+"By me, on the sofa?" she answered. "Oh, yes."
+
+"Are you going to talk business with Phil?" she asked him next, "or may
+I stay here? Griffith and Dolly won't want me in the parlor, and I don't
+want to go into the kitchen."
+
+"I have no doubt you may stay here," he said, quite seriously; "but why
+won't they want you in the parlor?"
+
+"They never want anybody," astutely. "I dare say they are making
+love,--they generally are."
+
+"Making love," he repeated. "Ah, indeed!" and for the next few minutes
+was so absorbed in thought that Mollie was quite forgotten.
+
+Making love were they,--this shabby, rather un-amiable young man and the
+elder Miss Crewe? It sounded rather like nonsense to Ralph Gowan, but
+it was not a pleasant sort of thing to think about. It is not to be
+supposed that he himself was very desperately in love with Dolly just
+yet, but it must be admitted he admired her decidedly. Beauty as Mollie
+was, he scarcely gave her a glance when Dolly was in the room,--he
+recognized the beauty, but it did not enslave him, it did not even
+attract him as Dolly's imperfect charms did. And perhaps he had his own
+ideas of what Dolly's love-making would be, of the spice and variety
+which would form its characteristics, and of the little bursts of warmth
+and affection that would render it delightful. It was not soothing
+to think of all this being lavished on a shabby young man who was
+not always urbane in demeanor and who stubbornly objected to being
+propitiated by politeness.
+
+As was very natural, Mr. Ralph Gowan did not admire Mr. Griffith
+Donne enthusiastically. In his visits to Bloomsbury Place, finding
+an ill-dressed young man whose position in the household he could not
+understand, he began by treating him with good-natured suavity, being
+ready enough to make friends with him, as he had made friends with the
+rest of Phil's compatriots. But influenced by objections to certain
+things, Griffith was not to be treated suavely, but rather resented it.
+There was no good reason for his resenting it, but resent it he did,
+as openly as he could, without being an absolute savage and attracting
+attention. The weakness of such a line of conduct is glaringly patent,
+of course, to the well-regulated mind; but then Mr. Griffith Donne's
+mind was not well-regulated, and he was, on the contrary, a very
+hot-headed, undisciplined young man, and exceedingly sensitive to his
+own misfortunes and shabbiness, and infatuated in his passion for the
+object of his enemy's admiration. But Ralph Gowan could afford to be
+tolerant; in the matter of position he was secure, he had never been
+slighted or patronized in his life, and so had no shrinkings from such
+an ordeal; he was not disturbed by any bitter pang of jealousy as yet,
+and so, while he could not understand Griffith's restless anxiety to
+resent his presence, could still tolerate it and keep cool. Yet, as
+might be expected, he rather underrated his antagonist. Seeing him
+only in this one unfavorable light, he regarded him simply as a rather
+ill-bred, or, at least, aggressively inclined individual, whose temper
+and tone of mind might reasonably be objected to. Once or twice he had
+even felt his own blood rise at some implied ignoring of himself; but he
+was far the more urbane and well-disposed of the two, yet whether he was
+to be highly lauded for his forbearance, or whether, while lauding him,
+it would not be as well to think as well as possible of his enemy, is a
+matter for charity to decide.
+
+It had not occurred to him before that Griffith's frequent and
+unceremonious visits implied anything very serious. There were so many
+free-and-easy visitors at the house, and they all so plainly cultivated
+Dolly, if they did not make actual love to her; and really outsiders
+would hardly have been impressed with her deportment toward her
+betrothed. She was not prone to exhibit her preference sentimentally in
+public. So Ralph Gowan had been deceived,--and so he was deceived still.
+
+"This sort of fellow," as he mentally put it with unconscious
+high-handedness, was not the man to make such a woman happy, however
+ready she was to bear with him. It was just such men as he was, who,
+when the novelty of possession wore off, deteriorated into tyrannical,
+irritable husbands, and were not too well bred in their manners. So he
+became reflective and silent, when Mollie said that the two were "making
+love."
+
+But at last it occurred to him that even to Mollie his preoccupation
+might appear singular, and he roused himself accordingly.
+
+"Making love!" he said again. "Blissful occupation! I wonder how they do
+it. Do you know, Mollie?"
+
+Mollie looked at him with a freedom from scruples or embarrassment at
+the conversation taking such a turn, which told its own story.
+
+"Yes," she said. "They talk, you know, and say things to each other just
+as other people do, and he kisses her sometimes. I know that," with a
+decided air, "because I have seen him do it."
+
+"Cool enough, that, upon my word," was her questioner's mental comment,
+"and not unpleasant for Donne; but hardly significant of a fastidious
+taste, if it is a public exhibition." "Ah, indeed!" he said, aloud.
+
+"They have been engaged so long, you know," volunteered Mollie.
+
+"Singularly enough, I did not know, Mollie," he replied. "Are you sure
+yourself?"
+
+"Oh, yes!" exclaimed Mollie, opening her eyes. "I thought everybody knew
+that. They have been engaged ever since they were ever so much younger.
+Dolly was only fifteen, and Griffith was only eighteen, when they first
+fell in love."
+
+"And they have been engaged ever since?" said Gowan, his curiosity
+getting decidedly the better of him.
+
+"Yes, and would have been married long ago, if Griffith could have got
+into something; or if Old Flynn would have raised his salary. He has
+only a hundred a year," with unabashed frankness, "and, of course, they
+couldn't be married on that, so they are obliged to wait. A hundred and
+fifty would do, Dolly says,--but then, they have n't got a hundred and
+fifty."
+
+Ralph Gowan was meanly conscious of not being overpowered with regret
+on hearing this latter statement of facts. And yet he was by no means
+devoid of generous impulse. He was quite honest, however deeply he might
+be mistaken, in deciding that it would be an unfortunate thing for Dolly
+if she married Griffith Donne. He thought he was right, and certainly if
+there had been no more good in his rival than he himself had seen on
+the surface, he would not have been far wrong; but as it was he was
+unconsciously very far wrong indeed. He ran into the almost excusable
+extreme of condemning Griffith upon circumstantial evidence. Unfair
+advantage had been taken of Dolly, he told himself. She had engaged
+herself before she knew her own heart, and was true to her lover because
+it was not in her nature to be false. Besides, what right has a man with
+a hundred a year to bind any woman to the prospect of the life of narrow
+economies and privations such an income would necessarily entail?
+And forthwith his admiration of Dolly became touched with pity,
+and increased fourfold. _She_ was unselfish, at least, whatever her
+affianced might be. Poor little soul! (It is a circumstance worthy of
+note, because illustrative of the blindness of human nature, that
+at this very moment Miss Dorothea Crewe was enjoying her quiet
+_tête-à-tête_ with her lover wondrously, and would not have changed
+places with any young lady in the kingdom upon any consideration
+whatever.)
+
+It is not at all to be wondered at that, in the absence of other
+entertainment, Gowan drifted into a confidential chat with Mollie. She
+was the sort of girl few people could have remained entirely indifferent
+to. Her _naïveté_ was as novel as her beauty, and her weakness, so to
+speak, was her strength. Gowan found it so at least, but still it must
+be confessed that Dolly was the chief subject of their conversation.
+
+"You are very fond of your sister?" he said to the child.
+
+Mollie nodded.
+
+"Yes," she said, "I am very fond of her. We are all very fond of her.
+Dolly 's the clever one of the family, next to Phil. She is n't afraid
+of anybody, and things don't upset her. I wish I was like her. You ought
+to see her talk to Lady Augusta, I believe she is the only person in the
+world Lady Augusta can't patronize, and she is always trying to snub her
+just because she is so cool. But it never troubles Dolly. I have seen
+her sit and smile and talk in her quiet way until Lady Augusta could do
+nothing but sit still and stare at her as if she was choked, with her
+bonnet strings actually trembling."
+
+Gowan laughed. He could imagine the effect produced so well, and it was
+so easy to picture Dolly smiling up in the face of her gaunt patroness,
+and all the time favoring her with a shower of beautiful little stabs,
+rendered pointed by the very essence of artfulness. He decided that upon
+the whole Lady Augusta was somewhat to be pitied.
+
+"Dolly says," proceeded Mollie, "that she would like to be a beauty; but
+if I was like her I should n't care about being a beauty."
+
+"Ah!" said Gowan, unable to resist the temptation to try with a fine
+speech,--"ah! it is all very well for _you_ to talk about not caring to
+be a beauty."
+
+It did not occur to him for an instant that it was indiscreet to say
+such a thing to her. He only meant it for a jest, and nine girls out
+of ten even at sixteen would have understood his languid air of
+grandiloquence in an instant. But Mollie at sixteen was extremely
+liberal-minded, and almost Arcadian in her simplicity of thought and
+demeanor.
+
+Her brown eyes flew wide open, and for a minute she stared at him with
+mingled amazement and questioning.
+
+"Me!" she said, ignoring all given rules of propriety of speech.
+
+"Yes, you," answered Gowan, smiling, and looking down at her amusedly.
+"I have been paying you a compliment, Mollie."
+
+"Oh!" said Mollie, bewilderment settling on her face. But the next
+instant the blood rushed to her cheeks, and her eyes fell, and she moved
+a little farther away from him.
+
+It was the first compliment she had received in all her life, and it was
+the beginning of an era.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V. ~ IN WHICH THE PHILISTINES BE UPON US.
+
+"We are going," Dolly to Ralph Gowan, "to have a family rejoicing,
+and we should like you to join us. We are going to celebrate Mollie's
+birthday."
+
+"Thanks," he answered, "I shall be delighted." He had heard of these
+family rejoicings before, and was really pleased with the idea of
+attending one of them. They were strictly Vagabondian, which was one
+recommendation, and they were entirely free from the Bilberry element,
+which was another. They were not grand affairs, it is true, and set
+etiquette and the rules of society at open defiance, but they were
+cheerful, at least, and nobody attended them who had not previously
+resolved upon enjoying himself and taking kindly to even the most
+unexpected state of affairs. At Bloomsbury Place, Lady Augusta's "coffee
+and conversation" became "conversation and coffee," and the conversation
+came as naturally as the coffee. People who had jokes to make made them,
+and people who had not were exhilarated by the _bon-mots_ of the rest.
+
+"Mollie will be seventeen," said Dolly, "and it is rather a trial to
+me."
+
+Gowan laughed.
+
+"Why?" he asked.
+
+She shook her head gravely.
+
+"In the first place," she answered, "it makes me feel as if the dust of
+ages was accumulating in my pathway, and in the second, it is not safe
+for her."
+
+"Why, again?" he demanded.
+
+"She is far too pretty, and her knowledge of the world is far too
+limited. She secretly believes in Lord Burleigh, and clings to the
+poetic memory of King Cophetua and the Beggar-maid."
+
+"And you do not?"
+
+She held up her small forefinger and shook it at him.
+
+"If ever there was an artful little minx," she said, "that Beggar-maid
+was one. I never believed in her. I doubted her before I was twelve.
+With her eyes cast down and her sly tricks! She did not cast them down
+for nothing. She did it because she had long eyelashes, and it was
+becoming. And it is my impression she knew more about the king than
+she professed to. She had studied his character and found it weak.
+Beggar-maid me no beggar-maids! She was as deep as she was handsome."
+
+Of course he laughed again. Her air of severe worldly experience and
+that small warning forefinger were irresistible.
+
+"But Mollie," he said, "with all her belief in Cophetua, you think there
+is not enough of the beggar-maid element in her character to sustain her
+under like circumstances?"
+
+"If she met a Cophetua," she answered, "she would open her great eyes
+at his royal purple in positive delight, and if he caught her looking
+at him she would blush furiously and pout a little, and be so ashamed of
+her weakness that she would be ready to run away; but if he was artful
+enough to manage her aright, she would believe every word he said, and
+romance about him until her head was turned upside down. My fear is that
+some false Cophetua will masquerade for her benefit some day. She would
+never doubt his veracity, and if he asked her to run away with him I
+believe she would enjoy the idea. We shall have to keep sharp watch upon
+her."
+
+"You never were so troubled about Aimée?" Gowan suggested.
+
+"Aimée!" she exclaimed. "Aimée has kept us all in order, and managed
+our affairs for us ever since she wore Berlin wool boots and a coral
+necklace. She regulated the household in her earliest years, and will
+regulate it until she dies or somebody marries her, and what we are
+to do then our lares and pénates only know. Aimée! Nobody ever had any
+trouble with Aimée, and nobody ever will. Mollie is more like me,
+you see,--shares my weaknesses and minor sins, and always sees her
+indiscretions ten minutes too late for redemption. And then, since she
+is the youngest, and has been the baby so long, we have not been in the
+habit of regarding her as a responsible being exactly. It has struck
+me once or twice that Bloomsbury Place hardly afforded wise training
+to Mollie. Poor little soul!" And a faint shadow fell upon her face and
+rested there for a moment.
+
+But it faded out again as her fits of gravity usually did, and in a
+few minutes she was giving him such a description of Lady Augusta's
+unexpected appearance upon a like occasion in time past, that he laughed
+until the room echoed, and forgot everything else but the audacious
+grotesqueness of her mimicry.
+
+It being agreed upon that Mollie's birthday was to be celebrated,
+the whole household was plunged into preparations at once, though, of
+course, they were preparations upon a small scale and of a strictly
+private and domestic nature. Belinda, being promptly attacked with
+inflammation of the throat, which was a chronic weakness of hers, was
+rather inconveniently, but not at all to the surprise of her employers,
+incapacitated from service, and accordingly Dolly's duties became varied
+and multitudinous.
+
+Sudden inflammation on the part of Belinda was so unavoidable a
+consequence of any approaching demand upon her services as to have
+become proverbial, and the swelling of that young person's "tornsuls,"
+as she termed them, was anticipated as might be anticipated the rising
+of the sun. Not that it was Belinda's fault, however; Belinda's anxiety
+to be useful amounted at all times to something very nearly approaching
+a monomania; the fact simply was, that, her ailment being chronic, it
+usually evinced itself at inopportune periods. "It's the luck of the
+family," said Phil. "We never loved a tree or flower, etc."
+
+And so Belinda was accepted as an unavoidable inconvenience, and was
+borne with cheerfully, accordingly.
+
+It was not expected of her that she should appear otherwise on the
+eventful day than with the regulation roll of flannel about her neck.
+Dolly did not expect it of her at least, so she was not surprised, on
+entering the kitchen in the morning, to be accosted by her grimy young
+handmaiden in the usual form of announcement:--
+
+"Which, if yer please, miss, my tornsuls is swole most awful."
+
+"Are they?" said Dolly. "Well, I am very sorry, Belinda. It can't be
+helped, though; Mollie will have to run the errands and answer the
+door-bell, and you must stay with me and keep out of the draught.
+You can help a little, I dare say, if you are obliged to stay in the
+kitchen."
+
+"Yes, 'm," said Belinda, and then sidling up to the dresser, and rubbing
+her nose in an abasement of spirit, which resulted in divers startling
+adornments of that already rather highly ornamented feature. "If yer
+please, 'm," she said, "I 'm very sorry, Miss Dolly. Seems like I ain't
+never o' no use to yer?"
+
+"Yes, you are," said Dolly, cheerily, "and you can't help the sore
+throat, you know. You are a great deal of use to me sometimes. See how
+you save my hands from being spoiled; they would n't be as white as they
+are if I had to polish the grates and build the fires. Never mind, you
+will be better in a day or so. Now for the cookery-book."
+
+"I never seen no one like her," muttered the delighted Sepoy, returning
+to her vigorous cleaning of kettles and pans. "I never seen no one like
+none on 'em, they 're that there good-natured an' easy on folk."
+
+It was a busy day for Dolly, as well as for the rest of them, and there
+was a by no means unpleasant excitement in the atmosphere of business.
+The cookery, too, was a success, the game pâtés being a triumph, the
+tarts beautiful to behold, and the rest of the culinary experiments so
+marvellous, that Griffith, arriving early in the morning, and being
+led down into the pantry to look at them as a preliminary ceremony,
+professed to be struck dumb with admiration.
+
+"There," said Dolly, backing up against the wall in her excitement, and
+thrusting her hands very far into her apron pockets indeed,--"there!
+what do you think of _that_, sir?" And she stood before him in a perfect
+glow of triumph, her cheeks like roses, her sleeves rolled above
+her dimpled elbows, her hair pushed on her forehead, and her general
+appearance so deliciously business-like and agreeably professional
+that the dusts of flour that were so prominent a feature in her costume
+seemed only an additional charm.
+
+"Think of it?" said Griffith. "It is the most imposing display I ever
+saw in my life. The trimmings upon those tarts are positively artistic.
+You don't mean to say you did it all yourself?"
+
+"Yes," regarding them critically,--"ev-er-y bit," with a little nod for
+every syllable.
+
+"Won-der-ful!" with an air of complimentary incredulity. "May I ask if
+there is anything you can _not_ do?"
+
+"There is absolutely nothing," sententiously. And then somehow or other
+they were standing close together, as usual, his arm around her waist,
+her hands clasped upon his sleeve. "When we get the house in Putney, or
+Bayswater, or Peckham Eise, or whatever it is to be," she said, laughing
+in her most coaxing way, "this sort of thing will be convenient. And it
+_is_ to come, you know,--the house, I mean."
+
+"Yes," admitted Griffith, with dubious cheerfulness, "it _is_ to
+come,--some time or other."
+
+But her cheerfulness was not of a dubious kind at all. She only laughed
+again, and patted his arm with a charming air of proprietorship.
+
+"I have got something else to show you," she said; "something up-stairs.
+Can you guess what it is? Something for Mollie,--something she wanted
+which is dreadfully extravagant."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Griffith. "Not the maroon silk affair!"
+
+"Yes," her doubt as to the wisdom of her course expressing itself in
+a whimsical little grimace. "I could n't help it. It will make her so
+happy; and I should so have liked it myself if I had been in her place."
+
+She had been going to lead him up-stairs to show it to him as it lay in
+state, locked up in the parlor, but all at once she changed her mind.
+
+"No," she said; "I think you had better not see it until Mollie comes
+down in state. It will look best then; so I won't spoil the effect by
+letting you see it now."
+
+Griffith had brought his offering, too,--not much of an offering,
+perhaps, but worth a good deal when valued according to the affectionate
+good-will it represented. "The girls" had a very warm corner in the
+young man's tender heart, and the half-dozen pairs of gloves he produced
+from the shades of an inconvenient pocket of his great-coat, held their
+own modest significance.
+
+"Gloves," he said, half apologetically, "always come in; and I believe I
+heard Mollie complaining of hers the other day."
+
+Certainly they were appreciated by the young lady in question, their
+timely appearance disposing of a slight difficulty of addition to her
+toilet.
+
+The maroon silk was to be a surprise; and surely, if ever surprise was a
+success, this was. Taking into consideration the fact that she had spent
+the earlier part of the day in plaintive efforts to remodel a dubious
+garment into a form fitting to grace the occasion, it is not to be
+wondered at that the sudden realization of one of her most hopelessly
+vivid imaginings rather destroyed the perfect balance of her
+equilibrium.
+
+She had almost completed her toilet when Dolly produced her treasure;
+nothing, in fact, remained to be done but to don the dubious garment,
+when Dolly, slipping out of the room, returned almost immediately with
+something on her arm.
+
+"Never mind your old alpaca, Mollie," she said. "I have something better
+for you here."
+
+Mollie turned round in some wonder to see what she meant, and the next
+minute she turned red and pale with admiring amazement.
+
+"Dolly," she said, rather unnecessarily, "it's a maroon silk." And she
+sat down with her hands clasped, and stared at it in the intensity of
+her wonder.
+
+"Yes," said Dolly, "it is a maroon silk, and you are to wear it
+to-night. It is Phil's birthday present to you,--and mine."
+
+The spell was broken at once. The girl got up and made an impulsive
+rush at her, and, flinging her bare white arms out, caught her in a
+tempestuous embrace, maroon silk and all, laughing and crying both
+together.
+
+"Dolly," she said,--"Dolly, it is the grandest thing I ever had in my
+life, and you are the best two--you and Phil--that ever lived!" And not
+being as eloquent by nature as she was grateful and affectionate, she
+poured out the rest of her thanks in kisses and interjections.
+
+Then Dolly, extricating herself, proceeded to add the final touches
+to the unfinished toilet, and in a very few minutes Miss Mollie stood
+before the glass regarding herself in such ecstatic content as she had
+perhaps never before experienced.
+
+"Who is going to be here, Dolly?" she asked, after taking her first
+survey.
+
+"Who?" said Dolly. "Well, I scarcely know. Only one or two of Phil's
+friends and Ralph Gowan."
+
+Mollie gave a little start, and then blushed in the most pathetically
+helpless way.
+
+"Ah!" she said, and looked at her reflection in the glass again, as if
+she did not exactly know what else to do.
+
+A swift shadow of surprise showed itself in Dolly's eyes, and died out
+almost at the same moment.
+
+"Are you ready?" she said, briefly. "If you are, we will go
+down-stairs."
+
+There was a simultaneous cry of admiration from them all when the two
+entered the parlor below, and Miss Mollie appeared attired in all her
+glory.
+
+"Here she is!" exclaimed 'Toinetté and Aimée, together.
+
+"Just the right shade," was Phil's immediate comment. "Catches the
+lights and throws out her coloring so finely. Turn round, Mollie."
+
+And Mollie turned round obediently, a trifle abashed by her own
+gorgeousness, and looking all the lovelier for her momentary abasement.
+
+Griffith was delighted. He went to her and kissed her, and praised her
+with the enthusiastic frankness which characterized all his proceedings
+with regard to the different members of the family of his betrothed. He
+was as proud of the girl's beauty as if she were a sister of his own.
+
+Then the object of their mutual admiration knelt down upon the
+hearth-rug, before Tod, who, attired in ephemeral splendor, had stopped
+in his tour across the room to stare up with bright baby wonder at the
+novelty of warm, rich color which had caught his fancy.
+
+"I must kiss Tod," she said; no ceremony was ever considered complete,
+and no occasion perfect, unless Tod had been kissed, and so taken into
+the general confidence. "Tod, come and be kissed."
+
+But, being a young gentleman of by no means effusive nature, Tod
+preferred to remain stationary, holding to the toe of his red shoe
+and gazing upward with an expression of approbation and indifference
+commingled, which delighted his feminine admirers beyond expression.
+
+"He knows it is something new," said 'Toinette. "See how he looks at
+it." Whereupon, of course, there was a chorus of delighted acquiescence,
+and Aunt Dolly must needs go down upon the hearthrug, too.
+
+"Has Aunt Mollie got a grand new dress on, Beauty?" she said, glowing
+with such pretty, womanly adoration of this atom of all-ruling baby-dom,
+as made her seem the very cream and essence of lovableness and sweet
+nonsense. And then, Master Tod, still remaining unmoved by adulation,
+and still regarding his small circle of tender sycophants with round,
+liquid, baby eyes serene, and dewy red lips apart, was so effective
+in this one of his many entrancing moods, that he was no longer to be
+resisted, and so was caught up and embraced with ecstasy.
+
+"He notices everything," cries Aunt Dolly; "and I 'm sure he understands
+every word he hears. He is _so_ different from other babies."
+
+Different! Of course he was different. There was not one of them but
+indignantly scouted at the idea of there ever having before existed such
+a combination of infantile gifts and graces. The most obtuse of people
+could not fail to acknowledge his vast superiority, in spite of their
+obtuseness.
+
+"But," remarked Aimée, with discretion, "you had better stand up,
+Mollie, or you will crush your front breadths." 
+
+Mollie, with a saving recollection of front breadths, arose, and as it
+chanced just in time to turn toward the door as Ralph Gowan came in.
+
+He was looking his best to-night,--that enviable, thorough-bred best,
+which was the natural result of culture, money, and ease; and Dolly,
+catching sight of Mollie's guileless blushes, deplored, while she did
+not wonder at them, understanding her as she did. It was just like the
+child to blush, feeling herself the centre of observation, but she
+could not help wishing that her blush had not been quite so quick and
+sensitive.
+
+But if she had flushed when he entered, she flushed far more when he
+came to speak to her. He held in his hand a bouquet of flowers,--white
+camellia buds and bloom, and dark, shadowy green; a whim of his own, he
+said.
+
+"I heard about the maroon dress," he added, when he had given it to her,
+"and my choice of your flowers was guided accordingly. White camellias,
+worn with maroon sik, are artistic, Mollie, your brother will tell you."
+
+"They are very pretty," said Mollie, looking down at them in grateful
+confusion; "and I am much obliged. Thank you, Mr. Gowan."
+
+"A great many good wishes go with them," he said, good-naturedly. "If
+I were an enchanter, you should never grow any older from this day
+forward." And his speech was something more than an idle compliment.
+There was something touching to him, too, in the fact of the child's
+leaving her childhood behind her, and confronting so ignorantly
+the unconscious dawn of a womanhood which might hold so much of the
+bitterness of knowledge.
+
+But, of course, Mollie did not understand this.
+
+"Why?" she asked him, forgetting her camellias, in her wonder at his
+fancy.
+
+"Why?" said he. "Because seventeen is such a charming age, Mollie; and
+it would be well for so many of us if we did not outlive its faith and
+freshness."
+
+He crossed over to Dolly then, and made his well-turned speech of
+friendly greeting to her also, but his most ordinary speech to her had
+its own subtle warmth. He was growing very fond of Dolly Crewe. But
+Dolly was a trifle preoccupied; she was looking almost anxiously at
+Mollie and the camellias.
+
+"He has been paying her a compliment or she would not look so fluttered
+and happy," she was saying to herself. "I wish he wouldn't. It may
+please him, but it is dangerous work for Mollie."
+
+And when she raised her eyes to meet Ralph Gowan's, he saw that there
+was the ghost of a regretful shadow in them.
+
+She had too much to do, however, to be troubled long. Phil's friends
+began to drop in, one by one, and the business of the evening occupied
+her attention. There was coffee to be handed round, and she stood at
+a side-table and poured it out herself into quaint cups of old china,
+which were a relic of former grandeur; and as she moved to and fro,
+bringing one of these cups to one, or a plate of fantastic little cakes
+to another, and flavoring the whole repast with her running fire of
+spicy speeches, Gowan found himself following her with his eyes and
+rather extravagantly comparing her to ambrosia-bearing Hebe, at the same
+time thinking that in Vagabondia these tilings were better done than
+elsewhere.
+
+The most _outré_ of Phil's hirsute and carelessly garbed
+fellow-Bohemians somehow or other seemed neither vulgar nor ill at ease.
+They evidently felt at home, and admired faithfully and with complete
+unison the feminine members of their friend's family; and their
+readiness to catch at the bright or grotesque side of any situation
+evinced itself in a manner worthy of imitation. Then, too, there was
+Tod, taking excursionary rambles about the carpet, and, far from being
+in the way, rendering himself an innocent centre of attraction. Brown
+cracked jokes with him, Jones bribed him with cake to the performance
+of before-unheard-of feats, and one muscular, fiercely mustached and
+bearded young man, whose artistic forte was battle-pieces of the most
+sanguinary description, appropriated him bodily and set him on his
+shoulder, greatly to the detriment of his paper collar.
+
+"The spirit of Vagabondia is strong in Tod," said Dolly, who at the time
+was standing near Gowan upon the hearth-rug, with her own coffee-cup in
+hand; "its manifestation being his readiness to accommodate himself to
+circumstances."
+
+Through the whole of the evening Mollie and the camellias shone forth
+with resplendence. Those of Phil's masculine friends who had known her
+since her babyhood felt instinctively that to-night the Rubicon had
+been passed. Unconscious as she was of herself, she was imposing in the
+maroon silk, and these free-and-easy, good-natured fellows were the very
+men to be keenly alive to any subtle power of womanhood. So when they
+addressed her their manner was a trifle subdued, and their deportment
+toward her had a faint savor of delicate reverence.
+
+Dolly was in her element. Her songs, her little supper, and her plans
+of entertainment were a perfect success. Such jokes as she made and such
+laughter as she managed to elicit through the medium of the smallest
+of them, and such aptness and tact as she displayed in keeping up
+the general fusillade of _bon-mots_ and repartee. It would have been
+impossible for a witticism to fall short of its mark under her active
+superintendence, even if witticisms had been prone to fall short in
+Vagabondia, which they decidedly were not. She kept Griffith busy, too,
+from first to last, perhaps because she felt it to be the safest plan;
+at any rate, she held him near her, and managed to keep him in the best
+of spirits all the evening, and more than once Gowan, catching a
+glimpse of her as she addressed some simple remark to the favored one,
+recognized a certain bright softness in her face which told its own
+story. But there would have been little use in openly displaying his
+discomfiture; so, after feeling irritated for a moment or so, Ralph
+Gowan allowed himself to drift into attendance on Mollie, and, being
+almost gratefully received by that young lady, he did not find that the
+time passed slowly.
+
+"I am so glad you came here." she said to him, plaintively, when he
+first crossed the room to her side. "I do so hate Brown."
+
+"Brown!" he echoed. "Who _is_ Brown, Mollie? and what has Brown been
+doing to incur your resentment?"
+
+Mollie gave her shoulders a petulant shrug.
+
+"Brown is that little man in the big coat," she said, "the one who went
+away when you came. I wish he would stay away. I can't bear him," with
+delightful candor.
+
+"But why?" persisted Gowan, casting a glance at the side of the room
+where Dolly stood talking to her lover. "Is it because his coat is so
+big, or because he is so little, that he is so objectionable? To be at
+once moral and instructive, Mollie, a man is not to be judged by his
+coat."
+
+"I know that," returned Mollie, her unconscious innocence asserting
+itself; "it is n't that. _You_ couldn't be as disagreeable as he is if
+you were dressed in rags."
+
+Gowan turned quickly to look at her, forgetting even Dolly for the
+instant,--but she was quite in earnest, and met his questioning eyes
+with the most pathetic ignorance of having said anything extraordinary.
+Indeed, her faith in what she had said was so patent that he found it
+impossible to answer her with a light or jesting speech.
+
+"It is n't that," she went on, pulling at a glossy green leaf on her
+bouquet. "If he did n't--if he would n't--if he didn't keep saying
+things--"
+
+"What sort of things?" asked Gowan, to help her out of her dilemma.
+
+"I--don't know," was the shy reply. "Stupid things."
+
+"Stupid things!" he repeated. "Poor Brown!" and his eyes wandered to
+Dolly again.
+
+But it would not have been natural if he had not been attracted by
+Mollie, after all, and in the course of time in a measure consoled
+by her. She was so glad to be protected from the advances of the much
+despised Brown, that he found it rather pleasant than otherwise to
+constitute himself her body-guard,--to talk to her as they sat, and
+to be her partner in the stray dances which accidentally enlivened the
+evening entertainment. She danced well, too, he discovered, and with
+such evident enjoyment of her own smooth, swaying movements as was quite
+magnetic, and made him half reluctant to release her when their first
+waltz was ended, and she stopped all aflush with new bloom.
+
+"I am _so_ fond of dancing," she said, catching her breath in a little
+sigh of ecstasy. "We all are. It is one of the things we _can_ do
+without spending any money, you know."
+
+It was shortly after this, just as they were standing in twos and
+threes, chatting and refreshing themselves with Dolly's confections
+and iced lemonade, that an entirely unexpected advent occurred. There
+suddenly fell upon the general ear a sound as of rolling wheels, and a
+carriage stopped before the door.
+
+Dolly, standing in the midst of a small circle of her own, paused in her
+remarks to listen.
+
+"It is a carriage, that is certain," she said,--"and somebody is getting
+out. I don't know "--and then a light breaking over her face in a
+flash of horror and delight in the situation commingled. "Phil," she
+exclaimed, "the Philistines be upon us,--it is Lady Augusta!"
+
+And it was. In two minutes that majestic lady was ushered in by the
+excited Belinda, and announced in the following rather remarkable
+manner,--
+
+"If yer please, Miss Dolly, here's your aunt, Mr. Phil."
+
+For a second her ladyship was speechless, even though Dolly advanced to
+meet her at once. The festive gathering was too much for her, and the
+sight of Ralph Gowan leaning over Mollie in all her bravery, holding
+her flowers for her, and appearing so evidently at home, overpowered her
+completely. But she recovered herself at length.
+
+"I was not aware," she said to Dolly, "that you were having a"--pause
+for a word sufficiently significant--"that you were holding a
+reception,"--a scathing glance at the pensive Brown, who was at once
+annihilated. "You will possibly excuse my involuntary intrusion. I
+thought, of _course_" (emphasis), "that I should find you alone, and
+as I had something to say to you concerning Euphemia, I decided to
+call tonight on my way from the conversazione at Dr. Bugby's,--perhaps,
+Dorothea, your friends" (emphasis again) "will excuse you for a moment,
+and you will take me into another room,"--this last as if she had
+suddenly found herself in a fever hospital and was rather afraid of
+contagion.
+
+But apart from Mollie, who pouted and flushed, and was extremely
+uncomfortable, nobody seemed to be either chilled or overwhelmed. Phil's
+greeting was so cordial and unmoved that her ladyship could only proffer
+him the tips of her fingers in imposing silence, and Dolly's air
+of placid good-humor was so perfect that it was as good as a modest
+theatrical entertainment.
+
+She led her visitor out of the room with a most untroubled countenance,
+after her ladyship had honored Gowan with a word or so, kindly
+signifying her intense surprise at meeting him in the house, and rather
+intimating, delicately, that she could not comprehend his extraordinary
+conduct, and hoped he would not live to regret it.
+
+The interview was not a long one, however. In about ten minutes the
+carriage rolled away, and Dolly came back to the parlor with a touch of
+new color on her cheek, and a dying-out spark of fire in her eye; and
+though her spirits did not seem to have failed her, she was certainly a
+trifle moved by something.
+
+"Let us have another waltz." she said, rather as if she wished to
+dismiss Lady Augusta from the carpet "I will play this time. Phil, find
+a partner."
+
+She sat down to the piano at once, and swept off into one of Phil's
+own compositions, and from that time till the end of the evening she
+scarcely gave them a moment's pause, and was herself so full of sparkle
+and resources that she quite enraptured Gowan, and made the shabby room
+and the queer life seem more novel and entrancing than ever.
+
+But when the guests were gone, and only Griffith, who was always last,
+remained with Phil and the girls, grouped about the fire, the light died
+out of her mood, and she looked just a trifle anxious and tired.
+
+"Girls," she said, "I have some bad news to tell you,--at least some
+news that isn't exactly good. Lady Augusta has given me what Belinda
+would call 'a warning.' I visit the select precincts of Bilberry House
+as governess no more."
+
+There is no denying it was a blow to them all. Her salary had been
+a very necessary part of the family income, and if they had been
+straitened with it, certainly there would be a struggle without it.
+
+"Oh!" cried Mollie, remorsefully. "And you have just spent nearly all
+you had on my dress. And you do so want things yourself, Dolly. What
+shall you do?"
+
+"Begin to take in the daily papers and peruse the advertising column,"
+she answered, courageously. "Never mind, it will all come right before
+long, and we can keep up our spirits until then."
+
+But, despite her assumed good spirits, when she went to see Griffith
+out of the front door, she held to his arm with a significantly clinging
+touch, and was so silent for a moment that he stooped in the dark to
+kiss her, and found her cheek wet with tears.
+
+It quite upset him, too, poor fellow! Dolly crying and daunted was a
+state of affairs fraught with anguish to him.
+
+"Why, Dolly!" he exclaimed, tremulously. "Dolly, you are crying!"
+
+And then she did give way, and for a minute or so quite needed the
+shelter and rest of his arms. She cared for no other shelter or rest;
+he was quite enough for her in her brightest or darkest day,--just
+this impecunious young man, whose prospects were so limited, but whose
+affection for her was so wholly without limit. She might be daunted,
+but she could not remain long uncomforted while her love and trust were
+still unchanged. Ah! there was a vast amount of magic in the simple,
+silent pressure of the arm within that shabby coat-sleeve.
+
+So, as might be expected, she managed to recover herself before many
+minutes, and receive his tender condolences with renewed spirit; and
+when she bade him good-night she was almost herself again, and was
+laughing, even though her eyelashes were wet.
+
+"No," she said, "we are _not_ going to destruction, Lady Augusta to the
+contrary, and the family luck must assert itself some time, since it has
+kept itself so long in the background. And in the mean time--well," with
+a little parting wave of her hand, "Vagabondia to the rescue!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI. ~ "WANTED, A YOUNG PERSON."
+
+THEEE was much diligent searching of the advertising columns of the
+daily papers for several weeks after this. Advertisements, in fact,
+became the staple literature, and Dolly's zeal in the perusal of them
+was only to be equalled by her readiness to snatch at the opportunities
+they presented. No weather was too grewsome for her to confront, and no
+representation too unpromising for her to be allured by. In the morning
+she was at Bayswater calling upon the chilling mother of six (four
+of them boys) whose moral nature needed judicious attention, and who
+required to be taught the rudiments of French, German, and Latin; in the
+afternoon she was at the general post-office applying to Q. Y. Z., who
+had the education of two interesting orphans to negotiate for, and who
+was naturally desirous of doing it as economically as possible; and at
+night she was at home, writing modest, business-like epistles to every
+letter in the alphabet in every conceivable or inconceivable part of the
+country.
+
+"If I had only been born 'a stout youth,' or 'a likely young man,' or
+'a respectable middle-aged person,' I should have been 'wanted' a dozen
+times a day," she would remark; "but as it is, I suppose I I must wait
+until something 'presents itself,' as the Rev. Marmaduke puts it."
+
+And in defiance of various discouraging and dispiriting influences, she
+waited with a tolerable degree of tranquillity until, in the course of
+time, her patience was rewarded. Sitting by the fire one morning with
+Tod and a newspaper, her eye was caught by an advertisement which,
+though it did not hold out any extra inducements, still attracted her
+attention, so she read it aloud to Aimée and 'Toinette.
+
+"Wanted, a young person to act as companion to an elderly lady. Apply at
+the printers."
+
+"There, Aimée," she commented, "there is another. I suppose I might
+call myself 'a young person,' Don't you think I had better 'apply at the
+printer's'?"
+
+"They don't mention terms," said Aimée.
+
+"You would have to leave home," said 'Toinette.
+
+Dolly folded up the paper and tossed it on to the table with a half
+sigh. She had thought of that the moment she read the paragraph, and
+then, very naturally, she had thought of Griffith. It would not be
+feasible to include him in her arrangements, even if she made any.
+Elderly ladies who engage "young persons" as companions were not in
+the habit of taking kindly to miscellaneous young men, consequently the
+prospect was not a very bright one.
+
+There would only be letter-writing left to them, and letters seemed such
+cold comfort contrasted with every-day meetings. She remembered, too,
+a certain six months she had spent with her Bilberry charges in
+Switzerland, when Griffith had nearly been driven frantic by her absence
+and his restless dissatisfaction, and when their letters had only seemed
+new aids to troublous though unintentional games at cross-purposes.
+There might be just the same thing to undergo again, but, then, how
+was it to be avoided? It was impossible to remain idle just at this
+juncture.
+
+"So it cannot be helped," she said, aloud. "I must take it if I can
+get it, and I must stay in it until I can find something more pleasant,
+though I cannot help wishing that matters did not look so unpromising.
+Tod, you will have to go down, Aunt Dolly is going to put on her hat and
+present herself at the printer's in the character of a young person in
+search of an elderly lady."
+
+Delays were dangerous, she had been taught by experience, so she ran
+up-stairs at once for her out-door attire, and came down in a few
+minutes, drawing on her gloves and looking a trifle ruefully at them.
+
+"They are getting discouragingly white at the seams," she said, "and it
+seems almost impossible to keep them sewed up. I shall have to borrow
+Aimée's muff. What a blessing it is that the weather is so cold!"
+
+At the bottom of the staircase she met Mollie.
+
+"Phemie is in the parlor, Dolly," she announced, "and she wants to see
+you. I don't believe Lady Augusta knows she is here, either, she looks
+so dreadfully fluttered."
+
+And when she entered the room, surely enough Phemie jumped up with a
+nervous bound from a chair immediately behind the door, and, dropping
+her muff and umbrella and two or three other small articles, caught her
+in a tremulous embrace, and at once proceeded to bedew her with tears.
+
+"Oh, Dolly!" she lamented, pathetically; "I have come to say good-by;
+and, oh! what shall I do without you?"
+
+"Good-by!" said Dolly. "Why, Phemie?"
+
+"Switzerland!" sobbed Phemie. "The--the select seminary at Geneva,
+Dolly, where th-that professor of m-music with the lumpy face was."
+
+"Dear me!" Dolly ejaculated. "You don't mean to say you are going there,
+Phemie?"
+
+"Yes, I do," answered Euphemia. "Next week, too. And, oh dear, Dolly!"
+trying to recover her handkerchief, "if it had been anywhere else
+I could have borne it, but that," resignedly, "was the reason mamma
+settled on it. She found out how I _loathed_ the very thought of it,
+and then she decided immediately. And don't you remember those mournful
+girls, Dolly, who used to walk out like a funeral procession, and how
+we used to make fun--at least, how you used to make fun of the lady
+principal's best bonnet?"
+
+It will be observed by this that Miss Dorothea Crewe's intercourse with
+her pupils had not been as strictly in accordance with her position as
+instructress as it had been friendly. She had even gone so far as to set
+decorum at defiance, by being at once entertaining and jocular, though
+to her credit it must be said that she had worked hard enough for
+her modest salary, and had not neglected even the most trivial of her
+numerous duties.
+
+She began to console poor Euphemia to the best of her ability, but
+Euphemia refused to be comforted.
+
+"I shall have to take lessons from that lumpy professor, Dolly," she
+said. "And you know how I used to hate him when he _would_ make love to
+you. And that was mamma's fault, too, because she would patronize him
+and call him 'a worthy person.' He was the only man who admired you I
+ever knew her to encourage, and she would n't have encouraged him if he
+had n't been so detestable."
+
+It was very evident that the eldest Miss Bilberry was in a highly
+rebellious and desperate state of mind. Dolly's daily visits,
+educational though they were, had been the brightest gleams of sunlight
+in her sternly regulated existence. No one had ever dared to joke in the
+Bilberry mansion but Dolly, and no one but Dolly, had ever made the clan
+gatherings bearable to Euphemia; and now that Dolly was cut off
+from them all, and there were to be no more jokes and no more small
+adventures, life seemed a desert indeed. And then with the calamitous
+prospect of Switzerland and the lumpy professor before her, Phemie was
+crushed indeed.
+
+"Mamma doesn't know I came," she confessed, tearfully, at last; "but
+I could n't help it, Dolly, I could n't go away without asking you to
+write to me and to let me write to you. You will write to me, won't
+you?"
+
+Dolly promised at once, feeling a trifle affected herself. She had
+always been fond of Phemie, and inclined to sympathize with her, and now
+she exerted herself to her utmost to cheer her. She persuaded her to
+sit down, and after picking up the muff and umbrella and parcels, took
+a seat by her, and managed to induce her to dry her tears and enter into
+particulars.
+
+"It will never do for Lady Augusta to see that you have been crying,"
+she said. "Dry your eyes, and tell me all about it, and--wait a minute,
+I have a box of chocolates here, and I know you like chocolates."
+
+It was a childish consolation, perhaps, but Dolly knew what she
+was doing and whom she was dealing with, and this comforting with
+confections was not without its kindly girlish tact. Chocolates were one
+of Phemie's numerous school-girl weaknesses, and a weakness so rarely
+indulged in that she perceptibly brightened when her friend produced the
+gay-colored, much-gilded box. And thus stimulated, she poured forth her
+sorrows with more coherence and calmness. She was to go to Switzerland,
+that was settled, and the others were to be placed in various other
+highly select educational establishments. They were becoming too old
+now, Lady Augusta had decided, to remain under Dolly's care.
+
+"And then," added Euphemia, half timidly, "you won't be vexed if I tell
+you, will you?"
+
+"Certainly not," answered Dolly, who knew very well what was coming,
+though poor Phemie evidently thought she was going to impart an
+extremely novel and unexpected piece of intelligence. "What is it,
+Phemie?"
+
+"Well, somehow or other, I don't believe mamma exactly likes you,
+Dolly."
+
+Now, considering circumstances, this innocent speech amounted to a rich
+sort of thing to say, but Dolly did not laugh; she might caricature Lady
+Augusta for the benefit of her own select circle of friends, but she
+never made jokes about her before Phemie, however sorely she might be
+tempted. So, now she helped herself to a chocolate with perfect sobriety
+of demeanor.
+
+"Perhaps not," she admitted. "I have thought so myself, Phemie." And
+then, as soon as possible, changed the subject.
+
+At length Phemie rose to go. As Lady Augusta was under the impression
+that she was merely taking the dismal daily constitutional, which was
+one of her unavoidable penances, it would not do to stay too long.
+
+"So I _must_ go," lamented Phemie; "but, Dolly, if you would n't mind, I
+should _so_ like to see the baby. I have never seen him since the day we
+called with mamma,--and I am so fond of babies, and he was so pretty."
+
+Dolly laughed, in spite of herself. She remembered the visit so well,
+and Lady Augusta's loftily resigned air of discovering, in the passively
+degenerate new arrival, the culminating point of the family depravity.
+
+"It is much to be regretted," she had said, disapprovingly; "but it is
+exactly what I foresaw from the first, and you will have to make the
+best of it."
+
+And then, on Dolly's modestly suggesting that they intended to do so,
+and were not altogether borne down to the earth by the heavy nature of
+their calamity, she had openly shuddered.
+
+But Phemie had quite clung to the small bundle of lawn and flannel, and
+though she had never seen Tod since, she had by no means forgotten him.
+
+"He will be quite a big boy when I come back," she added. "And I should
+so like to see him once again while he is a baby."
+
+"Oh, you shall see him," said Dolly. "Tod is the one individual in this
+house who always feels himself prepared to receive visitors. He is n't
+fastidious about his personal appearance. If you will come into the next
+room, I dare say we shall find him."
+
+And they did find him. Being desirous of employing, to the greatest
+advantage, the time spent in his retirement within the bosom of his
+family, he was concentrating his energies upon the mastication of the
+toe of his slipper, upon which task he was bestowing the strictest and
+most undivided attention, as he sat in the centre of the hearth-rug.
+
+"He has got another tooth, Aunt Dolly," announced 'Toinette,
+triumphantly, as soon as the greetings were over. "Show Aunt Dolly his
+tooth." And, being laid upon his back on the maternal knee, in the most
+uncomfortable and objectionable of positions, the tooth was exhibited,
+as a matter calling forth public rejoicings.
+
+Phemie knelt on the carpet before him, the humblest of his devotees.
+
+"He is prettier than ever," she said. "Do you think he would come to me,
+Mrs. Crewe?"
+
+And, though the object of her admiration at once asserted his
+prerogatives by openly rejecting her overtures with scorn, she rejoiced
+over him as ecstatically as if he had shown himself the most amiable of
+infant prodigies, which he most emphatically had not, probably having
+been rendered irascible by the rash and inconsiderately displayed
+interest in his dental developments. Whatever more exacting people might
+have thought, Phemie was quite satisfied.
+
+"I wish I was in your place, Dolly," she said, as she was going away.
+"You seem so happy together here, somehow or other. Oh, dear! You don't
+know how dreadful our house seems by contrast. If things _would_ break
+or upset, or look a little untidy,--or if mamma's caps and dresses just
+would n't look so solid and heavy--"
+
+"Ah!" laughed Dolly, "you have n't seen our worst side, Phemie,--the
+shabby side, which means worn shoes and old dresses and bills. We don't
+get our whistle for nothing in Vagabondia, though, to be sure,"--and
+I won't say a memory of the shabby coat-sleeve did not suggest the
+amendment,--"I don't think we pay too dearly for it; and I believe there
+is not one of us who would not rather pay for it than live without it."
+
+And when she gave the girl her farewell kiss, it was a very warm one,
+with a touch of pity in it. It was impossible for her to help feeling
+sympathy for any one who was without the Griffith element in existence.
+
+After this she went out herself to apply at the printer's, and was sent
+from there to Brabazon Lodge, which was a suburban establishment, in a
+chilly aristocratic quarter. An imposing edifice, Brabazon Lodge, built
+of stone, and most uncompromisingly devoid of superfluous ornament.
+No mock minarets or unstable towers at Brabazon Lodge,--a substantial
+mansion in a substantial garden behind substantial iron gates, and so
+solid in its appointments that it was quite a task for Dolly to raise
+the substantial lion's head which formed the front-door knocker.
+
+"Wanted, a young person," she was saying to herself, meekly, when her
+summons was answered by a man-servant, and she barely escaped announcing
+herself as "the young person, sir."
+
+Once inside the house, she was not kept waiting. She was ushered into a
+well-appointed side-room, where a bright fire burned in the grate. The
+man retired to make known her arrival to his mistress, and Dolly settled
+herself in a chair by the hearth.
+
+"I wonder how many 'young persons' have been sent away sorrowing this
+morning," she said, "and I wonder how Griffith will like the idea of my
+filling the position of companion to an elderly lady, or any other order
+of lady, for the matter of that? Poor old fellow!" and she gave vent to
+an unmistakable sigh.
+
+But the appearance of the elderly lady put an end to her regrets. The
+door opened and she entered, and Dolly rose to receive her. The next
+instant, however, she gave a little start. She had seen the elderly lady
+before, and confronting her now recognized her at once,--Miss Berenice
+MacDowlas. And that Miss MacDowlas recognized her also was quite
+evident, for she advanced with the air of one who was not at all at a
+loss.
+
+"How do you do?" she remarked, succinctly, and gave Dolly her hand.
+
+That young person took it modestly.
+
+"I believe I have had the pleasure--" she was beginning, when Miss
+MacDowlas interrupted her.
+
+"You met me at the Bilberrys'," she said. "I remember seeing you very
+well. You are Dorothea Crewe."
+
+Dolly bowed in her most insinuatingly graceful manner.
+
+"Take a seat," said Miss MacDowlas.
+
+Dolly did so at once.
+
+Miss MacDowlas looked at her with the air of an elderly lady who was not
+displeased.
+
+"I remember you very well," she repeated. "You were governess there. Why
+did you leave?"
+
+Dolly did not know very definitely, and told her so.
+
+The notice given her had been unexpected. Lady Augusta had said it was
+because her pupils were old enough to be sent from home.
+
+"Oh!" said Miss MacDowlas, and looked at her again from her hat to her
+shoes.
+
+"You are fond of reading?" she asked next
+
+"Yes," answered Dolly.
+
+"You read French well?"
+
+"Yes," said Dolly. She knew she need not hesitate to say that, at least.
+
+"You are good company and are fond of society?"
+
+"I am fond of society," said Dolly, "and I hope I am 'good company,'"
+
+"You don't easily lose patience?"
+
+"It depends upon circumstances," said Dolly.
+
+"You can play and sing?"
+
+"I did both the night I met you," returned the young person.
+
+"So you did," said Miss MacDowlas, and examined her again.
+
+It was rather an odd interview, upon the whole, but it did not end
+unfortunately. Miss MacDowlas wanted a companion who was quick-witted
+and amusing, and, having seen that Dolly was both on the evening of the
+Bilberry clan gathering, she had taken a fancy to her. So after a little
+sharp questioning, she announced her decision. She would employ her to
+fill the vacant situation at the same rate of salary she had enjoyed
+in her position of governess to the youthful Bilberrys, and she would
+employ her at once.
+
+"I want somebody to amuse me," she said, "and I think you can do it.
+I am often an invalid, and my medical man says the society of a young
+person will benefit me."
+
+So it was settled that the following week Dolly should take up her abode
+at Brabazon Lodge and enter upon the fulfilment of her duties. She
+was to read, play, sing, assist in the entertainment of visitors, and
+otherwise make herself generally useful, and, above all, she was to be
+amusing.
+
+She left the house and proceeded homeward in a peculiar frame of mind.
+She could have laughed, but she was compelled to admit to herself that
+she could also have cried with equal readiness. She had met with an
+adventure indeed. She was a young person at large no longer; henceforth
+she was the property of the elderly dragon she had so often laughed at
+with Griffith. And yet the dragon had not been so objectionable, after
+all. She had been abrupt and unceremonious, but she had been better than
+Lady Augusta, and she had not shown herself illiberal. But there would
+be no more daily visits from Griffith, no more _téte-à-tétes_ in the
+shabby parlor, no more sitting by the fire when the rest had left the
+room, no more tender and inconsistently long farewells at the front
+door. It was not pleasant to think about. She found herself catching her
+breath quickly, with a sound like a little sob.
+
+"He will miss it awfully," she said to herself, holding her muff closely
+with her small, cold hands, and shutting her eyes to work away a tear;
+"but he won't miss it more than I shall. He might live without me
+perhaps, but I could n't live without him. I wonder if ever two people
+cared for each other as we do before? And I wonder if the time will ever
+come--" And there she broke off again, and ended as she so often did.
+"Poor old fellow!" she said. "Poor, dear, patient, faithful fellow! how
+I love you!"
+
+She hurried on briskly after this, but she was wondering all the
+time what he would say when he found out that they were really to be
+separated. He would rebel, she knew, and anathematize fate vehemently.
+But she knew the rest of them would regard it as rather a rich joke that
+chance should have thrown her into the hands of Miss MacDowlas. They had
+all so often laughed at Griffith's descriptions of her and her letters,
+given generally when he had been galled into a caustic mood by the
+arrival of one of the latter.
+
+Beaching Bloomsbury Place, Dolly found her lover there. He had dropped
+in on his way to his lodgings, and was awaiting her in a fever of
+expectation, having heard the news from Aimée.
+
+"What is this Aimée has been telling me?" he cried, the moment she
+entered the room. "You can't be in earnest, Doll! You can't leave home
+altogether, you know."
+
+She tossed her muff on the table and sat down on one of the low chairs,
+with her feet on the fender.
+
+"I thought so until this morning," she said, a trifle mournfully; "but
+it can't be helped. The fact is, it is all settled now. I am an engaged
+young person."
+
+"Settled!" exclaimed Griffith, indignantly. "Engaged! Dolly, I did n't
+think you would have done it."
+
+"I could n't help doing it," said Dolly, her spirits by no means rising
+as she spoke. "How could I?"
+
+But he would not be consoled by any such cold comfort. He had regarded
+the possibility of her leaving the house altogether as something not
+likely to be thought of. Very naturally, he was of the opinion that
+Dolly was as absolute a necessity to every one else as she was to
+himself. What _should_ he do without her? How could he exist? It was an
+unreasoning insanity to talk about it. He was so roused by his subject
+indeed, that, neither of them being absolutely angelic in temperament,
+they wandered off into something very like a little quarrel about
+it,--he, goaded to lover-like madness by the idea that she could live
+without him; she, finding her low spirits culminate in a touch of anger
+at his hotheaded, affectionate obstinacy.
+
+"But it is not to be expected," he broke out at last, without any
+reason whatever,--"it is not to be expected that you can contend against
+everything. You are tired of disappointment, and I don't blame you.
+I should be a selfish dolt if I did. If Gowan had been in my place he
+could have married you, and have given you a home of your own. I never
+shall be able to do that. But," with great weakness and evidence of
+tribulation at the thought, "I didn't think you would be so cool about
+it, Dolly."
+
+"Cool!" cried Dolly, waxing wroth and penitent both at once, as usual.
+"Who is cool? Not I, that is certain. I shall miss you every hour of my
+life, Griffith." And the sad little shadow on her face was so real that
+he was pacified at once.
+
+"I am an unreasonable simpleton!" was his next remorseful outburst.
+
+"You have said that before," said Dolly, rather hard-heartedly; but in
+spite of it she did not refuse to let him be as affectionate as he chose
+when he knelt down by her chair, as he did the next minute.
+
+"It would be a great deal better for me," she half whispered, breaking
+the suspicious silence that followed,--"it would be a great deal better
+for _me_ if I did not care for you half so much;" and yet at the same
+time she leaned a trifle more toward him in the most traitorous of
+half-coaxing, half-reproachful ways.
+
+"It would be the death of _me_," said Griffith; and he at once plunged
+into an eloquently persuasive dissertation upon the height and depth
+and breadth and force of his love for her. He was prone to such
+dissertations, and always ready with one to improve any occasion; and
+I am compelled to admit that, far from checking him, Dolly rather liked
+them, and was given to encourage and incite him to their delivery.
+When this one was ended, he was quite in the frame of mind to listen
+to reason, and let her enter into particulars concerning her morning's
+efforts, which she did, at length, only adding a flavor of the
+mysterious up to the introduction of Miss MacDowlas.
+
+"What!" cried out Griffith, when she let out the secret. "Confound it!
+No! Not Aunt MacDowlas in the flesh, Dolly? You are joking."
+
+"No," answered Dolly, shaking her head at the amazed faces of the girls,
+who had come in during the recital, and who had been guilty of the
+impropriety of all exclaiming at once when the climax was reached. "I
+am in earnest. I am engaged as companion to no less a person than Miss
+Berenice MacDowlas."
+
+"Why, it is like something out of a three-volumed novel," said Mollie.
+
+"It is a good joke," said 'Toinette.
+
+"It is very awkward," commented Aimée. "If she finds out you are engaged
+to Griffith, she will think it so indiscreet of you both that she will
+cut him off with a shilling."
+
+"Indiscreet!" echoed Dolly. "So we are indiscreet, my sage young
+friend,--but indiscretion is like variety, it is the spice of life."
+
+And by this brisk speech she managed to sweep away the shadow which
+had touched Griffith's face, at the unconscious hint at their lack of
+wisdom.
+
+"Don't say such a thing again," she said to Aimée afterward, when
+they were talking the matter over, as they always talked things over
+together, "or he will fancy that you share his own belief that he has
+something to reproach himself with. Better to be indiscreet than to love
+one another less."
+
+"A great deal better," commented the wise one of the family, oracularly.
+She was not nineteen yet, this wise one, but she was a great comfort
+and help to Dolly, and indeed to all of them. "And it is n't _my_ way
+to blame you, either, Dolly, though things _do_ look so entangled. _I_
+never advised you to give it up, you know."
+
+"Give it up," cried Dolly, a soft, pathetic warmth and color rising to
+her face and eyes. "Give it up! There would be too much of what has
+past and what is to come to give up with it. Give it up! I wouldn't if I
+could, and I could n't if I would."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII. ~ IN WHICH A SPARK IS APPLIED.
+
+IT was several days before Bloomsbury Place settled down and became
+itself again after Dolly's departure. They all missed her as they would
+have missed any one of their number who had chanced to leave them;
+but Griffith, coming in to make his daily visits, was naturally almost
+disconsolate, and for a week or so refused to be comforted.
+
+He could not overcome his habit of dropping in on his way to and from
+his lodgings, which were near by; it was a habit of too long standing to
+be overcome easily, and besides this, he was so far a part of the family
+circle that his absence from it would have been regarded by its other
+members as something rather like a slight, so he was obliged to pay them
+the delicate attention of presenting himself at least once a day. And
+thus his wounds were kept open. To come into the parlor and find them
+all there but Dolly, to see her favorite chair occupied by Mollie
+or Aimée or 'Toinette, to hear them talk about her and discuss her
+prospects,--well, there were times when he was quite crushed by it.
+
+"If there was any hope of a better day coming," he said to Aimée, who,
+through being the family sage, was, of course, the family confidante,
+"if there was only something real to look forward to, but we are just
+where we were three years ago, and this sort of thing cannot go on
+forever. What right have I to hold her to her word when other men might
+make her happier?"
+
+Ainice, sitting on a stool at his feet and looking reflective, shook her
+head.
+
+"That is not a right view to take," she said, "and it is n't fair to
+Dolly. Dolly would be happier with you on a pound a week than she would
+be with any one else on ten thousand a year. And you ought to know that
+by this time, Griffith. It is n't a question of happiness at all."
+
+"I don't mean--" he was beginning, but Aimée interrupted him. Her part
+of this love affair was to lay plans for the benefit of the lovers and
+to endeavor to settle their little difficulties in her own way.
+
+"I am very fond of Dolly," she said.
+
+"Fond of her!" echoed Griffith. "So am I. Who isn't?"
+
+"I am very fond of Dolly," Aimée proceeded.
+
+"And _I_ know her as other people do not, perhaps. She does not show as
+much of her real self to outsiders as they think. I have often thought
+her daring, open way deceived people when it made them fancy she was
+so easy to read. She has romantic fancies of her own the world never
+suspects her of,--if I did not know her as I do, she is the last person
+on earth I should suspect of cherishing such fancies. The fact is, you
+are a sort of romance to her, and her love for you is one of her dreams,
+and she clings to it as closely as she would cling to life. It is a
+dream she has lived on so long that it has become part of herself, and
+it is my impression that if anything happened to break her belief in it
+she would die,--yes, _die!_" with another emphatic shake of the pretty
+head. "And Dolly is n't the sort of girl to die for nothing."
+
+Griffith raised his bowed head from his hands, his soft, dark, womanish
+eyes lighting up and his sallow young face flushing. "God bless
+her,--no!" he said. "Her life has not been free from thorns, even so
+far, and she has not often cried out against them."
+
+"No," answered Aimée. "And when the roses come, no one will see as you
+will how sweet she finds them. Your Dolly is n't Lady Augusta's Dolly,
+or Mollie's, or Ralph Gowan's, or even mine; she is the Dolly no one but
+her lover and her husband has ever seen or ever will see. _You_ can get
+at the spark in the opal."
+
+Griffith was comforted, as he often found himself comforted, under the
+utterances of this wise one.
+
+His desperation was toned down, and he was readier to hope for the best
+and to feel warm at heart and grateful,--grateful for Dolly and the
+tender thoughts that were bound up in his love for her. The tender
+phantom Aimée's words had conjured up, stirred within his bosom a thrill
+so loving and impassioned, that for the time the radiance seemed to
+emanate from the very darkest of his clouds of disappointment and
+discouragement. He was reminded that but for those very clouds the
+girl's truth and faith would never have shone out so brightly. But for
+their poverty and long probation, he could never have learned how much
+she was ready to face for love's sake. And it was such an innocent
+phantom, too, this bright little figure smiling upon him through the
+darkness, with Dolly's own face, and Dolly's own saucy, fanciful ways,
+and Dolly's own hands outstretched toward him. He quite plucked up
+spirit.
+
+"If Old Flynn could just be persuaded to give me a raise," he said; "it
+would n't take much of an income for two people to live on."
+
+"No," answered the wise one, feeling some slight misgivings, more on
+the subject of the out-go than the income. "You might live on very
+little--if you had it."
+
+"Yes," said Griffith, apparently struck by the brilliancy of the
+observation, "Dolly and I have said so often."
+
+"Let me see," considered Aimée, "suppose we were to make a sort
+of calculation. Give me your lead-pencil and a leaf out of your
+pocket-book."
+
+Griffith produced both at once. He had done it often enough before when
+Dolly had been the calculator, and had made a half-serious joke of the
+performance, counting up her figures on the tips of her fingers, and
+making great professions of her knowledge of domestic matters; but
+it was a different affair in Aimée's hands. Aimée was in earnest, and
+bending over her scrap of paper, with two or three little lines on
+her white forehead began to set things down with an air at once
+business-like and vigorous, reading, the various items aloud.
+
+"Rent, coals, taxes, food, wages,--you can't do your own washing, you
+know,--clothes, etceteras. There it is, Griffith," the odd, tried look
+settling in her eyes.
+
+Griffith took the paper.
+
+"Thank you," he remarked, resignedly, after he had glanced at it. "Just
+fifty pounds per annum more than I have any prospect of getting. But
+you are very kind to take so much interest in it, little woman." "Little
+woman" was his pet name for her.
+
+She put her hand up to her forehead and gave the wrinkles a little rub,
+as if she would have liked to rub them away.
+
+"No," she said, in distress. "I am very fond of calculating, so it isn't
+any trouble to me. I only wish I could calculate until what you want and
+what you have got would come out even."
+
+Griffith sighed. He had wished the same thing himself upon several
+occasions.
+
+He had one consolation in the midst of his tribulations, however. He had
+Dolly's letters, one of which arrived at "the office" every few days.
+Certainly they were both faithful correspondents. Tied with blue ribbon
+in a certain strong box, lay an immense collection of small envelopes,
+all marked with one peculiarity, namely, that the letters inside them
+had been at once closely written, and so much too tightly packed that it
+seemed a wonder they had ever arrived safely at their destination.
+They bore various postmarks, foreign and English, and were of different
+tints, but they were all directed in the one small, dashing hand, whose
+_t'_s were crossed with an audacious little flourish, and whose capitals
+were so prone to run into whimsical little curls. Most of them had been
+written when Dolly had sojourned with her charges in Switzerland, and
+some of them were merely notes of appointment from Bloomsbury Place; but
+each of them held its own magnetic attraction for Griffith, and not one
+of them would he have parted with for untold gold. He could count these
+small envelopes by the score, but he had never received one in his
+life without experiencing a positive throb of delight, which held fresh
+pleasure every time.
+
+Most of these letters, too, had stories of their own. Some had come when
+he had been discouraged and down at heart, and they had been so full of
+sunshine, and pretty, loving conceits, that by the time he had finished
+reading them he had been positively jubilant; some, I regret to say,
+were a trifle wilful and coquettish, and had so roused him to jealous
+fancies that he had instantly dashed off a page or so of insane reproach
+and distrust which had been the beginning of a lover's quarrel; some
+of them (always written after he had been specially miserable and
+unreasoning) were half-pathetic mixtures of reproach and appeal, full of
+small dashes of high indignation, and outbursts of penitence, and with
+such a capricious, yet passionate ring in every line, that they had
+seemed less like letters than actual speech, and had almost forced him
+to fancy that Dolly herself was at his side, all in the flush and glow
+of one of her prettiest remorseful outbreaks.
+
+And these letters from Brabazon Lodge were just as real, so they
+at least helped him to bear his trials more patiently than he could
+otherwise have done. She was far more comfortable than she had expected
+to be, she told him. Her duties were light, and Miss MacDowlas not hard
+to please, and altogether she was not dissatisfied.
+
+"But that I am away from _you_," she wrote, "I should say Brabazon
+Lodge was better than the Bilberrys'. There is no skirmishing with Lady
+Augusta, at least; and, though skirmishing with Lady Augusta is not
+without its mild excitement, it is not necessary to one's happiness,
+and may be dispensed with. I wonder what Miss MacDowlas would say if she
+knew why I wear this modest ring on my third finger. When I explained to
+her casually that we were old friends, she succinctly remarked that you
+were a reprobate, and, feeling it prudent not to proceed with further
+disclosures, I bent my head demurely over my embroidery, and subsided
+into silence. I cannot discover why she disapproves of you unless it
+is that she has erratic notions about literary people. Perhaps she will
+alter her opinion in time. As it is, it can scarcely matter whether she
+knows of our engagement or not. When a fitting opportunity arrives
+I shall tell her, and I don't say I shall not enjoy the spice of the
+_denouement_. In the meantime I read aloud to her, talk, work wonders in
+Berlin wool, and play or sing when she asks me, which is not often. In
+the morning we drive out, in the afternoon she enjoys her nap, and
+in the evening I sit decorously intent upon the Berlin wonders, but
+thinking all the time of you and the parlor in Bloomsbury Place, where
+Tod disports himself in triumphant indifference to consequences, and
+where the girls discuss the lingering possibilities of their wardrobes.
+You may-tell Mollie we are very grand,--we have an immense footman, who
+accompanies us in our walks or drives, and condescends to open and shut
+our carriage-door for us, with the air of a gentleman at leisure. I am
+rather inclined to think that this gentleman has cast an approving eye
+upon me, as I heard him observe to the housemaid the other day, that I
+was 'a reether hinterestin' young party,' which mark of friendly notice
+has naturally cheered me on my lonely way."
+
+Among the people who felt the change in the household keenly, Ralph
+Gowan may assuredly be included. He missed Dolly as much as any of them
+did, but he missed her in a different manner. He did not call quite as
+often as he had been in the habit of doing, and when he did call he was
+more silent and less entertaining. Dolly had always had an inspiring
+effect upon him, and, lacking the influence of her presence, even
+Vagabondia lost something of its charm. So sometimes he was guilty of
+the impoliteness of slipping into half-unconscious reveries of a few
+minutes' duration, and, being thus guilty upon one particular occasion,
+he was roused, after a short lapse of time, through the magnetic
+influence of a pair of soft eyes fixed upon him, which eyes he
+encountered the instant he looked up, with a start.
+
+Mollie--the eyes were Mollie's--dropped her brown lashes with a quick
+motion, turning a little away from him; so he smiled at her with a sense
+of half-awakened appreciation. It was so natural to smile so at Mollie.
+
+"Why, Mollie," he said, "what ails us? We are not usually so dull. We
+have not spoken to each other for ten minutes."
+
+The girl did not look at him; her round, childish cheek was flushed,
+and her eyes were fixed on the fire, half proudly, half with a sort of
+innocently transparent indifference.
+
+"Perhaps we have nothing worth saying to each other," she said.
+"Everybody is n't like Dolly."
+
+Dolly! He colored slightly, though he smiled again. How did she know he
+was thinking of Dolly? Was it so patent a fact that even she could read
+it in his face? It never occurred to him for an instant that there could
+exist a reason why the eyes of this grown-up baby should be sharpened.
+She was such a very baby, with her ready blushes and her pettish, lovely
+face.
+
+"And so you miss Dolly, too?" he said.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders, as if to imply that she considered the
+question superfluous.
+
+"Of course I do," she answered; "and of course we all do. Dolly is the
+sort of person likely to be missed."
+
+She was so petulant about it that, not understanding her, he was both
+amused and puzzled, and so by degrees was drawn into making divers
+gallant, almost caressing speeches, such as might have been drawn from
+him by the changeful mood of a charming, wilful child.
+
+"Something has made you angry," he said. "What is it, Mollie?"
+
+"Nothing has made me angry," she replied. "I am not angry."
+
+"But you look angry," he returned, "and how do you suppose I am to be
+interesting when you look angry?"
+
+"It cannot matter to you," said Miss Mollie, "whether I am angry or
+not."
+
+"Not matter!" he echoed, with great gravity. "It amounts to positive
+cruelty. Just at this particular moment I feel as if I should never
+smile again."
+
+She reddened to her very throat, and then turned round all at once,
+flashing upon him such a piteous, indignant, indescribable glance as
+almost startled him.
+
+"You are making fun of me," she cried out. "You always make fun of _me_.
+You would n't talk so to Dolly." And that instant she burst into tears.
+
+He was dumbfounded. He could not comprehend it at all. He had thought
+of her as being so completely a child, that her troubles were never more
+than a child's troubles, and her moods a child's moods. He had admired
+her, too, as he would have admired her if she had been six years old,
+and he had never spoken to her as he would have spoken to a woman, in
+the whole course of their acquaintance. She was right in telling him
+that he would not have said such things to Dolly. He was both concerned
+and touched. What could he do but go to her and be dangerously penitent,
+and say a great many things easily said, but not soon to be forgotten!
+Indeed, her soft, nervous, passionate sobs, of which she was so much
+ashamed, her innocent tremor, and her pretty, wilful disregard of his
+remorse were such a new sensation to him, that it must be confessed he
+was not so discreet as he should have been.
+
+"You never speak so to Dolly," she persisted, "nor to Aimée, either,
+and Aimée is only two years older than I am. It is not my fault,"
+petulantly, "that I am only seventeen."
+
+"Fault!" he repeated after her. "It is a very charming fault, if it is
+one. Come, Mollie," looking down at her with a tender softness in his
+eyes, "make friends with me again,--we ought to be friends. See,--let us
+shake hands!"
+
+Of course she let him take her hand and hold it lightly for a moment as
+he talked, his really honest remorse at his blunder making him doubly
+earnest and so doubly dangerous. She had swept even Dolly out of his
+mind for the time being, and she occupied his attention so fully for the
+rest of the evening that he had not the time to be absent-minded again.
+In half an hour all traces of her tears had fled, and she was sitting on
+her footstool near him, accepting with such evident delight his efforts
+at amusing her, that she quite repaid him for his trouble.
+
+After this there seemed to be some connecting link between them. In
+default of other attractions, he made headway with Mollie, and was to
+some extent consoled. He talked to her when he made his visits, and it
+gradually became an understood thing that they were very good friends.
+He won her confidence completely,--so far, indeed, that she used to
+tell him her troubles, and was ready to accept what meed of praise or
+friendly blame he might think fit to bestow upon her.
+
+It was a few weeks after the above-recorded episode that Griffith
+arrived one afternoon, in some haste, with a note from Dolly addressed
+to Aimée, and containing a few hurried lines. It had been enclosed in a
+letter to himself.
+
+Somewhat unexpectedly Miss MacDowlas had decided upon giving a
+dinner-party, and Dolly wanted the white merino, which she had forgotten
+to put into her trunk when she had packed it. Would they make a parcel
+of it and send it by Mollie to Brabazon Lodge?
+
+"You will have to go at once, Mollie," said Aimée, after reading the
+note. "It will be dark in an hour, and you ought not to be out after
+dark."
+
+"It is a great deal nicer to be out then," said Mollie, whose ideas
+of propriety were by no means rigid. "I like to see the shop windows
+lighted up. Where is my hat? Does anybody know?" rising from the carpet
+and abandoning Tod to his own resources.
+
+Nobody did know, of course. It was not natural that anybody should. Hats
+and gloves and such small fry were generally left to provide quarters
+for themselves in Bloomsbury Place.
+
+"What is the use of bothering?" remarked Mrs. Phil, disposing of the
+difficulty of their non-appearance when required, simply; "they always
+turn up in time." And in like manner Mollie's hat "turned up," and in
+a few minutes she returned to the parlor, tying the elastic under her
+hair.
+
+"Your hair wants doing," said Aimée, having made up her parcel.
+
+"Yes," replied Mollie, contentedly, "Tod has been pulling himself up by
+it; but it would be such a trouble to do anything to it just now, and I
+can tuck it back in a bunch. It only looks a little fuzzy, and that 's
+fashionable. Does this jacket look shabby, Aimée? It is a good thing it
+has pockets in it. I always _did_ like pockets in a jacket, they are so
+nice to put your hands in when your gloves have holes in them."
+
+"Your gloves oughtn't to have holes in them," commented Aimée.
+
+"But how can you help it if you have n't got the money to buy new ones?"
+asked Mollie.
+
+"You ought to mend them," said the wise one.
+
+"Mend them!" echoed Mollie, regarding two or three bare pink finger-tips
+dubiously. "They are not worth mending."
+
+"They were once," said Aimée; "and you ought to have stitched them
+before it was too late. But that is always our way," wrinkling her
+forehead with her usual touch of old-young anxiousness. "We are not
+practical. There! take the parcel and walk quickly, Mollie."
+
+Once on the street, Mollie certainly obeyed her. With the parcel in one
+arm, and with one hand thrust into the convenient pocket, she hurried
+on her way briskly, not even stopping once to look at the shop windows.
+Quite unconscious, too, was she of the notice she excited among the
+passers-by. People even turned to look after her more than once, as
+indeed they often did. The scarlet scarf twisted round her throat to
+hide the frayed jacket collar, and the bit of scarlet mixed with the
+trimmings of her hat contrasted artistically with her brown eyes, and
+added brightness to the color on her cheeks. It was no wonder that men
+and women alike, in spite of their business-like hurry, found time to
+glance at her and even turn their heads over their shoulders to look
+backward, as she made her way along the pavement.
+
+It was quite dark when she reached her destination, and Brabazon Lodge
+was brilliantly lighted up,--so brilliantly, indeed, that when the heavy
+front door was opened, in answer to her ring, she was a trifle dazzled
+by the flood of brightness in which Dolly's friend, the "gentleman at
+leisure," seemed to stand.
+
+On stating her errand, she was handed over to a female servant, who
+stood in the hall.
+
+"She was to be harsked in," she heard the footman observe,
+confidentially, to the young woman, "and taken to Miss Crewe's room
+immediate."
+
+So she was led up-stairs, and ushered into a pretty bedroom, where she
+found Dolly sitting by the fire in a dressing-gown, with her hair about
+her shoulders.
+
+She jumped up the moment Mollie entered, and ran to her, brush in hand,
+to kiss her.
+
+"You are a good child," she said. "Come to the fire and sit down. Did
+you have any trouble in finding the house? I was afraid you would. It
+was just like me to forget the dress, and I never missed it until I
+began to look for it, wanting to wear it to-night. How is Tod?"
+
+"He has got another tooth," said Mollie. "I found it to-day. Dolly,"
+glancing round, "how nice your room is!"
+
+"Yes," answered Dolly, checking a sigh, "but don't sigh after the
+fleshpots of Egypt, Mollie. One does n't see the dullest side of life at
+Bloomsbury Place, at least."
+
+"Is it dull here?" asked Mollie.
+
+Dolly shrugged her expressive shoulders.
+
+"Berlin-wool work is n't exciting," she said. "How did you leave
+Griffith?"
+
+"Low-spirited," replied Mollie. "I heard him tell Aimée this afternoon
+that he could n't stand it much longer."
+
+Dolly began to brush her hair, and brushed it very much over her face,
+perhaps because she wished to take advantage of its shadow; for most
+assuredly Mollie caught sight of something sparkling amongst the
+abundant waves almost like a drop of dew.
+
+"Dolly," she said at last, breaking the awkward little sympathetic
+silence which naturally followed, "do you remember our reading the
+'Vicar of Wakefield'?"
+
+"Yes," said Dolly, in a mournful half-whisper; she could not trust
+herself to say more.
+
+"And about the family being 'up,' and then being 'down'? I always think
+we are like they were. First it is 'the family up,' and then 'the family
+down.' It is down just now."
+
+"Yes," said Dolly.
+
+"It will be 'up' again, in time," proceeded Mollie, sagaciously. "It
+always is."
+
+Dolly tried to laugh, but her laugh was a nervous little effort which
+broke off in another sound altogether. Berlin-wool work and Brabazon
+Lodge had tried her somewhat and--she wanted Griffith. It seemed to her
+just then such a far distant unreal Paradise,--that dream of the modest
+parlor with the door shut against the world, and the green sofa drawn
+near the fire. Were they ever to attain it, or were they to grow old and
+tired out waiting, and hoping against hope?
+
+She managed to rally, however, in a few minutes. Feeling discouraged and
+rebellious was not of much use,--that was one of Vagabondia's earliest
+learned lessons. And what good was there in making Mollie miserable? So
+she plucked up spirit and began to talk, and, to her credit be it said,
+succeeded in being fairly amusing, and made Mollie laugh outright half a
+dozen times during the remainder of her short stay. It was only a short
+stay, however. She remembered Aimée's warning at last, and rose rather
+in a hurry.
+
+"I shall have to walk quickly if I want to get home in time for tea,"
+she said, "so good-night, Dolly. You had better finish dressing."
+
+"So I had," answered Dolly. "I am behind time already, but I shall not
+be many minutes, and Miss MacDowlas is not like Lady Augusta. Listen; I
+believe I hear wheels at the door now. It must be later than I fancied."
+
+It was later than she fancied. As Mollie passed through the hall two
+gentlemen who were ascending the steps crossed her path, and, seeing the
+face of one who had not appeared to notice her presence, she started
+so nervously that she dropped her glove. His companion--a handsome,
+foreign-looking man--bent down and, picking it up, returned it to her,
+with a glance of admiring scrutiny which made her more excited than
+ever. She scarcely had the presence of mind to thank him, but rushed
+past him and out into the night in a passionate flutter of pain and
+sudden childish anger, inconsistent enough.
+
+"He never saw me!" she said to herself, catching her breath piteously.
+"He is going to see Dolly. It is n't the party he cares for, and it
+is n't Miss MacDowlas,--it is nobody but Dolly. He has tried to get an
+invitation just because--because he cares for Dolly."
+
+She reached home in time for tea, arriving with so little breath and so
+much burning color that they all stared at her, and Aimée asked her if
+she had been frightened.
+
+"No," she answered, "but I ran half the way because I wanted to be in
+time."
+
+She did not talk at tea, and scarcely ate anything, and when Griffith
+came in, at about nine o'clock, he found her lying on the sofa, flushed
+and silent. She said she had a headache.
+
+"I took Dolly her dress," she said. "They are having a grand party
+and--Does Miss MacDowlas know Mr. Gowan, Griffith?"
+
+Griffith started and changed countenance at once.
+
+"No," he answered. "Why?"
+
+"He was there," she said, listlessly. "I met him in the hall as I came
+out, but he did not see me. He must have tried to get an invitation
+because--well, you know how he likes Dolly."
+
+And thus, the train having been already laid, was the spark applied.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII. ~ THE BEGINNING OF THE ENDING.
+
+IT was some time before Griffith recovered from the effects of this
+simple announcement of Mollie's.
+
+Though he scarcely confessed as much to himself, he thought of it
+very much oftener than was conducive to his own peace of mind, and
+in thinking of it he found it assuming a greater importance and
+significance than he had at first recognized in it, and was influenced
+accordingly. He went home to his lodgings, depressed and heavy of
+spirit; in fact, he left Bloomsbury Place earlier than usual, because he
+longed to be alone. He could think of nothing but Dolly,--Dolly in the
+white merino, shining like a stray star among her employer's guests, and
+gladdening the eyes of Ralph Gowan. He knew so well how she would
+look, and how this fellow would follow her in his easy fashion, without
+rendering himself noticeable, and manage to be near her through the
+evening and hold his place as if he had a right to it, and he knew, too,
+how natural it would be for Dolly's eyes to light up in her pleasure
+at being saved from boredom, and how her innocent gladness would show
+itself in a score of pretty ways. And it was as Mollie said,--it was for
+Dolly's sake that Ralph Gowan was there to-night.
+
+"She must know that it is so herself," he groaned, dropping his head
+upon the table; "but she cannot help it. She would if she could. Yes,
+I 'll believe that. She could never be false to me. I must hold fast to
+that in spite of everything. I should go mad if I did n't. I could never
+lose you, Dolly,--I could never lose you!"
+
+But he groaned again the next moment from the bottom of his desperate
+heart. He had become tangled in yet another web of misery.
+
+"It is only another proof of what I have said a thousand times," he
+cried out. "My claim upon her is so weak, that this fellow does not
+think it worth regarding. He thinks it may be set aside,--they all
+think it may be set aside. I should not wonder," clenching his hand and
+speaking through his teeth,--"I should not wonder if he has laughed
+many a time at his fancy of how it will end, and how easy it will be to
+thrust the old love to the wall!"
+
+At this moment, in the first rankling sting of humiliation and despair,
+he could almost have struck a murderous blow at the man whom fortune
+had set on such a pinnacle of pride and insolence, as it seemed to his
+galled fancy. He was not in the mood to be either just or generous, and
+he saw in Ralph Gowan nothing but a man who had both the power and will
+to rival him, and rob him of peace and hope forever. If Dolly had been
+with him, in all probability his wretchedness would have evaporated in a
+harmless outburst, which would have touched the girl's heart so tenderly
+that she would have withheld nothing of love and consolation which could
+reassure him, and so in the end the tempest would have left no wound
+behind. But as it was left to himself and his imaginings, every thought
+held its bitter sting. He was, as it were, upon the brink of an abyss.
+
+And while this danger was threatening her, Dolly was setting herself
+steadfastly to her task of entertaining her employer's guests, though
+it must be confessed that she found it necessary to summon all her
+energies. She was thinking of Griffith, but not as Griffith was thinking
+of her. She was picturing him looking desolate among the group round
+the fire at Bloomsbury Place, or else working desperately and with
+unnecessary energy amidst the dust and gloom of the dimly lighted
+office; and the result was that her spirit almost failed. It was quite
+a relief to encounter Ralph Gowan, as she did, on entering the room: he
+had seen them all latterly, and could enter into particulars; and so,
+in her pleasure, it must be owned that her face brightened, just as
+Griffith had fancied it would, when she shook hands with him.
+
+"I did not hear that you were coming," she said. "How glad I am!"
+which was the most dangerous speech she could have made under
+the circumstances, since it was purely on her account that he had
+diplomatized to obtain the invitation.
+
+He did not find it easy to release her hand all at once, and certainly
+he lighted up also.
+
+"Will you let me tell you that it was not Miss MacDowlas who brought me
+here?" he said, in a low voice; "though I appreciate her kindness, as a
+grateful man ought. Vagabondia is desolate without you."
+
+She tried to laugh, but could not; her attempt broke off in the
+unconscious sigh, which always touched him, he scarcely knew why.
+
+"Is it?" she said, looking up at him without a bit of the old
+brightness. "Don't tell them, Mr. Gowan, but the fact is I am desolate
+without it. I want to go home."
+
+He felt his heart leap suddenly, and before he could check himself he
+spoke.
+
+"I wish--I _wish_," he said, "that you would let me take you home." And
+the simply sounding words embodied a great deal more of tender fancy
+than a careless observer would have imagined; and Dolly, recognizing the
+thrill in his voice, was half startled.
+
+But she shook her head, and managed to smile.
+
+"That is not wisdom," she said. "It savors of the lilies of the field.
+We cannot quarrel with our bread and butter for sentiment's sake
+in Vagabondia. Did you know that Mollie had paid me a visit this
+evening?--or perhaps you saw her; I think she went out as you came in."
+
+"Mollie!" he said, surprisedly; and then looking half annoyed, or at
+least a trifle disturbed, he added, as if a sudden thought had occurred
+to him, "then it was Mollie, Chandos spoke of."
+
+"Chandos!" echoed Dolly. "Who is Chandos--and what did Chandos say about
+Mollie?"
+
+He glanced across the room to where a tall, handsome man was bending
+over a fussy little woman in pink.
+
+"That is Chandos," he said; "and since you spoke of Mollie's visit, I
+recollect that, as we came into the house, Chandos was behind me and
+lingered a moment or so, and when he came to me afterward he asked if
+I had seen the face that passed us as we entered. It had roused his
+enthusiasm as far as it can be roused by anything."
+
+"It must have been Mollie," commented Dolly, and she looked at the man
+on the opposite side of the room, uneasily. "Is he a friend of yours?"
+she asked, after scrutinizing him for a few seconds.
+
+Gowan shrugged his shoulders.'
+
+"Not a friend," he answered, dryly. "An acquaintance. We have not much
+in common."
+
+"I am glad to hear it," was Dolly's return. "I don't like Chandos."
+
+She could not have explained why she did not like him, but certainly she
+was vaguely repelled and could not help hoping that he would never see
+Mollie again. He was just the man to be dangerous to Mollie; handsome,
+polished, ready of speech and perfect in manner, he was the sort of man
+to dazzle and flatter any ignorant, believing child.
+
+"Oh!" she exclaimed, half aloud, "I could not bear to think that he
+would see her again."
+
+She uttered the words quite involuntarily, but Gowan heard them, and
+looked at her in some surprise, and so awakened her from her reverie.
+
+"Are you speaking of Mollie?" he asked.
+
+"Yes," she answered, candidly, "though I did not mean to speak aloud.
+My thoughts were only a mental echo of the remark I made a moment
+ago,--that I don't like Chandos. I do not like him at all, even at this
+distance, and I cannot resist feeling that I do not want him to see
+anything more of Mollie. We are not very discreet, we Vagabonds, but we
+must learn wisdom enough to shield Mollie." And she sighed again.
+
+"I understand that," he said, almost tenderly, so sympathetically, in
+fact, that she turned toward him as if moved by a sudden impulse.
+
+"I have sometimes thought since I came here," she said, "that perhaps
+_you_ might help me a little, if you would. She is so pretty, you see,
+and so young, and, through knowing so little of the world and longing to
+know so much, in a childish, half-dazzled way, is so innocently wilful
+that she would succumb to a novel influence more readily than to an
+old one. So I have thought once or twice of asking you to watch her a
+little, and guard her if--if you should ever see her in danger."
+
+"I can promise to do that much, at least," he returned, smiling.
+
+She held out her hand impetuously, just as she would have held it out
+to Griffith, and, oh, the hazard of it,--the hazard of so throwing aside
+her mock airs and graces, and showing herself to him just as she showed
+herself to the man she loved,--the Dolly whose heart was on her lips and
+whose soul was in her eyes.
+
+"Then we will make a 'paction' of it," she said. "You will help me to
+take care of her."
+
+"For your sake," he said, "there are few things I would not do."
+
+So from that time forward he fell into the habit of regarding
+unsuspecting Mollie as his own special charge. He was so faithful to
+his agreement, indeed, that once or twice Griffith was almost ready to
+console himself with the thought that perhaps, after all, the child's
+beauty and tractability would win its way, and Gowan would find himself
+seriously touched at heart. Just now he could see that his manner was
+scarcely that of a lover, but there most assuredly was a probability
+that it might alter and become more warm and less friendly and platonic.
+As to Mollie herself, she was growing a trifle incomprehensible; she
+paid more attention to her lovely hair than she had been in the habit
+of doing, and was even known to mend her gloves; she began to be more
+conscious of the dignity of her seventeen years. She complained less
+petulantly of the attentions of Phil's friends, and accepted them with
+a better grace. The wise one even observed that she tolerated Brown,
+the obnoxious, and permitted him to admire her--at a distance. In her
+intercourse with Gowan she was capricious and had her moods. Sometimes
+she indulged in the weakness of tiring herself in all her small bravery
+when he was coming, and presented herself in the parlor beauteous and
+flushed and conscious, and was so delectably shy and sweet that she
+betrayed him into numerous trifling follies not at all consistent with
+his high position of mentor; and then, again, she was obstinate, rather
+incomprehensible, and did not adorn herself at all, and, indeed, was
+hard enough to manage.
+
+"You are growing very queer, Mollie," said Miss Aimée, wonderingly.
+
+To which sage remark Mollie retorted with a tremulous, sensitive flush,
+and most unnecessary warmth of manner.
+
+"I 'm not queer at all I wish you would n't bother so, Aimée!"
+
+That very afternoon she came into the room with a card in her hand,
+after going out to answer a summons at the door-bell.
+
+"Phil," she said, "a gentleman wants you. Chandos, the card says."
+
+"Chandos!" read Phil, rising from the comfort of his couch, and taking
+his pipe out of his mouth. "Who knows Chandos?--I don't. It must be some
+fellow on business."
+
+And so it proved. He found the gentleman awaiting him in the next
+room, and in a very short time learned his errand. Chandos introduced
+himself--Gerald Chandos, of The Pools, Bedfordshire, who, hearing of Mr.
+Crewe through numerous friends, not specified, and having a fancy--quite
+the fancy of an uncultured amateur, modestly--for pictures and an
+absorbing passion for art in all its forms, had taken the liberty of
+calling, etc. It was very smoothly said, and Chandos, of The Pools,
+being an imposing patrician sort of individual, and free from all
+fopperies or affectations, Phil met his advances complacently enough.
+It was no unusual thing for an occasional patron to drop in after this
+manner. He had no fault to find with a man who, having the good fortune
+to possess money, had the good taste to know how to spend it. So he
+made friends with Chandos, pretty much as he had made friends with
+Gowan,--pretty much as he would have made friends with any other
+sufficiently amiable and well-bred visitor to his modest studio. He
+showed him his pictures, and talked art to him, and managed to spend an
+hour very pleasantly, ending by selling him a couple of tiny spirited
+sketches, which had taken his fancy. It was when he was taking
+down these sketches from the wall that he heard a sort of smothered
+exclamation from the man, who stood a few feet apart from him, and,
+turning to see what it meant, he saw that he had just discovered the
+fresh, lovely, black-hooded head, with the trail of autumn leaves
+clinging to the loose trail of hair,--the picture for which Mollie
+had sat as model. It was very evident that Chandos, of The Pools, was
+admiring it.
+
+"Ah!" said he, the next minute. "I know this face. There can scarcely be
+two faces like it."
+
+Phil left his sketches and came to him, the pleasure he felt on the
+success of his creation warming him up. This picture, with Mollie's face
+and head, was a great favorite of his.
+
+"Yes," he said, standing opposite to it, with his hands in his pockets,
+and critical appreciation in his eyes. "You could not very well mistake
+it. Heads are not my exact forte, you know; but that is Mollie to a tint
+and a curve, and I am rather proud of it."
+
+Chandos regarded it steadfastly.
+
+"And well you may be," he answered. "Your sister, I believe?"
+
+"Mollie!" exclaimed Phil, stepping a trifle aside, to get into a better
+light, and speaking almost abstractedly. "Oh, yes, to be sure! She is my
+sister,--the youngest. There are three of them. That flesh tint is one
+of the best points."
+
+And in the meantime, while this apparently trivial conversation was
+being carried on in the studio, Mollie, in the parlor, had settled
+herself upon a stool close to the fire, and, resting her chin on her
+hand and her elbow on her knee, was looking reflective.
+
+"That Chandos is somebody new," 'Toinette remarked. "I hope he has come
+to buy something. I want some gold sleeve-loops for Tod. I saw some
+beauties the other day, when I was out."
+
+"But you could n't afford them if Phil sold two pictures instead of
+one," said Aimée. "There are so many other useful things you need."
+
+"He is n't a stranger to me," put in Mollie, suddenly. "I have seen him
+before."
+
+"Who?" said 'Toinette. She was thinking more of Tod's gold sleeve-loops
+than of anything else.
+
+"This Mr. Chandos," answered Mollie, without looking up from the fire.
+"I saw him at Brabazon Lodge the night I went to take Dolly her dress.
+He was with Mr. Gowan, and I dropped my glove, and he picked it up for
+me. I was coming out as they were going in."
+
+"I wonder," said Aimée, "whether Mr. Gowan goes to Brabazon Lodge
+often?"
+
+"I don't know, I 'm sure," answered Mollie, shrugging her shoulder.
+"How is one to learn? He would n't be likely to tell us. I should think,
+though, that he does. He is too fond of Dolly"--with a slight choke in
+her voice--"to stay away, if he can help it."
+
+"It's queer," commented 'Toinette, "how men like Dolly. She is n't a
+beauty, I 'm sure; and for the matter of that, when her hair is n't done
+up right, she is n't even pretty."
+
+"It isn't queer, at all," said Mollie, rather crossly; "it's her way.
+She can make such a deal out of nothing, and she does n't stand at
+trouble when she wants to _make_ people like her. _She_ says any one can
+do it, and it is only a question of patience; but I don't believe her.
+See how frantic Griffith is about her. He is more desperately in love
+with her to-day than he was at the very first, seven years ago."
+
+"And she cares more for him, I'm sure," said Aimée.
+
+Mollie's shoulder went up again. "She flirts with people enough, if she
+does," she commented.
+
+"Ah!" returned Aimée, "that is 'her way,' as you call it, again.
+Somehow, it seems as if she can't help it. It is as natural to her as
+the color of her hair and eyes. She can't help doing odd things and
+making speeches that rouse people and tempt them into liking her. She
+has done such things all her life, and sometimes I think she will do
+them even when she is an old woman; though, of course, she will do them
+in a different way. Dolly would n't be Dolly without her whimsicalness,
+any more than Dick there, in his cage, would be a canary if he did n't
+twitter and sing."
+
+"Does she ever do such things to women?" asked Miss Mollie, shrewdly.
+She seemed to be in a singular mood this afternoon.
+
+"Yes," Aimée protested, "she does; and what is more, she is not
+different even with children. I have seen her take just as much trouble
+to please Phemie and the little Bilberrys as she would take to please
+Griffith or--or Mr. Gowan. And see how fond they were of her. If she had
+cared for nothing but masculine admiration, do you think Phemie would
+have adored her as she did, and those dull children would have been so
+desolate when she left them? No, I tell you. Dolly's weakness--and
+it isn't such a very terrible weakness, after all--lies in wanting
+_everybody_ to like her,--men, women, and children; yes, down to babies
+and dogs and cats. And see here, Mollie, ain't we rather fond of her
+ourselves?"
+
+"Yes," owned Mollie, staring at the fire, "we are. Fond enough."
+
+"And is n't she rather fond of us?"
+
+"Yes, she is--for the matter of that," acquiesced Mollie.
+
+"Yes," began 'Toinette, and then, the sound of footsteps upon the
+staircase interrupting her, she broke off abruptly to listen. "It is
+Phil's visitor," she said.
+
+Mollie got up from her seat, roused into a lazy sort of interest.
+
+"I am going to look at him," she said, and went to the window.
+
+The next minute she drew back, blushing.
+
+"He saw me," she said. "I did n't think he could, if I stood here in the
+corner."
+
+But he had; and more than that, in his admiration of her dimples and
+round fire-flushed cheeks, had smiled into her face, openly and without
+stint, as he passed.
+
+After tea Gowan came in. Mollie opened the door for him; and Mollie, in
+a soft blue dress, and with her hair dressed to a marvel, was a vision
+to have touched any man's fancy. She was in one of her sweet acquiescent
+moods, too, having recovered herself since the afternoon; and when she
+led him into the parlor, she blushed without any reason whatever, as
+usual, and as a consequence looked enchanting.
+
+"Phil has gone out," she said. "'Toinette is putting Tod to bed, and
+Aimée is helping her; so there is no one here but me."
+
+Gowan sat down--in Dolly's favorite chair.
+
+"You are quite enough," he said; "quite enough--for me."
+
+She turned away, making a transparent little pretence of requiring a
+hand-screen from the mantelpiece, and, having got it, she too sat down,
+and fell to examining a wretched little daub of a picture upon it most
+minutely.
+
+"This is very badly done," she observed, irrelevantly. "Dolly did it,
+and made it up elaborately into this screen because it was such a sight.
+It is just like Dolly, to make fun and joke at her own mistakes. She has
+n't a particle of talent for drawing. She did this once when Griffith
+thought he was going to get into something that would bring him money
+enough to allow of their being married. She made a whole lot of little
+mats and things to put in their house when they got it, but Griffith did
+n't get the position, so they had to settle down again."
+
+"Good Heavens!" ejaculated Gowan.
+
+"What is the matter?" she asked.
+
+He moved a trifle uneasily in his chair. He had not meant to speak
+aloud.
+
+"An unintentional outburst, Mollie," he said. "A cheerful state of
+affairs, that."
+
+"What state of affairs?" she inquired. "Oh, you mean Dolly's engagement.
+Well, of course, it _has_ been a long one; but then, you see, they like
+each other very much. Aimée was only saying this afternoon that they
+cared for each other more now than they did at first."
+
+"Do they?" said Gowan, and for the time being lapsed into silence.
+
+"It's a cross-grained sort of fortune that seems to control us in this
+world, Mollie," he said, at length.
+
+Mollie stared at the poor little daub on her hand-screen and met his
+philosophy indifferently enough.
+
+"_You_ ought n't to say so," she answered. "And I don't know anything
+about it."
+
+He laughed--quite savagely for so amiable a young man.
+
+"I!" he repeated. "I ought not to say so, ought n't I? I think I ought.
+It _is_ a cross-grained fortune, Mollie. We are always falling in love
+with people who do not care for us, or with people who care for some one
+else, or with people who are too poor to marry us, or--"
+
+"Speak for yourself," said Mollie, with a vigor quite wonderful and new
+in her. "_I_ am not."
+
+And she held her screen up between her face and his, so that he could
+not see her. She could have burst into a passionate gush of tears. It
+was Dolly he was thinking about,--it was Dolly who had the power to make
+him unhappy and sardonic,--always Dolly.
+
+"Then you are a wise child, Mollie," he said. "But you are a very young
+child yet,--only seventeen, is n't it? Well, it may all come in good
+time."
+
+"It will not come at all," she asserted, stubbornly.
+
+Dolly's little wretch of a hand-screen was quite trembling in her hand,
+it made her so desperate to feel, as she did, that she was of such small
+consequence to him that he could treat her as a child, and make a sort
+of joke of his confidence. But he did not see it.
+
+"Ah! well, you see," he went on, "I thought so once, but it has come to
+me nevertheless. The fact is, I am crying for the moon, Mollie, as many
+a wiser and better man has done before me."
+
+She did not answer, so he rose and walked once or twice across the room.
+When he came back to the fire, she had risen too, and was standing up,
+biting the edge of her screen, all flushed, and with a brightness in
+her eyes he did not understand. Poor little soul! she was suffering very
+sharply in her childish way.
+
+He laid a hand on either of her shoulders, and spoke to her gently
+enough.
+
+"Mollie," he said, "let us sit down together and condole with each
+other. You are not in a good humor to-night, something has rasped
+you again; and as for me, I am about as miserable, my dear, as it is
+possible for a man with a few thousand a year to be."
+
+She tried to answer him steadily, and, finding she could not, rushed
+into novel subterfuge. Subterfuge was a novelty to Mollie.
+
+"Yes," she said, lifting the most beauteous of tear-wet eyes to his
+quite eagerly. "Yes, I am crossed, and--and something has vexed me. I am
+getting bad-tempered, I think. Suppose we do sit down."
+
+And then when they did sit down--she on the hearth-rug at his feet, he
+in Dolly's chair again--she broke out upon him in a voice like a sharp
+little sob.
+
+"I know what _you_ are miserable about," she said. "You are miserable
+about Dolly."
+
+They had never spoken about the matter openly before, though he had
+always felt that if he could speak openly to any one, he could to this
+charming charge of his. Such is the keenness of masculine penetration.
+And now he felt almost relieved already. The natural craving for
+sympathy of some kind or other was to satisfy itself through the medium
+of pretty, much-tried Mollie.
+
+"Yes," he answered, half desperately, half reluctantly. "Dolly is the
+moon I am crying for,--or rather, as I might put it more poetically,
+'the bright particular star.' What a good little thing you are to guess
+at it so soon!"
+
+"It did n't need much guessing at," she said, curving her innocent mouth
+in a piteous effort to smile.
+
+He, leaning against the round, padded back of his chair, sighed, and as
+he sighed almost forgot the poor child altogether, even while she spoke
+to him. Having all things else, he must still cry for this one other
+gift, and really he felt very dolorous.
+
+Mollie, pulling her screen to pieces, looked at him with a heavy yet
+adoring heart. She was young enough to be greatly moved by his physical
+beauty, and just now she could not turn away from him. His long-limbed,
+slender figure (which, while still graceful and lithe enough, was _not_
+a model of perfection, as she fondly imagined), his pale, dark face,
+his dark eyes, even his rather impolite and uncomplimentary abstraction,
+held fascination for her. Not having been greatly smiled upon by
+fortune, she had fallen to longing eagerly and fearfully for this one
+gift which had been so freely vouchsafed to Dolly, who had neither asked
+nor cared for it. Surely there was some cross-grained fate at work.
+
+She was very quiet indeed when he at length recollected himself and
+roused from his reverie. He looked up to find her resting her warm,
+rose-leaf colored cheek on her hand, and concentrating all her attention
+upon the fire again. She was not inclined to talk when he spoke to her,
+and indeed had so far shrunk within herself that he found it necessary
+to exert his powers to their utmost before he could move her to anything
+like interest in their usual topics of conversation. In fact, her
+reserve entailed the necessity of a little hazardous warmth of manner
+being exhibited on his part, and in the end a few more dangerous,
+though half-jocular, speeches were made, and in spite of the temporary
+dissatisfaction of his previous mood, he felt a trifle reluctant to
+leave the fire and the sweet, unwise face when the time came to go.
+
+"Good-night," he said to her, a few minutes before he went out. And
+then, noticing for the twentieth time how becoming the soft blue of
+her dress was and how picturesque she was herself even in the
+unconsciousness of her posture, he was tempted to try to bring that
+little, half-resentful glow into her upraised eyes again.
+
+"I have often heard your sister make indiscreetly amiable speeches to
+you, Mollie," he said. "Did she ever tell you that you ought to have
+been born a sultana?"
+
+She shook her head and pouted a little.
+
+"I should n't like to be a sultana," she said.
+
+"What!" he exclaimed. "Not a sultana in spangled slippers and gorgeous
+robes!"
+
+"No," she answered, with a spice of Dolly in her speech. "The slippers
+are great flat things that turn up at the toes, and the sultan might buy
+me for so much a pound, and--and I care for other things besides dress."
+
+"Nevertheless," he returned, "you would have made a dazzling sultana."
+
+Then he went away and left her, and she sat down upon her stool before
+the fire again and began to pull her hair down and let it hang in grand
+disorder about her shoulders and over her face.
+
+"If I am so--so pretty," she said slowly, to herself, "people ought to
+like me, and," sagaciously, "I must be pretty or he would not say so."
+
+And when she went to her room it must be confessed that she crept to the
+glass and stared at the reflection of the face framed in the abundant,
+falling hair, until Aimée, wondering at her quietness, raised her head
+from her pillow, and, seeing her, called her to her senses.
+
+"Mollie," she said, in her quietest way, "you look very nice, my dear
+and very picturesque, and I don't wonder at your admiring yourself;
+but if you stand there much longer in your bare feet you will have
+influenza, and then you will have to wear a flannel round your throat,
+and your nose will be red, and you won't derive much satisfaction from
+your looking-glass for a week to come."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX. ~ IN WHICH WE ARE UNORTHODOX.
+
+"SOMETHING," announced Phil, painting away industriously at his
+picture,--"something is up with Grif. Can any of you explain what it
+is?"
+
+Mollie, resting her elbows on the window-ledge, turned her head over
+her shoulder; 'Toinette, tying Tod's sleeves with red ribbon, looked
+up; Aimée went on with her sewing, the two little straight lines making
+themselves visible on her forehead between her eyebrows. The fact of
+something being "up" with any one of their circle was enough to create a
+wondering interest.
+
+"There is no denying," Phil proceeded, "that he is changed somehow or
+other. He is not the same fellow that he was a few months ago,--before
+Dolly went away."
+
+"It is Dolly he is bothering about," said Mollie, concisely.
+
+Then Aimée was roused.
+
+"I wish they were married," she said. "I wish they were married
+and--safe!"
+
+"Safe!" put in Mrs. Phil. "That is a queer thing to say. They are not in
+any danger, let us devoutly hope."
+
+The two wrinkles deepened, and the wise one sighed.
+
+"I hope not," she answered, bending her small, round, anxious face over
+her sewing, and attacking it vigorously.
+
+"They never struck me, you know," returned Mrs. Phil, "as being a
+particularly dangerous couple, though now I think of it I do remember
+that it has once or twice occurred to me that Griffith has been rather
+stupid lately."
+
+"It has occurred to me," remarked Phil, dryly, "that he has taken a most
+unaccountable dislike to Gowan."
+
+Mollie turned round to her window again.
+
+"Not to put it too strongly," continued the head of the family, "he
+hates him like the deuce."
+
+And he was not far wrong in making the assertion. The time had been
+coming for some time when the course of this unimposing story of true
+love was no longer to run smooth, and in these days Griffith was in a
+dangerous frame of mind. Now and then he heard of Gowan dropping in to
+spend a few hours at Brabazon Lodge, and now and then he heard of his
+good fortune in having found in Miss MacDowlas a positive champion. He
+was even a favorite with her, just as he was a favorite with many other
+people. Griffith did not visit Brabazon Lodge himself, he had given
+that up long ago, indeed had only once paid his respects to his relative
+since her arrival in London. That one visit, short and ceremonious as it
+was, had been enough for him. Like many estimable ladies, Miss MacDowlas
+had prejudices of her own which were hard to remove, and appearances had
+been against her nephew.
+
+"If he is living a respectable life, and so engaged in a respectable
+profession, my dear," commented Dolly's proprietress, in one of her
+after conversations on the subject, "why does he look shabby and out at
+elbows? It is my opinion that he is a very disreputable young man."
+
+"She thinks," wrote Dolly to the victim, "that you waste your substance
+in riotous living." And it was such an exquisite satire on the true
+state of affairs, that even Griffith forgot his woes for the moment, and
+laughed when he read the letter.
+
+Dolly herself was not prone to complain of Miss MacDowlas. She was not
+so bad as she looked, after all. She was obstinate and rigid enough
+on some points, but she had her fairer side, and Dolly found it. In a
+fashion of her own Miss MacDowlas was rather fond of her companion.
+A girl who was shrewd, industrious, and often amusing, was not to be
+despised in her opinion; so she showed her fair young handmaiden a
+certain amount of respect. She had engaged companions before, who
+being entertaining were not trustworthy, or being trustworthy were
+insufferably dull. She could trust Dolly with the most onerous of her
+domestic or social charges, she found, and there was no fear of her
+small change disappearing or her visitors being bored. So the position
+of that "young person" became an assured and decently comfortable one.
+
+But, day by day, Griffith was drifting nearer and nearer the old shoals
+of difficulty. He rasped himself with miserable imaginings, and was
+often unjust even toward Dolly. Hers was the brighter side of the
+matter, he told himself.
+
+She was sure to find friends,--she always did, these people would make
+a sort of favorite of her, and she would be pleased because she was
+so popular among them. He could not bear the thought of her ephemeral
+happiness over trifles sometimes. He even fell so low as that at
+his worst moments, though to his credit, be it spoken, he was always
+thoroughly ashamed of himself afterward. There were times, too, when
+he half resented her little jokes at their poverty, and answered them
+bitterly when he wrote his replies to her letters. His chief consolation
+he found in Aimée, and the sage of the family found her hands fuller
+than ever. Quiet little body as she was, she was far-sighted enough to
+see danger in the distance, and surely she did her best to alter its
+course.
+
+"If you are not cooler," she would say, "you will work yourself into
+such a fever of unhappiness, that you will be doing something you will
+regret."
+
+"That is what I am afraid of," he would sometimes burst forth; "but you
+must admit, Aimée, that it is a pretty hard case."
+
+"Yes," confessed the young oracle, "I will admit that, but being
+unreasonable won't make it any easier."
+
+And then the fine little lines would show themselves, and she would set
+herself industriously to the task of administering comfort and practical
+advice, and she never failed to cheer him a little, however temporarily.
+
+And she did not fail Dolly, either. Sage axioms and praiseworthy counsel
+reached Brabazon Lodge in divers small envelopes, addressed to Miss
+Crewe, and invariably beginning, "My dearest Dolly;" and more than once
+difficulty had been averted, and Dolly's heart warmed again toward her
+lover, when she had been half inclined to rebel and exhibit some slight
+sharpness of temper. Only a few days after the conversation with which
+the present chapter opens occurred, one of these modestly powerful
+missives was forwarded, and that evening Griffith met with an agreeable
+surprise. Chance had taken him into the vicinity of Miss MacDowlas's
+establishment, and as he walked down the deserted road in a somewhat
+gloomy frame of mind, he became conscious suddenly of the sound of
+small, light feet, running rapidly down the footpath behind him.
+
+"Griffith!" cried a clear, softly pitched voice, "Griffith, wait for
+me."
+
+And, turning, he saw in the dusk of the winter day a little figure
+almost flying toward him, and in a few seconds more Dolly was standing
+by him, laughing and panting, and holding to his arm with both hands.
+
+"I thought I should never catch you," she said. "You never walked so
+fast in your life, I believe, you stupid old fellow. I could n't call
+out loud, though it is a quiet place, and so I had to begin to run.
+Goodness! what _would_ Lady Augusta have said if she had seen me flying
+after you!"
+
+And then, stopping all at once, she looked up at him with a wicked
+little air of saucy daring.
+
+"Don't you want to kiss me?" she said. "You may, if you will endeavor to
+effect it with despatch before somebody comes."
+
+She was obliged to resign herself to her fate then. For nearly two
+minutes she found herself rendered almost invisible, and neither of them
+spoke. Then half released, she lifted her face to look at him, and
+there were tears on her eyelashes, and in her voice, too, though she was
+trying very hard to smile.
+
+"Poor old fellow," she half whispered. "Has it seemed long since you
+kissed me last?"
+
+He caught her to his breast again in his old, impetuous fashion.
+
+"Long!" he groaned. "It has seemed so long that there have been times
+when it has almost driven me mad. O Dolly! Dolly!"
+
+She let him crush her in his arms and kiss her again, and she nestled
+against his shoulder for a minute, and, putting her warm little gloved
+hand up to his face, gave it a tiny, loving squeeze. But of course that
+could not last long. Miss Macdowlas's companion might be kissed in the
+dusk two or three times, but, genteelly sequestered as was the road
+leading to Brabazon Lodge, some stray footman or housemaid might appear
+on the scene, from some of the neighboring establishments, at any
+moment, so she was obliged to draw herself away at last.
+
+"There!" she said, "you must let me take your arm and walk on now, and
+you must tell me all about things. I have a few minutes to spare, and I
+have _so_ wanted you," heaving a weary little sigh, and holding his arm
+very tightly indeed.
+
+"Dolly," he asked, abruptly, "are you sure of that?"
+
+The other small hand clasped itself across his sleeve in an instant.
+
+"Sure?" she answered. "Sure that I have wanted you? I have been nearly
+_dying_ for you!" with some affectionate extravagance.
+
+"Are you sure," he put it to her, "quite sure that you have not
+sometimes forgotten me for an hour or so?"
+
+"No," she answered, indignantly, "not for a single second;" which was a
+wide assertion.
+
+"Not," he prompted her, somewhat bitterly, "when the MacDowlas gives
+dinner-parties, and you find yourself a prominent feature, 'young
+person,' as you are? Not when you wear the white merino, and 'heavy
+swells' admire you openly?"
+
+"No," shaking her head in stout denial of the imputation. "Never.
+I think about you from morning until night; and the fact is," in a
+charming burst of candor, "I actually wake in the night and think about
+you. There! are you satisfied now?"
+
+It would have been impossible to remain altogether unconsoled and
+unmoved under such circumstances, but he could not help trying her
+again.
+
+"Dolly," he said, "does Gowan never make you forget me?"
+
+Then she saw what he meant, and flushed up to her forehead, drawing her
+hand away and speaking hotly.
+
+"Oh!" she said, "it is _that_, is it?"
+
+"Yes," he answered her, "it is that."
+
+Then they stopped in their walk, and each looked at the other,--Griffith
+at Dolly, with a pale face and much of desperate, passionate appeal in
+his eyes; Dolly at Griffith, with her small head thrown back in sudden
+defiance.
+
+"I am making you angry and rousing you, Dolly," he said; "but I cannot
+help it. There is scarcely a week passes in which I do not hear that
+he--that fellow--has managed to see you in one way or another. He can
+always see you," savagely. "_I_ don't see you once a month."
+
+"Ah!" said Dolly, with cruel deliberation, "_this_ is what Aimée meant
+when she told me to be careful, and think twice before I did things. I
+see now."
+
+I have never yet painted Dolly Crewe as being a young person of angelic
+temperament. I have owned that she flirted and had a temper in spite of
+her Vagabondian good spirits, good-nature, and popularity; so my
+readers will not be surprised at her resenting rather sharply what she
+considered as being her lover's lack of faith.
+
+"I think," she proceeded, opening her eyes wide and addressing him with
+her grandest air,--"I think I will walk the rest of my way alone, if you
+please."
+
+It was very absurd and very tragical in a small way, of course, and
+assuredly she ought to have known better, and perhaps she did know
+better, but just now she was very fierce and very sharply disappointed.
+She positively turned away as if to leave him, but he caught hold of her
+arm and held her.
+
+"Dolly," he cried, huskily, "you are not going away in that fashion. We
+never parted so in our lives."
+
+She half relented,--not quite, but nearly, so very nearly that she
+did not try very hard to get away. It was Griffith, after all, who was
+trying her patience--if Gowan or any other man on earth had dared to
+imply a doubt in her, she would have routed him magnificently--in two
+minutes; but Griffith--ah, well, Griffith was different.
+
+"Whose fault is it?" she asked, breaking down ignominiously. "Who is
+to blame? I never ask you if other people make you forget me. I wanted
+to--to see you so much that I--I ran madly after you for a quarter of a
+mile, at the risk of being looked upon as a lunatic by any one who might
+have chanced to see me. But you don't care for that. I had better have
+bowed to you and passed on if we had met. Let me go!"
+
+"No," said Griffith, "you shall not go. God knows if I could keep you,
+you should never leave my arms again."
+
+"You would tire of me in a week, if I belonged to you in real earnest,"
+she said, not trying to get away at all now, however.
+
+"Tire of you!" he exclaimed, in a shaken voice. "Of _you!_" And all at
+once he drew her round so that the light of the nearest lamp could fall
+on her face. "Look here!" he whispered, sharply; "Dolly, I swear to you,
+that if there lives a man on earth base and heartless enough to rob me
+of you, I will kill him as sure as I breathe the breath of life!"
+
+She had seen him impassioned enough often before, but she had never seen
+him in as wild a mood as he was when he uttered these words. She was so
+frightened that she broke into a little cry, and put her hand up to his
+lips.
+
+"Griffith!" she said, "Grif!--dear old fellow. You don't know what you
+are saying. Oh! don't--don't!"
+
+Her horror brought him to his senses again; but he had terrified her
+so that she was trembling all over, and clung to him nervously when he
+tried to console her.
+
+"It is n't like _you_ to speak in such a way," she faltered, in the
+midst of her tears. "Oh, how dreadfully wrong things must be getting, to
+make you so cruel!"
+
+It took so long a time to reassure and restore her to her calmness, that
+he repented his rashness a dozen times. But he managed to comfort her at
+length, though to the last she was tearful and dejected, and her voice
+was broken with soft, sorrowful little catchings of the breath.
+
+"Don't let us talk about Ralph Gowan," she pleaded, when he
+had persuaded her to walk on with him again. "Let us talk about
+ourselves,--we are always safe when we talk about ourselves," with an
+innocent, mournful smile.
+
+And so they talked about themselves. He would have talked of anything
+on earth to please her then. Talking of themselves, of course, implied
+talking nonsense,--affectionate, sympathetic nonsense, but still
+nonsense; and so, for a while, they strolled on together, and were as
+tenderly foolish and disconnected as two people could possibly be.
+
+But, in spite of her resolution to avoid the subject, Dolly could not
+help drifting back to Ralph Gowan. "Griffith," she said, plaintively,
+"you are very jealous of him."
+
+"I know that," he answered.
+
+"But don't you _know_," in desperate appeal, "that there is n't the
+slightest need for you to be jealous of anybody?"
+
+"I know," he returned, dejectedly, "that I am a very wretched fellow
+sometimes."
+
+"Oh, dear!" sighed Dolly.
+
+"I know," he went on, "that seven years is a long probation, and that
+the prospect of another seven, or another two, for the matter of that,
+would drive me mad. I know I am growing envious and distrustful; I
+know that there are times when I hate that fellow so savagely that I am
+ashamed of myself. Dolly, what has he ever done that he should saunter
+on the sunny side, clad in purple and fine linen all his life? The money
+he throws away in a year would furnish the house at Putney."
+
+"Oh, dear!" burst forth Dolly. "You _are_ going wrong. It is all because
+I am not there to take care of you, too. Those are not the sentiments of
+Vagabondia, Grif."
+
+"No," dryly; "they are of the earth, earthy."
+
+Dolly shook her head dolefully.
+
+"Yes," she acquiesced; "and they are a bit shabby, too. You are going
+down, Grif. You never used to be shabby. None of us were ever exactly
+that, though we used to grumble sometimes. We used to grumble, not
+because other people had things, but because we had n't them."
+
+"I am getting hardened, I suppose," bitterly. "And it is hardly to be
+wondered at."
+
+"Hardened!" She stopped him that moment, and stood before him, holding
+his arm and looking up at him. "Hardened!" she repeated. "Grif, if you
+say that again, I will never forgive you. What is the good of our love
+for each other if it won't keep our hearts soft? When we get hardened we
+shall love each other no longer. What have we told each other all these
+years? Have n't we said that so long as we had one another we could bear
+anything, and not envy other people? It was n't all talk and sentiment,
+was it? It was n't on _my_ part, Grif. I meant it then, and I mean it
+now, though I know there are many good, kind-hearted people in the world
+who would not understand it, and would say I was talking unpractical
+rubbish, if they heard me. Hardened! Grif, while you have me, and I have
+you, and there is nothing on our two consciences? Why, it sounds,"--with
+another most dubious shake of her small head,--"it sounds as if you
+would n't care about the house at Putney!"
+
+He was conquered, of course; before she had spoken a dozen words he
+had been conquered; but this figure of his not caring for the house at
+Putney broke him utterly. He did not look very hardened when he answered
+her.
+
+"Dolly," he said, "you are an angel! I have told you so before, and it
+may be a proof of the barrenness of my resources to tell you so again,
+but it is true. God forgive me, my precious! I should like to see the
+man whose heart could harden while such a woman loved him."
+
+It was a pretty sight to see her put her hands on his shoulders, and
+stand on tiptoe to kiss him, in her honest, earnest way, without waiting
+for him to ask her.
+
+"Ah!" she said, "I knew it wasn't true," and then, still letting her
+hands rest on his shoulders, she burst forth in her tender, impulsive
+way again. "Grif," she said, "I don't think I am very wise, and I know
+I am not very thoughtful. I do things often that it would be better
+to leave undone,--I am fond of making the Philistines admire me, and I
+sometimes tease you; but, dear old fellow, right deep down at the bottom
+of my heart," faltering slightly, "I do--_do_ want to be a good
+woman; and there is never a night passes--though I never told you so
+before--that I do not pray to God to let me help you and let you help me
+to be tender and faithful and true."
+
+It was the old story,--love was king. Wisdom to the winds! Practicality
+to the corners of the earth! Prudence, power, and grandeur, hide your
+diminished heads! Here were two people who cared nothing for you, and
+who flung you aside without a fear as they stood together under the
+trees in the raw evening air,--one a penniless little hired entertainer
+of elderly ladies, the other an equally impecunious bondsman in a dingy
+office.
+
+They were quite happy,--even happy when time warned them that they must
+bid each other goodnight. They walked together to the gates of Barbazon
+Lodge, and parted in a state of bliss.
+
+"Good-night," said Dolly. "Be good,--as somebody wise once said,--'Be
+good, and you will be happy.'"
+
+"Good-night," answered Griffith; "but might n't he have put it the other
+way, Dolly, 'Be happy, and you will be good--because you can't help
+it'?"
+
+He had his hand on _her_ shoulder, this time, and as she laughed she put
+her face down so that her soft, warm cheek nestled against it.
+
+"But he didn't put it that way," she objected. "And we must take wisdom
+as it comes. There! I must go now," rather in a hurry. "Some one is
+coming--see!"
+
+"Confound it!" he observed, devoutly. "Who is it?"
+
+"I don't know," answered Dolly; "but you must let me go. Good-night,
+again."
+
+He released her, and she ran in through the gate, and up the gravel
+walk, and so he was left to turn away and pass the intruder with an
+appearance of nonchalance. And pass him he did, though whether with
+successful indifference or not, one can hardly say; but in passing him
+he looked up, and in looking up he recognized Ralph Gowan.
+
+"Going to see her," he said, to himself, just as poor Mollie had said
+the same thing, and just with the same heartburn. "The dev--But, no," he
+broke off sharply, "I won't begin again. It is as she says,--the blessed
+little darling!--it is shabby to be down on him because he has the best
+of it." And he went on his way, not rejoicing, it is true, but still
+trying to crush down a by no means unnatural feeling of rebellion.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X. ~ IN SLIPPERY PLACES.
+
+THE wise one sat at the window and looked out. The view commanded by
+Bloomsbury Place was not a specially imposing or attractive one. Four
+or five tall, dingy houses with solitary scrubby shrubs in their small
+front slips of low-spirited looking gardens, four or five dingy and
+tall houses without the scrubby shrubs in their small front slips of
+low-spirited looking gardens, rows of Venetian blinds of various shades,
+and one or two lamp-posts,--not much to enliven the prospect.
+
+The inhabitants of the houses in Bloomsbury Place were not prone to
+sitting at their front windows, accordingly; but this special afternoon,
+the weather being foggy, Aimée finding herself alone in the parlor, had
+left the fire just to look at this same fog, though it was by no means a
+novelty. The house was very quiet. 'Toinette was out, and so was
+Mollie, and Tod was asleep, lying upon a collection of cushions on the
+hearth-rug, with two fingers in his mouth, his round baby face turned up
+luxuriously to catch the warmth.
+
+The wise one was waiting for Mollie, who had gone out a few hours before
+to execute divers commissions of a domestic nature.
+
+"She might have been back in half the time," murmured the family sage,
+who sat on the carpet, flattening her small features against the glass.
+"She might have done what she has to do in _less_ than half the time,
+but I knew how it would be when she went out. She is looking in at the
+shop windows and wishing for things. I wish she would n't. People stare
+at her so, and I don't wonder. I am sure I cannot help watching her
+myself, sometimes. She grows prettier every day of her life, and she is
+beginning to know that she does, too."
+
+Five minutes after this the small face was drawn away from the
+window-pane with a sigh of relief.
+
+"There she is now. What a time she has been! Who is with her, I wonder?
+I cannot see whether it is Phil or Mr. Gowan, it is getting so dark. It
+must be Mr. Gowan. 'Toinette would be with them if it was Phil."
+
+"Why, Mollie," she exclaimed, when the door opened, "I saw somebody with
+you, and I thought it was Mr. Gowan. Why did n't he come in? Don't waken
+Tod."
+
+Mollie came in rather hurriedly, and going to the fire knelt down before
+it, holding out her hands to warm them. Her cheeks were brilliant with
+color and her eyes were bright; altogether, she looked a trifle excited.
+
+"It was n't Mr. Gowan," she answered. "Ugh! how cold it is,--not frosty,
+you know, but that raw sort of cold, Aimée. I would rather have the
+frost myself, would n't you?"
+
+But Aimée was not thinking of the weather.
+
+"Not Mr. Gowan!" she ejaculated. "Who was it, then?"
+
+Mollie crept nearer to the fire and gave another little shudder.
+
+"It was--somebody else," she returned, with a triumphant little
+half-laugh. "Guess who!"
+
+"Who!" repeated Aimée. "Somebody else! It was not any one I know."
+
+"It was somebody Phil knows."
+
+The wise one arose and came to the fire herself.
+
+"It was some one taller than Brown!"
+
+"Brown!" echoed Mollie, with an air of supreme contempt. "He is _twice_
+as tall. Brown is only about five feet high, and he wears an overcoat
+ten times too big for him, and it flaps--yes, it _flaps_ about
+his odious little heels. I should think it wasn't Brown. It was a
+gentleman."
+
+The wise one regarded her pretty, scornful face dubiously.
+
+"Brown is n't so bad as all that implies, Mollie," she said. "His coat
+is the worst part of him. But if it was n't Brown and it was n't Mr.
+Gowan, who was it?"
+
+Mollie laughed and shrugged her shoulders again, and then looked up at
+her small inquisitor charmingly defiant.
+
+"It was--Mr. Chandos!" she confessed.
+
+Aimée gazed at her for a moment in blank amazement.
+
+"But," she objected, "you don't know him any more than I do. You
+have only seen him once through the window, and you have never been
+introduced to him."
+
+"I have seen him twice," said Mollie. "Don't you recollect my telling
+you that he picked up my glove for me the night I carried Dolly's dress
+to Bra-bazon Lodge, and," faltering a little and dropping her eyes, "he
+introduced himself to me. He met me in town. I was passing through the
+Arcade, and he stopped to ask about Phil. He apologized, of course, you
+know, for doing it, but he said he was very anxious to know when Phil
+would be at home, and--and perhaps I would be so kind as to tell him. He
+wants to see him about a picture. And--then, you know, somehow or other,
+he said something else, and--and I answered him--and he walked to the
+gate with me."
+
+"He took a great liberty," said Aimée. "And it was very imprudent in you
+to let him come. I don't know what you could be thinking of. The idea of
+picking up people in the street like that, Mollie; you must be crazy."
+
+"I could n't help it," returned Mollie, not appearing at all disturbed.
+"He knows Phil and he knows Dolly--a little. And he is very nice. He
+wants to know us all. And he says Mr. Gowan is one of his best friends.
+I liked him myself."
+
+"I dare say you did," despairingly. "You are such a child. You would
+like the man in the moon or a Kaffre chief--"
+
+"That is not true," interposed the delinquent. "I don't know about
+the man in the moon. He might be well enough--at any rate, he would
+be travelled and a novelty, but Kaffre chiefs are odious. Don't you
+remember those we saw last winter?"
+
+"Mollie," said Aimée, "you are only jesting because you are ashamed of
+yourself. You _know_ you were wrong to let that man come home with you."
+
+Then Mollie hung her head and made a lovely rebellious move.
+
+"I don't care," she said; "if it was n't exactly correct, it was nice.
+But that is always the way," indignantly, "nice things are always
+improper."
+
+Here was a defection for you. The oracle quite shuddered in her discreet
+disapproval.
+
+"If you go on in that way," she said, "you will be ending by saying that
+improper things are always nice."
+
+"Never mind how I end," observed the prisoner at the bar. "You have
+ended by wakening Tod;" which remark terminated the conversation
+somewhat abruptly.
+
+A day or so later came Chandos--upon business, so he said, but he
+remained much longer than his errand rendered necessary, and by some
+chance or other it came to pass that Phil brought him into the parlor,
+and introduced him to their small circle, in his usual amiable, informal
+manner. Then he was to be seen fairly, and prepossessing enough he was.
+Mollie, sitting in her corner in the blue dress, and looking exquisite
+and guileless, was very demurely silent at first; but in due time Aimée
+began to see that she was being gradually drawn out, and at last the
+drawing out was such a success, subtle as it was, that she became quite
+a prominent feature in the party, and made so many brilliant speeches
+without blushing, that the family eyes began to be opened to the fact
+that she was really a trifle older than she had been a few years ago,
+after all. The idea had suggested itself to them faintly on one or two
+occasions of late, and they were just beginning to grasp it, though
+they were fully as much startled as they would have been if Tod had
+unexpectedly roused himself from his infantile slumbers, and mildly but
+firmly announced his intention of studying for the ministry or entering
+a political contest.
+
+Aimée was dumbfounded. She had not expected this. She was going to have
+her hands full, it was plain. She scarcely wondered now at her discovery
+of two evenings before. And then she glanced slyly across the room
+again, and took it all in once more,--Mollie, bewitching in all the
+novelty of her small effort at coquetry; Chandos, leading her on, and
+evidently enjoying the task he had set himself intensely.
+
+It was quite a new Mollie who was left to them after their visitor was
+gone. There was a touch of triumph and excitement in the pretty flushed
+face, and a ghost of defiance in the brown eyes. She was not quite sure
+that young Dame Prudence would not improve the occasion with a short
+homily.
+
+So she was a trifle restless. First she stood at the window humming an
+air, then she came to the table and turned over a few sketches, then she
+knelt down on pretence of teasing Tod.
+
+But impulse was too much for her. She forgot Tod in a few minutes
+and fell into a sitting position, folding her hands idly on the blue
+garment.
+
+"I knew he would come," she said, abstractedly. Then Dame Prudence
+addressed her.
+
+"Did you?" she remarked. "How did you?"
+
+She started and blushed up to her ears.
+
+"How?" she repeated. "Oh, I knew!"
+
+"Perhaps he told you he would," put in Dame P. "Did he?"
+
+"Aimée," was the rather irrelevant reply, rather suddenly made, "do you
+like him?"
+
+"I never judge people," primly enunciated, "upon first acquaintance.
+First impressions are rarely to be relied upon."
+
+"That 's a nice speech," in her elder sister's most shockingly flippant
+manner, "and it sounds well, but I have heard it before--thousands of
+times. People always say it when they want to be specially disagreeable,
+and would like to cool you down. There is the least grain of Lady
+Augusta in you, Aimée."
+
+"And considering that Lady Augusta is the most unpleasant person we
+know, _that_ is a nice speech," returned the oracle.
+
+"Oh, well, I only said 'a grain,' and a grain is not much."
+
+"It is quite enough."
+
+"Well," amiably, "suppose we say half a grain."
+
+"Suppose we say you are talking nonsense."
+
+Mollie's air was Dolly's own as she answered her,--people always said
+she was like Dolly, despite the fact that Dolly was not a beauty at all.
+
+"There may be something in that," she said.
+
+"Suppose we admit it and return to the subject. Do you think he is nice,
+Aimée?"
+
+"Do you?"
+
+"Yes, I do," but without getting rose-colored this time.
+
+Aimée looked at her calmly, but with some quiet scrutiny in her glance.
+
+"As nice," she put it to her,--"as nice as Ralph Gowan?"
+
+She grew rose-colored then in an instant up to her ears again and over
+them, and she turned her face aside and plucked at the hearth-rug with
+nervous fingers.
+
+"Well?" suggested Aimée.
+
+"He is as handsome and--as tall, and he dresses as well."
+
+"Do you like him as well?" said Aimée.
+
+"Ye-es--no. I have not known him long enough to tell you."
+
+"Well," returned Aimée, "let me tell you. As I said before, I do not
+think it wise to judge people from first impressions, but this I do
+know, _I_ don't like him as I like Mr. Gowan, and I never shall. He is
+not to be relied upon, that Gerald Chandos; I saw it in his eyes."
+
+And she set her chin upon her hand, and her small, round, fair face
+covered itself all at once with an anxious cloud.
+
+She kept a quiet watch upon Mollie after this, and in the weeks that
+followed she was puzzled, and not only puzzled, but baffled outright
+many a time. This first visit of Mr. Gerald Chandos was not his last.
+His business brought him again and again, and when the time came that he
+had no pretence of business, he was on sufficiently familiar terms with
+them all to make calls of pleasure. So he did just as Ralph Gowan had
+done, slipped into his groove of friend and acquaintance unobtrusively,
+and was made welcome as other people were,--just as any sufficiently
+harmless individual would have been under the same circumstances.
+There was no dragon of high renown to create social disturbances in
+Vagabondia.
+
+"As long as a man behaves himself, where's the odds?" said Phil; and no
+one ever disagreed with him.
+
+But Mr. Gerald Chandos had not been to the house more than three times
+before Aimée found cause to wonder. She discovered that Ralph Gowan was
+not so enthusiastically attached to him, after all; and furthermore
+she had her reasons for thinking that Gowan was rather disturbed at
+his advent, and would have preferred that he had not been adopted so
+complacently.
+
+"If Dolly was at home," she said to herself, "I should be inclined to
+fancy he was a trifle jealous; and if he cared just a little more for
+Mollie, I might think he was jealous; but Dolly is away, and though he
+is fond of Mollie, and thinks her pretty, he does n't care for her in
+that way exactly, so there must be some other reason. He is not the sort
+of person to have likes or dislikes without reason."
+
+In her own sage style she approved of Ralph Gowan just as she approved
+of Griffith. And then, as I have said, Mollie puzzled her. It was
+astonishing how the child altered, and how she began to bloom out, and
+adopt independent, womanly airs and graces. She took a new and important
+position in the household. From her post of observation the wise one
+found herself looking on with a smile sometimes, there was such a
+freshness in her style of enacting the _rôle_ of beauty. She struck
+Phil's friends dumb now and then with her conscious power, and the
+unhappy Brown suffered himself to be led captive without a struggle.
+
+"Her 'prentice han' she tried on Brown," Dolly had said, months before,
+in a wretched attempt at parody; and certainly the tortures of Brown
+were prolonged and varied. But it was her manner toward Chandos that
+puzzled Aimée. Perhaps she was a trifle proud of his evident
+admiration; at all events, she seemed far from averse to it, and the
+incomprehensible part of the affair was that sometimes she allowed him
+to rival even Ralph Gowan.
+
+"And yet," commented Aimée, "she likes Ralph Gowan better. She never can
+help blushing and looking conscious when he comes or when he talks to
+her, and she is as cool as Dolly when she finds herself with Chandos. It
+is very odd."
+
+It was not so easy to manage her as it used to be, Ralph Gowan
+discovered. She was growing capricious and fanciful, and ready to take
+offence. If they were left alone together, she would change her mood
+every two minutes. Sometimes she would submit to his old jesting,
+gallant speeches quite humbly and shyly for a while, and then she would
+flame out all at once in anger, half a woman's and half a child's. He
+was inclined to fancy now and then that she had never forgiven him for
+his first interference on the subject of Gerald Chandos, for at the
+early part of the acquaintance he did interfere, as he had promised
+Dolly he would.
+
+"I am not glad to see that fellow here, Mollie," he had said, the first
+night he met him at the house.
+
+She stood erect before him, with her white throat straight, and a spark
+in her eyes.
+
+"What fellow?" she asked.
+
+"Chandos," he answered, coolly and briefly.
+
+"Oh!" she returned. "How is it that when one man dislikes another he
+always speaks of him as 'that fellow'? I know some one who always refers
+to you as 'that fellow.'"
+
+"Do you?" dryly, as before. He knew very well whom she meant.
+
+"_I_ am glad to see 'that fellow' here," she went on. "He is a
+gentleman, and he is n't stupid. No one else comes here who is so
+amusing. I am tired of Brown & Company."
+
+"Ah!" he answered, biting his lip. He felt the rebuff, if it was
+only Mollie who gave it. "Very well then, if you are tired of Brown &
+Company, and would prefer to enter into partnership with Chandos, it is
+none of my business, I suppose. I will give you one warning, however,
+because I promised your sister to take care of you." Her skin flamed
+scarlet at that. "That fellow is not a gentleman exactly, and he is a
+very dangerous acquaintance for any woman to make."
+
+"He is a friend of yours," she interrupted.
+
+"That is a natural mistake on your part," he replied,--"natural, but
+still a mistake. He is _not_ a friend of mine. As I before observed, he
+is not exactly a gentleman--not to put too fine a point upon it--from a
+moral point of view. We won't discuss the matter further."
+
+They had parted bad friends that night. Mollie was restive under his
+cool decisiveness for various reasons; he was irritated because he felt
+he had failed, and had lost ground instead of gaining it. So sometimes
+since, he had fancied that she had not wholly forgiven him, and yet
+there were times when she was so softly submissive that he felt himself
+in some slight danger of being as much touched and as fairly bewitched
+as he was when Dolly turned her attention to him. Still she was
+frequently far from amiable, and upon more than one occasion he found
+her not precisely as polite as she might have been.
+
+"You are not as amiable, Mollie," he said to her once, "as you used
+to be. We were very good friends in the old days. I suppose you are
+outgrowing me. I should be afraid to offer you a bunch of camellias now
+as a token of my affection."
+
+He smiled down at her indolently as he said it, and before he had
+finished he began to feel uncomfortable. Her eyelids drooped and her
+head drooped, and she looked sweetly troubled.
+
+"I know I am not as good as I used to be," she admitted. "I know it
+without being told. Sometimes," very suddenly, "I think I must be
+growing awfully wicked."
+
+"Well," he commented, "at least one must admit that is a promising state
+of mind, and augurs well for future repentance."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"No, it doesn't," she answered him, "and that is the bad side of it. I
+am getting worse every day of my life."
+
+"Is it safe," he suggested, cynically,--"is it safe for an innocent
+individual to cultivate your acquaintance? Would it not be a good plan
+to isolate yourself from society until you feel that the guileless ones
+may approach you without fear of contamination? You alarm me."
+
+She lifted up her head, her eyes flashing.
+
+"_You_ are safe," she said; "so it is rather premature to cry 'wolf' so
+soon."
+
+"It is very plain that you are outgrowing me," he returned. "Dolly
+herself could not have made a more scathing remark."
+
+But, fond as he was of tormenting her, he did not want to try her
+too far, and so he endeavored to make friends. But his efforts at
+reconciliation were not a success. She was not to be coaxed into her
+sweet mood again; indeed she almost led him to fear that he had wounded
+her irreparably by his jests. And yet, when he at last consulted his
+watch, and went to the side-table for his hat and gloves, he turned
+round to find her large eyes following him in a wistful sort of way.
+
+"Are you going?" she asked him at length, a half-reluctant appeal in her
+voice.
+
+"I am due at Brabazon Lodge now," he answered.
+
+She said no more after that, but relapsed into silence, and let him go
+without making an effort to detain him, receiving his adieus in her most
+indifferent style.
+
+But she was cross and low-spirited when he was gone, and Aimée, coming
+into the room with her work, found her somewhat hard to deal with, and
+indeed was moved to tell her so.
+
+"You are a most inexplicable girl, Mollie," she said. "What crotchet is
+troubling you now?"
+
+"No crotchet at all," she answered, and then all at once she got up and
+stood before the mantel-glass, looking at herself fixedly. "Aimée," she
+said, "if you were a man, would you admire me?"
+
+Aimée gave her a glance, and then answered her with sharp frankness.
+"Yes, I should," she said.
+
+She remained standing for a few minutes, taking a survey of herself,
+front view, side view, and even craning her pretty throat to get a
+glimpse of her back; and then a pettish sigh burst from her, and she sat
+down again at her sister's feet, clasping her hands about her knees in a
+most unorthodox position.
+
+"I should like to have a great deal of money," she said after a while,
+and she frowned as she said it.
+
+"That is a startling observation," commented Aimée, "and shows great
+singularity of taste."
+
+Mollie frowned again, and shrugged one shoulder, but otherwise gave the
+remark small notice.
+
+"I should like," she proceeded, "to have a carriage, and to live in a
+grand house, and go to places. I should like to marry somebody rich."
+And having blurted out this last confession, she looked half ashamed of
+herself.
+
+"Mollie," said Aimée, solemnly dropping her hands and her work upon her
+lap, "I am beginning to feel as Dolly does; I am beginning to be afraid
+you are going to get yourself into serious trouble."
+
+Then this overgrown baby of theirs, who had so suddenly astonished
+them all by dropping her babyhood and asserting herself a woman, said
+something so startling that the wise one fairly lost her breath.
+
+"If I cannot get what I want," she said, deliberately, "I will take what
+I can get."
+
+"You are going out of your mind," ejaculated Aimée.
+
+"It does n't matter if I am," cried the romantic little goose,
+positively crushing the oracle by breaking down all at once, and
+flinging herself upon the hearthrug in a burst of tears,--"it does n't
+matter if I am. Who cares for _me_?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI. ~ IN WHICH COMES A WIND WHICH BLOWS NOBODY GOOD.
+
+THEEE weeks waited the wise one, keeping her eyes on the alert and her
+small brain busy, but preserving an owl-like silence upon the subject
+revolving in her mind. But at the end of that time she marched into the
+parlor one day, attired for a walk, and astonished them all by gravely
+announcing her intention of going to see Dolly.
+
+"What are you going for?" said Mrs. Phil.
+
+"Rather sudden, is n't it?" commented Mollie.
+
+"I 'm going on business," returned Aimée, and she buttoned her gloves
+and took her departure, without enlightening them further.
+
+Arriving at Brabazon Lodge, she found Miss MacDowlas out and Dolly
+sitting alone in the parlor, with a letter from Griffith in her hand and
+tears in her eyes.
+
+Her visitor walked to the hearth, her face wrinkling portentously, and
+kissed her with an air of affectionate severity.
+
+"I don't know," she began, comprehending matters at a glance, "I am sure
+I don't know what I am to do with you all. _You_ are in trouble now."
+
+"Take off your things," said Dolly, with a helpless little sob,
+"and--and then I will tell you all about it. You must stay and have
+tea with me. Miss MacDowlas is away, and I--am all alone, and--and, O
+Aimée!"
+
+The hat and jacket were laid aside in two minutes, and Aimée came back
+to her and knelt down.
+
+"Is there anything in your letter you do not want me to see?" she asked.
+
+"No," answered Dolly, in despair, and tossed it into her lap.
+
+It was no new story, but this time the Fates seemed to have conspired
+against her more maliciously than usual. A few days before Grif had
+found himself terribly dashed in spirit, and under the influence of
+impulse had written to her. Two or three times in one day he had heard
+accidental comments upon Gowan's attentions to her, and on his return to
+his lodgings at night he had appealed to her in a passionate epistle.
+
+He was not going to doubt her again, he said, and he was struggling to
+face the matter coolly, but he wanted to see her. It would be worse than
+useless to call upon her at the Lodge, and have an interview under the
+disapproving eyes of Miss MacDowlas, and so he had thought they might
+meet again by appointment, as they had done before by chance. And Dolly
+had acquiesced at once. But Fortune was against her. Just as she had
+been ready to leave the house, Ralph Gowan had made his appearance, and
+Miss MacDowlas had called her down-stairs to entertain him.
+
+"I would not have cared about telling," cried Dolly, in tears, "but I
+could not tell her, and so I had to stay, and--actually--_sing_--Aimée.
+Yes, sing detestable love-sick songs, while my own darling, whom I was
+_dying_ to go to, was waiting outside in the cold. And that was not the
+worst, either. He was just outside in the road, and when the servants
+lighted the gas he saw me through the window. And I was at the
+piano"--in a burst--"and Ralph Gowan was standing by me. And so he went
+home and wrote _that_," signifying with a gesture the letter Aimée held.
+"And everything is wrong again."
+
+It was very plain that everything _was_ wrong again. The epistle in
+question was an impetuous, impassioned effusion enough. He was furious
+against Gowan, and bitter against everybody else. She had cheated and
+slighted and trifled with him when he most needed her love and pity; but
+he would not blame her, he could only blame himself for being such an
+insane, presumptuous fool as to fancy that anything he had to offer
+could be worthy of any woman.
+
+What had he to offer, etc., for half a dozen almost illegible pages,
+dashed and crossed, and all on fire with his bitterness and pain.
+
+Having taken it from Aimée, and read it for the twentieth time, Dolly
+fairly wrung her hands over it.
+
+"If we were only just _together!_" she cried. "If we only just had the
+tiniest, shabbiest house in the world, and could be married and help
+each other! He does n't mean to be unjust or unkind, you know, Aimée; he
+would be more wretched than I am if he knew how unhappy he has made me."
+
+"Ah!" sighed Aimée. "He should think of that before he begins."
+
+Then she regained possession of the letter, and smoothed out its creases
+on her knee, finishing by folding it carefully and returning it to its
+envelope, looking very grave all the time.
+
+"Will you lend me this?" she said at last, holding the epistle up.
+
+"What are you going to do with it?" asked Dolly, disconsolately.
+
+"I am going to ask Griffith to read it again. I shall be sure to see him
+to-morrow night."
+
+"Very well," answered Dolly; "but don't be too hard upon him, Aimée. He
+has a great deal to bear."
+
+"I know that," said Aimée. "And sometimes he bears it very well; but
+just now he needs a little advice."
+
+Troubled as she was, Dolly laughed at the staid expression on her small,
+discreet face; but even as she laughed she caught the child in her arms
+and kissed her.
+
+"What should we do without you!" she exclaimed. "We need some one to
+keep us all straight, we Vagabonds; but it seems queer that such a small
+wiseacre as you should be our controlling power."
+
+The mere sight of the small wiseacre had a comforting effect upon her.
+Her spirits began to rise, and she so far recovered herself as to be
+able to look matters in the face more cheerfully. There was so much
+to talk about, and so many questions to ask, that it would have been
+impossible to remain dejected and uninterested. It was not until after
+tea, however, that Aimée brought her "business" upon the carpet. She had
+thought it best not to introduce the subject during the earlier part
+of the evening; but when the tea-tray was removed, and they found
+themselves alone again, she settled down, and applied herself at once to
+the work before her.
+
+"I have not told you yet what I came here for this afternoon," she said.
+
+"You don't mean to intimate that you did not come to see me!" said
+Dolly.
+
+"I came to see you, of course," decidedly; "but I came to see you for a
+purpose. I came to talk to you about Mollie."
+
+Dolly almost turned pale.
+
+"Mollie!" she exclaimed. "What is the trouble about Mollie?"
+
+"Something that puzzles me," was the answer. "Dolly, do you know
+anything about Gerald Chandos?"
+
+"What!" said Dolly. "It is Gerald Chandos, is it? He is not a fit
+companion for her, I know that much."
+
+And then she repeated, word for word, the conversation she had had with
+Ralph Gowan.
+
+Having listened to the end, Aimée shook her head.
+
+"I like Mr. Gowan well enough," she said, "but he has been the cause of
+a great deal of trouble among us, without meaning to be, and I am afraid
+it is not at an end yet."
+
+They were both silent for a few moments after this, and then Dolly,
+looking up, spoke with a touch of reluctance.
+
+"I dare say you can answer me a question I should like to ask you?" she
+said.
+
+"If it is about Mollie, I think I can," Aimée returned.
+
+"You have been with her so long," Dolly went on, two tiny lines showing
+themselves upon _her_ forehead this time, "and you are so quick at
+seeing things, that you must know what there is to know. And yet it
+hardly seems fair to ask. Ralph Gowan goes to Bloomsbury Place often,
+does he not?"
+
+"He goes very often, and he seems to care more for Mollie than for any
+of the rest of us."
+
+"Aimée," Dolly said next, "does--this is my question--does Mollie care
+for him?"
+
+"Yes, she does," answered Aimée. "She cares for him so much that she is
+making herself miserable about him."
+
+"Oh, dear!" cried Dolly. "What--"
+
+Aimée interrupted her.
+
+"And that is not the worst. The fact is, Dolly, I don't know what to
+make of her. If it was any one but Mollie, or if Mollie was a bit less
+innocent and impetuous, I should not be so much afraid; but sometimes
+she is angry with herself, and sometimes she is angry with him, and
+sometimes she is both, and then I should not be surprised at her doing
+anything innocent and frantic. Poor child! It is my impression she has
+about half made up her mind to the desperate resolve of making a grand
+marriage. She said as much the other night, and I think that is why she
+encourages Mr. Chandos."
+
+"Oh, dear," cried Dolly, again. "And does she think he wants to marry
+her?"
+
+"She knows he makes violent love to her, and she is not worldly-wise
+enough to know that Lord Burleighs are out of date."
+
+"Out of date!" said Dolly; "I doubt if they ever were in date. Men like
+Mr. Gerald Chandos would hesitate at marrying Venus from Bloomsbury
+Place."
+
+"If it was Ralph Gowan," suggested Aimée.
+
+"But Ralph Gowan is n't like Chandos," Dolly returned, astutely. "He is
+worth ten thousand of him. I wish he would fall in love with Mollie and
+marry her. Poor Mollie! Poor, pretty, headlong little goose! What are we
+to do with her?"
+
+"Mr. Gowan is very fond of her, in a way," said Aimée. "If he did not
+care a little for you--"
+
+"I wish he did not!" sighed Dolly. "But it serves me right," with
+candor. "He would never have thought of me again if I--well, if I had
+n't found things so dreadfully dull at that Bilberry clan gathering."
+
+"'If,'" moralized Aimée, significantly. "'If' is n't a wise word, and
+it often gets you into trouble, Dolly. If you hadn't, it would have been
+better for Grif, as well; but what cannot be cured must be endured."
+
+Their long talk ended, however, in Dolly's great encouragement. It was
+agreed that the family oracle was to bring Griffith to his senses by
+means of some slight sisterly reproof, and that she was to take Mollie
+in hand discreetly at once and persuade her to enter the confessional.
+
+"She has altered a great deal, and has grown much older and more
+self-willed lately," said Aimée; "but if I am very straightforward and
+take her by surprise, I scarcely think she will be able to conceal much
+from me, and, at least, I shall be able to show her that her fancies are
+romantic and unpractical."
+
+She did not waste any time before applying herself to her work, when she
+went home. Instead of going to Bloomsbury Place at once, she stopped at
+Griffith's lodgings on her way, and rather scandalized his landlady by
+requesting to be shown into his parlor. Only the grave simplicity of the
+small, slight figure in its gray cloak, and the steadfast seriousness
+in the pretty face reconciled the worthy matron to the idea of admitting
+her without investigation. But Aimée bore her scrutiny very calmly.
+The whole family of them had taken tea in the little sitting-room with
+Griffith, upon one or two occasions, so she was not at all at a loss,
+although she did not find herself recognized.
+
+"I am one of Mr. Crewe's sisters," she said; and that, of course,
+was quite enough. Mrs. Cripps knew Mr. Crewe as well as she knew Grif
+himself, so she stepped back into the narrow passage at once, and even
+opened the parlor door, and announced the visitor in a way that made
+poor Grif s heart beat.
+
+"One of Mr. Crewe's sisters," she said.
+
+He had been sitting glowering over the fire, with his head on his hands
+and his elbows on his knees, and when he started up he looked quite
+haggard and dishevelled. Was it--_could_ it be Dolly? He knew it could
+not be, but he turned pale at the thought. It would have been such
+rapture, in his present frame of mind, to have poured out his misery and
+distrust, and then to have clasped her to his heart before she had
+time to explain. He was just in that wretched, passionate, relenting,
+remorseful stage.
+
+But it was only Aimée, in her gray cloak; and as the door closed behind
+her, that small person advanced toward him, crumpling her white forehead
+and looking quite disturbed at the mere sight of him. She held up a
+reproachful finger at him warningly.
+
+"I knew it would be just this way," she said. "And you are paler and
+more miserable than ever. If you and Dolly would just be more practical
+and reason more for each other, instead of falling headlong into
+quarrels and making everything up headlong every ten minutes, how much
+better it would be for you! If I was not so fond of you both, you would
+be the greatest trials I have."
+
+He was so glad to see the thoughtful, womanly little creature, that
+he could have caught her up in his arms, gray cloak and all, and have
+kissed her only a tithe less impetuously than he would have kissed
+Dolly. He was one of the most faithful worshippers at her shrine,
+and her pretty wisdom and unselfishness had won her many. He drew the
+easiest chair up to the fire for her, and made her sit down and warm
+her feet on the fender, while she talked to him, and he listened to her
+every word, as he always did.
+
+"I have been to see Dolly," she said, "and I found her crying,--all by
+herself and crying." And she paused to note the effect of her words.
+
+His heart gave a great thump. It always did give a hard thump when he
+thought of Dolly as she looked when she cried,--a soft, limp little
+bundle of pathetic prettiness, covering her dear little face in her
+hands, shedding such piteous, impassioned tears, and refusing to be
+kissed or comforted. Dolly sobbing on his shoulder was so different from
+the coquettish, shrewd, mock-worldly Dolly other people saw.
+
+Aimée put her hand into her dress-pocket under the gray cloak and
+produced her letter,--took it out of its envelope, laid it on her knee,
+and smoothed out its creases again.
+
+"She was crying over this letter," she proceeded,--"your letter; the one
+you wrote to her when I think you cannot have been quite calm enough to
+write anything. I think you cannot have read it over before sending it
+away. It is always best to read a letter _twice_ before posting it. So
+I have brought it to you to read again, and there it is," giving it to
+him.
+
+He burst forth with the story of his wrongs, of course, then. He could
+not keep it in any longer. Things had gone wrong with him in every way
+before this had happened, he said, and he had longed so for just one
+hour in which Dolly could comfort him and try to help him to pluck up
+spirits again, and she had written to him a tender little letter, and
+promised to give him that hour, and he had been so full of impatience
+and love, and he had gone to the very gates and waited like a beggar
+outside, lest he should miss her by any chance, and the end of his
+waiting had been that he had caught a glimpse of the bright, warm room,
+and the piano, and Dolly with Gowan bending over her as if she had no
+other lover in the world. He told it all in a burst, clenching his hand
+and scarcely stopping for breath; but when he ended he dashed the letter
+down, pushed his chair round, and dropped his head on his folded arms on
+the table, with a wild, tearing sob.
+
+"It is no fault of hers," he cried, "and it was only the first sting
+that made me reproach her. I shall never do it again. She is only in the
+right, and that fellow is in the right when he tells himself that he
+can take better care of her and make her happier than I can. I will be a
+coward no longer,--not an hour longer. I will give her up to-night. She
+will learn to love him--he is a gentleman at least--if I were in
+his place I should never fear that she would not learn in time, and
+forget--and forget the poor, selfish beggar who would have died for her,
+and yet was not man enough to control the jealous rage that tortured
+her. I 'll give her up. I'll give it all up--but, oh! my God! Dolly,
+the--the little house, and--and the dreams I have had about it!"
+
+Aimée was almost in despair. This was not one of his ordinary moods;
+this was the culminating point,--the culmination of all his old
+sufferings and pangs. He had been working slowly toward this through
+all the old unhappiness and self-reproach. The constant droppings of the
+bygone years had worn away the stone at last, and he could not bear much
+more. Aimée was frightened now. Her habit of forethought showed her
+all this in a very few seconds. His nervous, highly strung, impassioned
+temperament had broken down at last. Another blow would be too much for
+him. If she could not manage to set him right now and calm him, and if
+things went wrong again, she was secretly conscious of feeling that the
+consequences could not be foreseen. There was nothing wild and rash and
+wretched he might not do.
+
+She got up and went to him, and leaned upon the table, clasping her
+cool, firm little hand upon his hot, desperate one. A woman of fifty
+could not have had the power over him that this slight, inexperienced
+little creature had. Her childish face caught color and life and
+strength in her determination to do her best for these two whom she
+loved so well. Her small-boned, fragile figure deceived people into
+undervaluing her reserve forces; but there was mature feeling and
+purpose enough in her to have put many a woman three times her age to
+shame. The light, cool touch of her hand soothed and controlled Griffith
+from the first, and when she put forth all her powers of reasoning, and
+set his trouble before him in a more practical and less headlong way,
+not a word was lost upon him. She pictured Dolly to him just as she had
+found her holding his letter in her hand, and she pictured her too as
+she had really been the night he watched her through the window,--not
+staying because she cared for Gowan, but because circumstances had
+forced her to remain when she was longing in her own impetuous pretty
+way to fly to him, and give him the comfort he needed. And she gave
+Dolly's story in Dolly's own words, with the little sobs between, and
+the usual plentiful sprinkling of sweet, foolish, loving epithets,
+and--with innocent artfulness--made her seem so charming and
+affectionate, a little centre-figure in the picture she drew, that no
+man with a heart in his breast could have resisted her, and by the
+time Aimée had finished, Grif was so far moved that it seemed a sheer
+impossibility to speak again of relinquishing his claims.
+
+But he could not regain his spirits sufficiently to feel able to say
+very much. He quieted down, but he was still down at heart and crushed
+in feeling, and could do little else but listen in a hopeless sort of
+way.
+
+"I will tell you what you shall do," Aimée said at last. "You shall see
+Dolly yourself,--not on the street, but just as you used to see her
+when she was at home. She shall come home some afternoon. I know Miss
+MacDowlas will let her,--and you shall sit in the parlor together, Grif,
+and make everything straight, and begin afresh."
+
+He could not help being roused somewhat by such a prospect. The cloud
+was lifted for one instant, even if it fell upon him again the next.
+
+"I shall have to wait a week," he said. "Old Flynn has asked me to go
+to Dartmouth, to attend to some business for him, and I leave here
+to-morrow morning."
+
+"Very well!" she answered. "If we must wait a week, we must; but you can
+write to Dolly in the interval, and settle upon the day, and then she
+can speak to Miss MacDowlas."
+
+He agreed to the plan at once, and promised to write to Dolly that very
+night. So the young peacemaker's mind was set at rest upon this subject,
+at least, and after giving him a trifle more advice, and favoring him
+with a few more sage axioms, she prepared to take her departure.
+
+"You may put on your hat and take me to the door; but you had better not
+come in if you are going to finish your letter before the post closes,"
+she said; "but the short walk will do you good, and the night-air will
+cool you."
+
+She bade him good-night at the gate when they reached Bloomsbury Place,
+and she entered the house with her thoughts turning to Mollie. Mollie
+had been out, too, it seemed. When she went up-stairs to their bedroom,
+she found her there, standing before the dressing-table, still with her
+hat on, and looking in evident preoccupation at something she held in
+her hand. Hearing Aimée, she started and turned round, dropping her hand
+at her side, but not in time to hide a suspicious glitter which caught
+her sister's eye. Here was a worse state of affairs than ever. She had
+something to hide, and she had made up her mind to hide it. She stood up
+as Aimée approached, looking excited and guilty, but still half-defiant,
+her lovely head tossed back a little and an obstinate curve on her red
+lips. But the oracle was not to be daunted. She confronted her with
+quite a stern little air.
+
+"Mollie," she began at once, without the least hesitation,--"Mollie, you
+have just this minute hidden something from me, and I should n't have
+thought you could do it."
+
+Mollie put her closed hand behind her.
+
+"_If_ I am hiding something," she answered, "I am not hiding it without
+reason."
+
+"No," returned Dame Prudence, severely, "you are not. You have a very
+good reason, I am afraid. You are ashamed of yourself, and you know you
+are doing wrong. You have got a secret, which you are keeping from _me_,
+Mollie," bridling a little in the prettiest way. "I didn't think you
+would keep a secret from _me_."
+
+Mollie, very naturally, was overpowered. She looked a trifle ashamed of
+herself, and the tears came into her eyes. She drew her hand from behind
+her back, and held it out with a half-pettish, half-timid gesture.
+
+"There!" she said; "if you must see it."
+
+And there, on her pink palm, lay a shining opal ring.
+
+"And," said Aimée, looking at it without offering to touch it, and then
+looking at her,--"and Mr. Gerald Chandos gave it to you?"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Gerald Chandos did," trying to brave it out, but still
+appearing the reverse of comfortable. "And you think it proper,"
+proceeded her inquisitor, "to accept such presents from a gentleman who
+cares nothing for you?"
+
+Care nothing for her! Mollie drew herself upright, with the air of a
+Zenobia. She had had too few real love affairs not to take arms at once
+at such an imputation cast upon her prowess.
+
+"He cares enough for me to want me to marry him," she said, and then
+stopped and looked as if she could have bitten her tongue off for
+betraying her.
+
+Aimée sat down in the nearest chair and stared at her, as if she doubted
+the evidence of her senses.
+
+"To do what?" she demanded.
+
+There was no use in trying to conceal the truth any longer. Mollie saw
+that much; and besides this, her feelings were becoming too strong for
+her from various causes. The afternoon had been an exciting one to her,
+too. So, all at once, so suddenly that Aimée was altogether unprepared
+for the outbreak, she gave way. The ring fell unheeded on to the carpet,
+slipped from her hand and rolled away, and the next instant she went
+down upon her knees, hiding her face on her arms on Aimée's lap, and
+began to cry hysterically.
+
+"It--it is to be quite a secret," she sobbed. "I would not tell anybody
+but you, and I dare not tell you quite all, but he _has_ asked me to
+marry him, Aimée, and I have--I have said yes." And then she cried more
+than ever, and caught Aimée's hand, and clung to it with a desperate,
+childish grasp, as if she was frightened.
+
+It was very evident that she was frightened, too. All the newly assumed
+womanliness was gone. It was the handsome, inexperienced, ignorant
+child Mollie she had known all her life who was clinging to her, Aimée
+felt,--the pretty, simple, thoughtless Mollie they had all admired and
+laughed at, and teased and been fond of. She seemed to have become a
+child again all at once, and she was in trouble and desperate, it was
+plain.
+
+"But the very idea!" exclaimed Aimée, inwardly; "the bare idea of her
+having the courage to engage herself to him!"
+
+"I never heard such a thing in my life," she said, aloud. "Oh, Mollie!
+Mollie! what induced you to give him such a mad answer? You don't care
+for him."
+
+"He--he would not take any other answer, and he is as nice as any one
+else," shamefacedly. "He is nicer than Brown and the others, and--I do
+like him--a little," but a tiny shudder crept over her, and she held her
+listener's hand more tightly.
+
+"As nice as any one else!" echoed Aimée, indignantly. "Nicer than Brown!
+You ought to be in leading-strings!" with pathetic hopelessness. "That
+was n't your only reason, Mollie."
+
+The hat with the short crimson feather had been unceremoniously pushed
+off, and hung by its elastic upon Mollie's neck; the pretty curly hair
+was all crushed into a heap, and the flushed, tear-wet face was hidden
+in the folds of Aimée's dress. There was a charming, foolish, fanciful
+side to Mollie's desperation, as there was to all her moods.
+
+"That was not your only reason," repeated Aimée.
+
+One impetuous, unhappy little sob, and the poor simple child confessed
+against her will.
+
+"Nobody--nobody else cared for me!" she cried.
+
+"Nobody?" said Aimée; and then, making up her mind to go to the point at
+once, she said, "Does 'nobody' mean that Ralph Gowan did not, Mollie?"
+
+The clinging hand was snatched away, and the child quite writhed.
+
+"I hate Ralph Gowan!" she cried. "I detest him! I wish--I wish--I _wish_
+I had never seen him! Why could n't he stay away among his own people?
+Nobody wanted him. Dolly doesn't care for him, and Grif hates him. Why
+could n't he stay where he was?"
+
+There was no need to doubt after this, of course. Her love for Ralph
+Gowan had rendered her restless and despairing, and so she had worked
+out this innocent romance, intending to defend herself against him. The
+heroines of her favorite novels married for money when they could
+not marry for love, and why should not she? Remember, she was only
+seventeen, and had been brought up in Vagabondia among people who did
+not often regard consequences. Mr. Gerald Chandos was rich, made violent
+love to her, and was ready to promise anything, it appeared,--not that
+she demanded much; the Lord Burleighs of her experience invariably
+showered jewels and equipages and fine raiment upon their brides without
+being asked. She would have thought it positive bliss to be tied to
+Ralph Gowan for six or seven years without any earthly prospect of ever
+being married; to have belonged to him as Dolly belonged to Grif, to sit
+in the parlor and listen to him while he made love to her as Grif made
+love to Dolly, would have been quite enough steady-going rapture for
+her; but since that was out of the question, Mr. Gerald Chandos and
+diamonds and a carriage would have to fill up the blank.
+
+But, of course, she did not say this to Aimée. In fact, after her first
+burst of excitement subsided, Aimée could not gain much from her. She
+cried a little more, and then seemed vexed with herself, and tried to
+cool down, and at last so far succeeded that she sat up and pushed her
+tangled hair from her wet, hot face, and began to search for the ring.
+
+"It has got a diamond in the centre," she said, trying to speak
+indifferently. "I don't believe you looked at it. The opals are
+splendid, too."
+
+"Are you going to wear it?" asked Aimée.
+
+She colored up to her forehead. "No, I am not," she answered. "I should
+have worn it before if I had intended to let people see it. I told you
+it was a secret. I have had this ring three or four days."
+
+"Why is it a secret?" demanded Dame Prudence. "I don't believe in
+secrets,--particularly in secret engagements. Is n't Phil to know?"
+
+She turned away to put the ring into its case.
+
+"Not yet," she replied, pettishly. "Time enough when it can't be helped.
+It is a secret, I tell you, and I don't care about everybody's talking
+it over."
+
+And she would say no more.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII. ~ IN WHICH THERE IS AN EXPLOSION.
+
+"It is my impression," said Dolly, "that something is going to happen."
+
+She was not in the best of spirits. She could not have explained why.
+Griffith was safe, at least, though he had been detained a week longer
+than he had anticipated, and consequently their meeting would have to be
+deferred; but though this had been a disappointment, Dolly was used
+to such disappointments, and besides the most formidable part of the
+waiting was over, for it was settled now that he would be home in two
+days. It was Tuesday now, and on Thursday he was to return, and she
+was going to Bloomsbury Place in the afternoon, and he was to join the
+family tea as he had used to do in the old times. But still she did not
+feel quite easy. She was restless and uncomfortable in spite of herself,
+and was conscious of being troubled by a vague presentiment of evil.
+
+"It is not like me to be blue," she said to herself; "but I am blue
+to-day. I wonder what is going on at home."
+
+Then, as was quite natural, her thoughts wandered to Mollie, and
+she began to ponder upon what Aimée had told her. How were matters
+progressing, and what was going to be the end of it all? The child's
+danger was plainer to her than it was to Aimée; and, fond as she was of
+Mollie, she had determined to improve the occasion of her visit home,
+by taking the fair delinquent aside and administering a sound lecture
+to her. She would tell her the truth, at least, and try to open her
+innocent eyes to the fact that Mr. Gerald Chandos was not a man of the
+King Cophetua stamp, and that there was neither romance nor poetry in
+allowing such a man to amuse himself at her expense.
+
+Poor Mollie! It would be a humiliating view to take of a first conquest,
+but it would be the best thing for her in the end. Dolly sighed over
+the mere prospect of the task before her. She remembered what her first
+conquest had been, and how implicitly she had believed in her new power,
+and how trustingly she had swallowed every sugared nothing, and how she
+had revelled in the field of possible romance which had seemed spread
+before her, until she had awakened one fine day to find the first
+flush of her triumph fading, and her adorer losing his attractions and
+becoming rather tame. That had been long ago, even before Griffith's
+time, but she had not forgotten the experience, and she knew it
+would have been a severe shock to _her_ innocent self-love and
+self-gratulation, if any one had hinted to her that there was a doubt of
+her captive's honesty. She was roused from her reverie by a message from
+Miss MacDowlas. It was only a commonplace sort of message. There were
+some orders to be left at the poulterer's and fruiterer's, and some
+bills to be paid in town, and, these affairs being her business, Miss
+MacDowlas had good-naturedly ordered the carriage for her, as she had a
+long round to make.
+
+Dolly got up and laid her work aside. She was not sorry for the
+opportunity of going out, so she ran up-stairs with some alacrity to
+put on her hat, and, having dressed, went to Miss MacDowlas for more
+particular instructions.
+
+"You are looking rather pale and the drive will do you good," said that
+lady. "Call at Pullet's and pay his bill, and order the things on his
+list first. By the way, it was when I drove round to give orders to
+Pullet the other day, that I saw your pretty sister with Gerald Chandos.
+She is too pretty, far too pretty, and far too young and inexperienced,
+to be giving private interviews to such people as Gerald Chandos,"
+sharply.
+
+"Private!" repeated Dolly, with some indignation. "I think that is a
+mistake. Mr. Gerald Chandos has no need to make his interview private.
+The doors are open to him at Bloomsbury Place so long as he behaves
+himself."
+
+"The more is the pity," answered Miss MacDowlas; "but that this was a
+private interview I am certain. My pretty Miss Innocence came up the
+street slowly with her handsome baby-face on fire, and two minutes later
+Gerald Chandos followed her in a wondrous hurry, and joined her
+and carried her off, looking very guilty and charming, and a trifle
+reluctant, I must admit."
+
+Dolly's cheeks flushed, and her heart began to beat hotly. If this was
+the case it was simply disgraceful, and Miss Mollie was allowing herself
+to be led too far.
+
+"I am sorry to hear this," she said to Miss Mac-Dowlas, "but I am
+indebted to you for telling me. I will attend to it when I go home on
+Thursday, and," with a flash of fire, "if it is needful I will attend to
+Mr. Gerald Chandos himself."
+
+She entered the carriage, feeling hot with anger and distress. She had
+not expected such a blow, even though she had told herself that she was
+prepared to hear of any romantic imprudence. And then in the midst of
+her anger she began to pity Mollie, as it seemed natural to pity her
+always when she was indiscreet. Who had ever taught her to be discreet,
+poor child? Had she herself? No, she had not. She had been fond of her
+and proud of her beauty, but she had laughed at her unsophisticated,
+thoughtless way with the rest, and somehow they had all looked upon
+her as they looked upon Tod,--as rather a good joke. Dolly quite hated
+herself as she remembered how she had related her own little escapades
+for the edification of the family circle, and how Mollie had enjoyed
+them more than any one else. She had never overstepped the actual
+bounds of propriety herself, but she had been coquettish and fond of
+admiration, and had delighted to hold her own against the world.
+
+"I was n't a good example to her!" she cried, remorsefully. "She ought
+to have had a good, wise mother. I wish she had. I wish I had one
+myself."
+
+And she burst into tears, and leaned her head against the cushioned
+carriage, feeling quite overcome by her self-reproach and consciousness.
+Their mother had died when Mollie was born, and they had been left to
+fight their own battles ever since.
+
+She was obliged to control herself, however. It would never do to
+present herself to Pullet in tears. So she sat up and dried her eyes
+with her handkerchief, and turned to the carriage window to let the
+fresh air blow upon her face. But she had not been looking out
+two minutes when her attention was attracted by something down the
+street,--a bit of color,--a little tuft of scarlet feathers in a hat,
+and then her eyes, wandering lower, recognized a well-remembered jacket
+and a well-remembered dress, and then the next instant she uttered an
+exclamation in spite of herself.
+
+"It is Mollie!" she cried. "It is Mollie, and here is Gerald Chandos!"
+
+For at the door of a bookseller's she was just nearing stood the
+gentleman in question, holding a periodical in his hand, and evidently
+awaiting an arrival.
+
+He caught sight of Mollie almost as soon as she did herself, and
+the instant he saw her he hurried toward her, and by the time Miss
+MacDowlas's carriage rolled slowly up to them, in its usual stately
+fashion, he was holding the small disreputable glove Mollie had just
+taken out of the convenient jacket pocket, and the fair culprit herself
+was listening to his eager greeting with the old, bright, uncontrollable
+blushes, and the old dangerous trick of drooping brown-fringed eyelids,
+and half-shy, half-wilful air. Dolly instinctively called to her almost
+aloud. She could not resist the impulse.
+
+"Mollie!" she said. "Mollie!"
+
+But, of course, Mollie did not hear her, and the carriage passed her,
+and Dolly sank back into her corner catching her breath.
+
+"It was not a mistake," she said; "it was true. It is worse than I
+thought. Miss MacDowlas was right. It was no accident which brought them
+both here. He is a cowardly scoundrel and is playing upon her ignorance.
+If I had believed in him before, I should know that he is not to be
+trusted now. She is walking on the edge of a precipice, and she thinks
+she is safe and never dreams of its existence. Oh, Mollie! Mollie! the
+world means nothing to you yet, and it is we who have to show you all
+the thorns!"
+
+She finished her errands and drove homeward as quickly as possible. She
+could think of nothing but Mollie, and by the time she reached Barbrazon
+Lodge her head ached with the unpleasant excitement. The servant who
+opened the door met her with a piece of information. Mr. Gowan had
+called to see her on some special business, and was awaiting her arrival
+in the drawing-room. He had been there almost an hour.
+
+She did not go to her room at all, but ran up-stairs to the drawing-room
+quickly, feeling still more anxious. It was just possible that somebody
+was ill, and Ralph Gowan had come to break the news to her because no
+one else had been at liberty. With this idea uppermost, she opened the
+door and advanced toward him, looking pale and troubled.
+
+He met her half-way, and took her outstretched hand, looking troubled
+himself.
+
+"You are not very well," he said at once. "I am sorry to see that." And
+his voice told her immediately that he had not come with good news.
+
+She smiled faintly, but when she sat down she put her hand to her
+forehead.
+
+"Am I pale, then?" she answered. "I suppose I must be. It is nothing but
+a trifle of headache, and," with a hesitant laugh, "that I half fancied
+you had come to tell me something unpleasant."
+
+He was silent for a moment,--so silent that she looked up at him with a
+startled face.
+
+"It _is_ something unpleasant!" she exclaimed. "You have come with ill
+news, and you are afraid to begin."
+
+"Not so bad as that,--not afraid, but rather reluctant," he answered.
+"It is _not_ pleasant news; and but that I felt it would be wisest to
+warn you at once, I would rather any one else had brought it. I have
+stumbled upon a disagreeable report."
+
+"Report!" Dolly echoed, and her thoughts flew to Mollie again.
+
+"Don't be alarmed," he said. "It is only a disagreeable one because
+the subject of it has managed to connect himself with some one whose
+happiness we value."
+
+Dolly rose from her chair and stood up, turning even paler than before.
+
+"This some one whose happiness we value is Mollie," she said. "And the
+report you have heard is about Mr. Gerald Chandos. Am I not right?"
+
+"Yes," he returned, "you are right. The hero of the report is Gerald
+Chandos."
+
+"What has he been doing?" she asked, sharply. "Don't hesitate, please. I
+want to know."
+
+He was evidently both distressed and perplexed. He took two or three
+hurried steps across the room, as if to give himself a little extra time
+to settle his words into the best form. But Dolly could not wait.
+
+"Mr. Gowan," she said, "what has that man been doing?"
+
+He turned round and answered her.
+
+"He has been passing himself off to your brother as an unmarried man,"
+he said.
+
+She slipped back into her chair again, and wrung her hands passionately.
+
+"And he is married?" she demanded. "Oh! how was it you did not know
+this?''
+
+"Not one in ten of Mr. Gerald Chandos's friends know it," he returned.
+"And I am only a chance acquaintance. It is not an agreeable story to
+tell, if what report says is true. Remember, it is only report as yet,
+and I will not vouch for it. It is said that the marriage was the end
+of a boyish folly, and that the happy couple separated by mutual consent
+six months after its consummation. The woman went to California, and
+Chandos has not seen her since, though he hears of her whereabouts
+occasionally."
+
+"And you are not quite sure yet that the report is true?" said Dolly.
+
+"Not quite sure," he replied; "but I wish I had greater reason to doubt
+it."
+
+Recurring mentally to the little scene she had witnessed on the street
+only an hour or so previously, and remembering Mollie's blushes and
+drooping eyes, and the look they had won from Mr. Gerald Chandos as he
+took her half-reluctant hand in his, Dolly bit her lips hard, feeling
+her blood grow hot within her. She waited just a minute to cool herself,
+and then spoke.
+
+"Mr. Gowan," she said, "in the first place I ought to thank you."
+
+"Nay," he said, "I promised to help you to care for Mollie."
+
+"I ought to thank you," she repeated. "And I do. But in the second place
+I am going to ask you to do something for me which may be disagreeable."
+
+"You may be sure," he replied, "that I shall not hesitate."
+
+"Yes," she said, "I think I am sure of that, or I should not ask you. I
+am so eager about the matter, that I could not bear to waste the time.
+I want you to help me. On Thursday afternoon I am going home. Can you
+trace this report to its source before then, and let me know whether it
+is a true or a false one?"
+
+"I can try."
+
+She clasped both her gloved hands together on the small table before
+her, and lifted to his such a determined young face and such steadfast
+eyes, that he was quite impressed. She would rise in arms against the
+world for poor, unwise Mollie, it was plain. It was not so safe a matter
+to trifle in Vagabondia, it would seem,--that Gerald Chandos would find
+to his cost.
+
+"If you bring word to me that what you have heard is a truth," she said,
+"I can go to Mollie with my weapon in my hand, and I can end all at one
+blow. However wilful and incredulous she may have been heretofore, she
+will not attempt to resist me when I tell her that. It is a humiliating
+thing to think he has insulted her by keeping his secret so far; but we
+meet with such covert stings now and then in Vagabondia, and perhaps it
+will prove a blessing in disguise. If we had used our authority to make
+her dismiss him without having a decided reason to give her, she might
+only have resented our intervention as being nothing but prejudice. As
+it is, she will be frightened and angry."
+
+So it was agreed upon that he should take in hand the task of sifting
+the affair to the bottom. His time was his own, and chance had thrown
+him among men who would be likely to know the truth. As soon as he had
+gained the necessary information, Dolly would hear from him, or he would
+call upon her and give her all particulars.
+
+"You have a whole day before you,--nearly two whole days, I may say,
+for I shall not be likely to leave here until five or six o'clock
+on Thursday," Dolly said, when their rather lengthened interview
+terminated.
+
+"I will make the most of my time," he replied.
+
+Dolly stood at the window and watched him go down the walk to the gates.
+
+"This is the something which was going to happen," she commented.
+"Having set matters straight with Grif, I suppose it is necessary, for
+the maintenance of my self-control, that I should have a difficulty
+about Mollie; but I think I could have retained my equilibrium without
+it."
+
+The two days passed quietly enough up to Thursday afternoon. Whatever
+Ralph Gowan had discovered, he was keeping to himself for the present.
+He had not written, and he had not called. Naturally, Dolly was
+impatient. She began to be very impatient indeed, as the afternoon
+waned, and it became dusk. Worse still, her old restlessness came upon
+her. She could not make up her mind to leave Brabazon Lodge until she
+had either seen or heard from Gowan, and she was afraid that if she
+lingered late Griffith would arrive before her, and would be troubled by
+her non-appearance. Since the night they had met in the street she had
+not seen him, and she had much to say to him. She had looked forward
+anxiously to this evening, and the few quiet hours they were to spend
+together in the dear old disreputable parlor at Bloomsbury Place.
+They had spent so many blissful evenings in that parlor, that the very
+thought of it made her heart beat happily. Nobody would be there to
+interfere with them. The rest of the family would, good-naturedly,
+vacate and leave them alone, and she would take her old chair by the
+fire, and Grif would sit near her, and in ten minutes after they had sat
+so together, they would have left all their troubles behind them, and
+wandered off into a realm of tender dreams and sweet unrealities.
+But, impatient as she was to be gone, Dolly could not forget Mollie's
+interest. It was too near her heart to be forgotten. She must attend to
+Mollie's affairs first, and then she could fly to Grif and the parlor
+with an easy conscience. So she waited until five o'clock before
+dressing to go out, and then, after watching at the window for a while,
+she decided to go to her room and put on her hat and make all her small
+preparations, so that when her visitor arrived she might be ready to
+leave the house as soon as he did.
+
+"It won't do to keep Grif waiting too long, even for Mollie's sake," she
+said. "I must consider him, too. If Mr. Gowan does not come by six or
+half-past, I shall be obliged to go."
+
+She purposely prolonged her toilet, even though it had occupied a
+greater length of time than usual in the first instance. There had
+been a new acquisition in the shape of a dress to don, and one or two
+coquettish aids to appearance, which were also novelties. But before six
+o'clock she was quite ready, and, having nothing else to do, was reduced
+to the necessity of standing before the glass and taking stock of
+herself and her attire.
+
+"It fits," she soliloquized, curving her neck in her anxiety to obtain a
+back view of herself. "It fits like a glove, and so Grif will be sure to
+like it. His admiration for clothes that fit amounts to a monomania. He
+will make his usual ecstatic remarks on the subject of figure, too. And
+I must confess," with modest self-satisfaction,--"I must confess that
+those frills are not unbecoming. If we were only rich--and married--how
+I would dress, to please him! Being possessed of a figure, one's results
+are never uncertain. Figure is a weakness of mine, also. With the
+avoirdupois of Miss Jolliboy, life would appear a desert. Ten thousand
+per annum would not console me. And yet she wears sables and seal-skin,
+and is happy. It is a singular fact, worthy of the notice of the
+philosopher, that it is such women who invariably possess the sable and
+seal-skin. Ah, well!" charitably, "I suppose it is a dispensation of
+Providence. When they attain that size they need some compensation."
+
+Often in after time she remembered the complacent little touch of
+vanity, and wondered how it had been possible that she could stand
+there, making so thoughtless and foolish a speech when danger was so
+near, and so much of sharp, passionate suffering was approaching her.
+
+She had waited until the last minute, and finding, on consulting her
+watch, that it was past six, she decided to wait no longer. She took
+up her gloves from the dressing-table and drew them on; she settled
+the little drooping plume in her hat and picked up her muff, and then,
+giving a last glance and a saucy nod to the piquant reflection in the
+glass, she opened her bedroom door to go out.
+
+And then it was, just at this last moment, that there came a ring at the
+hall-door bell,--evidently a hurried ring, and withal a ring which made
+her heart beat, she knew not why.
+
+She stood at the head of the staircase and listened. A moment later, and
+the visitor was speaking to the servant who had admitted him.
+
+"Mr. Gowan," she heard. "Miss Crewe--wish to see her at once--at once."
+
+She knew by his voice that something was wrong, and she did not wait for
+the up-coming of the servant. She almost flew down the staircase, and
+entered the parlor an instant after him; and when he saw her he met her
+with an exclamation of thankfulness.
+
+"Thank God!" he said, "that you are ready!" He was pale with excitement,
+and fairly out of breath. He did not give her time to answer him. "You
+must come with me," he said. "There is not a moment to lose. I have a
+cab at the door. I have driven here at full speed. The report is true,
+and I have found out that to-night Chandos leaves London. But that is
+not the worst,--for God's sake, be calm, and remember how much depends
+upon your courage,--he intends taking your sister with him."
+
+Terrible as the shock was to her, she was calm, and did remember how
+much might depend upon her. She forgot Grif and the happy evening she
+had promised herself; she forgot all the world but Mollie,--handsome,
+lovable, innocent Mollie, who was rushing headlong and unconsciously to
+misery and ruin. A great, sharp change seemed to come upon her as she
+turned to Ralph Gowan. She was not the same girl who, a minute or so
+before, had nodded at her pretty self in the glass; the excited blood
+tingled in her veins; she was full of desperate, eager bravery,--she
+could not wait a breath's space.
+
+"Come!" she exclaimed, "I am ready. You can tell me the rest when we are
+in the cab."
+
+She did not even know where they were going until she heard Gowan give
+the driver the directions. But, as they drove through the streets, she
+learned all.
+
+In spite of his efforts, it was not until the eleventh hour that he had
+succeeded in obtaining positive proof of the truth of the report, though
+he had found less cause to doubt it each time he made fresh inquiries.
+In the end he had been driven to the necessity of appealing to a man who
+had been Chandos's confidential valet, and who, rascal though he was,
+still was able to produce proofs to be relied on. Then he had been
+roused to such indignation that he had driven to the fellow's lodgings
+with the intention of confronting him with his impudent guilt, and there
+he had made the fearful discovery that he had just left the place with
+"a pretty, childish-looking girl,--tall, and with a lovely color," as
+the landlady described her; and he had known it was Mollie at once.
+
+The good woman had given him all particulars. They had come to the house
+together in a cab, and the young lady had not got out, but had remained
+seated in it while her companion had given his orders to his servant
+indoors. She--his housekeeper--had heard him say something about
+Brussels, and, having caught a glimpse of the charming face in the
+vehicle outside, she had watched it from behind the blinds, suspecting
+something out of the common order of things.
+
+"Not that he did not treat her polite and respectful enough," she added;
+"for he did and she--pretty young thing--seemed quite to expect it, and
+not to be at all ashamed of herself, though she were a trifle shy and
+timid. I even heard him ask her if she would rather he rode outside, and
+she said she 'thought so, if he pleased,' And he bowed to her and went,
+quite obedient. That was what puzzled me so; if he 'd ha' been freer, I
+could have understood it."
+
+"It does not puzzle me!" cried Dolly, clenching her hands and fairly
+panting for breath when she heard it. "He knows how innocent she is, and
+he is too crafty to alarm her by his manner. Oh, cannot we make this man
+drive faster?--cannot we make him drive faster?"
+
+Gowan drew out his watch and referred to it.
+
+"There is no danger of our losing their train," he said. "It does not
+leave the station until nearly seven, and it is not yet half-past six.
+If they leave London to-night, we shall meet them; if they do not, I
+think I can guess where we shall find them. Remember, you must not allow
+yourself to become excited. We have only our coolness and readiness of
+action to rely upon. If we lose our presence of mind, we lose all."
+
+He did not lose his presence of mind, at least.
+
+Even in the midst of her distress, Dolly found time to feel grateful to
+him beyond measure, and to admire his forethought. He never seemed
+to hesitate for a moment. He had evidently decided upon his course
+beforehand, and there was no delay. Reaching the station, he assisted
+Dolly to descend from the cab and led her at once to a seat where she
+could command a view of all who made their appearance upon the platform.
+Then he left her and went to make inquiries from the officials. He
+was not absent long. In a few minutes he returned with the necessary
+information. The train was not due for twenty minutes, and as yet no
+lady and gentleman answering to his description had been seen by any one
+in the place.
+
+He came to Dolly and took a seat by her, looking down at her upturned,
+appealing face pityingly, but reassuringly.
+
+"We are safe yet," he said. "They have not arrived, and they can have
+taken passage in no other train. We will watch this train leave the
+station, and then we will drive at full speed to the hotel Chandos is in
+the habit of visiting when he makes a flying journey. I know the place
+well enough."
+
+The next half-hour was an anxious one to both. The train was behind
+time, and consequently they were compelled to wait longer than they had
+expected. A great many people crowded into the station and took tickets
+for various points,--workingmen and their wives, old women with bundles,
+and young ones without, comfortable people who travelled first-class and
+seemed satisfied with themselves, shabbily attired little dressmakers
+and milliners with bandboxes, a party of tourists, and a few nice girls;
+in fact, the usual samples of people hurrying or taking it easy, losing
+their temper or preserving it; but there was no Mollie. The last moment
+arrived, the guards closed the carriage doors with the customary bang,
+and the customary cry of "All right;" there were a few puffs and a
+whistle, and then the train moved slowly out of the station. Mollie was
+not on her way to Brussels yet; that was a fact to be depended upon.
+
+Dolly rose from her seat with a sigh which was half relief.
+
+"Now for trying the hotel," said Gowan. "Take my arm and summon up your
+spirits. In less than a quarter of an hour, I think I may say, we shall
+have found our runaway, and we shall have to do our best to reduce her
+romantic escapade to a commonplace level. We may even carry her back to
+Bloomsbury Place before they have had time to become anxious about her.
+Thank Heaven, we were so fortunate as to discover all before it was too
+late!"
+
+Bloomsbury Place! A sudden pang shot through Dolly's heart. She
+recollected then for the first time that at Bloomsbury Place Griffith
+was waiting for her, and that it might be a couple of hours before she
+could see him and explain. She got into the cab and leaned back in one
+corner, with the anxious tears forcing themselves into her eyes. It
+seemed as if fate itself was against her.
+
+"What will he think?" she exclaimed, unconsciously. "Oh, what will
+he think?" Then, seeing that Gowan had heard her, she looked at him
+piteously.
+
+"I did not mean to speak aloud," she said. "I had forgotten in my
+trouble that Grif will be waiting for me all this time. He has gone to
+the house to meet me, and--I am not there."
+
+Perhaps he felt a slight pang, too. For some time he had been slowly
+awakening, to the fact that this otherwise unfortunate Grif was all in
+all to her, and shut out the rest of the world completely. He had no
+chance against him, and no other man would have any. Still, even in the
+face of this knowledge, the evident keenness of her disappointment cut
+him a little.
+
+"You must not let that trouble you," he said, generously. "Donne will
+easily understand your absence when you tell him where you have been.
+In the meantime, I have a few suggestions to make before we reach the
+hotel."
+
+It was Mollie he was thinking of. He was wondrously tender of her in his
+man's pity for her childish folly and simplicity. If possible, they must
+keep her secret to themselves. If she had left no explanation behind
+her, she must have given some reason for leaving the house, and if they
+found her at the hotel it would not be a difficult matter to carry her
+back home without exciting suspicion, and thus she would be saved the
+embarrassment and comment her position would otherwise call down upon
+her. Griffith might be told in confidence, but the rest of them might
+be left to imagine that nothing remarkable had occurred. These were his
+suggestions.
+
+Dolly agreed to adopt them at once, it is hardly necessary to say. The
+idea that it would be possible to adopt them made the case look less
+formidable. She had been terribly troubled at first by the thought of
+the excitement the explanation of the escapade would cause at Bloomsbury
+Place. Phil would have been simply furious,--not so much against Mollie
+as against Chandos. His good-natured indifference to circumstances would
+not have been proof against the base betrayal of confidence involved in
+the affair. And then even in the after-time, when the worst was over and
+forgotten, the innumerable jokes and thoughtless sarcasms she would have
+had to encounter would have been Mollie's severest punishment. When the
+remembrance of her past danger had faded out of the family mind, and the
+whimsical side of the matter presented itself, they would have teased
+her, and Dolly felt that such a course would be far from safe. So she
+caught at Ralph Gowan's plan eagerly.
+
+Still she felt an excited thrill when the cab drew up before the door of
+the hotel. Suppose they should not find her? Suppose Chandos had taken
+precautions against their being followed?
+
+But Gowan did not seem to share her misgivings, though the expression
+upon his face was a decidedly disturbed one as he descended from the
+vehicle.
+
+"You must remain seated until I come back," he said. "I shall not be
+many minutes, I am sure. I am convinced they are here." And then he
+closed the cab door and left her.
+
+She drew out her watch and sat looking at it to steady herself. Her mind
+was not very clear as to how she intended to confront Mr. Gerald Chandos
+and convince Mollie. The convincing of Mollie would not be difficult,
+she was almost sure, but the confronting of Gerald Chandos was not a
+pleasant thing to think of.
+
+She was just turning over in her mind a stirring, scathing speech, when
+the cab door opened again, and Gowan stood before her. He had not been
+absent five minutes.
+
+"It is as I said it would be," he said. "They are here,--at least Mollie
+is here. Chandos has gone out, and she is alone in the private parlor
+he has engaged for her. They have evidently missed their train. They
+intended to leave by the first in the morning. I have managed to give
+the impression that we are expected, and so we shall be shown on to the
+scene at once without any trouble."
+
+And so they were. A waiter met them at the entrance and led them
+up-stairs without the slightest hesitation.
+
+"It is not necessary to announce us," said Gowan. And the man threw open
+the door of No. 2 with a bow.
+
+They crossed the threshold together without speaking, and when the
+door closed behind them they turned and looked at each other with a
+simultaneous but half-smothered exclamation.
+
+It was a pretty room, bright with a delicate gay-hued carpet and thick
+white rugs, numerous mirrors and upholstering of silver-gray and blue.
+There was a clear-burning fire in the highly polished steel-grate,
+and one of the blue and silver-gray sofas had been drawn up to it,
+and there, upon this sofa, lay Mollie with her hand under her cheek,
+sleeping like a baby.
+
+They were both touched to the heart by the mere sight of her. There was
+something in the perfect repose of her posture and expression that was
+childish and restful. It was a difficult matter to realize that she was
+sleeping on the brink of ruin and desolation. Something bright gathered
+on Dolly's lashes and slipped down her cheek as she looked at her.
+
+"Thank God, we have found her!" she said. "Just to think that she should
+be sleeping like that,--as if she was at home. If she was two years old
+she might wear just such a look."
+
+Gowan hardly liked to stand by as she went toward the sofa. The girl's
+face, under the coquettish hat, seemed to grow womanly, her whole figure
+seemed to soften as she knelt down upon the carpet by the couch and laid
+her hand upon Mollie's shoulder, speaking to her gently.
+
+"Mollie," she said, "dear, waken."
+
+Just that, and Mollie started up with a faint cry, dazzled by the light,
+and rubbing her eyes and her soft, flushed cheeks, just as she had done
+the night Gowan surprised her asleep in the parlor.
+
+"Dolly," she cried out, when she saw who was with her,--"Dolly," in a
+half-frightened voice, "why did you come here?"
+
+"I came to take you home," answered Dolly, tremulously, but firmly.
+"Thank God! I am not too late! Oh, Mollie, Mollie, how could you?"
+
+Mollie sat up among her blue and gray cushions and stared at her for a
+moment, as if she was not wide enough awake to realize what she meant.
+But the next instant she caught sight of Ralph Gowan, and that roused
+her fully, and she flushed scarlet.
+
+"I don't know what you mean," she said. "I don't know what you mean
+by coming here in this way. And I don't know what Mr. Gowan means by
+bringing you,--for I feel sure he has brought you. I am not a baby,
+to be followed as if I could not take care of myself. I am going to
+be married to Mr. Gerald Chandos to-morrow, and we are going on the
+Continent for our wedding tour."
+
+She was in a high state of rebellion. It was Gowan's presence she was
+resenting, not Dolly's. To tell the truth, she was rather glad to see
+Dolly. She had begun to feel the loneliness of her position, and it had
+half intimidated her. But the sight of Gowan roused her spirit. What
+right had he to come and interfere with her, since he did not care for
+her and thought she was nothing but a child? It made her feel like a
+child. She turned her back to him openly as she spoke to Dolly.
+
+"I am going to be married in the morning," she repeated; "and we are
+going to Brussels."
+
+Then, in her indignation against Mr. Gerald Chandos, Dolly fired a
+little herself.
+
+"And has it never occurred to you," she said, "that it is rather a
+humiliating thing this running away, as if you knew you were doing
+something disgraceful? May I ask what reason Mr. Gerald Chandos gives
+for asking you to submit to such an insult, for it is an insult?"
+
+"He has very good reasons," answered Mollie, beginning to falter all at
+once, as the matter was presented to her in this new and trying light.
+"He has very good reasons,--something about business and--and his
+family, and he does not intend to insult me. He is very fond of me and
+very proud of me, and he is going to try to make me very happy. He--he
+has bought me a beautiful trousseau--" And then, seeing the two exchange
+indignant yet pitying glances, she broke off suddenly and burst forth as
+if she was trying to hide in anger the subtle, mysterious fear which was
+beginning to creep upon her. "How dare you look at each other so!" she
+cried. "How dare you look at me so! I have done nothing wrong. He says
+many other people do the same thing and--and I won't be looked at so. I
+shall not tell you another word. You--you look as if I was going to do
+something wicked and dreadful." And she flung herself face downward upon
+the sofa cushions and broke into a passionate, excited sob.
+
+Then Dolly could control herself no longer. She flashed out into a storm
+of wrath and scorn against this cool, systematic scoundrel, who would
+have wrought such harm against such simple ignorance of the world.
+What had they not saved her from, poor, foolish child? She clenched her
+little, gloved hand and struck it against the sofa arm, the hot color
+flaming up on her cheeks and the fire lighting in her eyes.
+
+"Mollie!" she exclaimed, "that is what is true! You are going to do
+something that is dreadful to think of, though you do not think so
+because you do not know the truth. And we have come to tell you the
+truth and save you. That man is a villain,--he is the worst of villains.
+He does not intend to marry you,--he cannot marry you, and, knowing
+he cannot, he has been laying traps for months to drag you down into
+a horrible pit of shame. Yes, of the bitterest grief and shame,--poor,
+simple child as you are,--for I must tell you the whole dreadful truth,
+though I would far rather hide it from you, if I could. There are some
+wicked, wicked men in the world, Mollie, and Gerald Chandos is one of
+the worst, for he has got a wife already."
+
+It did not seem to be Mollie who sprang up from her cushions and
+confronted them with wide-opened eyes. Every bit of color had died out
+of her cheeks and lips, and she turned from one to the other with a
+wild, appealing look.
+
+"It is n't true," she insisted, desperately; but her voice was broken,
+and she sobbed out her words in her fright. "It is n't true! It is n't
+true! You want to frighten me." And all at once she ran to Ralph Gowan
+like a child, and caught hold of his arm with her pretty, shaking
+hands. "Mr. Gowan," she said, "you know, don't you? and you won't--you
+won't--Oh, where is Aimée? I want Aimée! Aimée is n't like the rest of
+you! _She_ would have made me go home without being so cruel as this."
+And the next minute she turned so white and staggered so, that Dolly ran
+to her, and Gowan was obliged to take her in his arms.
+
+"Tell her that what I have said is true," said Dolly, crying. "She will
+begin to understand then."
+
+And so, while he held her, panting and sobbing and clinging to him,
+Gowan told her all that he had learned. He was as brief as possible and
+as tender as a woman. His heart so warmed toward the pretty, lovable,
+passionately frightened creature, that his voice was far from steady as
+he told his story.
+
+She did not rebel an instant longer, then. Her terror, under the shock,
+rendered her only helpless and hysterical. She had so far lost control
+over herself that she would have believed anything they had chosen to
+tell her.
+
+"Take me away," she cried, whitening and shivering, all her bright,
+pretty color gone, all her wilful petulance struck down at a blow. "Take
+me home,--take me home to Aimée. I want to go away from here before he
+comes. I want to go home and die."
+
+How they got her down-stairs and into the carriage, Dolly scarcely
+knows. It was enough that they got her there and knew she was safe. Upon
+the table in the room above they had left a note directed to Mr. Gerald
+Chandos,--Dolly had directed it and Dolly had written it.
+
+"Is there pen and ink here?" she had asked Gowan; and when he had
+produced the articles, she had bent over the table and dashed a few
+lines off with an unsteady yet determined hand.
+
+"There!" she had said, when she closed the envelope. "Mr. Chandos will
+go to Brussels, I think, and he will understand why he goes alone, and,
+for my part, I incline to the belief that he will not trouble us again."
+
+And in five minutes more they were driving toward Bloomsbury Place.
+
+But now the first excitement was over, Dolly's nerve began to fail her.
+Now that Mollie was safe, she began to think of Griffith. It seemed a
+cruel trick of fortune's to try his patience so sharply just at this
+very point. She knew so well what effect his hours of waiting would have
+upon him. But it was useless to rebel now; so she must bear it as well
+as she could, and trust to the result of her explanation. Yet despite
+her hope, every minute of the long drive seemed an age, and she grew
+feverish and restless and wretched. What if he had not waited, and was
+not there to listen to what she had to say? Then there would be all the
+old trouble to face again,--perhaps something worse.
+
+"It is nine o'clock," she said, desperately, as they passed a lighted
+church tower. "It is nine o'clock." And she leaned back in her corner
+again, with her heart beating strongly. Her disappointment was so keen
+that she could have burst into a passion of tears. Her happy evening
+was gone, and her dream of simple pleasure had fled with its sacrificed
+hours. She could not help remembering this, and being quite conquered by
+the thought, even though Mollie was safe.
+
+They had settled what to do beforehand. At the corner of the street
+Gowan was to leave them, and the two girls were to go in together,
+Mollie making her way at once to her room upon pretext of headache. A
+night's rest would restore her self-control, and by the next morning she
+would be calm enough to face the rest, and so her wild escapade would
+end without risk of comment if she was sufficiently discreet to keep her
+own counsel. At present she was too thoroughly upset and frightened even
+to feel humiliation.
+
+"Nearly half-past nine," said Gowan, as he assisted them to descend to
+the pavement at their journey's end.
+
+The light from an adjacent lamp showed him that the face under Dolly's
+hat was very pale and excited, and her eyes were shining and large with
+repressed tears as she gave him her hand.
+
+"I cannot find words to thank you just yet," she said, low and
+hurriedly. "I wish I could; but--you know what you have helped me to
+save Mollie from to-night, and so you know what my gratitude must be.
+The next time I see you, perhaps, I shall be able to say what I wish,
+but now I can only say goodnight, and--oh, God bless you!" And the
+little hand fairly wrung his.
+
+Mollie shook hands with him, trembling and almost reluctantly. She was
+pale, too, and her head drooped as if it would nevermore regain the old
+trick of wilful, regal carriage.
+
+"You have been very kind to take so much trouble," she said. "You were
+kinder than I deserved,--both of you."
+
+"Now," said Dolly, when he sprang into the cab, and they turned away
+together,--"now for getting into the house as quietly as possible. No,"
+trying to speak cheerily, and as if their position was no great matter,
+"you must n't tremble, Mollie, and you mustn't cry. It is all over now,
+and everything is as commonplace and easy to manage as can be. You have
+been out, and have got the headache, and are going to bed. That is
+all. All the rest we must forget. Nothing but a headache, Mollie, and
+a headache is not much, so we won't fret about it. If it had been a
+heartache, and sin and shame and sorrow--but it isn't. But, Mollie,"
+they had already reached the house then, and stood upon the steps, and
+she turned to the girl and put a hand on each of her shoulders, speaking
+tremulously, "when you go up-stairs, kneel down by your bedside and say
+your prayers, and thank God that it is n't,--thank God that it is n't,
+with all your heart and soul." And she kissed her cheek softly just as
+they heard Aimée coming down the hall to open the door.
+
+"Dolly!" she exclaimed when she saw them, "where have you been? Griffith
+has been here since five, and now he is out looking for you. I had given
+you up entirely, but he would not. He fancied you had been delayed by
+something."
+
+"I have been delayed by something," said Dolly, her heart failing her
+again. "And here is Mollie, with the headache. You had better go to bed,
+Mollie. How long is it since Grif left the house?"
+
+"Scarcely ten minutes," was the answer. "It is a wonder you did not meet
+him. Oh, Dolly!" ominously, "how unlucky you are!"
+
+Dolly quite choked in her effort to be decently composed in manner.
+
+"I _am_ unlucky," she said; and without saying more, she made her way
+into the parlor.
+
+She took her hat off there and tossed it on the sofa, utterly regardless
+of consequences, and then dropped into her chair and looked round the
+room. It did not look as she had pictured it earlier in the day. Its
+cheerfulness was gone, and it looked simply desolate. The fire had sunk
+low in the grate, and the hearth was strewn with dead ashes;--somehow or
+other, everything seemed chilled and comfortless. She was too late for
+the brightness and warmth,--a few hours before it had been bright and
+warm, and Grif had been there waiting for her. Where was he now? She
+dropped her face on the arm of her chair with a sob of disappointed
+feeling and foreboding. What if he had seen them leave Ralph Gowan, and
+had gone home!
+
+"It's too bad!" she cried. "It is cruel! I can't bear it! Oh, Grif, _do_
+come!" And her tears fell thick and fast.
+
+Ten minutes later she started up with a little cry of joy and relief.
+That was his footstep upon the pavement, and before he had time to ring
+she was at the door. She could scarcely speak to him in her excitement.
+
+"Oh, Grif!" she said; "Grif--darling!"
+
+But he did not offer to touch her, and strode past her outstretched
+hands.
+
+"Come into this room with me," he said, hoarsely; and the simple sound
+of his voice struck her to the heart like a blow.
+
+She followed him, trembling, and when they stood in the light, and she
+saw his deathly, passion-wrung face, her hand crept up to her side and
+pressed against it. 
+
+He had a package in his hand,--a package of letters,--and he laid them
+down on the table.
+
+"I have been home for these," he said. "Your letters,--I have brought
+them back to you."
+
+"Grif!" she cried out.
+
+He waved her back.
+
+"No," he said, "never mind that. It is too late for that now, that is
+all over. Good God! all over!" and he panted for breath. "I have been in
+this room waiting for you," he struggled on, "since five o'clock. I came
+with my heart full to the brim. I have dreamt about what this evening
+was to be to us every night for a week. I was ready to kneel and kiss
+your feet. I waited hour after hour. I was ready to pray--yes, to
+_pray_, like a fool--that I might hold you in my arms before the night
+ended. Not half an hour ago I went out to see if you were coming. And
+you were coming. At the corner of the street you were bidding good-night
+to--to Ralph Gowan--"
+
+"Listen!" she burst forth. "Mollie was with me--
+
+"Ralph Gowan was with you," he answered her; "it does not matter who
+else was there. You had spent those hours in which I wanted you with
+him. That was enough,--nothing can alter that." And then all at once he
+came and stood near her, and looked down at her with such anguish in his
+eyes that she could have shrieked aloud. "It was a poor trick to play,
+Dolly," he said; "so poor a one, that it was scarcely like you. Your
+coquetries had always a fairer look. The commonest jilt might have
+done such a thing as that, and almost have done it better. It is an old
+trick, too, this playing the poor fool against the rich one. The only
+merit of your play has been that you have kept it up so long."
+
+He was almost mad, but he might have seen that he was trying her too
+far, and that she would break down all at once. The long strain of
+the whole evening; his strange, unnatural mood; her struggle against
+wretchedness--all were too much for her to bear. She tried to speak,
+and, failing, fought for strength, sobbed thrice, a terrible, hysterical
+sob, like a child's, and then turned white and shivered, without
+uttering a word.
+
+"Yes," he said, "a long time, Dolly"--but his sentence was never ended,
+for that instant she went down as if she had been shot, and lay near his
+feet quivering for a second, and then lying still.
+
+He was not stayed even then. He bent down and lifted her in his arms and
+carried her to the sofa, pale himself, but not relenting. He seemed to
+have lived past the time when the pretty, helpless figure, in all its
+simple finery, would have stirred him to such ecstasy of pain. He was
+mad enough to have believed even her helplessness a lie, only that the
+cruel, ivory pallor was so real. He did not even stoop to kiss her when
+he turned away. But all the treasure of faith and truth and love had
+died out of his face, the veriest dullard could have seen; his very
+youth had dropped away from him, and he left the old, innocent dreams
+behind, with something like self-scorn.
+
+"Good-by," he said; "we have lost a great deal, Dolly--or I have lost
+it, I might say. And even you--I believe it pleased even you until
+better fortune came; so, perhaps, you have lost something, too."
+
+Then he went to the bell and touched it, and, having done so, strode out
+into the narrow hall, opened the front door and was gone; and when,
+a few minutes later, Aimée came running down to answer the strange
+summons, she found only the silent room, Dolly's white, piteous face
+upon the sofa-cushion, and the great package of those old, sweet,
+foolish letters upon the table.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII ~ A DEAD LETTER.
+
+IT was all over,--all over at last. Dolly's first words had said this
+much when she opened her eyes, and found Aimée bending over her.
+
+"Has he gone?" she had asked. "Did he go away and leave me?"
+
+"Do you mean Grif?" said Aimée.
+
+She made a weak gesture of assent.
+
+"Yes," Aimée answered. "He must have gone. I heard the bell ring, and
+found you lying here when I came to see what it meant."
+
+"Then," said Dolly, "all is over,--all is over at last." And she turned
+her face upon the cushion and lay so still that she scarcely seemed to
+breathe.
+
+"Take another drink of water, Dolly," said Aimée, keeping back her
+questions with her usual discretion. "You must, dear."
+
+But Dolly did not stir.
+
+"I don't want any more," she said. "I am not going to faint again. You
+have no need to be afraid. I don't easily faint, you know, and I should
+not have fainted just now only--that the day has been a very hard one
+for me, and somehow I lost strength all at once. I am not ill,--only
+worn out."
+
+"You must be very much worn out, then," said Aimée; "more worn out than
+I ever saw you before. You had better let me help you up-stairs to bed."
+
+"I don't want to go to bed yet!" in a strange, choked voice, and the
+next moment Aimée saw her hands clench themselves and her whole frame
+begin to shake. "Shut the door and lock it," she said, wildly. "I can't
+stop myself. Give me some sal volatile. I can't breathe." And such a fit
+of suffocating sobbing came upon her that she writhed and battled for
+air.
+
+Aimée flung herself upon her knees by her side, shedding tears herself.
+
+"Oh, Dolly," she pleaded, "Dolly, darling, don't. Try to help yourself
+against it. I know what the trouble is. He went away angry and
+disappointed, and it has frightened you. Oh, please don't, darling. He
+will come back to-morrow; he will, indeed. He always does, you know, and
+he will be so sorry."
+
+"He has gone forever," Dolly panted, when she could speak. "He will
+never come back. To-night has been different from any other time. No,"
+gasping and sobbing, "it is fate. Fate is against us,--it always was
+against us. I think God is against us; and oh, how can He be? He might
+pity us,--we tried so hard and loved each other so much. We did n't ask
+for anything but each other,--we did n't want anything but that we might
+be allowed to cling together all our lives and work and help each other.
+Oh, Grif, my darling,--oh, Grif, my dear, my dear!" And the sobs rising
+again and conquering her were such an agony that Aimée caught her in her
+arms.
+
+"Dolly," she said, "you must not, you must not, indeed. You will die,
+you can't bear it."
+
+"No," she wailed, "I can't bear it,--that is what it is. I can't bear
+it. It is too hard to bear. But there is no one to help me,--God won't.
+He does not care for us, or He would have given us just one little crumb
+out of all He has to give. What can a poor helpless girl be to Him? He
+is too high and great to care for our poor little powerless griefs. Oh,
+how wicked I am!" in a fresh burst. "See how I rebel at the first real
+blow. It is because I am so wicked, perhaps, that all has been taken
+from me,--all I had in the world. It is because I loved Grif best.
+I have read in books that it was always so. Oh, why is it? I can't
+understand it. It seems cruel,--yes, it does seem cruel,--as cruel as
+death, to give him to me only that I might suffer when he was taken
+away. Oh, Grif, my darling! Grif, my love, my dear!"
+
+This over again and again, with wild, heart-broken weeping, until she
+was so worn out that she could cry no more, and lay upon Aimée's arm
+upon the cushion, white and exhausted, with heavy purple rings about her
+wearied, sunken eyes. It was not until then that Aimée heard the whole
+truth. She had only been able to guess at it before, and now, hearing
+the particulars, she could not help fearing the worst.
+
+It was just as she had feared it would be; another blow had come upon
+him at the very time when he was least able to bear it, and it had been
+too much for him. But she could not reveal her forebodings to Dolly. She
+must comfort her and persuade her to hope for the best.
+
+"You must go to bed, Dolly," she said, "and try to sleep, and in the
+morning everything will look different. He may come, you know,--it
+would be just like him to come before breakfast. But if he does
+not come--suppose," hesitatingly,--"suppose I was to write to him,
+or--suppose you were to?"
+
+She was half afraid that pride would rise against this plan, but she
+was mistaken. Seven years of love had mastered pride. Somehow or other,
+pride had never seemed to come between them in their little quarrels,
+each had always been too passionately eager to concede, and too sure
+of being met with tenderest penitence. Dolly had always known too
+confidently that her first relenting word would touch Grifs heart, and
+Grif had always been sure that his first half-softened reproach would
+bring the girl to his arms in an impetuous burst of loving repentance.
+No, it was scarcely likely that other people's scruples would keep them
+apart. So Dolly caught at the proposal almost eagerly.
+
+"Yes," she said, "I will write and tell him how it was. It was not his
+fault, was it, Aimée? How could I have borne such a thing myself? It
+would have driven me wild, as it did him. It was not unreasonable at all
+that he should refuse to listen, in his first excitement, after he had
+waited all those hours and suffered such a disappointment. And then to
+see what he did. My poor boy! he was not to blame at all. Yes,
+yes," feverishly, "I will write to him and tell him. Suppose I write
+now--don't you think I had better do it now, and then he will get the
+letter in the morning, and he will be sure to come before dinner,--he
+will be sure to come, won't he?"
+
+"He always did," said Aimée.
+
+"Always," said Dolly. "Indeed, I never had to write to him before to
+bring him. He always came without being written to. There never was any
+one like him for being tender and penitent. You always said so, Aimée.
+And just think how often I have tried his patience! I sometimes wish I
+could help doing things,--flirting, you know, and making a joke of it.
+He never flirted in his life, poor darling, and what right had I to
+do it? When he comes to-morrow I will tell him how sorry I am for
+everything, and I will promise to be better. I have not been half so
+good as he has. I wish I had. I should not have hurt him so often if I
+had."
+
+"You have been a little thoughtless sometimes," said Aimée. "Perhaps it
+_would_ have been better if you could have helped it."
+
+"A little thoughtless," said Dolly, restlessly. "I have been wickedly
+thoughtless sometimes. And I have made so many resolutions and broken
+them all. And I ought to have been doubly thoughtful, because he had
+so much to bear. If he had been prosperous and happy it would not have
+mattered half so much. But it was all my vanity. You don't know how vain
+I am, Aimée. I quite hate myself when I think of it. It is the
+wanting people to admire me,--everybody, men and women, and even
+children,--particularly among Lady Augusta's set, where there is a sort
+of fun in it. And then I flirt before I know; and then, of course, Grif
+cannot help seeing it. I wonder that he has borne with me so long."
+
+She was quite feverish in her anxiety to condemn herself and exculpate
+her lover. She did not droop her face against the pillow, but roused
+herself, turning toward Aimée, and talking fast and eagerly. A bright
+spot of color came out on either cheek, though for the rest she was pale
+enough. But to Aimée's far-seeing eyes there was something so forced and
+unnaturally strung in her sudden change of mood that she felt a touch of
+dread Suppose something should crush her newly formed hopes,--something
+terrible and unforeseen! She felt a chill strike her to the heart at the
+mere thought of such a possibility. She knew Dolly better than the rest
+of them did,--knew her highly strung temperament, and feared it, too.
+She might be spirited and audacious and thoughtless, but a blow coming
+through Grif would crush her to the earth.
+
+"You--you mustn't set your heart too much upon his getting the letter
+in the morning, Dolly," she said. "He might be away when it came, or--or
+twenty things, and he might not see it until night, but--"
+
+"Well," said Dolly, "I will write it at once if you will give me the pen
+and ink. The earlier it is posted the earlier he will get it."
+
+She tried to rise then; but when she stood up her strength seemed to
+fail her, and she staggered and caught at Aimee's arm. But the next
+minute she laughed.
+
+"How queer that one little faint should make me so weak!" she said. "I
+am weak,--actually. I shall feel right enough when I sit down, though."
+
+She sat down at the table with her writing materials, and Aimée remained
+upon the sofa watching her. Her hand trembled when she wrote the first
+few lines, but she seemed to become steadier afterward, and her pen
+dashed over the paper without a pause for a few minutes. The spot of
+color on her cheeks faded and burned by turns,--sometimes it was gone,
+and again it was scarlet, and before the second page was finished tears
+were falling soft and fast. Once she even stopped to wipe them away,
+because they blinded her; but when she closed the envelope she did not
+look exactly unhappy, though her whole face was tremulous.
+
+"He will come back," she said, softly. "He will come back when he reads
+this, I know. I wish it was to-morrow. To-morrow night he will be here,
+and we shall have our happy evening after all. I can excuse myself to
+Miss MacDowlas for another day."
+
+"Yes," said Aimée, a trifle slowly, as she took _it_ from her hand. "I
+will send Belinda out with it now." And she carried it out of the room.
+
+In a few minutes she returned. "She has taken it," she said. "And now
+you had better go to bed, Dolly."
+
+But Dolly's color had faded again, and she was resting her forehead
+upon her hands, with a heavy, anxious, worn look, which spoke of sudden
+reaction. She lifted her face with a half-absent air.
+
+"I hope it will be in time for to-night's post," she said. "Do you think
+it will?"
+
+"I am not quite sure, but I hope so. You must come to bed, Dolly."
+
+She got up without saying more, and followed her out into the hall, but
+at the foot of the staircase she stopped. "I have not seen Tod," she
+said. "Let us go into 'Toinette's room and ask her to let us have him
+to-night. We can carry him up-stairs without wakening him. I have done
+it many a time. I should like to have him in my arms to-night."
+
+So they turned into Mrs. Phil's room, and found that handsome young
+matron sitting in her dressing-gown before the fire, brushing out her
+great dark mantle of hair.
+
+"Don't waken Tod," she cried out, as usual; and then when she saw Dolly
+she broke into a whispered volley of wondering questions. Where in the
+world had she been? What had she been doing with herself until such an
+hour? Where was Grif? Was n't he awfully vexed? What had he said when
+she came in? All of which inquiries the two parried as best they might.
+
+As to Tod--well, Tod turned her thoughts in another direction. He was
+a beauty, and a king, and a darling, and he was growing sweeter and
+brighter every day,--which comments, by the way, were always the first
+made upon the subject of the immortal Tod. He was so amiable, too, and
+so clever and so little trouble. He went to sleep in his crib every
+night at seven, and never awakened until morning. Aunt Dolly might look
+at him now with those two precious middle fingers in his little mouth.
+And Aunt Dolly did look at him, lifting the cover slightly, and
+bending over him as he lay there making a deep dent in his small, plump
+pillow,--a very king of babies, soft and round and warm, the white lids
+drooped and fast closed over his dark eyes, their long fringes making
+a faint shadow on his fair, smooth baby cheeks, the two fingers in
+his sweet mouth, the round, cleft chin turned up, the firm, tiny white
+pillar of a throat bare.
+
+"Oh, my bonny baby!" cried Dolly, the words rising from the bottom of
+her heart, "how fair and sweet you are!"
+
+They managed to persuade Mrs. Phil to allow them to take possession
+of him for the night; and when they went up-stairs Dolly carried him,
+folded warmly in his downy blanket, and held close and tenderly in her
+arms.
+
+"Aunt Dolly's precious!" Aimée heard her whispering to him as she gave
+him a last soft good-night kiss before they fell asleep. "Aunt Dolly's
+comfort! Everything is not gone so long as he is left."
+
+But she evidently passed a restless night. When Aimée awakened in the
+morning she found her standing by the bedside, dressed and looking
+colorless and heavy-eyed.
+
+"I never was so glad to see morning in my life," she said. "I thought
+the day would never break. I--I wonder how long it will be before Grif
+will be reading his letter?"
+
+"He may get it before nine o'clock," answered Aimée; "but don't trouble
+about it, or the day will seem twice as long. Take Tod down-stairs and
+wash and dress him. It will give you something else to think of."
+
+The wise one herself had not slept well. Truth to say, she was troubled
+about more matters than one. She was troubled to account for the meaning
+of Dolly's absence with Gowan. Even in her excitement, Dolly had not
+felt the secret quite her own, and had only given a skeleton explanation
+of the true state of affairs.
+
+"It was something about Mollie and Gerald Chan-dos," she had said; "and
+if I had not gone it would have been worse than death to Mollie. Don't
+ask me to tell you exactly what it was, because I can't. Perhaps Mollie
+will explain herself before many days are over. She always tells you
+everything, you know. But it was no real fault of here; she was silly,
+but not wicked, and she is safe from Gerald Chandos now forever. And _I_
+saved her, Aimée."
+
+And so the wise one had lain awake and thought of all sorts of possible
+and impossible escapades. But as she was dressing herself this morning,
+the truth flashed upon her, though it was scarcely the whole truth.
+
+"She was going to elope with him," she exclaimed all at once; "_that_
+was what she was going to do. Oh, Mollie, Mollie, what a romantic goose
+you are!"
+
+And having reached this solution, she closed her small, determined mouth
+in discreet silence, resolving to wait for Mollie's confession, which
+she knew was sure to come sooner or later. As to Mollie herself, she
+came down subdued and silent. She had slept off the effects of her first
+shock, but had by no means forgotten it. She would never forget it, poor
+child, as long as she lived, and she was so grateful to find herself
+safe in the shabby rooms again, that she had very little to say; and
+since she was in so novel a mood, the members of the family who were not
+in the secret decided that her headache must have been a very severe one
+indeed.
+
+"Don't say anything to her about Grif," Dolly cautioned Aimée, "it would
+only trouble her." And so the morning passed; but even at twelve o'clock
+there was no Grif, and Dolly began to grow restless and walk to and
+fro from the window to the hearth at very short intervals. Dinner-hour
+arrived, too, but still no arrival; and Dolly sat at the table, among
+them, eating nothing and saying little enough. How could she talk when
+every step upon the pavement set her heart bounding? When dinner was
+over and Phil had gone back to the studio, she looked so helpless and
+woe-begone that Aimée felt constrained to comfort her.
+
+"It may have been delayed," she whispered to her, "or he may have left
+the house earlier than usual, and so won't see it until to-night. He
+will be here to-night, Dolly, depend upon it."
+
+And so they waited. Ah, how that window was watched that afternoon! How
+often Dolly started from her chair and ran to look out, half suffocated
+by her heart-beatings! But it was of no avail. As twilight came on
+she took her station before it, and knelt upon the carpet for an hour
+watching; but in the end she turned away all at once, and, running
+to the fire again, caught Tod up in her arms, and startled Aimée by
+bursting into a passion of tears.
+
+"Oh, Tod!" she sobbed, "he is not coming! He will never come again,--he
+has left us forever! Oh, Tod, love poor Aunt Dolly, darling." And she
+hid her face on the little fellow's shoulder, crying piteously.
+
+She did not go to the window again. When she was calmer, she remained on
+her chair, colorless and exhausted, but clinging to Tod still in a queer
+pathetic way, and letting him pull at her collar and her ribbons and her
+hair. The touch of his relentless baby hands and his pretty, tyrannical,
+restless ways seemed to help her a little and half distract her
+thoughts.
+
+She became quieter and quieter as the evening waned; indeed, she was so
+quiet that Aimée wondered. She was strangely pale; but she did not start
+when footsteps were heard on the street, and she ceased turning toward
+the door when it opened.
+
+"He--he may come in the morning," Aimée faltered as they went up-stairs
+to bed.
+
+"No, he will not," she answered her, quite steadily. "It will be as I
+said it would,--he will never come again."
+
+But when they reached their room, the unnatural, strained quiet gave
+way, and she flung herself upon the bed, sobbing and fighting against
+just the hysterical suffering which had conquered her the night before.
+
+It was the very ghost of the old indomitable Dolly who rose the next
+morning. Her hands shook as she dressed her hair, and there were shadows
+under her eyes. But she must go back to Brabazon Lodge, notwithstanding.
+
+"I can say I have a nervous headache," she said to Aimée. "Nervous
+headaches are useful things."
+
+"If a letter comes," said Aimée, "I will bring it to you myself."
+
+The girl turned toward her suddenly, her eyes hard and bright and her
+mouth working.
+
+"I have had my last letter," she said. "My last letters came to me when
+Grif laid that package upon the table. He has done with me."
+
+"Done with you?" cried Aimée, frightened by her manner. "With _you_,
+Dolly?"
+
+Then for the first time Dolly flushed scarlet to the very roots of her
+hair.
+
+"Yes," she said, "he has done with me. If there had been half a chance
+that he would ever come near me again, the letter I wrote to him that
+night would have brought him. A word of it would have brought him,--the
+first word. But he is having his revenge by treating it with contempt.
+He is showing me that it is too late, and that no humility on my part
+can touch him. I scarcely could have thought that of him," dropping into
+a chair by the toilet-table and hiding her face in her hands.
+
+"It is not like Grif to let me humble myself for nothing. And I did
+humble myself,--ah, how I did humble myself! That letter,--if you could
+have seen it, Aimée,--it was all on fire with love for him. I laid
+myself under his feet,--and he has trodden me down! Grif--Grif, it was
+n't like you,--it was n't worthy of you,--it was n't indeed!"
+
+Her worst enemy would have felt herself avenged if she had heard the
+anguish in her voice. She was crushed to the earth under this last great
+blow of feeling that he had altered so far. Grif,--her whilom greatest
+help and comfort,--the best gift God had given her! Dear, old, tender,
+patient fellow! as she had been wont to call him in her fits of
+penitence.
+
+Grif, whose arms had always been open to her at her best and at her
+worst, who had loved her and borne with her, and waited upon her and
+done her bidding since they were both little more than children. When
+had Grif ever turned from her before? Never. When had Grif ever been
+cold or unfaithful in word or deed? Never. When had he ever failed her?
+Never--never--never--until now! And now that he had failed her at last,
+she felt that the bitter end had come. The end to everything,--to all
+the old hopes and dreams, to all the old sweet lovers' quarrels and
+meetings and partings, to all their clinging together, to all the
+volumes and volumes of love and trust that lay in the past, to all the
+world of simple bliss that lay still unrevealed in their lost future, to
+all the blessed old days when they had pictured to each other what that
+future was to be. It had all gone for nothing in the end. It must all
+have gone for nothing, when Grif--a new Grif--not her own true, stanch,
+patient darling--not her own old lover--could read her burning, tender,
+suffering words and pass them by without a word of answer. And with
+this weight of despair and pain upon her heart, she went back to the
+wearisome routine of Brabazon Lodge,--went back heavy with humiliation
+and misery which she scarcely realized,--went back suffering as no one
+who knew her--not even Grif himself--could ever have understood that it
+was possible for her to suffer. No innocent coquetries now, no spirit,
+no jests; for the present at least she had done with them, too.
+
+"You are not in your usual spirits, my dear," said Miss MacDowlas.
+
+"No," she answered, quietly, "I am not."
+
+This state of affairs continued for four days, and then one morning,
+sitting at her sewing in the breakfast-room, she was startled almost
+beyond self-control by a servant's announcement that a visitor had
+arrived.
+
+"One of your sisters, ma'am," said the parlor-maid. "Not the youngest, I
+think."
+
+She was in the room in two seconds, and flew to Aimée, trembling all
+over with excitement.
+
+"Not a letter!" she cried, hysterically. "It is n't a letter,--it can't
+be!" And she put her hand to her side and fairly panted.
+
+The poor little wise one confronted her with something like fear. She
+could not bear to tell her the ill news she had come to break.
+
+"Dolly, dear!" she said, "please sit down; and--please don't look at me
+so. It isn't good news. I must tell you the truth; it is bad news, cruel
+news. Oh, don't look so!"
+
+They were standing near the sofa, and Dolly gave one little moan, and
+sank down beside it.
+
+"Cruel news!" she cried, throwing up her hand. "Yes, I might have known
+that,--I might have known that it would be cruel, if it was news at all
+Every one is cruel,--the whole world is cruel; even Grif,--even Grif!"
+
+Aimée burst into tears.
+
+"Oh, Dolly, I did my best for you!" she said. "I did, indeed; but you
+must try to bear it, dear,--it is your own letter back again."
+
+Then the kneeling figure seemed to stiffen and grow rigid in a second.
+Dolly turned her deathly face, with her eyes aflame and dilated.
+
+"Did _he_ send it back to me?" she asked, in a slow, fearful whisper.
+
+Her expression was so hard and dreadful a one that Aimée sprang to her
+side and caught hold of her.
+
+"No,--no!" she said; "not so bad as that! He would never have done that.
+He has never had it. He has gone away; we don't know where. It came from
+the dead-letter office."
+
+Dolly took the letter from her and opened it slowly, and there, as she
+knelt, read it, word for word, as if it had been something she had never
+seen before. Then she put it back into the envelope and laid it down.
+
+"A dead letter!" she said. "A dead letter! If _he_ had sent it back to
+me, I think it would have cured me; but _now_ there is no cure for me at
+all. If he had read it, he would have come,--if he had _only_ read it;
+but it is a dead letter, and he is gone."
+
+There were no tears, the blow had been too heavy. It was only Aimée
+who had tears to shed, and it was Dolly who tried to console her in a
+strained, weary sort of way.
+
+"Don't cry," she said, "it is all over now. Perhaps the worst part of
+the pain is past. There will be no house at Putney, and the solitary
+rose-bush will bloom for some one else; they may sell the green sofa,
+now, as cheap as they will, we shall never buy it. Our seven years of
+waiting have all ended in a dead letter."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV. ~ SEVEN LONG YEARS, BELOVED, SEVEN LONG YEARS.
+
+AND so Grif disappeared from the haunts of Vagabondia, and was seen no
+more. And to Aimée was left the delicate task of explaining the cause
+of his absence, which, it must be said, she did in a manner at once
+creditable to her tact and affection for both Dolly and the unconscious
+cause of all her misery.
+
+"There has been a misunderstanding," she said, "which was no fault
+of Dolly's, and scarcely a fault of Grif's; and it has ended very
+unhappily, and Grif has gone away, and just at present it seems as if
+everything was over,--but I can't help hoping it is not so bad as that."
+
+"Oh, he will come back again--safe enough," commented Phil,
+philosophically, holding paint-brush No. 1 in his mouth, while he
+manipulated with No. 2. "He will come back in sackcloth and ashes; he is
+just that sort, you know,--thunder and lightning, fire and tow. And they
+will make it up ecstatically in secret, and pretend that nothing has
+been the matter, and there will be no going into the parlor for weeks
+without whistling all the way across the hall."
+
+"I always go in backward after they have had a quarrel," said Mollie,
+looking up from a half-made pinafore of Tod's, which, in the zeal of her
+repentance, she had decided on finishing.
+
+"Not a bad plan, either," said Phil "We all know how _their_ differences
+of opinion terminate. As to matters being at an end between them, that
+is all nonsense; they could n't live without each other six months.
+Dolly would take to unbecoming bonnets, and begin to neglect her back
+hair, and Grif would take to prussic acid or absinthe."
+
+"Well, I hope he _will_ come back," said Aimée; "but, in the meantime, I
+want to ask you to let the affair rest altogether, and not say a word to
+Dolly when she comes. It will be the kindest thing you can do. Just let
+things go on as they have always done, and ignore every thing new you
+may see."
+
+Phil looked up from his easel in sudden surprise; something in her
+voice startled him, serenely as he was apt to view all unexpected
+intelligence.
+
+"I say," he broke out, "you don't mean that Dolly is very much cut up
+about it?"
+
+The fair little oracle hesitated; remembering Dolly's passionate despair
+and grief over that "dead letter," she could scarcely trust herself to
+speak.
+
+"Yes," she answered at last, feeling it would be best only to commit
+herself in Phil's own words, "she is very much cut up."
+
+"Whew!" whistled Phil; "that is worse than I thought!" And the matter
+ended in his going back to his picture and painting furiously for a few
+minutes, with an almost reflective air.
+
+They did not see anything of Dolly for weeks. She wrote to them now and
+then, but she did not pay another visit to Bloomsbury Place. It was
+not the old home to her now, and she dreaded seeing it in its new
+aspect,--the aspect which was desolate of Grif. Most of her letters
+came to Aimée; but she rarely referred to her trouble, rather seeming to
+avoid it than otherwise. And the letters themselves were bright enough,
+seeming, too. She had plenty to say about Miss MacDowlas and their
+visitors and her own duties; indeed, any one but Aimée would have been
+puzzled by her courage and apparent good spirits. But Aimée saw below
+the surface, and understood, and, understanding, was fonder of her than
+ever.
+
+As both Dolly and herself had expected, Mollie did not keep her secret
+from the oracle many weeks. It was too much for her to bear alone, and
+one night, in a fit of candor and remorse, she poured out everything
+from first to last, all her simple and unsophisticated dreams of
+grandeur, all her gullibility, all her danger,--everything, indeed, but
+the story of her pitiful little fancy for Ralph Gowan. She could not
+give that up, even to Aimée, though at the close of her confidence she
+was unable to help referring to him.
+
+"And as to Mr. Gowan," she said, "how can I ever speak to him again!
+but, perhaps, he would not speak to me. He must think I am wicked and
+bold and hardened--and bad," with a fresh sob at every adjective. "Oh,
+dear! oh, dear!" burying her face in Aimée's lap, "if I had only stayed
+at home and been good, like you. He could have respected me, at least,
+couldn't he? And now--oh, what am I to do!"
+
+Aimée could not help sighing. If she only _had_ stayed at home, how much
+happier they all might have been! But she had promised Dolly not to add
+to her unhappiness by hinting at the truth, so she kept her own counsel.
+
+It was fully three months before they saw Ralph Gowan again. He had gone
+on the Continent, they heard. A feeling of delicacy had prompted the
+journey. As long as he remained in London, he could scarcely drop out
+of his old friendly position at Bloomsbury Place, and he felt that for
+a while at least Mollie would scarcely find it easy to face him. So he
+went away and rambled about until he thought she would have time to get
+over her first embarrassment.
+
+But at the end of the three months he came back, and one afternoon
+surprised them all by appearing amongst them again. Mollie, sitting
+perseveringly at work over her penitential sewing, shrank a little,
+and dropped her eyelids when he came in, but she managed to behave
+with creditable evenness of manner after all, and the rest welcomed him
+warmly.
+
+"I have been to Brabazon Lodge," he said at length to Aimée. "I spent
+Monday evening there, and was startled at the change I found in your
+sister. I did not know she was ill."
+
+Aimée started herself, and looked up at him with a frightened face.
+
+"Ill!" she said. "Did you say ill?"
+
+It was his turn to be surprised then.
+
+"I thought her looking ill," he answered. "She seemed to me to be both
+paler and thinner. But you must not let me alarm you,--I thought, of
+course, that you would know."
+
+"She has never mentioned it in her letters," Aimée said. "And she has
+not been home for three months, so we have not seen her."
+
+"Don't let me give you a false impression," returned Gowan, eagerly.
+"She seemed in excellent spirits, and was quite her old self; indeed, I
+scarcely should imagine that she herself placed sufficient stress upon
+the state of her health. She insisted that she was well when I spoke to
+her about it."
+
+"I am very glad you told me," answered Aimée. "She is too indifferent
+sometimes. I am afraid she would not have let us know. I thank you, very
+much."
+
+He had other thanks before he left the house. As he was going out,
+Mollie, in her character of porteress, opened the hall door for
+him, and, having opened it, stood there with Tod's new garment
+half concealed, a pair of timid eyes uplifted to his face, a small,
+trembling, feverish hand held out.
+
+"Mr. Gowan," she said, in a low, fluttering voice. "Oh, if you please--"
+
+He took the little hot hand, feeling some tender remorse for not having
+tried to draw her out more and help her out of her painful shyness and
+restraint.
+
+"What is it, Mollie?" he asked.
+
+"I want--I want," fluttering all over,--"I want to thank you better than
+I did that--that dreadful night. I was so frightened I could scarcely
+understand. I understand more--now--and I want to tell you how grateful
+I am--and how grateful I shall be until I die--and I want to ask you to
+try not to think I was very wicked. I did not mean to be wicked--I was
+only vain and silly, and I thought it would be such a grand thing to--to
+have plenty of new dresses," hanging her sweet, humble face, "and to
+wear diamonds, and be Lady Chandos, if--if Mr. Chandos came into the
+title. Of course that was wicked, but it was n't--I was n't as bad as I
+seemed. I was so vain that--that I was quite sure he loved me, and would
+be very glad if I married him. He always said he would." And the tears
+rolled fast down her cheeks.
+
+"Poor Mollie!" said Gowan, patting the trembling hand as if it had been
+a baby's. "Poor child!"
+
+"But," Mollie struggled on, penitently, "I shall never be so foolish
+again. And I am going to try to be good--like Aimée. I am learning to
+mend things; and I am beginning to make things for Tod. This," holding
+up her work as proof, "is a dress for him. It is n't very well done,"
+with innocent dubiousness; "but Aimée says I am improving. And so, if
+you please, would you be so kind as not to think quite so badly of me?"
+
+It was all so humble and pretty and remorseful that he was quite
+touched by it. That old temptation to kiss and console her made it
+quite dangerous for him to linger. She was such a lovable sight with her
+tear-wet cheeks, and that dubious but faithfully worked-at garment of
+Tod's in her hand.
+
+"Mollie," he said, "will you believe what I say to you?"
+
+"Oh, yes!" eagerly.
+
+"Then I say to you that I never believed you wicked for an instant,--not
+for one instant; and now I believe it less than ever; on the contrary,
+I believe you are a good, honest little creature. Let us forget Gerald
+Chandos,--he is not worth remembering. And go on with Tod's pinafores
+and dresses, my dear, and don't be discouraged if they are a failure at
+first,--though to my eyes that dress is a most sumptuous affair. And
+as to being like Aimée, you cannot be like any one better and wiser and
+sweeter than that same little maiden. There! I mean every word I have
+said."
+
+"Are you sure?" faltered Mollie.
+
+"Yes," he replied, "quite sure."
+
+He shook hands with her, and, bidding her goodnight, left her standing
+in the narrow hall all aglow with joy. And he, outside, was communing
+with himself as he walked away.
+
+"She is as sweet in her way as--as the other," he was saying. "And as
+well worth loving. And what a face she has, if one only saw it with a
+lover's eyes! What a face she has, even seeing it with such impartial
+eyes as mine!"
+
+"My dear Dolly!" said Aimée.
+
+"My dear Aimée!" said Dolly.
+
+These were the first words the two exchanged when, the evening after
+Ralph Gowan's visit, the anxious young oracle presented herself at
+Brabazon Lodge, and was handed into Dolly's bedroom.
+
+Visitors were expected, and Dolly had been dressing, and was just
+putting the finishing touches to her toilet when Aimée came in, and,
+seeing her as she turned from the glass to greet her, the wise one could
+scarcely speak, and, even after she had been kissed most heartily, could
+only hold the girl's hand and stand looking up into her changed face,
+feeling almost shocked.
+
+"Oh, dear me, Dolly!" she said again. "Oh, my dear, what have you been
+doing to yourself?"
+
+"Doing!" echoed Dolly, just as she would have spoken three or four
+months ago. "I have been doing nothing, and rather enjoying it. What is
+the matter with me?" glancing into the mirror. "Pale? That is the result
+of Miss MacDowlas's beneficence, you see. She has presented me with this
+grand black silk gown, and it makes me look pale. Black always did, you
+know."
+
+But notwithstanding her readiness of speech, it did not need another
+glance to understand what Ralph Gowan had meant when he said that she
+was altered. The lustreless heavy folds of her black silk might contrast
+sharply with her white skin, but they could not bring about that subtle,
+almost incomprehensible change in her whole appearance. It was such a
+subtle change that it was difficult to comprehend. The round, lissome
+figure she had always been so pardonably vain about, and Grif had so
+admired, had fallen a little, giving just a hint at a greater change
+which might show itself sooner or later; her face seemed a trifle more
+clearly cut than it ought to have been, and the slender throat, set in
+its surrounding Elizabethan frill of white, seemed more slender than
+it had used to be. Each change was slight enough in itself, but all
+together gave a shadowy suggestion of alteration to affectionately quick
+eyes.
+
+"You are ill," said Aimée. "And you never told me. It was wrong of you.
+Don't tell me it is your black dress; your eyes are too big and bright
+for any one who is well, and your hand is thinner than it ever was
+before. Why, I can feel the difference as I hold it, and it is as
+feverish as it can be."
+
+"You good, silly little thing!" said Dolly, laughing. "I am not ill at
+all. I have caught a cold, perhaps, but that is all."
+
+"No you have not," contradicted Aimée, with pitiful sharpness. "You have
+not caught cold, and you must not tell me so. You are ill, and you have
+been ill for weeks. The worst of colds could never make you look like
+this. Mr. Gowan might well be startled and wonder--"
+
+"Mr. Gowan!" Dolly interrupted her. "Did _he_ say that he was startled?"
+
+"Yes, he did," Aimée answered. "And that was what brought me here. He
+was at Bloomsbury Place last night and told me all about you, and I made
+up my mind that minute that I would come and judge for myself."
+
+Then the girl gave in. She sat down on a chair by the dressing-table
+and rested her forehead on her hand, laughing faintly, as if in protest
+against her own subjugation.
+
+"Then I shall have to submit," she said. "The fact is, I sometimes fancy
+I do feel weaker than I ought to. It is n't like me to be weak. I
+was always so strong, you know,--stronger than all the rest of you,
+I thought. Miss MacDowlas says I do not look well. I suppose," with a
+half-sigh, "that every one will see it soon. Aimée," hesitating, "don't
+tell them at home."
+
+Aimée slipped an arm around her, and drew her head--dressed in all the
+old elaborateness of pretty coils and braids--upon her own shoulder.
+
+"Darling," she whispered, trying to restrain her tears, "I must tell
+them at home, because I must take you home to be nursed."
+
+"No, no!" said Dolly, starting, "that would never do. It would never
+do even to think of it. I am not so ill as that,--not ill enough to be
+nursed. Besides," her voice sinking all at once, "I could n't go home,
+Aimée,--I could not bear to go home now. That is why I have stayed away
+so long. I believe it would _kill_ me!"
+
+It was impossible for Aimée to hear this and be silent longer. She had,
+indeed, only been waiting for some reference to the past.
+
+"I knew it was that," she cried. "I knew it the moment Mr. Gowan told
+me. And I have feared it from the first. Nothing but that could have
+broken you down like this. Dolly, if Grif could see you now, he would
+give his heart's blood to undo what he has done."
+
+The pale little hands lying upon the black dress began to tremble in a
+strange, piteous weakness.
+
+"One cannot forget so much in so short a time," Dolly pleaded. "And it
+is so much,--more than even you think. One cannot forget seven years in
+three months,--give me seven months, Aimée. I shall be better in time,
+when I have forgotten."
+
+Forgotten! Even those far duller of perception than Aimée could have
+seen that she would not soon forget. She had not begun in the right way
+to forget. The pain which had made the pretty figure and the soft, round
+face look faintly worn, was sharper to-day than it had been even three
+months before, and it was gaining in sharpness every day, nay, every
+hour.
+
+"The days are so long," she said, plaiting the silk of her dress on-the
+restless hands. "We are so quiet, except when we have visitors, and
+somehow visitors begin to tire me. I scarcely ever knew what it was
+to be tired before. I don't care even to scatter the Philistines now,"
+trying to smile. "I am not even roused by the prospect of meeting Lady
+Augusta tonight. I forgot to tell you she was coming, did n't I? How she
+would triumph if she knew how I have fallen and--and how miserable I
+am! She used to say I had not a thought above the cut of my dresses. She
+never knew about--_him_, poor fellow!"
+
+It was curious to see how she still clung to that tender old pitying way
+of speaking of Grif.
+
+Aimee began to cry over her again.
+
+"You must come home, Dolly," she said. "You must, indeed. You will get
+worse and worse if you stay here. I will speak to Miss MacDowlas myself.
+You say she is kind to you."
+
+"Dear little woman," said Dolly, closing her eyes as she let her head
+rest upon the girl's shoulder. "Dear, kind little woman! indeed it will
+be best for me to stay here. It is as I said,--indeed it is. If I were
+to go home I should _die!_ Oh, don't you _know_ how cruel it would be!
+To sit there in my chair and see his old place empty,--to sit and
+hear the people passing in the street and know I should never hear his
+footstep again,--to see the door open again and again, and know he would
+never, never pass through. It would break my heart,--it would break my
+heart!"
+
+"It is broken now!" cried Aimée, in a burst of grief, and she could
+protest no more.
+
+But she remained as long as she well could, petting and talking to her.
+She knew better than to offer her threadbare commonplace comfort, so
+she took refuge in talking of life at Bloomsbury Place,--about Tod and
+Mollie and Toinette, and the new picture Phil was at work upon. But it
+was a hard matter for her to control herself sufficiently to conceal
+that she was almost in an agony of anxiousness and foreboding. What was
+she to do with this sadly altered Dolly, the mainspring of whose bright,
+spirited life was gone? How was she to help her if she could not restore
+Grif,--it was only Grif she wanted,--and where was he? It was just
+as she had always said it would be,--without Grif, Dolly was Dolly
+no longer,--for Grif's sake her faithful, passionate girl's heart was
+breaking slowly.
+
+Lady Augusta, encountering her ex-governess in the drawing-room that
+evening, raised her eyeglass to that noble feature, her nose, and
+condescended a questioning inspection, full of disapproval of the heavy,
+well-falling black silk and the Elizabethan frill.
+
+"You are looking shockingly pale and thin," she said.
+
+Dolly glanced at her reflection in an adjacent mirror. She only smiled
+faintly, in silence.
+
+"I was not aware that you were ill," proceeded her ladyship.
+
+"I cannot say that I am ill," Dolly answered. "How is Phemie?"
+
+"Euphemia," announced Lady Augusta, "is well, and I _trust_" as if she
+rather doubted her having so far overcome old influences of an evil
+nature,--"I _trust_ improving, though I regret to hear from her
+preceptress that she is singularly deficient in application to her
+musical lessons."
+
+Dolly thought of the professor with the lumpy face, and smiled again.
+Phemie's despairing letters to herself sufficiently explained why her
+progress was so slow.
+
+"I hope," said her ladyship to Miss MacDowlas, afterward, "that you
+are satisfied with Dorothea's manner of filling her position in your
+household."
+
+"I never was so thoroughly satisfied in my life," returned the old lady,
+stiffly. "She is a very quickwitted, pleasantly natured girl, and I am
+extremely fond of her."
+
+"Ah," waving a majestic and unbending fan of carved ivory. "She has
+possibly improved then. I observe that she is going off very much,--in
+the matter of looks, I mean."
+
+"I heard a gentleman remark, a few minutes ago," replied Miss MacDowlas,
+"that the girl looked like a white rose, and I quite agreed with him;
+but I am fond of her, as I said, and you are not."
+
+Her ladyship shuddered faintly, but she did not make any further
+comment, perhaps feeling that her hostess was too powerful to encounter.
+
+At midnight the visitors went their several ways, and after they had
+dispersed and the rooms were quiet once again, Miss MacDowlas sent her
+companion to bed, or, at least, bade her good-night.
+
+"You had better go at once," she said. "I will remain to give orders to
+the servants. You look tired. The excitement has been too much for you."
+
+So Dolly thanked her and left the room; but Miss MacDowlas did not hear
+her ascend the stairs, and accordingly, after listening a moment or so,
+went to the room door and looked out into the hall. And right at the
+foot of the staircase lay Dolly Crewe, the lustreless, trailing black
+dress making her skin seem white as marble, her pretty face turned half
+downward upon her arm.
+
+Half an hour later the girl returned to consciousness to find herself
+lying comfortably in bed, the chamber empty save for herself and Miss
+MacDowlas, who was standing at her side watching her.
+
+"Better?" she said. "That is right, my dear. The evening was too much
+for you, as I was afraid it would be. You are not as strong as you
+should be."
+
+"No," Dolly answered, quietly.
+
+There was a silence of a few minutes, during which she closed her eyes
+again; but she heard Miss MacDowlas fidgeting a little, and at last she
+heard her speak.
+
+"My dear," she said, "I think I ought to tell you something. When you
+fell, I suppose you must somehow or other have pressed the spring of
+your locket, for it was open when I went to you, and--I saw the face
+inside it."
+
+"Grif," said Dolly, in a tired voice, "Grif."
+
+And then she remembered how she had written to him about what this very
+_dénouement_ would be when it came. How strange, how wearily strange, it
+was to think that it should come about in such a way as this!
+
+"My nephew," said Miss MacDowlas. "Griffith Donne."
+
+"Yes," said Dolly, briefly. "I was engaged to him."
+
+"Was!" echoed Miss MacDowlas. "Did he behave badly to you, my dear?"
+
+"No, I behaved badly to him--and that is why I am ill."
+
+Miss MacDowlas blew her nose.
+
+"How long?" she asked, at length. "May I ask how long you were engaged
+to each other, my dear? Don't answer me if you do not wish."
+
+"I was engaged to him," faltered the girlish voice,--"we were all the
+world to each other for seven years--for seven long years."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV. ~ IN WHICH WE TRY SWITZERLAND.
+
+IN the morning of one of the hot days in June, Mollie, standing at the
+window of Phil's studio, turned suddenly toward the inmates of the room
+with an exclamation.
+
+"Phil!" she said, "Toinette! There is a carriage drawing up before the
+door."
+
+"Lady Augusta?" said Toinette, making a dart at Tod.
+
+"Confound Lady Augusta!" ejaculated Phil, devoutly. "That woman has a
+genius for presenting herself at inopportune times."
+
+"But it is n't Lady Augusta," Mollie objected. "It is n't the Bilberry
+carriage at all. Do you think I don't know 'the ark'?"
+
+"You ought to by this time," returned Phil. "I do, to my own deep
+grief."
+
+"It is the Brabazon Lodge carriage!" cried Mollie, all at once. "Miss
+MacDowlas is getting out, and--yes, here is Dolly!"
+
+"And Tod just washed and dressed!" said Mrs. Phil, picking up her
+offspring with an air of self-congratulation. "Miracle of miracles! The
+Fates begin to smile upon us. Phil, how is my back hair?"
+
+"All right," returned Phil. "I suppose I shall have to present myself,
+too."
+
+It was necessary that they should all present themselves, they found.
+Miss MacDowlas wished to form the acquaintance of the whole family, it
+appeared, and apart from this her visit had rather an important object.
+
+"It is a sort of farewell visit," she explained, "though, of course, the
+farewell is only to be a temporary one. We find London too hot for us,
+and we are going to try Switzerland. The medical man thinks a change
+will be beneficial to your sister."
+
+They all looked at Dolly then,--at Dolly in her delicate, crisp summer
+bravery and her pretty summer hat; but it was neither hat nor dress that
+drew their eyes upon her all at once in that new questioning way. But
+Dolly only laughed,--a soft, nervous laugh, however,--and played with
+her much-frilled parasol.
+
+"Miss MacDowlas," she said, "is good enough to fancy I am not so well as
+I ought to be, Tod," bending her face low over the pretty little
+fellow, who had trotted to her knee. "What do you think of Aunt Dolly's
+appearing in the character of invalid? It sounds like the best of jokes,
+does n't it, Tod?"
+
+They tried to smile responsively, all of them, but the effort was not a
+success. Despite all her pretence of brightness and coquettish attire,
+there was not one of them who had not been startled when their first
+greeting was over. Under the triumph of a hat, her face showed almost
+sharply cut, her skin far too transparently colorless, her eyes much too
+large and bright. The elaborately coiled braids of hair seemed almost
+too heavy for the slender throat to bear, and no profusion of trimming
+could hide that the little figure was worn. The flush and glow and
+spirit had died away from her. It was not the Dolly who had been wont
+to pride herself upon ruling supreme in Vagabondia, who sat there before
+them making them wonder; it was a new creature, who seemed quite a
+stranger to them.
+
+They were glad to see how fond of her Miss MacDowlas appeared to be.
+They had naturally not had a very excellent opinion of Miss MacDowlas in
+the past days; but the fact that Dolly had managed to so win upon her as
+to bring out her best side, quite softened their hearts. She was not
+so grim, after all. Her antipathy to Grif had evidently been her most
+unpleasant peculiarity, and now, seeing her care for this new Dolly, who
+needed care so much, they were rather touched.
+
+When the farewells had been said, the carriage had driven away, and they
+had returned to the studio, a silence seemed to fall upon them, one and
+all. 'Toinette sat in her chair, holding Tod, without speaking; Mollie
+stood near her with a wondering, downcast air; Phil went to the window,
+and, neglecting his picture wholly for the time being, looked out into
+the street, whistling softly.
+
+At length he turned round to Aimée.
+
+"Aimée," he said, abruptly, "how long has this been going on?"
+
+"You mean this change?" said Aimée, in a low voice.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"For three months," she answered. "I did not like to tell you because
+I knew _she_ would not like it; but it dates from the time Grif went
+away."
+
+Mrs. Phil burst into an impetuous gush of tears, hiding her handsome,
+girlish face on Tod's neck.
+
+"It is a shame!" she cried out. "It is a cruel, burning shame! Who would
+ever have thought of Grif's treating her like this?"
+
+"Yes," said Phil; "and who would ever have thought that Dolly would
+have broken down? Dolly! By George! I can't believe it. If I am able to
+judge, it seems time that she should try Switzerland or somewhere else.
+Aimée, has she heard nothing of him?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+The young man flushed hotly.
+
+"Confound it!" he burst forth. "It looks as if the fellow was a
+dishonorable scamp. And yet he is the last man I should ever have
+fancied would prove a scamp."
+
+"But he has not proved himself a scamp yet," said Aimée, in a troubled
+tone. "And Dolly would not like to hear you say so. And if you knew the
+whole truth you _wouldn't_ say so. He has been tried too far, and he has
+been impetuous and rash, but it was his love for Dolly that made him so.
+And wherever he may be, Phil, I know he is as wretched and hopeless as
+Dolly herself could be at the worst. It has all been misunderstanding
+and mischance."
+
+"He has broken Dolly's heart, nevertheless," cried Mrs. Phil. "And if
+she dies--"
+
+"Dies!" cried out Mollie, opening her great eyes and turning pale all at
+once. "Dies! Dolly?"
+
+"Hush!" said Aimée, trembling and losing color herself. "Oh,
+hush!--don't say such things. It sounds so dreadful,--it is too dreadful
+to think of!"
+
+And so it came about that on another of these hot June days there
+appeared at the _table à'hôte_ of a certain well-conducted and already
+well-filled inn at Lake Geneva two new arrivals,--a tall, thin, elderly
+lady of excessively English exterior, and a young person who attracted
+some attention,--a girl who wore a long black dress, and had a
+picturesque Elizabethan frill about her too slender throat, and who,
+in spite of her manner and the clearness of her bright voice, was too
+whitely transparent of complexion and too finely cut of face to look as
+strong as a girl of one or two and twenty ought to be.
+
+The people who took stock of them, after the manner of all unoccupied
+hotel sojourners on the lookout for sensations, noticed this. One or
+two of them even observed that, on entering the room after the slight
+exertion of descending the staircase, the girl was slightly out of
+breath and seemed glad to sit down, and that, her companion evidently
+making some remark upon the fact, she half laughed, as if wishing to
+make light of it; and they noticed, too, that her naturally small hands
+were so very slender that her one simple little ring of amethyst and
+pearls slipped loosely up and down her finger.
+
+They were not ordinary tourists, these new arrivals, it was clear. Their
+attire told that at once. They had removed their travelling dresses, and
+looked as if they had quite made up their minds to enjoy their customary
+mode of life as if they had been at home. They had no courier,
+the wiseacres had ascertained, and they had brought a neat English
+serving-woman, who seemed to know her business marvellously well and be
+by no means unaccustomed to travelling.
+
+"Aunt and niece!" commented one gentleman, surveying Dolly over his
+soup. "A nice little creature,--the niece." And he mentally resolved to
+cultivate her acquaintance. But it was not such an easy matter. The new
+arrivals were unlike ordinary tourists in other respects than in
+their settled mode of life. They did not seem to care to form chance
+acquaintance with their fellow guests. They lived quietly and, unless
+when driving out together or taking short, unfatiguing strolls, remained
+much in their own apartments. They appeared at the _table d'hôte_
+occasionally; but though they were pleasant in manner they were not
+communicative, and so, after a week or so, people tired of asking
+questions about them and lapsed into merely exchanging greetings,
+and looking on with some interest at any changes they observed in the
+pretty, transparent, though always bright face, and the pliant, soft
+young figure.
+
+Thus Miss MacDowlas and her companion "tried Switzerland."
+
+"It will do you good, my dear, and brace you up," the elder lady had
+said; and from the bottom of her heart she had hoped it would.
+
+And did it?
+
+Well, the last time Dolly had "tried Switzerland," she had tried it in
+the capacity of Lady Augusta's governess, and she had held in charge
+a host of rampant young Bilberrys, who secretly loathed their daily
+duties, and were not remarkable in the matter of filial piety, and were
+only reconciled to existence by the presence of their maternal parent's
+greatest trial, that highly objectionable Dorothea Crewe. So, taking
+Lady Augusta in conjunction with her young charges, the girl had often
+felt her lot by no means the easiest in the world; but youth and spirit,
+and those oft-arriving letters, had helped her to bear a great deal,
+and so there was still something sweet about the memory. Oh, those
+old letters--those foolish, passionate, tender letters--written in the
+dusty, hot London office, read with such happiness, and answered on such
+closely penned sheets of foreign paper! How she had used to watch for
+them, and carry them to her small bedroom and read them again and again,
+kneeling on the floor by the open window, the fresh, soft summer breezes
+from the blue lake far below stirring her hair and kissing her forehead!
+How doubly and trebly fair she had been wont to fancy everything looked
+on that "letter day" of hers,--that red-letter day,--that golden-letter
+day!
+
+The very letters she had written then lay in her trunk now, tied
+together in a bundle, just as Grif had brought them and laid them down
+upon the table when he gave her up forever. Her "dead letter" lay with
+them,--that last, last appeal, which had never reached his heart, and
+never would. She had written her last letter to him, and he his last to
+her.
+
+And now she had been brought to "try Switzerland" and Lake Geneva as a
+Lethe.
+
+But she had determined to be practical and courageous, and bear it as
+best she might. It would not have been like her to give way at once
+without a struggle. She did not believe in lovelorn damsels, who pined
+away and died of broken hearts, and made all their friends uncomfortable
+by so doing. She made a struggle, and refused to give up. She grew
+shadowy and fair; but it was under protest, and she battled against the
+change she felt creeping upon her so slowly but so surely. She showed
+a brave face to people, and tried to be as bright and ready-witted
+as ever; and if she failed it was not her own fault. She fought hard
+against her sleepless nights and weary days; and when she lay awake
+hour after hour hearing the clock strike, it was not because she made
+no effort to compose herself, it was only because the delicate wheels
+of thought _would_ work against her helpless will, and it was worse than
+useless to close her eyes when she could see so plainly her lost
+lover's desperate, anguished face, and hear so distinctly his strained,
+strangely altered voice: "No, it is too late for that now,--that is all
+over!" And he had once loved her better than his life!
+
+So it was that, try as she might, she could not make Switzerland a
+success. When she went down to the table d'hôte, people saw that instead
+of growing stronger she was growing more frail, and the exertion of
+coming down the long flight of stairs tried her more than it had seemed
+to do that first day. Sometimes she had a soft, lovely, dangerous color
+on her cheeks, and her eyes looked almost translucent; and then again
+the color was gone, her skin was white and transparent, and her eyes
+were shadowy and languid. When the hot July days came in, the ring of
+pearls and amethyst would stay on the small worn hand no longer, and so
+was taken off and hung with the little bunch of coquettish "charms" upon
+her chain. But she was not conquered yet, and the guests and servants
+often heard her laughing, and making Miss MacDowlas laugh as they sat
+together in their private parlor.
+
+The two were sitting thus together one Saturday early in July,--Dolly in
+a loose white wrapper, resting in a low basket chair by the open window,
+and fanning herself languidly,--when a visitor was announced, and the
+moment after the announcement a tall young lady rushed into the room
+and clasped Dolly unceremoniously in her arms, either not observing or
+totally ignoring Miss MacDowlas's presence.
+
+"Dolly!" she cried, kneeling down by the basket chair and speaking so
+fast that her words tumbled over each other, and her sentences were
+curiously mingled. "Oh! if you please, dear, I know it was n't polite,
+and I never meant to do it in such an unexpected, awfully rude way; and
+what mamma would say, I am sure I cannot tell, unless go into dignified
+convulsions, and shudder herself stiff; but how could I help it, when
+I came expecting to see you as bright and lovely as ever, and caught a
+glimpse of you through the door, as the servant spoke, sitting here so
+white and thin and tired-looking! Oh, dear! oh, dear! how ever can it
+be!"
+
+"My dear Phemie!" said Dolly, laughing and crying both at once, through
+weakness and sympathy,--for of course poor, easily moved Phemie had
+burst into a flood of affectionate tears. "My dear child, how excited
+you are, and how pleasant it is to see you! How did you manage to come?"
+
+"The professor with the lumpy face--poor, pale darling--I mean you, not
+him," explained the eldest Miss Bilberry, clinging to her ex-governess
+as if she was afraid of seeing her float through the open window. "The
+professor with the lumpy face, Dolly; which shows he is not so horrid as
+I always thought him, and I am very sorry for being so inconsiderate, I
+am sure--you know he cannot help his lumps any more than I can help my
+dreadful red hands and my dresses not fitting."
+
+Dolly stopped her here to introduce her to Miss MacDowlas; and that
+lady having welcomed her good-naturedly, and received her incoherent
+apologies for her impetuous lack of decorum, the explanation proceeded.
+
+"How could the professor send you here?" asked Dolly.
+
+"He did not exactly send me, but he helped me," replied the luckless
+Euphemia, becoming a trifle more coherent. "I saw you at the little
+church, though you did not see me, because, of course, we sit in the
+most disagreeable part, just where we can't see or be seen at all. And
+though I only saw you at a distance, and through your veil, and half
+behind a pillar, I knew you, and knew Miss MacDowlas. I think I knew
+Miss MacDowlas most because she _wasn't_ behind the pillar. And it
+nearly drove me crazy to think you were so near, and I gave one of the
+servants some money to find out where you were staying, and she brought
+me word that you were staying here, and meant to stay. And then I
+asked the lady principal to let me come and see you, and of course
+she refused; and I never should have been able to come at all, only it
+chanced that was my music-lesson day, and I went in to the professor
+with red eyes,--I had cried so,--and when he asked me what I had been
+crying for, I remembered that he used to be fond of you, and I told
+him. And he was sorry for me, and promised to ask leave for me. He is a
+cousin of the lady principal, and a great favorite with her. And the end
+of it was that they let me come. And I have almost flown. I had to wait
+until to-day, you know, because it was Saturday."
+
+It was quite touching to see how, when she stopped speaking, she clung
+to Dolly's hands, and looked at her with wonder and grief in her face.
+
+"What is it that has changed you so?" she said. "You are not like
+yourself at all. Oh, my dear, how ill you are!"
+
+A wistful shadow showed itself in the girl's eyes.
+
+"_Am_ I so much changed?" she asked.
+
+"You do not look like our Dolly at all," protested Phemie. "You are
+thin,--oh, so thin! What _is_ the matter?"
+
+"Thin!" said Dolly. "Am I? Then I must be growing ugly enough. Perhaps
+it is to punish me for being so vain about my figure. Don't you remember
+what a dread I always had of growing thin? Just to think that _I_ should
+grow thin, after all! Do my bones stick out like the Honorable Cecilia
+Howland's, Phemie?" And she ended with a little laugh.
+
+Phemie kissed her, in affectionate protest against such an idea.
+
+"Oh, dear, no!" she said. "They could n't, you know. They are not
+the kind of bones to do it. Just think of her dreadful elbows and her
+fearful shoulder-blades! You couldn't look like her. I don't mean that
+sort of thinness at all. But you seem so light and so little. And look
+here," and she held up the painfully small hand, the poor little hand
+without the ring. "There are no dimples here now, Dolly," she said,
+sorrowfully.
+
+"No," answered Dolly, simply; and the next minute, as she drew her hand
+away, there fluttered from her lips a sigh.
+
+She managed to change the turn of conversation after this. Miss
+MacDowlas had good-naturedly left them alone, and so she began to ask
+Phemie questions,--questions about school and lessons and companions,
+about the lady principal and the under-teachers and about the professor
+with the lumpy face; and, despite appearances being against her, there
+was still the old ring in her girl's jests.
+
+"Has madame got a new bonnet yet," she asked, "or does she still wear
+the old one with those aggressive-looking spikes of wheat in it? The
+lean ears ought to have eaten up the fat ones by this time."
+
+"But they have n't," returned Phemie. "They are there yet, Dolly. Just
+the same spikes in the same bonnet, only she has had new saffron-colored
+ribbon put on it, just the shade of her skin."
+
+Dolly shuddered,--Lady Augusta's own semi-tragic shudder, if Phemie had
+only recognized it.
+
+"Phemie," she said, with a touch of pardonable anxiety, "ill as I look,
+I am not that color, am I? To lose one's figure and grow thin is bad
+enough, but to become like Madame Pillet--dear me!" shaking her head. "I
+scarcely think I could reconcile myself to existence."
+
+Phemie laughed. "You are not changed in one respect, Dolly," she said.
+"When I hear you talk it makes me feel quite--quite safe."
+
+"Safe!" Dolly echoed. "You mean to say that so long as I preserve my
+constitutional vanity, your anxiety won't overpower you. But--but,"
+looking at her curiously, "did you think at first that I was not safe,
+as you call it?"
+
+"You looked so ill," faltered Phemie. "And--I was so startled."
+
+"Were you?" asked Dolly. "Did I shock you?"
+
+"A little--only just a little, dear," deprecatingly.
+
+Then strangely enough fell upon them a silence. Dolly turned toward the
+window, and her eyes seemed to fix themselves upon some far-away point,
+as if she was pondering over a new train of thought. And when at last
+she spoke, her voice was touched with the tremulous unsteadiness of
+tears.
+
+"Do you think," she said, slowly,--"do you think that _any one_ who had
+loved me would be shocked to see me now? Am I so much altered as
+that? One scarcely sees these things one's self,--they come to pass so
+gradually."
+
+All poor Phemie's smiles died away.
+
+"Don't let us talk about it," she pleaded. "I cannot bear to hear you
+speak so. Don't, dear--if you please, don't!"
+
+Her pain was so evident that it roused Dolly at once.
+
+"I won't, if it troubles you," she said, almost in her natural manner.
+"It does not matter,--why should it? There is no one here to be shocked.
+I was only wondering."
+
+But the shadow did not quite leave her face, and even when, an hour
+later, Euphemia bade her good-by and left her, promising to return again
+as soon as possible, it was there still.
+
+She was very, very quiet for a few minutes after she found herself
+alone. She clasped her hands behind her head, and lay back in the light
+chair, looking out of the window. She was thinking so deeply that she
+did not even stir for a while; but in the end she got up, as though
+moved by some impulse, and crossed the room.
+
+Against the wall hung a long, narrow mirror, and she went to this mirror
+and stood before it, looking at herself from head to foot,--at her
+piteously sharpened face, with its large, wondering eyes, eyes that
+wondered at themselves,--at the small, light figure so painfully
+etherealized, and about which the white wrapper hung so loosely. She
+even held up, at last, the slender hand and arm; but when she saw these
+uplifted, appealing, as it were, for this sad, new face which did not
+seem her own, she broke into a little cry of pain and grief.
+
+"If you could see me now," she said, "if you should come here by chance
+and see me now, my dear, I think you would not wait to ask whether I had
+been true or false. I never laid this white cheek on your shoulder, did
+I? Oh, what a changed face it is! I know I was never very pretty, though
+you thought so and were proud of me in your tender way, but I was not
+like this in those dear old days. Grif, Grif, would you know me,--would
+you _know_ me?" And, turning to her chair again, she dropped upon her
+knees before it, and knelt there sobbing.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI. ~ IF YOU SHOULD DIE.
+
+THE postman paid frequent visits to Bloomsbury Place during these summer
+weeks. At first Dolly wrote often herself, but later it seemed to
+fall to Miss MacDowlas to answer Aimée's weekly letters and Mollie's
+fortnightly ones. And that lady was a faithful correspondent, and did
+her duty as readily as was possible, giving all the news, and recording
+all Dolly's messages, and issuing regular bulletins on the subject of
+her health. "Your sister," she sometimes wrote, "is not so well, and I
+have persuaded her to allow me to be her amanuensis." Or, "Your sister
+is tired after a rather long drive, and I have persuaded her to
+rest while I write at her dictation." Or sometimes, "Dolly is rather
+stronger, and is in excellent spirits, but I do not wish her to exert
+herself at present." But at length a new element crept into these
+letters. The cheerful tone gave way to a more dubious one; Dolly's
+whimsical messages were fewer and farther between, and sometimes Miss
+MacDowlas seemed to be on the verge of hinting that her condition was
+a weaker and more precarious one than even she herself had at first
+feared.
+
+Ralph Gowan, on making his friendly calls, and hearing this, was both
+anxious and puzzled. In a very short time after his return he had
+awakened to a recognition of some mysterious shadow upon the household.
+Vagabondia had lost its spirits. Mrs. Phil and her husband were
+almost thoughtful; Tod disported himself unregarded and unadmired,
+comparatively speaking; Mollie seemed half frightened by the aspect
+affairs were wearing; and Aimee's wise, round face had an older look.
+And then these letters! Dolly "trying Switzerland" for her health, Dolly
+mysteriously ill and far away from home,--too weak sometimes to write.
+Dolly, who had never seemed to have a weakness; who had entered the
+lists against even Lady Augusta, and had come off victorious; who
+had been mock-worldly, and coquettish, and daring; who had made open
+onslaught upon eligible Philistines; who had angled prettily and with
+sinful success for ineligible Bohemians! What did it mean? And where was
+Donne? Certainly he was never to be seen at Bloomsbury Place or in its
+vicinity in these days.
+
+But, deeply interested as he was, Gowan was not the man to ask
+questions; so he could only wait until chance brought the truth to
+light.
+
+He came to the house upon one occasion and found Aimée crying quietly
+over one of Miss MacDowlas's letters in the parlor, and in his sympathy
+he felt compelled to speak openly to her.
+
+Then Aimée, heavy of heart and full of despairing grief, handed him the
+letter to read.
+
+"I have known it would be so--from the first," she sobbed. "We are going
+to lose her. Perhaps she will not live to come home again."
+
+"You mean Dolly?" he said.
+
+"Yes," hysterically. "Miss MacDowlas says--" But she could get no
+further.
+
+This was what Miss MacDowlas said:--
+
+"I cannot think it would be right to hide from you that your sister is
+very ill, though she does not complain, and persists in treating her
+increasing weakness lightly. Indeed, I am sure that she herself does
+not comprehend her danger. I am inclined to believe that it has not
+yet occurred to her that she is in danger at all. She protests that she
+cannot be ill so long as she does not suffer; but I, who have watched
+her day by day, can see only too plainly where the danger lies. And so I
+think it best to warn you to be prepared to come to us at once if at any
+time I should send for you hurriedly."
+
+"Prepared to go to them!" commented Aimée. "What does that mean? What
+can it mean but that our own Dolly is dying, and may slip out of the
+world away from us at any moment? Oh, Grif! Grif! what have you done?"
+
+Gowan closed the letter.
+
+"Miss Aimée," he said, "where _is_ Donne?"
+
+Aimée fairly wrung her hands.
+
+"I don't know," she quite wailed. "If I only did--if I only knew where I
+could find him!"
+
+"You don't know!" exclaimed Gowan. "And Dolly dying in Switzerland!"
+
+"That is it," she returned. "That is what it all means. If any of us
+knew--or if Dolly knew, she would not be dying in Switzerland. It is
+because she does not know, that she is dying. She has never seen him
+since the night you brought Mollie home. And--and she cannot live
+without him."
+
+The whole story was told in very few words after this; and Gowan,
+listening, began to understand what the cloud upon the house had meant.
+He suffered some sharp enough pangs through the discovery, too. The last
+frail cords that had bound him to hope snapped as Aimée poured out her
+sorrows. He had never been very sanguine of success, but even after
+hoping against hope, his tender fancy for Dolly Crewe had died a very
+lingering death; indeed, it was not quite dead yet, but he was beginning
+to comprehend this old love story more fully, and he had found himself
+forced to do his rival greater justice. He could not see his virtues as
+the rest saw them, of course, but he was generous enough to pity him,
+and see that his lot had been a terribly hard one.
+
+"There is only one thing to be done," he said, when Aimée had finished
+speaking. "We must find him."
+
+"Find him! We cannot find him."
+
+"That remains to be proved," he answered. "Have you been to his
+lodgings?"
+
+"Yes," mournfully. "And even to the office! He left his lodgings that
+very night, paid his bills, and drove away in a cab with his trunk.
+Poor Grif! It was n't a very big trunk. He went to the office the next
+morning, and told Mr. Flynn he was going to leave London, and one of
+the clerks told Phil there was a 'row' between them. Mr. Flynn was angry
+because he had not given due notice of his intention. That is all we
+know."
+
+"And you have not the slightest clew beyond this?"
+
+"Not the slightest. He spent all his spare time with Dolly, you know;
+so there is not even any place of resort, or club, or anything, where we
+might go to make inquiries about him."
+
+Gowan's countenance fell. He felt the girl's distress keenly, apart from
+his own pain.
+
+"The whole affair seems very much against us," he said; "but he may--I
+say he _may_ be in London still. I am inclined to believe he is myself.
+When the first passion of excitement was over, he would find himself
+weaker than he fancied he was. It would not be so easy to cut himself
+off from the old life altogether. He would long so inexpressibly to
+see Dolly again that he could not tear himself away. I think we may
+be assured that even if he is not in London, at least he has not left
+England."
+
+"That was what I have been afraid of," said Aimée, "that he might have
+left England altogether."
+
+"I cannot think he has," Gowan returned.
+
+They were both silent for a moment. Aimée sat twisting Miss MacDowlas's
+letter in her fingers, fresh tears gathering in her eyes.
+
+"It is all the harder to bear," she said next, "because Dolly has always
+seemed so much of a _reality_ to us. If she had been a pale, ethereal
+sort of girl, it might not seem such a shock; but she never was. She
+even used to say she could not bear those frail, ethereal people in
+books, who were always dying and saying touching things just at the
+proper time, and who knew exactly when to call up their agonized friends
+to their bedside to see how pathetically and decorously they made their
+exit. Oh, my poor darling! To think that she should be fading away and
+dying just in the same way! I cannot make it seem real. I cannot think
+of her without her color, and her jokes, and her bits of acting, and her
+little vanities. She will not be our Dolly at all if they have left her.
+There is a dress of hers up-stairs now,--a dress she couldn't bear.
+And I remember so well how she lost her temper when she was making it,
+because it would n't fit. And when I went into the parlor she was crying
+over it, and Grif was trying so hard to console her that at last
+she laughed. I can see her now, with the tears in her eyes, looking
+half-vexed and half-comforted. And Tod, too,--how fond she was of Tod,
+and how proud of him! Ah, Tod," in a fresh burst, "when you grow up,
+the daisies may have been growing for many a year over poor little Aunt
+Dolly, and you will have forgotten her quite."
+
+"You must not look at the matter in that desponding way," said Gowan,
+quite unsteadily. "We must hope for the best, and do what we can. You
+may rely upon me to exert myself to the utmost. If we succeed in
+finding Donne I am sure that he will do the rest. Perhaps, next summer
+Vagabondia will be as bright as ever,--nay, even brighter than it has
+been before."
+
+All his sympathies were enlisted, and, hopeless as the task seemed, he
+had determined to make strenuous efforts to trace this lost lover. Men
+had concealed themselves from their friends, in the world of London,
+often before, and this, he felt sure, Griffith Donne was doing; and
+since this poor little impassioned, much-tried Dolly was dying in spite
+of herself for Griffith Donne's sake, and seemed only to be saved by his
+presence, he must even set himself the task of bringing him to light and
+clearing up this miserable misunderstanding. Having been Dolly Crewe's
+lover, he was still generous enough to wish to prove himself her friend;
+yes, and even her luckier lover's friend, though he winced a trifle at
+the thought. Accordingly, he left the house that night with his mind
+full of half-formed plans, both feasible and otherwise.
+
+During the remainder of that week he did not call at Bloomsbury Place
+again, but at the beginning of the next he made his appearance, bringing
+with him a piece of news which excited Aimee terribly.
+
+"I know I shall startle you," he said, the moment they were alone
+together, "but you can scarcely be more startled than I was myself. I
+have been on the lookout constantly, but I did not expect to be rewarded
+by success so soon. Indeed, as it is, it has been entirely a matter of
+chance. It is as I felt sure it would be. Donne is in London still.
+I know that much, though that is all I have learned as yet. Late last
+night I caught a glimpse--only a glimpse--of him hurrying through a
+by-street. I almost fancied he had seen me and was determined to get out
+of the way."
+
+"The pretty English girl," said the guests at the inn, "comes down no
+longer to the _table d'hôte!_" "The pretty English girl," remarked the
+wiseacres, "does not even drive out on these days, and the doctor calls
+every morning to see her."
+
+"And sometimes," added one of the wisest, "again in the evening."
+
+"Consumption," observed another.
+
+"Plainly consumption," nodding significantly. "These English frauleins
+are so often consumptive," commented a third. "It is astonishing to
+remark how many come to 'try Switzerland,' as they say."
+
+"And die?"
+
+"And die,--as this one will."
+
+"Poor little thing!" with a sigh and a pitying shrug of the shoulders.
+
+And in the meantime up-stairs the basket chair had been taken away from
+the window, and a large-cushioned, chintz-covered couch had been pushed
+into its place, and Dolly lay upon it. But luxurious as her couch was,
+and balmy as the air was, coming through the widely opened window, she
+did not find much rest. The fact was, she was past rest by this time,
+she was too weak to rest. The hot days tried her, and her sleepless
+nights undermined even her last feeble relic of strength. Sometimes
+during the day she felt that she could not lie propped up on the pillows
+a moment longer; but when she tried to stand or sit up she was glad
+to drop back again into the old place. She lost her breath fearfully
+soon,--the least exertion left her panting.
+
+"If I had a cough," she said once to Miss MacDowlas, "I could understand
+that I was ill--or if I suffered any actual pain, but I don't, and even
+the doctor admits that my lungs are safe enough. What is it that he says
+about me? Let me see. Ah, this is it: that I am 'below par--fearfully
+below par,' as if I was gold, or notes, or bonds, or something. My ideas
+on the subject of the money market are indefinite, you see. Ah, well; I
+wonder when I shall be 'above par'!"
+
+She never spoke of her ailments in any other strain. Even as she lay
+on her couch, too prostrate to either read or work, she made audacious
+satirical speeches, and told Miss MacDowlas stories of Vagabondia, just
+as she used to tell them to Grif himself, only that in these days she
+could not get up to flourish illustratively; and often after lying for
+an hour or so in a dead, heavy, exhausting day-sleep, she opened her
+eyes at last, to jest about her faithful discharge of her duties as
+companion. Only she herself knew of the fierce battles she so often
+fought in secret, when her sore, aching heart cried out so loud for Grif
+and would not--_would_ not be comforted.
+
+She saw Phemie frequently. The much-abused professor had proved himself
+a faithful friend to them. He had never been quite able to forget the
+little English governess, who had so won upon him in the past, even
+though this same young lady, in her anxiety to set Lady Augusta at
+defiance, had treated him somewhat cavalierly. Indeed, hearing that she
+was ill, he was so touched as to be quite overwhelmed with grief.
+He gained Euphemia frequent leaves of absence, and sent messages of
+condolence and bouquets,--huge bunches of flowers which made Dolly laugh
+even while they pleased her. There was always a bouquet, stiff in form
+and gigantic in proportions, when Phemie came.
+
+At first Phemie caught the contagion of Dolly's own spirit and
+hopefulness, and was sustained by it in spite of appearances; but its
+influence died out at the end of a few weeks, and even she was not to be
+deceived. An awful fear began to force itself upon her,--a fear doubly
+awful to poor, susceptible Phemie. Dolly was getting no better; she was
+even getting worse every day; she could not sit up; she was thinner and
+larger-eyed than ever. Was something going to happen? And at the mere
+thought of that possible something she would lose her breath and sit
+looking at Dolly, silent, wondering, and awe-stricken. She began to
+ponder over this something, as she tried to learn her lessons; she
+thought of it as she went to bed and she dreamed of it in the night.
+Sometimes when she came in unexpectedly and found Dolly in one of those
+prostrate sleeps, she was so frightened that she could have cried out
+aloud.
+
+She came in so one evening at twilight,--the professor had brought her
+himself and had promised to escort her home,--and she found Dolly in one
+of these sleeps. So, treading lightly, she put the bouquet in water, and
+then drew a low chair to the girl's side and sat down to watch and wait
+until she should awaken. Miss MacDowlas was in her own room writing
+to Aimée; so the place seemed very quiet, and it was its quietness,
+perhaps, which so stirred Phemie to sorrowful thoughts and fear.
+
+Upon her brightly flowered chintz cushions Dolly lay like the shadow
+of her former self. The once soft, round outlines of her face had
+grown clear and sharp-cut, the delicate chin had lost its dimple, the
+transparent skin upon the temples showed a tracery of blue veins, the
+closed eyelids had a strange whiteness and lay upon her eyes heavily.
+She did not move,--she seemed scarcely to breathe. Phemie caught her own
+breath and held it, lest it should break from her in a sob of grief and
+terror.
+
+This something awful _was_ going to happen! She could not recover
+herself even when Dolly wakened and began to talk to her. She could not
+think of anything but her own anguish and pity for her friend. She could
+not talk and was so silent, indeed, that Dolly became silent too; and
+so, as the dusk fell upon them, they sat together in a novel quiet,
+listening to a band of strolling musicians, who were playing somewhere
+in the distance, and the sound of whose instruments floated to them,
+softened and made plaintive by the evening air.
+
+At last Dolly broke the silence.
+
+"You are very quiet, Phemie," she said. "Are you going to sleep?"
+
+"No," faltered Phemie, drawing closer to her. "I am thinking."
+
+"Thinking. What about?"
+
+"About you. Dolly, do you--are you very ill--worse than you were?"
+
+"Very ill!" repeated Dolly, slowly, as if in wonder. "Worse than I was!
+Why do you ask?"
+
+Then Phemie lost self-control altogether. She left her seat and fell
+down by the couch, bursting into tears.
+
+"You are so altered," she said; "and you alter so much every week. I
+cried over your poor, thin little hands when first I came to see you,
+but now your wrist looks as if it would snap in two. Oh, Dolly, darling,
+if--if you should die!"
+
+Was it quite a new thought, or was it because it had never come home to
+her in such a form before, this thought of Death? She started as if she
+had been stung.
+
+"If I should die!" she echoed. "_Die!_"
+
+"Phemie, my dear," said Miss MacDowlas, opening the door, "the professor
+is waiting down-stairs."
+
+And so, having let her sorrow get the better of her, Phemie had no time
+to stay to see if her indiscretion had done harm. If she did not go
+now, she might not be allowed fresh grace; and so she was fain to tear
+herself away.
+
+"I ought n't to have said it!" she bewailed, as she kissed Dolly again
+and again. "Please forget it; oh, do, please, forget it! I did not mean
+it, indeed! And now I shall be so frightened and unhappy!"
+
+"Phemie," said Dolly, quietly, "you have not frightened _me_; so you
+haven't the least need to trouble yourself, my dear."
+
+But she was not exactly sorry to be left alone, and when she was alone
+her thoughts wandered back to that first evening Phemie had called,--the
+evening she had gone to the glass to look at her changed face. She had
+sat in the basket-chair then,--she lay back upon her cushions now, and
+a crowd of new thoughts came trooping through her mind. The soft air was
+scented and balmy; the twilight sky was a dome of purple, jewel-hung;
+people's voices came murmuring from the gardens below; the far-off music
+floated to her through the window.
+
+"If I should _die!_" she said, in a wondering whisper,--"I, Dolly Crewe!
+How strange it sounds! Have I never thought that I could die before, or
+is it strange because now it is so real and near? When I used to talk
+about death to Grif, it always seemed so far away from both of us; it
+seemed to me as if I was not good enough or unreal enough to be near
+to Death,--great, solemn Death itself. Why, I could look at myself, and
+wonder at the thought of how much I shall see and know if I should die.
+Grif, how much I should have to tell you, dear,--only that people are
+always afraid of spirits, and perhaps you would be afraid, too,--even of
+me! What would they say at home? Dear, old, broken-hearted fellow, what
+would _you_ say, if I should die?"
+
+She could not help thinking about those at home; about Aimée and Mollie
+and Phil and Toinette, sitting together in the dear old littered room at
+Bloomsbury Place,--the dear old untidy room, where she had sat with Grif
+so often! How would they all bear it when the letter came to tell them
+she was gone, and would never be with them and share their pleasures and
+troubles again! And then, strangely enough, she began to picture herself
+as she would look; perhaps, laid out in this very room, a dimly outlined
+figure, under a white sheet,--not her old self, but a solemn, wondrous
+marble form, before whose motionless, mysterious presence they would
+feel awed.
+
+"And they would turn down the white covering and look at me," she found
+herself saying. "And they would wonder at me, and feel that I was far
+away. Oh, how they would wonder at me! And, at the very last, before
+they hid my face forever under the coffin-lid, they would all kiss me
+in that tender, solemn way,--all but Grif, who loved me best; and Grif
+would not be there!"
+
+And the piteous rain of heavy tears that rolled down her cheeks, and
+fell upon her pillow, was not for herself,--not for her own pain and
+weariness and anguish,--not' for the white, worn face, that would be
+shut beneath the coffin-lid, but for Grif,--for Grif,--for Grif, who,
+coming back some day to learn the truth, might hear that she had died!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII. ~ DO YOU KNOW THAT SHE IS DYING?
+
+IT had come at last,--the letter from Geneva, for which they all had
+waited with such anxious hearts and so much of dread. The postman,
+bringing it by the morning's delivery, and handing it through the opened
+door to Aimée, had wondered a little at her excited manner,--she was
+always excited when these letters came; and the moment she had entered
+the parlor, holding the hurriedly read note,--it was scarcely more than
+a note,--there was not one of them who did not understand all before she
+spoke.
+
+Mrs. Phil burst into tears; Phil himself laid down his brush and changed
+color; Mollie silently clung to Tod as a refuge, and looked up with
+trembling lips.
+
+Mrs. Phil was the first to speak.
+
+"You may as well tell us the worst," she said; "but it is easy enough to
+guess what it is, without being told."
+
+"It is almost the _very_ worst," answered Aimée.
+
+"Miss MacDowlas wants me to go to them at once. _She_ is so ill that if
+a change does not take place, she will not live many weeks, and she has
+asked for me."
+
+They all knew only too well that "she" meant Dolly.
+
+"Then," said Phil, "you must go at once."
+
+"I can go to-day," she answered. "I knew it would come to this, and I am
+ready to leave London at any moment."
+
+There was no delay. Her small box was even then ready packed and corded
+for the journey. She had taken Miss MacDowlas's warning in time. It
+would not have been like this heavy-hearted wise one to disregard it.
+She would have been ready to go to Dolly at ten minutes' notice, if she
+had been in India. She was not afraid, either, of making the journey
+alone. It was not a very terrible journey, she said. Secretly, she had a
+fancy that perhaps Dolly would like to see her by herself first, to have
+a few quiet days alone with her, in which she could become used to the
+idea of the farewell the rest would come to say. And in her mind the
+poor little oracle had another fancy, too, and this fancy she confided
+to Mollie before bidding her good-by.
+
+"Mollie," she said, "I am going to leave a charge in your hands."
+
+"Is it anything about Dolly?" asked Mollie, making fruitless efforts to
+check her affectionate tears.
+
+"I wish you would leave me something to do for Dolly, Aimée."
+
+"It is something connected with Dolly;" returned Aimée. "I want you to
+keep constantly on the watch for Griffith."
+
+"For Griffith!" Mollie exclaimed. "How can I, when I don't know whether
+he is in England or not?"
+
+"He is in England," Aimée replied. "He is in London, for Mr. Gowan has
+seen him."
+
+"In London--and Dolly in Switzerland, perhaps dying!"
+
+"He does not know that, or he would have been with her before now," said
+Aimée. "Once let him know that she is ill, and he will be with her. I
+know him well enough to be sure of that. And it is my impression that if
+he went to her at the eleventh hour, when she might seem to us to be at
+the very last, he would bring her back to life. It is Grif she is dying
+for, and only Grif can save her."
+
+"And what do you want me to do?" anxiously.
+
+"To watch for him constantly, as I said. Don't _you_ think, Mollie,
+that he might come back, if it were only into the street to look at the
+house, in a restless sort of remembrance of the time when they used to
+be so happy?"
+
+"It would not be unlike him," answered Mollie, slowly. "He was very fond
+of Dolly. Oh, he was very fond of her!"
+
+"Fond of her! He loved her better than his life, and does still,
+wherever he may be. Something tells me he will come, and that is why
+I want you to watch. Watch at the window as constantly as you can, but
+more particularly at dusk; and if you should see him, Mollie, don't wait
+a second. Run out to him, and _make_ him listen to you. Ah, poor fellow,
+he will listen eagerly and penitently enough, if you only say to him
+that Dolly is dying."
+
+"Very well," said Mollie, "I will remember." And thus the wise one took
+her departure.
+
+It was twilight in Bloomsbury Place, and Mollie crouched before the
+parlor window, resting her chin upon her hands, and looking out, pretty
+much as Aimée had looked out on that winter evening months ago, when Mr.
+Gerald Chandos had first presented himself to her mind as an individual
+to be dreaded.
+
+Three days had passed since the wise one left London,--three miserable,
+dragging days they had seemed to Mollie, despite their summer warmth and
+sunshine. Real anxiety and sorrow were new experiences in Vagabondia;
+little trials they had felt, and often enough small unpleasantnesses,
+privations, and disappointments; but death and grief were new. And they
+were just beginning to realize broadly the blow which had fallen upon
+them; hard as it was to believe at first, they were beginning slowly to
+comprehend the sad meaning of the lesson they were learning now for the
+first time. What each had felt a fear of in secret was coming to pass at
+last, and there was no help against it.
+
+Phil went about his work looking as none of them had ever seen him look
+before. Mrs. Phil's tears fell thick and fast. Not understanding
+the mystery, she could blame nobody but Grif, and Grif she could not
+forgive. To Mollie the house seemed like a grave. She could think of
+nothing but Dolly,--Dolly, white and worn and altered, lying upon her
+couch, her eyes closed, her breath fluttering faintly. She wondered if
+she was afraid to die. She herself had a secret girlish terror of death
+and its strange solemness, and she so pitied Dolly that sometimes she
+could not contain her grief, and was obliged to hide herself until her
+tears spent themselves.
+
+She had been crying during all this twilight hour she had knelt at the
+window. She was so lonely that it seemed impossible to do anything else.
+It would have been bad enough to bear the suspense even if Aimée had
+been with her, but without Aimée it was dreadful. The tears slipped down
+her cheeks and rolled away, and she did not even attempt to dry them,
+her affectionate grief had mastered her completely. But she was roused
+at length. Some one crossed the street from the pavement opposite the
+house; and when this some one entered the gate and ascended the steps,
+she rose slowly, half-reluctant, half-comforted, and with a faint
+thrill at her heart. It was Ralph Gowan, and she was not wise enough or
+self-controlled enough yet to see Ralph Gowan without feeling her pulses
+quicken.
+
+When she opened the door he did not greet her as usual, but spoke to her
+at once in a low, hurried tone.
+
+"Mollie, where is Aimée?" he asked.
+
+Her tears began to flow again; she could not help giving way.
+
+"You had better come in," she said, half turning away from him and
+speaking brokenly. "Aimée is not here. She left London three days ago.
+Dolly--"
+
+"Dolly is worse!" he said, because she could not finish.
+
+She nodded, with a heart too full for words.
+
+He stepped inside, and, closing the door, laid his hand upon her
+shoulder.
+
+"Then, Mollie," he said, "I must come to you."
+
+He did not wait a moment, but led her gently enough into the parlor,
+and, blinded as she was by her tears, she saw that instant that he had
+not come without a reason.
+
+"Don't cry," he said. "I want you to be brave and calm now,--for Dolly's
+sake. I want your help,--for Dolly's sake, remember."
+
+She recollected Aimée's words--"Mr. Gowan has seen him"--and a sudden
+light flashed upon her. The tears seemed to dry of their own accord all
+at once, as she looked up.
+
+"Yes," she answered.
+
+He knew, without hearing another word, that he might trust her.
+
+"Can you guess whom I have just this moment seen?" he said.
+
+"Yes," sprang from her lips, without a second's hesitation. "You have
+seen Grif."
+
+"I have seen Grif," he answered. "He is at the corner of the street now.
+If I had attempted to speak to him he would have managed to avoid me;
+and because I knew that, I came here, hoping to find Aimée; but since
+Aimée is not here--"
+
+"I can go," she interrupted him, all a-tremble with eagerness. "He will
+listen to me; he was fond of me, too, and I was fond of him. Oh! let me
+go now!"
+
+That bright little scarlet shawl of Dolly's lay upon the sofa, and
+she snatched it up with shaking hands and threw it over her head and
+shoulders.
+
+"If I can speak to him once, he will listen," she said; "and if he
+listens, Dolly will be saved. She won't die if Grif comes back. She
+can't die if Grif comes back. Oh, Dolly, my darling, you saved me, and I
+am going to try to save you."
+
+She was out in the street in two minutes, standing on the pavement,
+looking up and down, and then she ran across to the other side. She kept
+close to the houses, so that she might be in their shadow, and a little
+sob broke from her as she hurried along,--a sob of joy and fear and
+excitement. At the end of the row of houses somebody was standing under
+the street lamp,--a man. Was it Grif,--or could Grif have gone even in
+this short time? Fate could never have been so cruel to him, to her, to
+them all, as to let him come so near and then go away without hearing
+that Dolly was lying at death's portals, and no one could save her but
+himself and the tender power of the sweet, old, much-tried love. Oh, no,
+no! It was Grif indeed; for as she neared the place where he stood, she
+saw his face in the lamp-light,--a grief-worn, pallid face, changed and
+haggard and desperate,--a sight that made her cry out aloud.
+
+He had not seen her or even heard her. He stood there looking toward
+the house she had left, and seeing, as it seemed, nothing else. Only the
+darkness had hidden her from him. His eyes were fixed upon the dim light
+that burned in Dolly's window. She had not meant to speak until she
+stood close to him; but when she was within a few paces of him her
+excitement mastered her.
+
+"Grif," she cried out; "Grif, is it you?"
+
+And when he turned, with a great start, to look at her, she was upon
+him,--her hands outstretched, the light upon her face, the tears
+streaming down her cheeks,--sobbing aloud.
+
+"Mollie," he answered, "is it _you?_" And she saw that he almost
+staggered.
+
+She could not speak at first. She clung to his arm so tightly that he
+could scarcely have broken away from her if he had tried. But he did not
+try; it seemed as though her touch made him weak,--weaker than he had
+ever been before in his life. Beauty as she was, they had always thought
+her in some way like Dolly, and, just now, with Dolly's gay little
+scarlet shawl slipping away from her face, with the great grief in
+her imploring eyes, with that innocent appealing trick of the clinging
+hands, she might almost have been Dolly's self.
+
+Try as he might, he could not regain his self-control. He was sheerly
+powerless before her.
+
+"Mollie," he said, "what has brought you here? Why have you come?"
+
+"I have come," she answered, "for Dolly's sake!"
+
+The vague fear he had felt at first caught hold upon him with all the
+fulness of its strength.
+
+"For Dolly's sake!" he echoed. "Nay, Dolly has done with me, and I with
+her." And though he tried to speak bitterly, he failed.
+
+She was too fond of Dolly, and too full of grief to spare him after
+that. Unstrung as she was, her reproach burst forth from her without a
+softened touch. "Dolly has done with earth. Dolly's life is over," she
+sobbed. "Do you know that she is dying? Yes, dying,--our own bright
+Dolly,--and you--_you_ have killed her!"
+
+She had not thought how cruel it would sound, and the next instant she
+was full of terror at the effect of her own words. He broke loose from
+her,--_fell_ loose from her, one might better describe it, for it was
+his own weight rather than any effort which dragged him from her grasp.
+He staggered and caught hold of the iron railings to save himself, and
+there hung, staring at her with a face like a dead man.
+
+"My God!" he said,--not another word.
+
+"You must not give way like that," she cried out, in a new fright. "Oh,
+how could I speak so! Aimée would have told you better. I did not mean
+to be so hard. You can save her if you will. She will not die, Grif, if
+you go to her. She only wants _you_. Grif,--Grif,--you look as if you
+could not understand what I am saying." And she wrung her hands.
+
+And, indeed, it scarcely seemed as if he did understand, though at last
+he spoke.
+
+"Where is she?" he said. "Not here? You say I must 'go' to her."
+
+"No, she is not here. She is at Lake Geneva. Miss MacDowlas took her
+there because she grew so weak, and she has grown weaker ever since, and
+three days ago they sent for Aimée to come to her, because--because they
+think she is going to die."
+
+"And you say that _I_ have done this?"
+
+"I ought n't to have put it that way, it sounds so cruel, but--but she
+has never been like herself since the night you went away, and we have
+all known that it was her unhappiness that made her ill. She could not
+get over it, and though she tried to hide it, she was worn out. She
+loved you so."
+
+He interrupted her.
+
+"If she is dying for me," he said, hoarsely, "she must have loved me,
+and if she has loved me through all this,--God help us both!"
+
+"How could you go away and leave her all alone after all those years?"
+demanded Mollie. "We cannot understand it. No one knows but Aimée, and
+Dolly has told her that you were not to blame. Why did you go?"
+
+"_You_ do not know?" he said. "You should know, Mollie, of all
+others. _You_ were with her when she played that miserable coquette's
+trick,--that pitiful trick, so unlike herself,--you were with her that
+night when she let Gowan keep her away from me, when I waited for her
+coming hour after hour. I saw you with them when he was bidding her
+goodnight."
+
+They had hidden their secret well all these months, but it was to be
+hidden no longer now. It flashed upon her like an electric shock. She
+remembered a hundred things,--a hundred little mysteries she had met and
+been puzzled by, in Aimee's manner; she remembered all she had heard,
+and all she had wondered at, and her heart seemed turned to stone. The
+flush of weeping died out of her face, her hands fell and hung down
+at her side, her tears were gone; nothing seemed left to her but blank
+horror.
+
+"Was it because she did not come that night, that you left her to die?"
+she asked, in a labored voice. "Was it because you saw her with Ralph
+Gowan--was it because you found out that she had been with him, that you
+went away and let her break her heart? Tell me!"
+
+He answered her, "Yes."
+
+"Then," she said, turning to face him, still cold, and almost rigid, "it
+is _I_ who have killed her, and not you."
+
+"You!" he exclaimed.
+
+She did not wait to choose her words, or try to soften the story of her
+own humiliation.
+
+"If she dies," she said, "she has died for me."
+
+And without further preface she told him all. How she had let Gerald
+Chandos flatter and gain power over her, until the climax of her folly
+had been the wild, wilful escapade of that miserable long-past day.
+How Ralph Gowan had discovered her romantic secret, and revealed it
+to Dolly. How they had followed and rescued her; even how Dolly had
+awakened her from her dangerous dream with that light touch, and had
+drawn her away from the brink of an abyss, with her loving, girlish
+hands; and she ended with an outburst of anguish.
+
+"Why did n't she tell you?" she said. "For my sake she did not want the
+rest to know; but why did not she tell you? I cannot understand."
+
+"She tried to tell me," he said, in an agony of self-reproach, as he
+began to see what he had done,--"she tried to tell me, and I would not
+hear her."
+
+All his bygone sufferings--and, Heaven knows, he had suffered bitterly
+and heavily enough--sank into insignificance before the misery of this
+hour. To know how true and pure of heart she had been; to know how
+faithful, unselfish, sweet; to remember how she had met him with a
+tender little cry of joy, with outstretched, innocent hands, that he had
+thrust aside; to remember the old golden days in which she had so clung
+to him, and brightened his life; to think how he had left her lying
+upon the sofa that night, her white face drooping piteously against
+the cushions; to have all come back to him and know that he only was to
+blame; to know it all too late. Nay, a whole life of future bliss could
+never quite efface the memory of such a passion of remorse and pain.
+
+"Oh, my God!" he prayed, "have mercy upon me!" And then he turned upon
+Mollie. "Tell me where to go to; tell me, and let me go. I must go to
+her now without a moment's waiting. My poor, faithful little girl,--my
+pretty Dolly! Dying,--dying! No, I don't believe it,--I won't. She
+cannot die yet. Fate has been cruel enough to us, but it cannot be so
+cruel as that. Love will _make_ her live."
+
+He dashed down Mollie's directions in desperate, feverish haste upon a
+leaf of his memorandum-book, and then he bade her good-by.
+
+"God bless you, dear!" he said. "Perhaps you have saved us both. I am
+going to her now. Pray for me."
+
+"I ought rather to pray for myself," she said; "but for me you would
+never have been separated. I have done it all."
+
+And a few minutes after he had gone, Ralph Gowan, who had awaited her
+return before the window, turned to see her enter the room like a spirit
+and fling herself down before him, looking white and shaken and pale.
+
+"I have found it all out now," she cried. "I have found it all out. I
+have done all this, Mr. Gowan; it is through me her heart is broken, and
+if she dies, I shall have caused her death, as surely as if I had killed
+her with my own hand. Oh, save me from thinking she will die,--help me
+to think she will live,--help me!"
+
+There was no one else to help her, and the blind terror of the thought
+was so great that she must have help, or die. To have so injured Dolly,
+whom she so loved,--to have, by her own deed, brought that dread shadow
+of Death upon Dolly, who had saved her! Her heart seemed crushed. If
+Aimée had been there; but Aimée was not, so she stretched out her hands
+to the man she had so innocently loved. And as she so knelt before
+him,--so fair, in the childlike _abandon_ of her grief, so guileless
+and trusting in her sudden, sweet appeal, so helpless against the world,
+even against herself,--his man's heart was touched and stirred as it had
+never been before,--as even Dolly herself had not stirred it.
+
+"My poor child!" he said, taking her hands and drawing her nearer to
+himself. "My poor, pretty Mollie, come to me."
+
+And why not, my reader? If one rose is not for us, the sun shines on
+many another as sweet and quite as fair; and what is more, it is more
+than probable that if we had seen the last rose first, we should have
+loved the first rose last. It is only when, like Dolly and Grif, we have
+watched our rose from its first peep of the leaf, and have grown with
+its growth, that there can be no other rose but one.
+
+"_Le roi est mort--Vive le roi!_"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII. ~ GRIF!
+
+THERE was a hush upon the guests at the pretty little inn. Most of them
+were not sojourners of a day, who came and went, as they did at the
+larger and busier hotels,--they were comfortable people who enjoyed
+themselves in their own quiet way and so had settled down for the time
+being. Accordingly they had leisure to become interested in each other;
+and there were few of them who did not feel a friendly interest in the
+pretty, pale English girl, who, report said, was fading silently out
+of life in her bright room up-stairs. When Aimée arrived, the most
+sympathetic shook their heads dubiously.
+
+"The sister is here," they said; "a thoughtful little English creature
+with a child's face and a woman's air. They sent for her. One can easily
+guess what that means."
+
+Any one but Aimée would have been crushed at the outset by the shock
+of the change which was to be seen in the poor little worn figure, now
+rarely moved from its invalid's couch. But Aimée bore the blow with
+outward quiet at least. If she shed tears Dolly did not see them, and if
+she mourned Dolly was not disturbed by her sorrow.
+
+"I have come to help Miss MacDowlas to take care of you, Dolly," she
+said, when she gave her her greeting kiss, and Dolly smiled and kissed
+her in return.
+
+But it was a terribly hard matter to fight through at first. Of course,
+as the girl had become weaker she had lost power over herself. She was
+restless and listless by turns. Sometimes she started at every sound,
+and again she lay with closed eyes for hours, dozing the day away. The
+mere sight of her in this latter state threw poor Phemie into an agony
+of terror and distress.
+
+"It is so like Death," she would say to Aimée. "It seems as if we could
+never rouse her again."
+
+And then again she would rally a little, and at such times she would
+insist upon being propped up and allowed to talk, and her eyes would
+grow large and bright, and a spot of hectic color would burn on her
+cheeks. She did not even mention her trouble during the first two
+days of Aimée's visit, but on the third afternoon she surprised her by
+broaching the subject suddenly. She had been dozing, and on awakening
+she began to talk.
+
+"Aimée," she said, "where is Miss MacDowlas?"
+
+"In her room. I persuaded her to go and lie down."
+
+"I am very glad," quietly. "I want to do something particular. I want
+Grif's letters, Aimée."
+
+"Where are they?" Aimée asked.
+
+"In a box in my trunk. I should like to have them now."
+
+Aimée brought them to her without comment. The box had not been large
+enough to hold them all, and there was an extra packet tied with that
+dear old stereotyped blue ribbon.
+
+"What a many there are!" said Dolly, when she came to the couch with
+them. "You will have to sit down by me and hold some of them. One can
+write a great many letters in seven years."
+
+The wise one sat down, obediently holding the box upon her knee. There
+were so many letters in it that it was quite heavy.
+
+"I am going to look them over and tie them in packages, according to
+their dates," said Dolly. "He will like to have them when he comes
+back."
+
+It would not have been natural for her to preserve her calmness all
+through the performance of her task. Her first glance at the first
+letter brought the tears, and she cried quietly as she passed from
+one to the other. They were such tender, impetuous letters. The
+very headings--"My Darling," "My pretty Darling," "My own sweetest
+Life"--impassioned, youthful-sounding, and Grif-like, cut her to the
+heart. Ah! how terrible it would be for him to see them again, as
+he would see them! She was pitying him far more than she was pitying
+herself.
+
+It was a work not soon over, but she finished it at length. The packets
+were assorted and tied with new ribbon, and she lay down for a few
+minutes to rest.
+
+"You will give them to him, Aimée?" she said. "I think he will come some
+day; but if he does not, you must keep them yourself. I should not like
+people to read them--afterwards. Love-letters won't stand being read by
+strangers. I have often laughed and told him ours would n't. I am going
+to write a last one, however, this afternoon. You are to give it him,
+with the 'dead' letter--but they are all dead letters, are they not?"
+
+"Dolly," said Aimée, with a desperate effort, "you speak as if you were
+sure you were--going."
+
+There was a silence, and then a soft, low, tremulous laugh,--the merest
+echo of a laugh. Despite her long suffering Dolly was Dolly yet. She
+would not let them mourn over her.
+
+"Going," she said, "well--I think I am. Yes," half reflectively, "I
+think I must be. It cannot mean anything else,--this feeling, can it?
+It was a long time before I quite believed it myself, Aimée, but now I
+should be obliged to believe it if I did not wish to."
+
+"And do you wish to, now?"
+
+That little silence again, and then--
+
+"I should like to see Grif,--I want Grif,--that is all."
+
+She managed to write her last love-letter after this, and to direct
+it and tie it with the letter which had returned to her,--the "dead"
+letter. But the effort seemed to tire her very much, and when all was
+done and her restless excitement had died out, she looked less like
+herself than ever. She could talk no more, and was so weak and prostrate
+that Aimée was alarmed into summoning Miss MacDowlas.
+
+But Miss MacDowlas could only shake her head. "We cannot do anything to
+rouse her," she said. "It is often so. If the end comes, it will come in
+this way. She feels no pain."
+
+That night Aimée wrote to those at home. They must come at once if they
+wanted to see Dolly. She watched all night by the bedside herself;
+she could not have slept if she had gone to her own room, and so she
+remained with Dolly, watching her doze and waken, starting from nervous
+sleeps and sinking into them again.
+
+"There will not be many nights through which I can watch," she said
+to herself. "Even this might be the last." And then she turned to the
+window, and cried silently, thinking of Grif, and wondering what she
+should say to him, if they ever met again.
+
+How could she say to him, "Dolly is dead! Dolly died because you left
+her!"
+
+Another weary day and night, and then the old change came again. The
+feverish strength seemed to come once more. Dolly would be propped up,
+and talk. Before very long Aimée began to fancy that she had something
+she wished to say to Miss Mac-Dowlas. She followed her movements with
+eager, unsatisfied eyes, and did not seem at ease until she sat down
+near her. Then when she had secured her attention the secret revealed
+itself. She had something to say about Grif.
+
+Gradually, during the long weary weeks of her illness she had learned
+to place much confidence in Miss MacDowlas. Her affectionate nature had
+clung to her. In telling anecdotes of life in Vagabondia, she had talked
+of Grif,--Vagabondia would not have been Vagabondia without Grif,--and
+there was always a thrill of faithful love in her simplest mention of
+him. Truly, Miss MacDowlas beheld her reprobate nephew in a new light,
+surrounded by a halo of innocent romance and unselfish tenderness. This
+poor little soul, who was breaking her heart for his sake, showed him
+sinned against but never sinning, unfortunate but never to blame, showed
+him honest, sweet of nature, true, and faultless. Where were his faults
+in the eyes of his first and last love? The simple, whimsical stories of
+their loves and lovers' quarrels, of their small economies and perfect
+faith in the future,--a faith so sadly wrecked, as it seemed, by cruel
+Fate,--brought tears into Miss MacDowlas's eyes. Eloquent, affectionate
+Dolly won her over before she knew what she was thinking about. He could
+not have been such a reprobate, after all,--this Griffith Donne, who
+had so often roused her indignation. Perhaps he could not help being
+literary and wearing a shabby coat and a questionable hat. And Dolly
+had in the end begun to see how her long-fixed opinion had softened and
+changed. So she had courage to plead for Grif this afternoon. She wanted
+to be sure that if he should ever come back, there would be a hand
+outstretched to help him.
+
+"He only wanted help," she said; "and no one has ever helped him, though
+he tried so hard and worked so. Aimée knows how hard he worked, don't
+you, Aimée?"
+
+"Yes," answered Aimée, turning her working face away.
+
+"I should like you to promise," said Dolly, wistfully, to Miss
+MacDowlas. "It would make me so much happier. You have been so kind to
+me,--I am sure you will be kind to him,--poor Grif,--poor fellow!"
+
+Miss MacDowlas bent over her, touched to the heart.
+
+"My dear," she said, "he shall never want help again. He must have been
+worthy of so much love, or he would never have won it. I owe him some
+recompense, too. If I had not been so stupidly blind I might have saved
+you both all this pain. I have grown very fond of you, Dolly," she
+ended; and then, being quite overcome, she kissed the pretty hair
+suddenly, gave the thin hand an almost motherly squeeze, and made the
+best of her way out of the room.
+
+"Aimée," said Dolly, "do you remember how often I have made fun of her,
+when we were all so happy together? We made a good many mistakes, even
+in Vagabondia, did n't we?" And then she closed her eyes and lay silent,
+with wet lashes resting on her cheek.
+
+In speaking of this afternoon, long afterwards, Aimée said it seemed the
+longest and weariest she had ever known. It was extremely hot, and the
+very air seemed laden with heavy languor. The sun beat down upon the
+outer world whitely, and scarcely a leaf stirred. Miss MacDowlas did not
+return, and Dolly, though she was not asleep, lay quite still and did
+not open her eyes again. So Aimée sat and watched at her side, wondering
+how the day would end,--wondering if Phil and 'Toinette and Mollie would
+arrive before it was too late,--wondering what that strange last hour
+would be like, and how Dolly would bear it when it came, and how they
+themselves would bear to think of it when it was over.
+
+She was not quite sure how long she sat watching so, but she fancied
+that it must have been two or three hours, or even more. She got up at
+last and drew down the green blinds as noiselessly as possible, and then
+went back to her place and rested her head upon the pillow near Dolly's,
+feeling drowsy and tired,--she had slept so little during the past few
+nights.
+
+Dolly moved restlessly, stretching out her hand to Aimée's and opening
+her eyes all at once--ah! what large, hollow, shadowy eyes they were!
+
+"I am very tired," she murmured, "so tired and so weak, Aimée,"
+dreamily. "I suppose this is what you would call dying of a broken
+heart. It seems so queer that I should die of a broken heart." "Oh,
+Dolly--Dolly!" Aimée whispered, "our own dearest dear, we never thought
+such pain could come to you."
+
+But even the next moment Dolly seemed to have lost herself, her eyes
+closed again and she did not speak. So Aimée lay holding her hand, until
+the indoor silence, the shadow of the room, and the sound of the droning
+bees outside lulled her into a sort of doze, and her own eyelids fell
+wearily.
+
+A minute, was it, five or ten, or more than that?
+
+She could not say. She only remembered her own last words, the
+warmth, the shadow, the droning of the bees, and the gradual losing
+consciousness, and then she was wide awake again,--awakened by a
+strange, wild cry, which, thrilling and echoing through the room, made
+her start up with a beating heart and look towards the door.
+
+"Grif!"
+
+That was all,--only this single rapturous cry, and Dolly, who had before
+seemed not to have the strength of a child, was sitting up, a white,
+tremulous figure, with outstretched arms and fluttering breath, and Grif
+was standing upon the threshold.
+
+Even when she had blamed him most, Aimée had pitied him also; but she
+had never pitied him as she did when he strode to the couch and took
+the weak, worn, tremulous little figure in his arms. He could not
+speak,--neither spoke. Dolly lay upon his breast crying like a little
+child. But for him--his grief was terrible; and when the loving hand was
+laid upon his cheek and Dolly found her first words, they only seemed to
+make it worse.
+
+"Don't cry," she said. "Don't cry, dear. Kiss me!" He kissed her lips,
+her hands, her hair. He could not bear it. She was so like, yet so
+fearfully unlike, the winsome, tender creature he had loved so long.
+
+"Oh, my God!" he cried, in his old mad way, "you are dying, and if you
+die it will be I who have murdered you!"
+
+She moved a little nearer, so that her pretty face rested against his
+shoulder and she could lift her streaming eyes to his, her old smile
+shining through her tears.
+
+"Dear old fellow," she said, "darling old fellow, whom I love with all
+my soul! I shall live just to prove that you have done nothing of the
+kind!"
+
+It was only Grif she wanted,--only Grif, and Grif had come.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX. ~ ROSE COLOR.
+
+OF course she recovered. What else could she do? If a man is dying for
+want of bread and you give him bread enough and to spare, he will regain
+strength and life, will he not? And so with Dolly. Having found Grif,
+she had nothing to die for and so much to live for, that she lived. It
+seemed, too, that even if she had been inclined to die, Grif would have
+held her fast to earth. It was worse than useless to attempt to delude
+him into leaving her side, even for an hour; he hung over the invalid's
+couch, in such an anguish of half-despairing anxiety that the hearts of
+the unceremoniously deposed nurses were quite touched. He watched every
+change in Dolly's face, every brightening or fading tint in her cheek,
+every glance of her eyes; he followed her every movement. If she was
+tired of her posture, he could raise her or lay her down and settle her
+cushions as no one else could; if she was strong enough to listen, he
+could talk to her; if she was too weak, he could be silent.
+
+But naturally there was much to talk about. Not that the period of
+his absence had been a very eventful one. It was as Ralph Gowan had
+fancied,--he had been living quietly enough in a secluded London
+street during the whole of the time; but Dolly found the history of
+his self-banishment both interesting and soul-moving. The story of his
+miseries brought the tears into her eyes, and his picture of what he had
+suffered on that unhappy night, when he had rushed out of the house
+and left her insensible upon the sofa, made her cling to his hand
+convulsively and sob outright.
+
+"I can scarcely believe you are here,--quite safe," she would say; "you
+might have killed yourself."
+
+And indeed he had been in no small danger of so doing.
+
+Among all this, however, there was one bit of brightness,--a wonderful
+piece of news he told her that very day after his return. Fortune
+had, with her usual caprice, condescended to smile upon him at last.
+Incredible as it appeared, he had "got into something," and this
+"something" was actually remunerative,--reasonably remunerative, if
+not extravagantly so. Four hundred a year would pay the rent of the
+figurative house in Putney or elsewhere, and buy the green sofa and
+appurtenances, at least. Dolly could scarcely believe it, and, indeed,
+he scarcely believed it himself.
+
+"It seemed as if, when I had lost all else, this came to add to the
+bitterness of the loss," he said. "I am afraid I was far from being as
+grateful, at first, as I ought to have been. I could only remember how
+happy such luck would have made us both if it had only come a year or
+so earlier. And the very day I got the place I passed the upholsterer's
+where the parlor furniture was,--green sofa and all. And I went home
+with the firm intention of blowing my brains out. The only thing that
+saved me that day was the fact that my landlady met me at the door with
+a miserable story about her troubles and her taxes, and by the time I
+had listened for half an hour, and done something she wanted done, I had
+cooled down a little, though I was wretched enough."
+
+"The 'something' was paying the taxes, was n't it?" questioned Dolly.
+
+"Something of that kind," admitted Griffith.
+
+"Ah," said Dolly, "I thought so."
+
+Very naturally Griffith felt some slight embarrassment on encountering
+Miss MacDowlas, having a rather unpleasant recollection of various
+incidents of the past. But Miss Berenice faced the matter in a different
+manner and with her usual decision of character. She had made up her
+mind to receive Griffith Donne as a respectable fact, and then, through
+Dolly's eloquence, she had learned to regard him with even a sort of
+affection,--a vague affection, of course, at the outset, but one which
+would ripen with time. Thus she rather surprised him by confronting him
+upon an entirely new ground. She was cordial and amiable, and on
+the first opportunity she explained her change of feeling with great
+openness.
+
+"I have heard so much of you from Dolly," she said, "that I am convinced
+I have known nothing of you before. I hope we shall be better friends. I
+am very fond of Dolly. I wish I had known her three or four years ago."
+
+And there was such a softened tenderness in her thin, unpromising face,
+that from thenceforward Griffith's doubts were removed and his opinion
+altered, as hers had done. The woman who had loved and pitied Dolly
+when she so sorely needed pity and love, must be worthy of gratitude and
+affection.
+
+Phil and 'Toinette and Mollie arriving, in the deepest affliction, to
+receive Dolly's last farewell, were rather startled by the turn affairs
+had taken. Changed as she was, the face she turned to greet them was not
+the face of a dying girl. She was deplorably pale and shrunken and thin,
+but the light of life was in her eyes and a new ring was in her voice.
+She had vitality enough to recognize fresh charms in Tod, and spirit
+enough to make a few jokes.
+
+"She won't die," commented Phil to his wife when they retired to their
+room.
+
+"No," said Mrs. Phil, discreetly, "it is not likely, now Grif has come
+back. But it won't do to waste the journey, Phil, so we may as well stay
+awhile. We have not been anywhere out of London this summer."
+
+Accordingly, with their usual genius for utilizing all things, they
+prolonged their visit and made it into a kind of family festival; and
+since their anxiety on Dolly's behalf was at an end, they managed
+to enjoy it heartily. They walked here, and rode there, and explored
+unheard-of points and places; they kept the quiet people in the quiet
+hotel in a constant state of pleasant ferment with their good spirits
+and unceremonious friendliness. Mollie and Aimée and Mrs. Phil excited
+such general admiration that when they made their appearance at the
+_table d'hôte_ there was a visible stir and brightening, and Dolly
+was so constantly inquired after, that there were serious thoughts
+entertained of issuing hourly bulletins. The reaction of high spirits
+after their fears was something exhilarating even to beholders.
+
+And while they enjoyed themselves, and explored, and instituted a high
+carnival of innocent rejoicing, Dolly directed all her energies to the
+task of getting well and filling Grif's soul with hope and bliss. As
+soon as she had fully recovered they were to be married,--not a day, not
+an hour, longer would Grif consent to wait. His only trouble was that
+she would not be strong enough to superintend the purchase of the green
+sofa and appurtenances. Aimée had, however, proved his rock of refuge
+as usual They were to return to London together and make the necessary
+preparations, and then the wedding was to take place in Geneva, and the
+bride would be carried home in triumph.
+
+"We have been so long in travelling toward the little house at Putney
+that it will be the nicest bridal tour we could have," said Dolly.
+
+Then, of course, came some pleasant excitement in connection with the
+trousseau, in which everybody was involved. The modest hotel had never
+before been in such a state of mind through secret preparations, as
+it was when Dolly was well enough to sit up and walk about and choose
+patterns. Her instinct of interest in worldly vanities sustained that
+young person marvellously. When Grif and Aimée had returned to London
+she found herself well enough to give lengthy audiences to Mrs. Phil,
+who, with Miss MacDowlas, had taken the business of purchasing in hand,
+and to discuss fabrics and fashions by the hour. She remembered Grifs
+enthusiasm on the subject of her toilets, and she was wholly ruled by
+a secret and laudable ambition to render herself as irresistible as
+possible. She exercised to its utmost her inventive genius, and lay
+awake at night to devise simple but coquettish feminine snares of attire
+to delight and bewilder him in the future.
+
+She might well progress rapidly toward health and strength. By the time
+the house was ready for her reception she was well enough to drive out
+and explore with the rest, though she looked frail and unsubstantial by
+contrast with Mollie's bloom and handsome Mrs. Phil's grand curves. She
+was gaining flesh and color every day, but the slender throat and wrists
+and transparent hands were a bitter reproach to Grif even then, and it
+would be many weeks before she could again indulge in that old harmless
+vanity in her dimples and smooth roundness of form.
+
+Mollie mourned over her long, in secret, and, indeed, was so heart-wrung
+by the sight of the change she found in her, that the very day of her
+arrival had not drawn to its close before she burst upon her with a
+remorseful appeal for forgiveness.
+
+"But even if you forgive me I shall not forgive myself," she said. "I
+shall never forget that dreadful night when I found out that it was all
+my fault, and that you had borne everything without telling me. If--if
+it had not been for--for Mr. Gowan, Dolly, I think I should have died."
+
+"If it had not been for whom?" asked Dolly.
+
+"Mr. Gowan," answered Miss Mollie, dropping her eyes, her very throat
+dyed with guilty blushes.
+
+"Ah!" said Dolly. "And what did Mr. Gowan do, Mollie?"
+
+"He was very kind--and sympathizing," replied Mollie.
+
+"He always is sympathizing," looking at her with affectionate
+shrewdness. "He is very nice, is n't he, Mollie?"
+
+"Yes," said Mollie. "Very nice, indeed."
+
+"And I dare say you were so frightened and wretched that you cried?"
+
+"Yes," confessed the abashed catechised.
+
+"I thought so." And then, conjuring up in her mind's eye a picture of
+Mollie, heart-broken, appealing and in tears, beauteous, piteous, and
+grief-abandoned, she added, with tender impulsiveness, "I don't wonder
+that he sympathized with you, Mollie."
+
+It revealed itself shortly afterward that his sympathy had not confined
+itself to the night Mollie called "dreadful." Since that night he had
+been a frequent visitor at Bloomsbury Place,--as frequent a visitor as
+he had been in the days when Dolly had been wont so to entertain him.
+
+A week after the return of Aimée and Grif from London, there fell again
+upon the modest hotel a hush; but it was not the hush of sympathetic
+silence which had fallen upon it before,--it was merely a sort of
+reaction after a slight excitement. The pretty English girl had, to
+every one's wonder, suddenly returned to earth and had been married!
+The wisest were bewildered, but such was the fact, nevertheless; nobody
+could exactly comprehend, but who could deny it? It was a mystery,
+indeed, until one day, some time after, a usually phlegmatic matron
+was struck with an idea, and accordingly propounded to her friends a
+somewhat vaguely expressed problem.
+
+"After the appearance of the lover one heard no more that she was
+dying?"
+
+"Just so."
+
+"Perhaps the lover had something to do with the matter?", "Ah!"
+
+"Perhaps she was dying for him, and his coming cured her?"
+
+"Exactly. That must have been the case."
+
+And thenceforth the matter was deemed settled. However, the gay,
+light-hearted party of English had taken their departure,--the friendly
+young artist who sketched and smoked and enjoyed himself; his handsome
+young wife, who sketched and played with her handsome child, and enjoyed
+_herself_; the beautiful younger sister, who blushed and was charmingly
+bashful, but enjoyed herself; the fair little saint with the
+grave youthful face, who took care of them all, and yet enjoyed
+_herself_,--the lover, the elder lady, the guest who came to be
+groomsman, the bride,--they were all gone at last, and their absence was
+the cause of the hush of which I speak.
+
+There had been a wedding,--a joyous, light-hearted wedding, in which
+the bride had looked pretty and flower-like and ethereal,--a fragile
+creature enough in her white dress and under her white veil, but a
+delightfully happy creature, notwithstanding,--in which the bridegroom
+had been plainly filled with chivalric tenderness and bliss,--in which
+the two sisters had been charming beyond measure, and the awkward,
+affectionate girl friend from the seminary had blushed herself into a
+high fever. There could not have been a more prettily orthodox wedding,
+said the beholders. Somehow its glow of young romance touched people, it
+was so evident that the young couple were fond of each other, and happy
+and hopeful. There were those who, seeing it solemnized in the small
+church, shed a few tears, they knew not why, when Grif lifted Dolly's
+veil and kissed her without a word.
+
+"It is all rose color to them," said one of these soft-hearted ones,
+apologetically, to her neighbor.
+
+Rose color! I should think it was.
+
+But if it was all rose color then, what was it that first evening they
+spent at home,--in their own home, in the little house which was so
+bright and pretty that it seemed more like a dream than a reality?
+What color did life look when Grif led Dolly across the threshold, half
+trembling himself for very joy? What color did it look when he shut the
+door of the little parlor, and, turning round, went to her and folded
+her in his arms close to his beating heart?
+
+Rose color! It was golden and more than golden! And yet, for the first
+minute, Dolly could not speak, and the next she laid her cheek in her
+favorite place, on the lapel of Grif's coat, and burst into a great
+gush of soft, warm tears,--tears without a touch of any other element,
+however, than love and happiness.
+
+"_Home_, Grif!" she said.
+
+He was quite pale and he had almost lost his voice, too, but he managed
+to answer her, unsteadily.
+
+"Yes, Dolly," he said; "home!" And he stroked the bright hair upon his
+breast, with a world of meaning in his touch.
+
+"Do you think," she said next, "that I am good enough and wise enough to
+take care of it, and to take care of _you_, Grif?"
+
+"Do you think," he said, "that I am good enough and wise enough to take
+care of _you_?"
+
+She lifted up her face and kissed him.
+
+"We love each other," she whispered, "we trust each other, and so we
+can help each other, and God will help us both. Ah, Grif, how bright and
+sweet life is!"
+
+And she scarcely knew, tender little soul, that instead of "life" she
+should have said "love."
+
+There we will leave them both, merely hinting at the festivities that
+followed,--merely hinting at the rejoicings at Bloomsbury Place, the
+gatherings at Brabazon Lodge, and the grand family reception at the
+house of the bride,--a reception at which Dolly shone forth with renewed
+splendor, presiding over a gorgeous silver tea-service, which was one
+of Miss MacDowlas's many gifts, dispensing tea and coffee with the
+deportment of a housekeeper of many years' standing, and utterly
+distracting Grif with her matronly airs and graces.
+
+Vagabondia was itself again in these days, but it was turning its
+brighter side outward. Phil was winning success, too, his position in
+the world of art was becoming secured, and Bloomsbury Place was to be
+touched up and refurnished gradually. Aimée had promised to make her
+home with Dolly until such time as her sweet little saint's face won
+her a home of her own. Miss MacDowlas had been adopted into the family
+circle, and was conscious of being happier than she had ever felt since
+her long-past youth slipped from her grasp. Tod's teeth were "through,"
+as Mrs. Phil phrased it, and convulsions had not supervened, to the
+ecstasy of his anxious admirers. And Mollie,--well, Mollie waltzed with
+Ralph Gowan again on the night of Dolly's reception, and when the dance
+was at an end, she went and seated herself near her hostess upon the
+green sofa--it was a green sofa, though a far more luxurious one than
+Dolly and Grif had ever dared to set their hearts upon in the olden
+days.
+
+"Dolly," she said, blushing for the last time in this history of mine,
+and looking down at her bouquet of waxen-white camellias and green
+leaves,--"Dolly, I suppose Aimée has told you that I am engaged
+to--to--"
+
+"To Mr. Gowan," suggested Dolly.
+
+"Yes," answered Mollie, "to Mr. Gowan."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Vagabondia, by Frances Hodgson
+Burnett
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VAGABONDIA ***
+
+***** This file should be named 25727-8.txt or 25727-8.zip ***** This
+and all associated files of various formats will be found in:        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/7/2/25727/
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will be
+renamed.
+
+Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
+law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works,
+so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United
+States without permission and without paying copyright royalties.
+Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this
+license, apply to copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and
+trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not
+be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific
+permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this eBook,
+complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly
+any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances
+and research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may
+do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected
+by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark
+license, especially commercial redistribution.
+
+START: FULL LICENSE
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU
+DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
+Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
+www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree
+to and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all the
+terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy all
+copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be used
+on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who agree
+to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few things that
+you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works even without
+complying with the full terms of this agreement. See paragraph 1.C
+below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement and help
+preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works.
+See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in
+the collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an
+individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the United States and
+you are located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent
+you from copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating
+derivative works based on the work as long as all references to Project
+Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the
+Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic
+works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with
+the terms of this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name
+associated with the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this
+agreement by keeping this work in the same format with its attached
+full Project Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with
+others.
+
+1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing
+or creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+  This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+  most other parts of the world 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.org. If you are not located in the
+  United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you
+  are located before using this ebook.
+
+1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not contain a
+notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the copyright
+holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in the United
+States without paying any fees or charges. If you are redistributing
+or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project Gutenberg"
+associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply either with
+the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or obtain permission
+for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set
+forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute
+this electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other
+than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official
+version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site
+(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
+to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
+of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain
+Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the full
+Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing access
+to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided that
+
+* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from  the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+  you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
+  to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has
+  agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
+  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
+  within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
+  legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
+  payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
+  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
+  Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
+  Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies  you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+  does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+  License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
+  copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
+  all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm
+  works.
+
+* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of  any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+  electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
+  receipt of the work.
+
+* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free  distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set forth
+in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from both the
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The Project Gutenberg
+Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact
+the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
+Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
+contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
+or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by your
+equipment.
+
+1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal fees.
+YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY,
+BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE PROVIDED IN
+PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE TRADEMARK OWNER,
+AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR
+ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES
+EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a defect
+in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a written
+explanation to the person you received the work from. If you received
+the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with your
+written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with the
+defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation,
+the trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will remain
+freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure and
+permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. To
+learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and
+how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 and the
+Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org Section 3. Information
+about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the state
+of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal Revenue
+Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification number is
+64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by U.S.
+federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the
+mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its volunteers
+and employees are scattered throughout numerous locations. Its business
+office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116,
+(801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to date contact information
+can be found at the Foundation's web site and official page at
+www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+
+    Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+    Chief Executive and Director
+    gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide spread
+public support and donations to carry out its mission of increasing
+the number of public domain and licensed works that can be freely
+distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest array
+of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations ($1 to
+$5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt status with
+the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
+DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state
+visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make any
+statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from outside
+the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other ways
+including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To donate,
+please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright
+in the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
+necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, including
+how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to subscribe to
+our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+