yelids.
The house was too dark for any sight to see very clearly; the full,
strong, healthy light of the sun, could not find its way into it, and day
after day Dolly became more like one of those plants growing in shady
places, which live and shoot up, but only put out pale and sickly leaves,
and feeble buds. One by one, and by little and little, with degrees as
small as her own tiny footsteps, she lost all her merry ways, dropping
them, here one and there another, upon the path she was silently
treading; as little children let fall the flowers they have gathered in
the meadows, along their road homewards. Yet all the time old Oliver was
loving and cherishing her as the dearest of all treasures, second only to
the Master whom he loved so fully; but he never discovered that there
was any change in her. Dolly fell into very quiet ways, and would sit
still for hours together, her arm around Beppo, and her sweet, patient
little face, which was growing thin and hollow, turned towards the
flickering light of the fire, while Oliver pottered toilsomely about his
house, forgetting many things, but always ready with a smile and a fond
word for his grand-daughter.

Just as Oliver was too old to feel any anxiety about Dolly, so Tony was
too young, and knew too little of sickness and death. Moreover, when he
came home in the evening, full of the business of the day, with a number
of stories to tell of what had happened to him, and what he had seen,
Dolly was always more lively, and had a feverish colour on her face, and
a brilliant light in her eyes. He seemed to bring life and strength with
him, and she liked him to nurse her on his knee, which did not grow tired
and stiff like her grandfather's. How should Tony detect anything amiss
with her? She never complained of feeling any pain, and he was glad for
her to be very quiet and still while he was busy with his lessons.

But when the summer was ended, and after the damp warm fogs of November
were over, and a keen, black frost set in sharply before Christmas--a
frost which had none of the beauty of white lime and clear blue skies,
but which hung over the city like a pall, and penetrated to every
fireside with an icy breath; when only the strong and the healthy, who
were well clothed and well fed, could meet it bravely, while the
delicate, and sickly, and poverty-stricken, shrank before it, and were
chilled through and through, then Dolly drooped and failed altogether.
Even old Oliv