oney?"

"I never tried, you know," said Dolly; "but I should think it would be
possible to be happy."

"Like a child!" said her mother. "Children always think so. What's to
make you happy, when the means are gone? No, Dolly; money is
everything, in this world. Without it you are of no consequence, and
you are at everybody's mercy; and I can tell you one thing besides;--if
the women could be happy without money, the men cannot. If you don't
give a man a good breakfast, he'll be cross all day; and if his dinner
don't suit him, you'll hear of it for a week, and he'll go off to the
club besides."

"He cannot do _that_ without money," said Dolly, trying to laugh.

"Then he'll stay at home, and torment you. I tell you, Dolly, life
ain't worth having, if you haven't got money. That is why I want you to
like"---- Mrs. Copley broke off suddenly.

"I should think one might have good breakfasts and dinners even if one
was poor," said Dolly. "They say French women do."

"What French women do is neither here nor there. I am talking about you
and me. Look at this bread,--and see that omelette. I can tell you,
nothing on earth would keep your father down here if he couldn't have
something better to eat than, that."

Dolly began to ponder the possibility of learning the art of cookery.

"What puzzles me," Mrs. Copley went on, "is, how he _could_ have lost
money? But I am sure he has. I feel it in all my bones. And he is such
a clever man about business too!"

Dolly tried with all her might to bring her mother off this theme. At
last she succeeded; but the question lingered in her own mind and gave
it a good deal to do.

After a day or two more, Mr. St. Leger came as threatened. Dolly
received him alone. She was in the garden, gathering roses, at the time
of his arrival. The young man came up to her, looking very glad and shy
at once, while Dolly was neither the one nor the other. She was
attending to the business she had in hand.

"Well, how are you?" said her visitor. "How is Mrs. Copley? Getting
along, eh?"

"When's father coming down, Mr. St. Leger?"

"To-morrow. He'll come down early, he said."

"Sunday morning?" cried Dolly, and stopped, looking at the young man.

"Oh yes. He'll come down early. He couldn't get off to-night, he told
me. Some business."

"What business? Anything he could not put off? What kept him, Mr. St.
Leger?"

"I don't know, 'pon my honour. He'll be down in the morning, though.
What's th