the way of your father's pleasure. He
must take his pleasure; and he likes London. How he can, I don't see;
but he does, and so do a great many other people; it may be a want of
taste in me; I daresay it is; but I shall not put myself in the way of
his pleasure. I'll stand it as long as I can, and when I cannot stand
it any longer, I'll die. It will come to an end some time."

"Mother, don't talk so! We'll coax father to finish up his business and
go home to Roxbury. I am quite setting my heart on it. Only you have
patience a little, and don't lose courage. I'll talk to father as soon
as I get a chance."

"What a dirty place this is!" was Mrs. Copley's next remark.

"Yes. It is not like the rocks and the sea. A great city must be more
or less so, I suppose."

"I believe great cities are a mistake. I believe they were not meant to
be built. They don't agree with me, anyway. Well, I'll lie down on that
old sofa there--it's hard enough to have been one of Job's
troubles--and see if I can get to sleep."

Dolly drew a soft shawl over her, and sat down to keep watch alone. The
familiar London sounds were not cheering to the ears which had been so
lately listening to the lap of the waves and the rustling of the myrtle
branches. And the dingy though comfortable London lodging-house was a
poor exchange for the bay of Sorrento and the bright rooms full of the
scents of orange flowers and roses and carnations. Dolly gave way a
little and felt very down-hearted. Not merely for this change of her
outside world, indeed; Dolly was not so weak; only in this case the
outward symbolised the inward, and gave fitting form and imagery for
it. The grime and confusion of London streets, to Dolly's fancy, were
like the evil ways which she saw close upon her; and as roses and
myrtles, so looked a fair family life of love and right-doing. Why
not?--when He, who is Love itself and Righteousness immaculate,
declares of Himself,--"I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the
valleys." I do not think those words occurred to Dolly that night, but
other Bible words did, after a while. Promises of the life that shall
be over all the earth one day, when the wilderness and the desert
places shall be no longer desolate or barren, but shall "rejoice and
blossom as the rose;" when to the Lord's people, "the sun shall no
longer be their light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon
give light" to them; when "sorrow and sighing shall flee away," a