o have me read to you?"

"No, child. Shubrick reads to me and talks to me. He's capital company,
though he's one of your blue sort."

"Father! He is not blue, nor am I. Do you think I am blue?"

"Sky blue," said her father. "He's navy blue. That's the difference."

"I do not understand the difference," said Dolly, half laughing.

"Never mind. What have you done with Mr. Shubrick?"

"I?" said Dolly, aghast.

"Yes. Where is he?"

"Oh!--I believe, mother sent him into the park."

"Sent him into the park? What for?"

"I do not mean that she sent him," said Dolly, correcting herself in
some embarrassment; "I mean, that she sent me up here, and he went into
the park."

"I wish he'd come back, then. I want him to finish reading to me that
capital article on English and European politics."

"Can I finish it?"

"No, child. You don't understand anything about the subject. Shubrick
does. I like to discuss things with him; he's got a clear head of his
own; he's a capital talker. When is he going?"

"Going where, father?"

"Going away. He can't stay here for ever, reading politics and putting
my room in order. How long is he going to stay?"

"I do not know."

"Well--when he goes I shall go! I shall not be able to hold out here. I
shall go back to London. I can't live where there is not a man to speak
to some time in the twenty-four hours. Besides, I can do nothing here.
I might as well be a cabbage, and a cabbage without a head to it."

"Are we cabbages?" asked Dolly at this. "Mother and I?"

"Cabbage roses, my dear; cabbage roses. Nothing worse than that."

"But even cabbage roses, father, want somebody to take care of them."

"I'll take care of you. But I can do it best in London."

"Then you do not want me to read to you father?" Dolly said after a
pause.

"No, my dear, no, my dear. If you could find that fellow Shubrick--I
should like him."

And Mr. Copley closed his eyes as if to sleep, finding nothing worthy
to occupy his waking faculties. Dolly sat by the window, looking out
and meditating. Yes, Mr. Shubrick would be going away, probably soon;
his furlough could not last always. Meanwhile, she had given him no
answer to his questions and propositions. It was rather hard upon him,
Dolly felt; and she had a sort of yearning sympathy towards her suitor.
A little impatience seized her at being shut up here in her father's
room, where he did not want her, and kept from the walk in the park
with Mr. S