ss Darling? The Power that wants to overrun all the rest, or the
Country that only defends itself? I hope he has not converted you to
the worship of the new Emperor; for the army and all the great cities of
France have begged him to condescend to be that; and the King of Prussia
will add his entreaties, according to what we have heard."

"I think anything of him!" cried Dolly, as if her opinion would settle
the point. "After all his horrible murders--worst of all of that very
handsome and brave young man shot with a lantern, and buried in a ditch!
I was told that he had to hold the lantern above his poor head, and his
hand never shook! It makes me cry every time I think of it. Only let
Frank come back, and he won't find me admire his book so very much! They
did the same sort of thing when I was a little girl, and could scarcely
sleep at night on account of it. And then they seemed to get a little
better, for a time, and fought with their enemies, instead of one
another, and made everybody wild about liberty, and citizens, and the
noble march of intellect, and the dignity of mankind, and the rights
of labour--when they wouldn't work a stroke themselves--and the black
superstition of believing anything, except what they chose to make a
fuss about themselves. And thousands of people, even in this country,
who have been brought up so much better, were foolish enough to think
it very grand indeed, especially the poets, and the ones that are too
young. But they ought to begin to get wiser now; even Frank will find it
hard to make another poem on them."

"How glad I am to hear you speak like that! I had no idea--at least I
did not understand--"

"That I had so much common-sense?" enquired Dolly, with a glance of
subtle yet humble reproach. "Oh yes, I have a great deal sometimes, I
can assure you. But I suppose one never does get credit for anything,
without claiming it."

"I am sure that you deserve credit for everything that can possibly
be imagined," Scudamore answered, scarcely knowing, with all his own
common-sense to help him, that he was talking nonsense. "Every time I
see you I find something I had never found before to--to wonder at--if
you can understand--and to admire, and to think about, and to--to be
astonished at."

Dolly knew as well as he did the word he longed to use, but feared.
She liked this state of mind in him, and she liked him too for all his
kindness, and his humble worship; and she could not help