you suppose I care any more for those
who give it to me than a Chinese idol does for--whoever swings incense
before it? Are you devoted to your butcher and milkman? We desire only
the unpossessed or unattainable, "something afar from the sphere of
our sorrow." But, though unconsciously, I may have been piqued by this
manner of his. It was new; not a word, not a glance; I believed it
was carelessness, and resolved--merely for the sake of conquering, I
fancied, too--to change all that. By-and-by the beads dropped out of the
curl, as if they had been possessed of mischief and had held there of
themselves. He caught them.

"Here, Circe," he said.

That was the time I was so angry; for, at the second, he meant all it
comprehended. He saw, I suppose, for he added at once,--

"Or what was the name of the Witch of Atlas,

'The magic circle of whose voice and eyes
All savage natures did imparadise?'"

I wonder what made me think him mocking me. Frequently since then he has
called me by that name.

"I don't know much about geography," I said. "Besides, these didn't come
from there. Little Asian--the imp of my name, you remember--owned them."

"Ah?" with the utmost apathy; and turning to my father, "I saw the
painting that enslaved you, Sir," he said.

"Yes, yes," said papa, gleefully. "And then why didn't you make me a
copy?"

"Why?" Here he glanced round the room, as if he weren't thinking at all
of the matter in hand. "The coloring is more than one can describe,
though faded. But I don't think you would like it so much now. Moreover,
Sir, I cannot make copies."

I stepped towards them, quite forgetful of my pride. "Can't?" I
exclaimed. "Oh, how splendid! Because then no other man comes between
you and Nature; your ideal hangs before you, and special glimpses open
and shut on you, glimpses which copyists never obtain."

"I don't think you are right," he said, coldly, his hands loosely
crossed behind him, leaning on the corner of the mantel, and looking
unconcernedly out of the window.

Wasn't it provoking? I remembered myself,--and remembered, too, that I
never had made a real exertion to procure anything, and it wasn't worth
while to begin then, beside not being my forte; things must come to me.
Just then Lu reentered, and one of the servants brought a tray, and we
had lunch. Then our visitor rose to go.

"No, no," said papa. "Stay the day out with the girls. It's Mayday, and
there are to be fireworks on th