other thing. Where are we going to get anything to eat?"

"Lunch will be ready in a minute, mother."

"What have we got?"

"What you like. Frizzled beef and chocolate."

"I like it,--but I don't suppose it is very nourishing. Where are we to
get what we want, Dolly? how are we to get bread, and butter, and
marketing?"

"There's a village half a mile off. And, here is lunch on the table. We
shall not starve to-day."

Mrs. Copley liked her chocolate and found the bread good. Nevertheless,
she presently began again.

"Are we to live here alone the rest of our lives, Dolly? or what do you
suppose your father's idea is? It's a very lonesome place, seems to me."

"Why, mother, we came here to get you well; and it's enough to make
anybody well. It is the loveliest place I have ever seen, I think. Mr.
St. Leger's grand establishment is nothing to it."

"And what do you mean by what you said about Lawrence St. Leger? Are
you glad to have even _him_ go away?"

"Yes, mother, a little bit. He was rather in my way."

"In your way! that's very ungrateful. How was he in your way?"

"Somebody to attend to, and somebody to attend to me. I like to be let
alone. By and by, when you are sleeping, I shall go over and explore
the park."

"What I don't understand," said Mrs. Copley, recurring to her former
theme, "is, why, if he wanted me to be in the country, your father did
not take a nice house somewhere just a little way out of London,--there
are plenty of such places,--and have things handsome; so that he could
entertain company, and we could see somebody. We can have nobody here.
It looks really quite like poor people."

"That isn't a very bad way to look," said Dolly calmly.

"_Not?_ Like poor people?" cried Mrs. Copley. "Dolly, don't talk folly.
Nobody likes that look, and you don't, either."

"I am not particularly afraid of it. But, mother, we do not want to
entertain company while you are not well, you know."

"No; and so here you are shut up and seeing no creature. I wish we were
at home!"

Dolly did not precisely wish that; not at least till she had had time
to examine this new leaf of nature's book opened to her. And yet she
sighed a response to her mother's words. It was all the response she
made.

She was too tired with her unwonted gardening exertions to go further
exploring that afternoon. It was not till a day or two later, when
Dolly had become somewhat more acquainted with her new life and its
con