first one they
entered was full of people, waiting to see the Consul or parleyeing
with one or another of the clerks. Dolly left Mrs. Jersey there to wait
for her, and herself went on into the inner room, her father's special
private office. In those days the office of American Consul was of far
more importance and dignity than to-day; and this room was a tolerably
comfortable one and respectably furnished.

Here, however, her father was not; and it immediately struck Dolly that
he had not been there very lately. How she gathered this impression is
less easy to tell, for she could hardly be said to see distinctly any
one of the characters in which the fact was written. She did not know
that dust lay thick on his writing-table, and that even the papers
piled there were brown with it; she did not know that the windows were
fastened down this warm day, nor that an arm-chair which usually stood
there for the accommodation of visitors was gone, having been slipped
into the outer office by an ease-loving clerk. It was a general air of
forsakenness, visible in these and in yet slighter signs, which struck
Dolly's sense. She stood a moment, bewildered, hoping against sense, as
it were; then turned about. As she turned she was met by a young man
who had followed her in from the outer office. Dolly faced him.

"Where is Mr. Copley?"

"He ain't here." The Yankee accents of home were unmistakeable.

"I see he is not here; but where is he?"

"Couldn't say, reelly. 'Spect he's to his place. We don't ginerally
expect ladies at this time o' day, or I guess he'd ha' ben on hand."
The clerk grinned at Dolly's beauty, the like of which to be sure was
not often seen anywhere at that, or any other, time of day.

"When was Mr. Copley here, sir?"

"Couldn't say. 'Tain't very long, nother. Was you wantin' to see him on
an a'pintment?"

"No. I am Miss Copley. Where can I find my father? Please tell me as
quick as you can."

"Sartain--ef I knowed it. Now I wisht I did! Mr. Copley, he comes and
he goes, and he don't tell me which way; and there it is, you see."

"Where is Mr. St. Leger?"

"Mr. Silliger? Don't know the gentleman. Likely Mr. Copley doos. But he
ain't here to say. Mebbe it 'ud be a good plan to make a note of it.
That's what Mr. Copley allays says; 'make a note of it.'"

"You do not know, sir, perhaps, whether Mr. Copley is in London?"

"He was in London--'taint very long ago, for he was in this here
office, and I se