a little.

"All right!" said he, and sped away.

Dolly looked after him, so full of vexation that she did not know what
to do. Not her father, and in his place this boy! This boy to go with
them on the journey; to be one of the party; to be always on hand; for
he could not be relegated to the place of a servant or a courier. And
Dolly wanted her father, and was sure that the expense of a fourth
person might have been spared. The worst fear of all she would not look
at; it was possible that they were still to be three, and her father,
the fourth, left out. However, for the present the matter in hand was
action; she must tell her mother about this new arrival before she met
him at supper. Dolly went in.

"Your father not coming?" said Mrs. Copley when she had heard Dolly's
report. "Then we have nothing to wait for, and we can get right off. I
do want to see your father out of that miserable office once!"

"Well, he promised me, mother," said Dolly, sighing.

"Can we go to-morrow?"

"No, mother; there are too many last things to do. Next day we will."

"Why can't we go and leave this young man to finish up after us?"

"He could not do it, mother; and we must let father know, besides."

Rupert came back in due time and was presented to Mrs. Copley; but Mrs.
Copley did not admire his looks, and the supper-table party was very
silent. The silence became unbearable to the new-comer; and though he
was not without a certain shyness in Dolly's presence, it became at
last easier to speak than to go on eating and not speaking.

"Plenty of shootin' round about here, I s'pose," he remarked. "I heard
the guns going."

"The preserves of Brierley are very full of game," Dolly answered; "and
there are some friends of Lord Brierley staying at the house."

"I engaged a waggon," Rupert went on. "It'll be here at one, sharp."

"I ought to have sent a word to the post-office, for father, when you
went to the village; but I did not think till it was too late."

"I did that," said Rupert.

"Sent a word to father?"

"All right. Told him you'd be up on Wednesday."

"Oh, thank you. That was very thoughtful."

"You're from America," said Mrs. Copley.

"Should think I was!"

"Whereabouts? where from, I mean?"

"About two miles from your place--Ortonville is the spot. My native."

"What made you come over here?"

"Well, I s'pose it would be as true as anything to say, Mr. Copley made
me come."

"What for?"

"Well, I gu