out of her way, and it cost her some trouble and
time to get to the place. It was a store of artists' materials, among
other things; and here Dolly made careful purchases of paper, colours,
and camel's-hair pencils. Rupert was reassured as to a suspicion that
had crossed him, that part of Dolly's trouble might have been caused by
want of means; seeing that she was buying articles of amusement with a
free hand. Then Dolly went straight home.

All the rest of that afternoon she sat drawing. The next two days, the
weather was unfavourable for going out, and she sat at her work
persistently, whenever she was not obliged to be reading to her mother
or attending upon her. The day following the long-planned visit to the
Green vaults was made. In the evening Lawrence came to see them.

"Well, Mrs. Copley; tired?"--he began.

"I don't know which part of me's most tired," said the lady; "my eyes,
or my head, or my feet."

"Did it pay, after all?"

"Pay! I wouldn't have missed it for a year's length of life! It went
ahead of all I ever thought of or dreamt of. It was most like Aladdin's
lamp--or what he saw, I mean, when he went down into fairyland. I
declare, it was just as good."

"Only that you could not put things in your pockets. What would you
have brought, Mrs. Copley, if it had been safe and allowable? The
famous egg?"

"Mercy, no, Mr. St. Leger! I shouldn't have a minute's peace of my
life, for fear I should lose it again."

"That's about how they say the first owner felt. They tell of him, that
a lady once coaxed him to let her have the egg in her hand; and she
kept it in her hand; and the prince forgot; and she drove back to
Dresden with it."

"Where was he, the prince?"

"At some hunting castle, I believe. It was night before he found out
his loss; and then he booted and spurred in hot haste and rode to
Dresden in the middle of the night to fetch the egg from the lady
again."

"What's the use of things that give folks so much trouble?" said Rupert.

"A matter of taste!" said Lawrence, shrugging his shoulders. "But I am
glad to have been through those rooms myself; and I never should, but
for you, Mrs. Copley. I suppose there is hardly the like to be seen
anywhere else."

"What delicious things there were in the ivory room," said Dolly.
"Those drunken musicians, mother, of Albert Duerer; and some of the
vases; how beautiful they were!"

"I did not see the musicians," said Mrs. Copley. "I don't see how