mbered with
coziness. She took one of the rocking-chairs. Dolly sank into the other.
By keeping the same rhythm, there was space for both to swing at the
same time. Dolly swayed back and forth three times, and then burst into
tears. "He has left me, Auntie; Goosie is gone; ooh-ooh!" The aunt's
chair ceased rocking with an abruptness that made their knees bump.
Dolly's chair stopped; she looked at her aunt in astonishment. Aunt
Hester was sitting up very straight. "Do you mean to say," she began, and
then paused as though unable to believe the evidence; "do you mean to
say," she went on, "do you mean to say, Dolly Sims, that you made me come
down all the way from Boston just because Charles-Norton is gone?"

"Why, yes," answered Dolly, petrified. "Why, yes. Isn't that enough;
isn't it _enough_? My life is ruined! Ruined! Oo-oo-ooh"--and her eyes,
ablaze for an instant, became veiled by a filmy cascade.

"Pooh," said Aunt Hester, decidedly; "pooh. Charles-Norton is gone; well,
he'll come back."

"He's not coming back," wailed Dolly, indignantly; "he's _not_! He has
dee-s-s-er-ted me!"

"Deserted," jeered Aunt Hester. "Charles-Norton! A fine chance
Charles-Norton has to desert you, Dolly! First of all, he couldn't make
himself want to, no matter how much he tried. And if he did want to, he
couldn't. You wouldn't let him, Dolly!"

"Wouldn't let him! Oh! Do you think, Auntie, that I am so low, so base,
so devoid of pride, as to keep a man who----"

"Toot-toot," said Aunt Hester; "toot-toot--you can't help it. Have you
ever read that fellow Darwin, Dolly?"

"Darwin," said Dolly, rather astonished at the turn taken by the
conversation; "Darwin--did he write 'When Knighthood was in Flower'?"

Aunt Hester opened her mouth like a fish suddenly whisked out of water.
She closed it again. By the time she spoke, she had suppressed something.
"No, no, Dolly," she said. "_Darwin_, the--well, it doesn't matter. We've
been reading him lately, anyway, at the Cooking Club. That chap _knows_
things, Dolly. He didn't tell me anything I didn't know ahead myself; but
he _explained_ lots of things I had found out. You should read him."

"I'll read him, Auntie," said Dolly, with dolorous voice. "I suppose I'll
have to read now, or paint china, or do something like that, now that
Charles, that Charles, that Charles----"

"Oh, Charles, Charles, Charles," echoed Aunt Hester, but in much
different tone; "you'll get your Charles back. Char