'Oft with anxious straining eyes
We watch the coming of some joy long hoped for;
And now 'tis near. But at its side a dark
And stealthy thing, that we should fly like death
Did we but see it, is advancing on us,
Yes, step by step with those of its bright compeer.'
King Henry II., a Drama.
(Quoted in Helps' Casimir Maremma.)
'Which is to have the precedence, Alda's child or ours?'
'Alda's child is not likely to be ready for inspection as early as ours.'
'Oh! I thought you would vote it treason to babydom not to begin with Lowndes Square.'
'My maternal feelings draw me the other way, you see.'
'You won't confess it to Wilmet!'
'It is of no use to go to Alda before twelve,' put in Marilda. 'Cherry had better go to the Royal Academy before it gets full.'
It was May, and the catalogue of the Royal Academy bore—