"That's enough to vex any man. Cray should spend less time in writing these verses of his."
"Yes, he wrote us word that his brother said so, and was extremely cross and unpleasant, when he replied that this was genius, and must not be repressed."
John, after this, rode into the town, and as he stopped his horse to pay the turnpike, he was observed by the turnpike-keeper's wife to be looking gloomy and abstracted; indeed, the gate was no sooner shut behind him than he sighed, and said with a certain bitterness, "I shouldn't wonder if, in two or three years time, I am driven to put my neck under the yoke after all."
"No, we can't come," said little Hugh, when a few days after this Emily and Dorothea drove over and invited the children to spend the day, "we couldn't come on any account, because something very grand is going to happen."
"Did you know," asked Anastasia, "that Johnnie had got into the shell?"
"No, my sweet," said Emily, consoling her empty arms for their loss, and appeasing her heart with a kiss.
"And father always said that some day he should come home to early dinner," continued Hugh, "and show the great magic lantern up in Parliament. Then Swan's grandchildren and the coachman's little girls are coming; and every one is to have a present. It will be such fun."
"The shell," observed Bertram, "means a sort of a class between the other classes. Father's so glad Johnnie has got into the shell."
"She is glad too," said Anastasia. "You're glad, Mrs. Nemily."
"Yes, I am glad," answered Emily, a tear that had gathered under her dark eyelashes falling, and making her eyes look brighter, and her smile more sweet.