“By Jove! What is it?” cried Law.
“It is nothing to you,” said his father. “But look here, Law. See that you don’t go out all over the place and leave your sister by herself, without anyone to take care of her. My engagements I can’t always give up, but don’t let me hear that there’s nobody to walk across the road with Lottie when she’s asked out.”
“Oh, that’s it, is it?” said Law. “I thought they’d had enough of you at the Deanery, Lottie. That’s going to begin again, then, I suppose?”
“I am not invited to the Deanery,” said Lottie, with as much state and solemnity as she could summon up, though she trembled; “neither is it going to begin again. There is no occasion for troubling Law or you either. I always have taken care of myself hitherto, and I suppose I shall do it till the end.”
“You need not get on your high horse, my child,” said Captain Despard, blandly. “Don’t suppose that I will interfere; but it will be a consolation to you to remember that your father is watching over you, and that his heart goes with you,” he added, with an unctuous roll in his voice. He laid his hand for a moment on her head, and said, “Bless you, my love,” before he turned away. The Captain’s emotion was great; it almost brought the tears to his manly eyes.
“What is the row?” said Law, when his father had gone. Law’s attention had been fully occupied during the service with his own affairs, and he did not know of the reappearance of Rollo. “One would think he was going to cry over you, Lottie. What have you done? Engagements! he has always got some engagement or other. I never knew a fellow with such a lot of friends—I shouldn’t wonder if he was going to sup somewhere to-night. I wonder what they can see in him,” said Law, with a sigh.
“Law, are you going out too?”
“Oh, I suppose so; there is nothing to do in the house. What do you suppose a fellow can do? Reading is slow work; and, besides, it’s Sunday, and it’s wrong to work on Sunday. I shall go out and look round a bit, and see if I can see anyone I know.”
“Do you ever think, I wonder,” said Lottie—“papa and you—that if it is so dull for you in the house, it must sometimes be a little dull for me?”
She was not in the habit of making such appeals, but to-night there was courage and a sense of emancipation in her which made her strong.