"And why, pray?"
"Because I wanted to come home, and Mr. Henley, my boss, insisted upon proving to me it would be the most foolish thing I could do. He was so much in the right, that I resented it by being cross."
"But now he has come himself, and brought you with him."
"No thanks to him, though. It was all Uncle Sam's doings, who wants to send us from the Equator to the North Pole."
"Are you really going to Russia, Hazlehurst?" asked Mr.
Ellsworth.
"Certainly; you would not have me desert, would you?"
"Oh, no; don't think of it, Mr. Hazlehurst; it must be a very pleasant life!" exclaimed Mrs. Creighton. "I only wish, Frank, that you were enough of a politician to be sent as minister somewhere; I should delight in doing the honours for you; though I dare say you would rather have some one else in my place."
"We will wait until I am sent as ambassador to Timbuctoo, before
I answer the question."
"You have grown half-a-dozen shades darker than you used to be as a youngster, Harry; or else this lamp deceives me," observed Mr. Wyllys.
"I dare say I may have a fresh tinge of the olive. But I am just from sea, sir, and that may have given me an additional coat."