"I don't believe you did," said his sister; "but what did you mean? Grant, I should like to hear you pay a compliment for once."
"You do not know Egyptian glass," said the doctor.
"No. What was it?"
"Very curious."
"Didn't I say that you couldn't pay compliments?" said Mrs. Sandford.
"And unlike any that is made nowadays. There were curi
ous patterns wrought in the glass, made, it is supposed, by the fusing together of rods of glass, extremely minute, of different colours; so that the pattern once formed was ineffaceable and indestructible, unless by the destruction of the vessel which contained it. Sometimes a layer of gold was introduced between the layers of glass."
"How very curious!" said Mrs. Sandford.
"I think I must take you into consultation, Daisy," the doctor went on, turning to me. "It is found that there must be a little delay before you can go up to take a look at Melbourne. Mrs. Sandford is obliged to stop in New York with a sick sister; how long she may be kept there it is impossible to say. Now you would have a dull time, I am afraid; and I am in doubt whether it would not be pleasanter for you to enter school at once. In about three months the school term will end and the summer vacation begin; by that time Mrs. Sandford will be at home and the country ready to receive you. But you shall do whichever you like best."
"Mrs. Sandford will be in New York," I said.