"All right."
He was setting forth immediately, with a world of energy in his gait. Dolly called after him.
"To-morrow will be time enough for the waggon, Mr. Babbage."
"There'll be something else for to-morrow," he answered without pausing.
"Tea'll be ready at six," said Dolly, raising her voice a little.
"All right!" said he, and sped away.
Dolly looked after him, so full of vexation that she did not know what to do. Not her father, and in his place this boy! This boy to go with them on the journey; to be one of the party; to be always on hand; for he could not be relegated to the place of a servant or a courier. And Dolly wanted her father, and was sure that the expense of a fourth person might have been spared. The worst fear of all she would not look at; it was possible that they were still to be three, and her father, the fourth, left out. However, for the present the matter in hand was action; she must tell her mother about this new arrival before she met him at supper. Dolly went in.
"Your father not coming?" said Mrs. Copley when she had heard Dolly's report. "Then we have nothing to wait for, and we can get right off. I do want to see your father out of that miserable office once!"
"Well, he promised me, mother," said Dolly, sighing.
"Can we go to-morrow?"