"Then you would have to do without your handmaiden," said Lawrence. "You do not think that we on this side are so careless of our own advantage as to let such a valuable article go out of the country?"
It was said with just such a mixture of jest and earnest that Dolly could hardly take it up. The words soothed Mrs. Copley, though her answer hardly sounded so.
"I suppose that is what mothers have to make up their minds to," she said. "Just when their children are ready to be some comfort to them, off they go, to begin the same game on their own account. I sometimes wonder whether it is worth while to live at all!"
"But one can't help that," said Rupert.
"I don't see what it amounts to."
"Mother, think of the Dresden Green vaults," said Dolly.
"Well, I do," said Mrs. Copley. "That keeps me up. But when I have seen them, Dolly, what will keep me up then?"
"Why, Venice, mother."
"And suppose I don't like Venice? I sometimes think I shan't."
"Then we will not stay there, dear. We will go on to Sorrento."