"I am always in earnest. And we are upon an excellent understanding, Mr. St. Leger. And I want money. The thing is as harmonious as possible."
CHAPTER XXII.
MR. COPLEY.
Lawrence could get no more satisfaction from Dolly. She left him, and went and stood at the window of her mother's room, looking out. The sunset landscape was glorious. Bay and boats, shipping, palaces, canals and bridges, all coloured in such wonderful colours, brilliant in such marvellous lights and shades, as northern lands do not know, though they have their own. Yet she looked at it sadly. It was Venice; but when would her father come? All her future seemed doubtful and cloudy; and the sunshine which is merely external does not in some moods cast even a reflection of brightness upon one's inner world. If her father would come, and Lawrence would go—if her father would come and be his old self—but what large "ifs" these were. Dolly's eyes grew misty. Then her mother woke up.
"What are you looking at, Dolly?"
"The wonderful sunset, mother. Oh, it is so beautiful! Do come here and see the colours on the sails of the boats."
"When do you think your father will be here?"
"Oh, soon, I hope. He ought to be here soon."
"Did you tell him I would want money to buy things? I must not lose that sideboard."