'
'No?' said Lily.
'No, I shall certainly not go.'
'Nonsense,' said Claude, waking from his pretended sleep, 'why do you
not ask Travers to go with you? He would like nothing better.'
'He is a botanist, and would bore me with looking for weeds. No, I
will have you, or stay at home.'
Claude proposed several others as companions, but Lord Rotherwood
treated them all with as much disdain as Claude had shown for
Germany, and ended with 'Now, Claude, you know my determination, only
tell me why you will not go?'
'Then I do tell you, Rotherwood, the truth is, that those boys,
Maurice and Reginald, are perfectly unmanageable when they are left
alone with the girls.'
'Have a tutor for them,' said the Marquis.
'Very much obliged to you they would be for the suggestion,' said
Claude.
'Oh! but Claude,' said Lily.
'I really cannot go. They mind no one but the Baron and me, and
besides that, it would be no small annoyance to the house; ten tutors
could not keep them from indescribable bits of mischief. I undertook
them these holidays, and I mean to keep them.'
Lilias was just flying off to her father, when Claude caught hold of
her, saying, 'I desire you will not,' and she stood still, looking at
her cousin in dismay.
Pages:
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146