'Miss
Hacket brought it up to give to mamma, and there's ever so much of it
shut up in the drawing-room blotting-book with the malachite knobs. I
can't think why they laugh--I think it is very pretty. Old Miss Hacket
read me the one about "My Lost Dove."'
'Mysie always will stick up for Dolores,' said Valetta in a grumbling
voice.
'I always meant her to be my friend,' said Mysie, disconsolately.
'Well, I'm glad she's not,' said Jasper. 'What a sell it would have
been for me to find you chummy with a stupid, poetry-writing, good-for-
nothing girl like that, instead of my jolly old Mice!'
And at that minute all Dolly's slights were fully compensated for!
There was a lurking purpose in the boys' minds that if Dolores would
not join in fun, yet still fun should be extracted from her. Jasper had
brought home a box of Japanese fireworks, and Wilfred, who was
superintending his unpacking, proposed to light the serpent and place
it in Dolores's path as she was going up to bed; but Jasper was old
enough to reply that he would have no concern with anything so low and
snobbish as such a trick. In fact, there was in Jasper's mind a decided
line between bullying and teasing, which did not exist as yet in
Wilfred's conscience. And, altogether, Dolores was in a state of mind
that made her stiff letters to her father betray low spirits and
discontent.
On Sunday, while waiting for the early dinner, Jasper and Mysie
happened to be together in the drawing-room, and Mysie took the
opportunity of showing her brother the different cuttings of poetry.
Pages:
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169