it; and as a worm will turn, so did Dorley; and, having represented to her that her little attentions were incompatible with the respectability of appearance Colonel Adair required from his gardener, it was agreed that they should separate, she possessing one-half of his wages and household goods, he the other. They had not been apart a week when Dorley came and gave papa warning. "He could not live without his missus," he said, "and he was going to her." And go he did; but matters were ultimately arranged, and Dorley came back to us with his spouse, who beats him more than ever, to his great satisfaction and content.
Dorley, however, if meek at home, is not meek to us. He is a tyrant, and looks upon the fruits and flowers of the garden as his, while we are little thieves and pickpockets, who menace the same. And oh! he has to be sharp, has Dorley, or there would be never a gooseberry, peach, or apricot to send in for dessert. I wonder where he is this afternoon? I wonder where everybody is? Though I have been prowling round the garden for half an hour I have not met a soul.
It is very mean of Jack to go off and leave me in this way—on a Wednesday afternoon too. I did not think he would bear me so much malice about the pig; boys aren't forgiving like girls. I wonder what he is doing? Fishing? Bathing? Taking a scramble across country with Pepper? It is too hot for that, for Jack loves his ease as well as anybody else. I wonder if any apples have fallen from the quarantine tree? I turn my steps towards it and look about; there is not one on the grass. I cast my eyes upwards, and mark with approving eyes the rosy fruit hanging so stirlessly on the boughs. If only a breeze would spring up, and give those boughs a gentle shake, down would fall the apples at my feet, but the sky is one hard, fierce glare, and there is not the ghostliest shadow of a breeze abroad on the land.
Looking begets longing, longing in a depraved and energetic
