Mr. Maurine Mohun, that the decision was final; but perhaps Dolores
would have asked more if the door-bell had not rung at the moment and
Mr. Smithson had not been announced. Fate was closing in on her. She
retired into her book, and remained as long as she possibly could, for
the sake of seeing her father and hearing his voice; but after a time
she was desired to call Caroline, and to go to bed herself, for it was
a good deal past nine o'clock.

She had been aware, she could hardly tell how, that her father had been
offered a government appointment connected with the Fiji Islands, and
then that, glad to escape from the dreariness which had settled down on
the house since his wife's death, about eighteen months previously, he
had accepted it, and she had speculated much on her probable fate; but
had never before been officially informed of his designs for himself or
for her.

He was a barrister, who spent all his leisure time on scientific
studies, and his wife had been equally devoted to the same pursuits.
Dolores had been her constant companion; but after the mother's death,
from an accident on a glacier, a strange barrier of throwing himself
into the ways of a girl past the charms of infancy. It was as if they
had lost their interpreter.

The German governess, chosen by Mrs. Mohun, was very German indeed, and
greatly occupied in her own studies. When she found that the armes-
liebes Madchen shrank from being wept over and caressed on the mournful
return, she decided that the English had no feeling, and acquiesced in
the routine of lessons and expeditions to classes. She was never
unkind, but she did not try to be a companion; and old Caroline was
excellent in the attention she paid to the comforts of her master and