(Another pause, and long drawn breath.)
DORA (slowly recovering herself) to EGYPT. We had better have let
him go to sleep, I think, after all!
L. You had better let the younger ones go to sleep now: for I
haven't half done.
ISABEL (panic-struck). Oh! please, please! just one quarter of an
hour.
L. No, Isabel, I cannot say what I've got to say in a quarter of
an hour; and it is too hard for you, besides:--you would be lying
awake, and trying to make it out, half the night. That will never
do.
ISABEL. Oh, please!
L. It would please me exceedingly, mousie: but there are times
when we must both be displeased; more's the pity. Lily may stay
for half an hour, if she likes.
LILY. I can't, because Isey never goes to sleep, if she is waiting
for me to come.
ISABEL. Oh, yes, Lily, I'll go to sleep to-night. I will, indeed.
LILY. Yes, it's very likely, Isey, with those fine round eyes! (To
L.) You'll tell me something of what you we been saying, to-
morrow, won't you?
L. No, I won't, Lily. You must choose. It's only in Miss
Edgeworth's novels that one can do right, and have one's cake and
sugar afterwards as well (not that I consider the dilemma, to-
night, so grave).
(LILY, sighing, takes ISABEL'S hand.)
Yes, Lily dear, it will be better, in the outcome of it, so, than
if you were to hear all the talks that eer were talked, and all
the stories that ever were told.
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