SELF-DENIAL. 407 



have to part. I should see her at least every morning and 

 every evening when I came home from work. But when I 

 thought of a close house in the heart of the City; of no care 

 for her but that of a coarse miserable drudge of all-work ; no 

 companionship but that of my noisy neglected little brothers 

 and sisters, I faltered in my wish ; and when I looked at her 

 fragile form, grown of late so tall and thin, and at her transpa- 

 rent, flower-like complexion, " Ah, Lucy \" thought I, " should 

 I be indeed thy friend, should I indeed take care of thee, to 

 have thee transported, if / can hinder, from this sweet pure 

 air these fields, and woods, and flowers, and from the wings 

 of our tender Dove, thy faithful gentle nurse, whose heart 

 too is breaking at the thought?" And when Lucy herself, on 

 my father's asking her if she would go to London and see the 

 carriages and shops, hung down her head in sorrowful silence, 

 the struggling self within me was subdued, and I entreated 

 and obtained consent that she should be kept at least for a year 

 or two in Dolly's care. 



My father returned first to business, leaving me and Caleb 

 to follow after the latter had seen to the completion of some 

 arrangements for the sale (for the benefit of his creditors) of 

 my poor uncle's furniture and effects. His cabinet of insects 

 and a few of the least costly of his books on entomology my 

 father, at my request, contrived to save for me. 



During the week or two which Lucy and I passed together 

 before the day of parting I noticed few comparatively of her 



