IIL] THE SILVER FAIRIES. 155

 

that he was not exactly in his element, and the song
of the Fairy, about the sparrow who sighed to become
a pheasant, recurred to his mind more than once about
this time.

It was not only the actual new life which troubled
him. Things did not go on at home quite as smoothly
as of old. Martha Pattison—or Mrs. Pattison as she
insisted upon being called now—was by no means
satisfied that things should remain as they had been
when Simon was only a milkman. Their house was
in a quarter scarce fashionable enough for a member
of Parliament, she said, and the whole style and
manner of living of the family ought now to be
changed. Simon resolutely set his face against this
at first, and declared that nothing should induce him
to live differently from the way in which he had so
long carried on his existence with tolerable comfort
to himself and others. Still he found it difficult to
withstand the constant hints—and more than hints—
which were dropped by Martha Pattison, whose views
upon the subject were very different from those which
Simon entertained, and who at last ‘capped the cli-
max’ by declaring that it was a sin and a shame that
Dolly shouldn’t go to Court, for ‘you couldn’t find a
better-looking nor a better-behaved girl among the
whole boiling of ’em.’ She added that the grand-
daughter of a member of Parliament was in duty
bound to pay her respects to Royalty, and Dolly her-
self, on being appealed to, avowed with many blushes
and simpers, that she should dearly like just for once
to go and see the Queen and all the fine ladies, if her
grandfather saw no particular objection.