‘But it is not,’ said Lily, ‘and that is what provokes me; papa says he is quite welcome to go if he likes, and that he thinks it will do him a great deal of good, but that foolish boy will say nothing but “I will think about it,” and “thank you”.’ ‘Then I give him up as regularly dense.’ ‘It is the most delightful plan ever thought of,’ said Lily, ‘so easily done, and just bringing within his compass all he ever wished to see.’ ‘Oh! his sole ambition is to stretch those long legs of his on the grass, like a great vegetable marrow,’ said Lord Rotherwood. ‘It is vegetating like a plant that makes him so much taller than any rational creature with a little animal life.’ ‘I think Jane has his share of curiosity,’ said Lily, ‘I am sure I had no idea that anything belonging to us could be so stupid.’ ‘Well,’ said the Marquis, ‘I shall not go.’ ‘No?’ said Lily. ‘No, I shall certainly not go.’ ‘Nonsense,’ said Claude, waking from his pretended sleep, ‘why do you not ask Travers to go with you? He would like nothing better.’ ‘He is a botanist, and would bore me with looking for weeds. No, I will have you, or stay at home.’ Claude proposed several others as companions, but Lord Rotherwood treated them all with as much disdain as Claude had shown for Germany, and ended with ‘Now, Claude, you know my determination, only tell me why you will not go?’ ‘Then I do tell you, Rotherwood, the truth is, that those boys, Maurice and Reginald, are perfectly unmanageable when they are left alone with the girls.’ ‘Have a tutor for them,’ said the Marquis. ‘Very much obliged to you they would be for the suggestion,’ said Claude. ‘Oh! but Claude,’ said Lily. ‘I really cannot go. They mind no one but the Baron and me, and besides that, it would be no small annoyance to the house; ten tutors could not keep them from indescribable bits of mischief. I undertook them these holidays, and I mean to keep them.’ Lilias was just flying off to her father, when Claude caught hold of her, saying, ‘I desire you will not,’ and she stood still, looking at her cousin in dismay. ‘It is all right,’ cried the Marquis, joyfully, ‘it is only to set off three weeks later.’ ‘Oh! I thought you would not go a week later for the universe,’ said Claude, smiling. ‘Not for the Universe, but for U—,’ said Lord Rotherwood. ‘Worthy of a companion true, of the University of Gottingen,’ said Claude; ‘but, Rotherwood, do you really mean that it will make no difference to you?’ ‘None whatever; I meant to spend three weeks with my mother at the end of the tour, and I shall spend them now instead. I only talked of going immediately, because nothing is done at all that is not done quickly, and I hate delays, but it is all the same, and now it stands for Tuesday three weeks. Now we shall see what he says to Cologne, Lily.’