"Oh no."

Mr. Stewart then was evidently about to
ask something more. But Daisy, though
she tried not to do so, looked up at him.
There must have been terror and appeal
in her eyes, for his were inquiring and
compassionate. Daisy's look, falling from
Mr. Stewart's face, fixed itself on the
picture: a trance-like feeling came over her, as
if she had suddenly begun to dream. It was
as if out of those walls and windows, no
longer pictured but real, her child cried to
her; and in her heart there was a responsive
cry. By-and-bye, when she thought she
could do so unobserved, she rose up and
left the room. Unobserved! One pair of
love-watchful eyes, one pair that shone
with somewhat malicious curiosity, noticed
the feebleness with which she moved.

"Aunt Daisy is not well. Hadn't I
better go to her?"

"I think she would rather be alone."

"Aunt Daisy has just told you a falsehood,
and telling falsehoods doesn't agree
with poor dear Aunt Daisy. You have
often spoken of Aunt Daisy as a model of
candour and simple truth. I admit she isn't
clever at speaking what isn't true; and
doesn't seem to be used to it!"

' Your Aunt Daisy is a model of candour
and simple truth. Speaking of her as such,
I spoke truly of her."

"Yet she has just told you a lie. You
know that as well as I do!"

"I think, Miss Brown, it would be more
becoming in you to refrain from such free
speaking."

Myrrha appeared not to hear this remark.
She said, with a show of feeling:

"Sometimes, Mr. Stewart, I feel afraid
that poor Aunt Daisy is very unhappy;
that she has some secret which preys upon
her. If she has, wouldn't she tell it to you
who are such an old friend? If you told
her you were sure she had a secret, and
begged her to tell it to you, don't you think
she would?"

Myrrha gave a quick, investigating
glance into Mr. Stewart's face. She was
wondering if he already knew or guessed
Aunt Daisy's secret. A secret there was,
she was by this time quite sure.

"You young girls are so full of romantic
fancies in this novel-reading age. Your Aunt
Daisy is not the sort of woman to have
anything concerning herself to conceal. If she
has a secret it is not her own. Possibly, that
farmer her old nurse married has got into
difficulties, and she has promised not to tell
any one where he is now living."

"You suspect something quite different
from that," said Myrrha, nodding knowingly."
That is a quite absurdly inadequate
cause for things I have noticed. I
have my own suspicions, but—— "

"I will not have your Aunt Daisy and
' suspicions' named together," he answered,
angrily. Then he went on more calmly:
"You entirely fail to understand your
Aunt Daisy's character. Though she may
have more delicacy and reserve of feeling
than is usual in these days, she is not a
woman to have secrets and concealments.
Where she loves she would trust."

"But perhaps, Mr. Stewart, poor Aunt
Daisy, who seems so lonely, has never loved
any one enough to trust them entirely."

Those words of Myrrha's fell coldly on
Mr. Stewart's heart. Myrrha went on:
"You see, Mr. Stewart, Aunt Daisy is so
peculiarly lonely. I am the only connexion,
not to say relation, she has whom she
knows. And I don't think she loves me
very much, and I know she doesn't trust
me at all. Whom else has she?"

"So you evidently don't think, Miss
Brown, that your Aunt Daisy loves and
trusts me?"

"I can only answer by stating facts.
Aunt Daisy has, I am sure, a secret. You
don't know it, she doesn't mean you to know
it. I suppose, therefore, she doesn't trust
you. As to loving you, it wouldn't, of course,
be proper she should love you, unless as her
lover; and, it seems, she won't have you as
that. You are a man, you are no relation,
you are not a proper person for Aunt
Daisy to love and trust, unless she meant
to marry you. Aunt Daisy doesn't mean to
marry you. Aunt Daisy isn't the sort of
woman to do what isn't proper, therefore, I
suppose, she doesn't love and trust you."

"How logical!"

"You needn't sneer at me."

"How is it you state so positively that
your Aunt Daisy doesn't mean to marry
me"

"Hasn't she told you so herself?' was
Myrrha's counter-question.

"I was asking the reason of your belief."

"She has told me that she doesn't mean
to marry; and I'm quite, quite sure that
there's some serious secret at the bottom of
her not meaning to marry."

"You can't, I suppose, understand that
;here may be women who don't wish to
marry, merely because they don't wish to
marry?"

"You mean that for impertinence;—
but——"