CHAPTER XVIII.
The first week of Daisy's stay at Glengrove passed quickly. She wasbeginning to feel quite at home with Mrs. Glenn and Eve, but Bessieand Gertie held aloof from her. She was beginning to believe she neverwould be able to win her way to their hearts. Eve--warm-hearted,impulsive Eve--took to her at once.
"You are just the kind of a girl I like, Daisy," said Eve, twirlingone of her soft gold curls caressingly around her finger; "and if Iwere a handsome young man, instead of a girl, I should fallstraightway in love with you. Why, what are you blushing so for?"cried Eve. "Don't you like to talk about love and lovers?"
"No," said Daisy, in a low voice, a distressed look creeping into herblue eyes. "If you please, Eve, I'd rather not talk about suchthings."
"You are certainly a funny girl," said Eve, wonderingly. "Why, do youknow all the handsome young fellows around here have fallen deeply inlove with you, and have just been besieging both Bess and Gertie foran introduction to you."
No laughing rejoinder came from Daisy's red lips. There was an anxiouslook in her eyes. Ah! this, then, accounted for the growing coldnesswith which the two sisters greeted her.
"You do not seem enough interested to even ask who they are," saidEve, disappointedly. "I suppose you have never heard we have someof the handsomest gentlemen around here to be met with in thewhole South--or in the North either, for that matter," said Eve,enthusiastically. "Wait until you have seen some of them."
How little she knew the girl's heart and soul was bound up in Rex,whom she told herself she was never again to see.
"Do you see that large gray, stone house yonder, whose turrets youcan just see beyond those trees?" asked Eve, suddenly, a mischievouslight dancing in her merry hazel eyes.
"Yes," replied Daisy. "I have a fine view of it from my windowupstairs. I have seen a little child swinging to and fro in a hammockbeneath the trees. Poor little thing, she uses a crutch. Is shelame?"
"Yes," replied Eve, "that's little Birdie; she's lame. I do not wantto talk about her but about her brother. Oh, he is perfectlysplendid!" declared Eve, enthusiastically, "and rich, too. Why, heowns I don't know how many cotton plantations and orange groves, andhe is--oh--so handsome! You must take care you do not fall in lovewith him. All the girls do. If you did not, you would be a greatexception; you could scarcely help caring for him, he is so winningand so nice," said Eve, blushing furiously.
How poor little Daisy's heart longed for sympathy and consolation! Oh,if she only dared tell Eve the great hidden sorrow that seemed eatingher heart away! She felt that she must unburden her heart to some one,or it must surely break.
"Eve," she said, her little hands closing softly over the restlessbrown one drumming a tattoo on the window-sill, and her golden headdrooping so close to Eve's, her curls mingled with her dark locks, "Icould never love any one in this world again. I loved once--it was thesweetest, yet the most bitter, experience of my life. The same voicethat spoke tender words to me cruelly cast me from him. Yet I love himstill with all my heart. Do not talk to me of love, or lovers, Eve, Ican not bear it. The world will never hold but one face for me, andthat is the face of him who is lost to me forever."
"Oh, how delightfully romantic!" cried Eve. "I said to myself over andover again there was some mystery in your life. I have seen suchstrange shadows in your eyes, and your voice often had the sound oftears in it. I do wish I could help you in some way," said Eve,thoughtfully. "I'd give the world to set the matter straight for you.What's his name, and where does he live?"
"I can not tell you," said Daisy, shaking her golden curls sadly.
"Oh, dear! then I do not see how I can help you," cried Eve.
"You can not," replied Daisy; "only keep my secret for me."
"I will," she cried, earnestly.
And as they parted, Eve resolved in her own mind to bring this truantlover of Daisy's back to his old allegiance; but the first and mostimportant step was to discover his name.
Eve went directly to her own room, her brain whirling with a new plan,which she meant to put into execution at once, while Daisy strolled onthrough the grounds, choosing the less frequented paths. She wanted tobe all alone by herself to have a good cry. Somehow she felt so muchbetter for having made a partial confidante of Eve.
The sun was beginning to sink in the west; still Daisy walked on,thinking of Rex. A little shrill piping voice falling suddenly uponher ears caused her to stop voluntarily.
"Won't you please reach me my hat and crutch? I have dropped them onyour side of the fence."
Daisy glanced around, wondering in which direction the voice camefrom.
"I am sitting on the high stone wall; come around on the other side ofthat big tree and you will see me."
The face that looked down into Daisy's almost took her breath away fora single instant, it was so like Rex's.
A bright, winning, childish face, framed in a mass of dark nut-browncurls, and the brownest of large brown eyes.
"Certainly," said Daisy, stooping down with a strange unexplainablethrill at her heart and picking up the wide-brimmed sun-hat andcrutch, which was unfortunately broken by the fall.
A low cry burst from the child's lips.
"Oh, my crutch is broken!" she cried, in dismay. "What shall I do? Ican not walk back to the house. I am lame!"
"Let me see if I can help you," said Daisy, scaling the stone wallwith the grace of a fawn. "Put your arms around my neck," she said,"and cling very tight. I will soon have you down from your high perch;never mind the crutch. I can carry you up to the porch; it is not veryfar, and you are not heavy."
In a very few moments Daisy had the child down safely upon _terrafirma_.
"Thank you," said the child. "I know you are tired; we will rest amoment, please, on this fallen log."
The touch of the little girl's hands, the glance of the soft browneyes, and the tone of her voice seemed to recall every word and glanceof Rex, and hold a strange fascination for her.
"I shall tell my mother and my brother how good you have been to me,and they will thank you too. My name is Birdie; please tell meyours."
"My name is Daisy Brooks," she answered.
Poor little girl-bride, there had been a time when she had whisperedto her heart that her name was Daisy Lyon; but that bright dream wasover now; she would never be aught else than--Daisy Brooks.
"Is your name really Daisy?" cried the little girl in a transport ofdelight, scarcely catching the last name. "Why, that is the name mybrother loves best in the world. You have such a sweet face," said thechild, earnestly. "I would choose the name of some flower as justsuited to you. I should have thought of Lily, Rose, Pansy, or Violet,but I should never have thought of anything one half so pretty asDaisy; it just suits you."
All through her life Daisy felt that to be the sweetest complimentever paid her. Daisy laughed--the only happy laugh that had passed herlips since she had met Rex that morning under the magnolia-tree.
"Shall I tell you what my brother said about daisies?"
"Yes, you may tell me, if you like," Daisy answered, observing thechild delighted to talk of her brother.
"He has been away for a long time," explained Birdie. "He only camehome last night, and I cried myself to sleep, I was so glad. You see,"said the child, growing more confidential, and nestling closer toDaisy's side, and opening wide her great brown eyes, "I was crying forfear he would bring home a wife, and mamma was crying for fear hewouldn't. I wrote him a letter all by myself once, and begged him notto marry, but come home all alone, and you see he did," cried thechild, overjoyed. "When he answered my letter, he inclosed a littlepressed flower, with a golden heart and little white leaves around it,saying: 'There is no flower like the daisy for me. I shall alwaysprize them as pearls beyond price.' I planted a whole bed of thembeneath his window, and I placed a fresh vase of them in his room,mingled with some forget-me-nots, and when he saw them, he caught mein his arms, and cried as though his heart would break."
If the white flee
cy clouds in the blue sky, the murmuring sea, or thesilver-throated bobolink swinging in the green leafy bough above herhead, had only whispered to Daisy why he loved the flowers so wellwhich bore the name of daisy, how much misery might have been sparedtwo loving hearts! The gray, dusky shadows of twilight were creepingup from the sea.
"Oh, see how late it is growing," cried Birdie, starting up in alarm."I am afraid you could not carry me up to the porch. If you couldonly summon a servant, or--or--my brother."
For answer, Daisy raised the slight burden in her arms with a smile.
"I like you more than I can tell," said Birdie, laying her soft, pink,dimpled cheek against Daisy's. "Won't you come often to the angle inthe stone wall? That is my favorite nook. I like to sit there andwatch the white sails glide by over the white crested waves."
"Yes," said Daisy, "I will come every day."
"Some time I may bring my brother with me; you must love him, too,won't you?"
"I should love any one who had you for a sister," replied Daisy,clasping the little figure she held still closer in her arms; adding,in her heart: "You are so like him."
Birdie gave her such a hearty kiss, that the veil twined round her hattumbled about her face like a misty cloud.
"You must put me down while you fix your veil," said Birdie. "You cannot see with it so. There are huge stones in the path, you wouldstumble and fall."
"So I shall," assented Daisy, as she placed the child down on thesoft, green grass.
At that instant swift, springy footsteps came hurriedly down the path,and a voice, which seemed to pierce her very heart, called: "Birdie,little Birdie, where are you?"
"Here, Brother Rex," called the child, holding out her arms to himwith eager delight. "Come here, Rex, and carry me; I have broken mycrutch."
For one brief instant the world seemed to stand still around poor,hapless Daisy, the forsaken girl-bride. The wonder was that she didnot die, so great was her intense emotion. Rex was standing beforeher--the handsome, passionate lover, who had married her on theimpulse of the moment; the man whom she loved with her whole heart, atwhose name she trembled, of whom she had made an idol in her girlishheart, and worshiped--the lover who had vowed so earnestly he wouldshield her forever from the cold, cruel world, who had sworn eternalconstancy, while the faithful gleaming stars watched him from the bluesky overhead.
Yes, it was Rex! She could not see through the thick, misty veil, howpale his face was in the gathering darkness. Oh, Heaven! how herpassionate little heart went out to him! How she longed, with apassionate longing words could not tell, to touch his hand, or resther weary head on his breast.
Her brain whirled; she seemed, to live ages in those few moments.Should she throw herself on her knees, and cry out to him, "Oh, Rex,Rex, my darling! I am _not_ guilty! Listen to me, my love. Hear mypleading--listen to my prayer! I am more sinned against than sinning.My life has been as pure as an angel's--take me back to your heart, orI shall die!"
"She has been so good to me, Rex," whispered Birdie, clinging to theveil which covered Daisy's face. "I broke my crutch, and she hascarried me from the stone wall; won't you please thank her for me,brother?"
Daisy's heart nearly stopped beating; she knew the eventful moment ofher life had come, when Rex, her handsome young husband, turnedcourteously toward her, extending his hand with a winning smile.