Daisy In The Field

I added no remark upon Mr. De Saussure's or his sisters'

peculiar way of enjoying themselves.

"But you are uncommonly silent," he went on presently; -

"triste, rêveuse. It is impossible not to suffer from it, - in

one who values your words as much as I do."

"Why, I thought you were apt to look upon things from a

different point of view, - not from mine," I said.

"I must be wrong then - always. Miss Randolph, you are of a

gentle and kind disposition, - I wish you would be my Mentor!"

"I am not old enough to be Mentor," I said.

"To be mine! Yes, you are," he rejoined eagerly. "I would not

have you a day older."

"I shall be that to-morrow," I said, laughing.

"But if you were mine," he said, changing his tone, "every day

would only add to your power and your qualifications for doing

me good. And I know that is what you love."

"I cannot see that I have done you the least good, so far, Mr.

De Saussure," I said, amused. "I think you must be mistaken."

"Will you try, Daisy?" he said insinuatingly, and stopping

short in our walk.

"Try what, Mr. De Saussure?" I said, beginning to be

bewildered.

"Surely you know! You are a little cruel. But you have the

right. Be my Mentor - be my darling - promise to be, one of

these days, my wife."

I dropped my arm from Mr. De Saussure's and stood in a maze, I

might say with truth, frightened. Up to that minute, no

suspicion of his purpose or mind regarding me had entered my

thoughts. I suppose I was more blind than I ought to have

been; and the truth was, that in the utter preoccupation of my

own heart, the idea that I could like anybody else but Mr.

Thorold, or that anybody else could like me, had been simply

out of sight. I knew myself so thoroughly beyond anybody's

reach, the prior possession of the ground was so perfect and

settled a thing, that I did not remember it was a fact hidden

from other eyes but mine. And I had gone on in my supposed

walled-in safety; - and here was somebody presuming within the

walls, who might allege that I had left the gate open.

However, to do Mr. De Saussure justice, I never doubted for a

moment that his heart might be in any danger of breaking if I

thrust him out. But for all that, I lost my breath in the

first minute of discovery of what I had been doing.

"You hesitate," said he. "You shall command me, Daisy. I will

go instantly, hard as it would be, and give all my power to

furthering the war at home; - or, if you bid me, I will keep

out of it, which would be harder still, were you not here

instead of there. Speak, won't you, -a good word for me?"