"They would not agree with you; your views would not harmonise
with theirs."
"And therefore I trust to your honour to keep silence
respecting mine."
"I am bound," he answered gloomily; and we walked a few
minutes in silence.
"You will change your manner of thinking, Miss Randolph," he
began again. "Yours is the vision of inexperienced eyes and of
impulsive generosity. It will not remain what it is."
"Inexperienced eyes see the clearest," I answered. "The habit
of wrong is no help towards judging of the right."
"You will think differently by and by."
"Not while I am a servant of God and He commands me to break
every yoke, to do as I would be done by, to look not on my own
things, but also on the things of others. We owe our poor
people not liberty only, but education, and every advantage
for restored civilisation; - a great long debt."
"And is this the reason why you will not look favourably on my
suit?" he said after another interval.
"It is a reason why you will not wish to prosecute it, Mr. De
Saussure."
"You are very severe!" he said. "Do you really think that?"
"You know it is true. I do not wish to be severe."
"Have you then no kindness for me?"
"Why do you ask?"
"You are so dreadfully calm and cool!" he said. "One has no
chance with you. If this matter were not in the way, would you
have any kindness for me, Daisy? Is this all that separates
us?"
"It is quite enough, Mr. De Saussure. It is as powerful with
you as with me."
"I am too late, I suppose!" he said, as it seemed to me,
rather spitefully. As he was too late, it was no use to tell
him he could never have been early enough. I was silent; and
we walked on unenjoyingly. Vexation was working in his
countenance, and a trace of that same spite; I was glad when
we came to the end of our way and the other members of our
party closed up and joined us.
As I cared nothing for the house they had come to see, I
excused myself from going any nearer, and sat down upon the
bank at a little distance while they gratified their
curiosity. The view of the lake and lake shores here was very
lovely; enough to satisfy any one for a long while; but now,
my thoughts only rested there for a minute, to make a spring
clear across the Atlantic. Mr. Thorold was very close to me,
and I was very far from him; that was the burden of my heart.
So close to me he had been, that I had never dreamed any one
could think of taking his place. I saw I had been a simpleton.
Up to that day I had no suspicion that Mr. De Saussure liked
me more than would be convenient; and indeed I had no fear now
of his heart being broken; but I saw that his unlucky suit
made a complication in my affairs that they certainly did not
need. - Mamma approved it; yes, I had no doubt of that. I knew
of a plantation of his, Briery Bank, only a few miles distant
from Magnolia and reputed to be very rich in its incomings.
And, no doubt Mr. De Saussure would have liked the
neighbourhood of Magnolia, and to add its harvest to his own.
And all the while I belonged to Mr. Thorold, and nobody else
could have me. My thoughts came back to that refrain with a
strong sense of pain and gladness. However, the gladness was
the strongest. How lovely the lake was, with its sunlit hills!