Daisy In The Field

By degrees there came a change. As I said, I was admired. At

first I cared little for any eyes but those which could not

see me; but that did not last. I began to like to be admired.

Soon after that, it dimly dawned upon me, that some of those

whom I saw now every day, might come to admire me too much. I

had learnt a lesson. There were several gentlemen, whose

society I liked very well, who gave us, I began to perceive, a

great deal of it. I saw them at night; I saw them by day; they

met us in our walks; they even joined us in our rides. One was

a German; a very cultivated and agreeable talker, well-bred,

and in high position at Florence. Another was a delightful

Italian; poor I think. A third was a young English nobleman;

rich, but nothing more that I could discover. The German

talked to me; the Italian sang with me; the Englishman

followed me, and was most at home in our house of them all. I

had been taking the good of all this, in a nice society way,

enjoying the music and the talk and the information I got from

the two first, and I am afraid enjoying too the flowers and

the attentions of the third, as well as of still others whom I

have not mentioned. I was floating down a stream and I had not

thought about it, only enjoyed in a careless way; till a

little thing startled me.

"We do not have so much time for our walks as we used, Daisy,"

papa said one day when he came into the drawing-room and found

me with my habit on. "Where are you going now?"

"To ride, papa, with Lord Montjoy."

"My Daisy is not a daisy any longer," said papa, folding me in

his arms. "She has grown into a white camellia. Going to ride

with Lord Montjoy! -"

I cannot say what in these last words of papa gave me a whole

revelation.

"I think you are mistaken, papa," I said. "I am Daisy yet."

"I was mistaken," said papa smiling, but rather shadowedly, I

thought; - "I should have said a rose camellia. Here is Lord

Montjoy, my dear. Go."

I am sure Lord Montjoy had little satisfaction in that ride;

at least I am sure I had little. I was longing for time to

think, and frightened besides. But when the ride was over,

mamma wanted me; the evening claimed me for a grand reception;

the morning held me in sleep; we had company at luncheon; I

was engaged with another riding party in the afternoon, and

another assembly expected me at night. I could not rest or

think, as I wanted to think, till night and morning had again

two or three times tossed me about as a society ball. I think

one's mind gets to be something like a ball too, when one

lives such a life; all one's better thoughts rolled up, like a

hybernating hedgehog, and put away as not wanted for use. I

had no opportunity to unroll mine for several days.