ed. A sure though childish instinct told her that her
thoughts and feelings on this subject would meet with no sympathy. She
did not like to speak them.

"Daisy has peculiar views, Dr. Sandford," said Preston. But the doctor
paid him no attention. He looked at Daisy, lifted her up and arranged
her pillows; then as he laid her back said, "Give me my explanation of
that chapter, Daisy."

"It isn't an explanation, sir;--I did not know there was anything to
explain."

"The light I have thrown on it then--out of the sun."

Preston was amused, Daisy saw; she could not tell whether the doctor
was; his blue eyes gave no sign, except of a will to hear what she had
to say. Daisy hesitated, and hesitated, and then with something very
like the old diplomacy she had partly learned and partly inherited from
her mother, she said,

"If you will read the chapter, I will tell you."

Now Daisy did not think Dr. Sandford would care to read the chapter, or
perhaps have the time for it; but with an unmoved face he swung himself
round on his chair and called on Mrs. Benoit for a Bible. Preston was in
a state of delight, and Mrs. Benoit of wonder. The Bible was brought,
Dr. Sandford took it, and opened it.

"We have only time for a short lecture to-day," he remarked, "for I must
be off. Now Daisy, I will read, and you shall comment."

Daisy felt worried. She turned uneasily and rested her face on her hand,
and so lay looking at the doctor; at his handsome calm features and
glittering blue eye. What could _she_ say to him? The doctor's eye saw a
grave sweet little face, a good deal flushed, very grave, with a whole
burden of thought behind its unruffled simplicity. It may be said, that
his curiosity was as great as Daisy's unwillingness. He began, facing
her as he read. Juanita stood by, somewhat anxious.

'"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."'--

The doctor stopped and looked down at that face of Daisy looking up at
him. He waited.

"I did not use to think how much all that meant," said Daisy humbly. The
doctor went on.

He went on with the grand, majestic words of the story, which sounded
very strange to Daisy from his lips, but very grand; till he came to the
fourteenth verse. '"And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament
of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for
signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: and let them be for
lights in the firmament of the heaven, to gi