erson from the
young girl who, with a hand upon each hip and her head on one side, gave
Archie a piece of her mind in terms neither mild nor selected.

"Gambling! I'd never speak to you again if you stooped to such a thing
as to play for money. You'd better a thousand times sell butcher's meat
at the corner, or cry gooseberries in the street! Suppose you are a
gentleman, a McPherson, without money, must you either gamble, or sit
still and let some one else take care of you? It won't hurt _you_ to
work any more than any body else, and you'll have to do something. Every
body says so. Suppose you do have Stoneleigh when your father dies;
there are only a few acres besides the park, and they are all run down.
What are you going to do?"

"Upon my word, I did not know you had so much vim. You are a regular
little spit-fire," Archie said, regarding her intently; then after a
pause, he added: "What am I going to do? I am sure I don't know, unless
I marry you and let you take care of me! I believe you could do it."

The hands which had been pressed on Daisy's hips met suddenly together
in a quick, nervous clasp, while there came over the girl's face a look
of wonder and surprise, and evident perplexity. Although Daisy was much
older than her years in some things, the idea of marrying Archibald
McPherson, or any one else, had never entered her mind.

Now, however, she was conscious of a new feeling, which she could not
define, and after regarding him fixedly for a moment, without any
apparent consciousness, she answered in a very matter of fact way:

"I believe I could take care of you--somehow!"

"I know you could; so, suppose we call it a bargain," Archie said, but
before Daisy could reply Lady Jane's maid appeared coming down the broad
walk.

Stopping in front of the girl and boy, and merely noticing the former by
a supercilious stare, she said to the latter interrogatively:

"Mr. Archibald McPherson?"

"Present!" he answered, with a comical look at Daisy, on whom it was
lost, for she was admiring the smart cap and pink ribbons of the maid,
who said:

"If you are Mr. Archibald, your father wishes to see you. He said I was
to fetch you directly."

Rising slowly Archie shook himself together, and started for the house,
while Daisy looked after him with a new and thoughtful expression on her
face.

"Archie!" she called at last. "Tell Dorothy I shall not come to help her
with the dishes. I have changed my mind. I do