in her career of folly by the birth of her baby, who was
not at all welcome to the childish mother.

It was the latter part of March, and the crocuses and hyacinths were
just beginning to blossom in the garden at Stoneleigh, when the baby
Bessie first lay in the cradle which had rocked Archie in his infancy.
They did not call her Bessie at first; for there were many discussions
with regard to the name, Archie wishing her called Dora for his mother,
and Daisy inclining to Blanche, or Beatrice.

"I'll tell you what, Archie," she said one day. "There's that old maid
aunt of yours in America, with piles of money, they say. Let's name the
baby for her, and so get some of her filthy lucre."

"Call our baby Betsey? Are you crazy?" Archie asked. But Daisy was in
earnest, and carried her point, as she always did; and when at Easter
Lord Hardy stopped at Stoneleigh, on his way to his home in Ireland, he
was one of the sponsors for the child, who was christened _Betsey_.

"If I dared, I would add _Jane_ to it, for her Ladyship, which would
make her _Betsey Jane_; but that would be too much," Daisy said to Lord
Hardy, adding: "We shall call her Bessie, of course, and never Betsey.
We only give her that abominable cognomen for the sake of wheedling
something out of that old woman in America. Archie is to write and tell
her."

So Archie wrote the best letter he could concoct, and said he had named
his little daughter Betsey, which he hoped would please his aunt. This
he took for approval to Daisy, who said it was very well, but insisted
that he should add a P.S. that if his aunt had fifty pounds or so of
ready money, he would like to borrow it for a time, as his expenses were
heavy, and Stoneleigh needed so much repairing. At first Archie refused
utterly; it looked so much like begging, he said, but he was overruled
and added the P.S., which made Miss McPherson furious and steeled her
heart against the innocent baby who bore her name.

The request for money overmastered every gentler feeling, and the letter
was consigned to the flames and never answered.

"Never mind, Archie," Daisy said, as weeks went by and there came no
message from America. "The old miser means to cut us off. Well, let her,
I can manage without her, and our fifteen hundred pounds will last
awhile. After that is gone, trust me for more."

And Archie, who was too indolent to exert himself, did trust her, and,
parting with every vestige of manhood and manli