nduct commented upon by such people as Lady Jane and
her set. But he could not help himself. Daisy was master, and he
submitted, with a feeling of humiliation which showed itself upon his
face and made him very quiet and ill at ease, except when Bessie was
with him. There was something about Bessie which restored his
self-respect and made a man of him, Bessie was his all, and to himself
he had made a vow that she should not follow in the footsteps of her
mother.

"I will kill her first," he said, with clenched fists and flashing eyes,
and Daisy would never have known him could she have seen him when, as
was often the case, he went over by himself what he would say to her if
he ever got his courage up.

Taking a chair for his auditor, he would gesticulate fiercely, and
declare that he would not stand it any longer. "Daisy McPherson," he
would say, addressing himself to the chair, "I tell you what it is. I am
ashamed of myself, and of you, too, and I am going to stop it, and take
you home, and be master of my own house, and if we cannot live on our
small income, you can take up your dead mother's trade and make dresses,
and, by Jove, I'll help you, too! I'll keep the books, and--and--"

Here he would stop, not knowing exactly what else he would do, for work
was something to which he did not take kindly.

As the chair never offered any remonstrance, no matter how savage he
was, he usually felt better, and respected himself more after an attack
upon it, and there the battle ended, for he had not the courage to deal
thus with his wife, who had ruled him too long to yield her scepter
now.

Such was the condition of things between this ill-assorted pair when we
find them at Penrhyn Park, which so fully accorded with Daisy's tastes
that she at once determined to stay longer than a month, even if she
were not invited to extend her visit. She had been at the park a week or
more, enjoying all the _eclat_ of the favored guest, for Mrs. Smithers'
infatuation was complete, when it was announced at the breakfast table
that the Hon. John McPherson, with Lady Jane and Neil, would arrive that
evening in time for dinner.

Instantly Archie's face flushed crimson, for he had not seen his uncle
since his marriage, which had called forth a letter so angry in its tone
that he had never answered it, or sought for any further intercourse
with his indignant relative.

Daisy, on the contrary, was wholly unmoved.

"_Veni, vidi, vici_," wa