necessities. Just
after Neil's departure there had come a letter from Daisy, who was in
Nice, with some Americans, whose acquaintance she had made in Paris and
whose party she had joined.

"These American friendships cost a great deal," she wrote, "for they
stop at the most expensive hotels, and I must have a parlor and
bedroom in order to keep up appearances, so I really have nothing to
spare just now; but I send you a five-pound note which I borrowed
for you from Mr. Jack Trevellian, who came day before yesterday and
told me of his visit to Stoneleigh. If I am any judge, he is more
than half in love with you, and when I said I was going to write and
regretted that I could not send you any money, as I was sure you
must need it after so much company, he insisted upon loaning me
twenty pounds, and when I refused so large a sum he made me take
ten, which I will divide with you. It was very generous in him, and
when I said I should pay him as soon as possible, he begged me never
to speak of it, as he would gladly give ten times that sum to one as
faithful and kind to her father as you are. Jack is a good fellow,
and there is only one life between him and a, title, I hear. Try for
him, Bessie; I know you can get him. Write him a little note and
tell him how kind it was in him to loan me the money. That will be a
beginning, but you need not say how much of it I sent you; as he
designed it all for you, he might not like it if he knew I kept
half. How is your father? The last time I was home I really thought
he was threatened with softening of the brain, he seemed so sleepy
and stupid and forgetful. Give him my love, and believe me always
your affectionate mother,

"DAISY McPHERSON.

"P.S.--I hear Lord Hardy has returned from Egypt and is expected
here. I am glad, for a sight of him will do me good. He is the best
friend I ever had, and the first, except, of course, your father."

Such, in part, was Daisy's letter, which Bessie read with an aching
heart and cheeks which burned with shame. She wanted money sadly, for
her boots were giving out at the sides, and the butcher's bill was
unpaid, and her father needed wine and jellies to tempt his sickly
appetite and keep up his failing strength. But she would have gone
barefoot and denied herself food for a week sooner than touch the
five-pound note her mother had wrung fr