our child and be a mother to her; but, as you hope
for heaven, never try to drag her down where you are. You talk of
poverty. You do not show it. Those diamonds in your ears never cost a
small sum, nor that solitaire upon your finger."

"They were given to me," Daisy sobbed, as she rose to her feet and put
on her hat preparatory to leaving, while Miss Betsey continued:

"Given to you! The more shame for you to take them. Better throw them
away than wear them as a badge of degradation. Yes, throw them away, or
send them back whence they came. Wash that paint off your face. Get rid
of that made-up smirk around your mouth. Remember that you are going on
toward forty."

"Oh-h!" Daisy groaned; "I am not quite thirty-six."

"Well, thirty-six, then," the spinster rejoined. "There's a wide
difference between thirty-six and sixteen. You are a widow; you have a
grown-up daughter. You are no longer young, though you are good enough
looking, but good looks will not support you honestly. Go home and go to
work, if it is only to be a bar-maid at the George Hotel; and when I see
you have reformed, I do not say I will not do something for you, but
just so long as you go round sponging your living and making eyes at
men--and boys, too, for that matter--not a penny of my money shall you
ever touch. I've said my say, and there comes the boy Allen for you.
Good-morning."

She arose to take her peas to the kitchen. The conference was ended, and
with a flushed face and wet eyes Daisy went out to the phaeton, into
which Allen handed her very carefully, and then took his seat beside
her. He noticed her agitation, but did not guess its cause, until she
said, with a little gasping sob:

"I was never so insulted in my life as by that horrid old woman. Had I
been the vilest creature in the world she could not have talked worse to
me. She said I was living upon your people--sponging she called it; that
I was after Lord Hardy--and--and--oh, Allen--even you--the _boy_ she
called you, and she bade me go home and hire out as bar-maid at the
George Hotel in Bangor."

"The wretch! Boy, indeed!" Allen said, bristling with indignation at
this fling at his youth, but feeling a strange stir in his young blood
at the thought of this fair creature being after him.

Arrived at the Ridge House, Daisy went directly to her room and had the
headache all day; and gave Mrs. Browne a most exaggerated account of her
interview with her aunt, but omitted the par