, and if you persist in
luring Allen to your side on all occasions, and throw over him the
glamour of your charms, the family shall know all I know of your past
life, even if it compromises me with you. They think you pure and good.
What would they say if they knew you to be a professional gambler, an
adventuress about whom men jest and smile derisively, even while they
flatter and admire you in a certain way? Bad, in the common acceptation
of the word, you may not be, but your womanhood is certainly soiled, and
you are not a fit associate for a young, susceptible man, or for an
innocent girl. If you were a true woman you would have gone home at
once, to your daughter, who, rumor says, is as sweet and lovely as an
angel. Go back now to her, and by fulfilling the duties of a mother try
to retrieve the past. It is not impossible. I do not mean to be harsh,
and hardly know why I have said all this to you, except it were to save
Allen Browne, who is each day becoming more and more in love with you."

"In love with me! A woman old enough to be his mother! Absurd!" Daisy
exclaimed, adding scornfully: "Thanks for your lecture, which shall not
be lost on me. I have no wish to prolong my stay in this stupid place,
and only wish I had never come here; and since my presence is so
distastful to you, I will go at once and leave you to prosecute your
suit with the fair Augusta, wishing you joy with your Yankee bride and
her refined family. Shall you invite them to your home in Ireland? If
so, may I be there to see! _Addio!_" and with a mocking courtsey she
left the room, and going to her chamber wrote to Bessie that she was
coming home immediately. Daisy had lost her game, and she knew it. She
had nothing to expect from Miss McPherson, nothing from Lord Hardy, and
as her deep mourning prevented Mrs. Browne from giving the party she had
talked about so much, she might better be in Europe, she thought, and
accordingly she acquainted her hostess with her decision. There was a
faint protest on the part of Mrs. Browne, but only a faint one, for she
was beginning to be a little afraid of her fair visitor, whom Augusta
disliked thoroughly. Only Allen was sorry, for the wily woman had
stirred his boyish heart to its very depths, and when at last he said
good-by to her, and stood until the train which bore her away was out of
sight, he felt, perhaps, as keen a pang of regret as a young man of
twenty-two ever felt for a woman many years his sen