ex, her husband;
they would soon reach the alder bushes that skirted the pool. The next
bend in the road would bring her in sight of the magnolia-tree where
Rex would be awaiting her.

Ah, thank Heaven, it was not too late! she could fling out her arms,
and cry out: "Rex, my love, my darling, they are bearing me from you!
Save me, Rex, my darling, save me!"

John Brooks sat quietly by her side silently wondering what had come
over little Daisy--sweet, impulsive little Daisy--in a single night.
"She is only a child," he muttered to himself, "full of whims and
caprices; crying her eyes out last week because she could not go off
to school, and now crying because she's got to go."

Swiftly the stage rolled down the green sloping hill-side; in another
moment it had reached the alder bushes and gained the curve of the
road, and she saw Rex lying on the green grass waiting for her. The
sunlight drifting through the magnolia blossoms fell upon his
handsome, upturned, smiling face and the dark curls pushed back from
his white forehead. "Rex! Rex!" she cried, wringing her white hands,
but the words died away on her white lips, making no sound. Then the
world seemed to close darkly around her, and poor little Daisy, the
unhappy girl-bride, fell back in the coach in a deadly swoon.

CHAPTER VII.

"Poor little Daisy!" cried John Brooks, wiping away a suspicious
moisture from his eyes with his rough, toil-hardened hand, "she takes
it pretty hard now; but the time will come when she will thank me for
it. Heaven knows there's nothing in this world more valuable than an
education; and she will need it, poor little, motherless child!"

As the stage drove up before the station Daisy opened her blue eyes
with a sigh. "I can at least write to Rex at once," she thought, "and
explain the whole matter to him." Daisy smiled as she thought Rex
would be sure to follow on the very next train.

John Brooks watched the smile and the flush of the rosy face, and
believed Daisy was beginning to feel more reconciled about going to
school.

"I hope we will get there by noon," said John, anxiously, taking the
seat beside her on the crowded train. "If we missed the train at the
cross-roads it would be a serious calamity. I should be obliged to
send you on alone; for I _must_ get to New York by night, as I have
some very important business to transact for the plantation which
must be attended to at once."

"Alone!" echoed Daisy, tremblin