"Never!" echoed Isaac, with a tremulous start.
"I think perhaps not," said Daisy. "I'll tell you why father. I think you have loved the gold so much that it has kept you back from caring about God and Heaven. And so it has had to be taken away. And I don't much expect it will ever come back, because then you might love it again too much, and that would be so dreadful."
"So dreadful!" repeated Isaac mechanically, not as if he understood.
"Yes, dreadful," echoed Daisy's soft voice. "It is a dreadful thing, father, to love money more than you love God. I think that must be why the gold has gone."
Isaac caught up the words, and broke anew into his sorrowful cry. "It's gone, Daisy," he moaned, "all gone! I'm a poor man now. I haven't anything left."
She let him say this over and over, as he seemed disposed, but presently she chimed in with, "Yes, father, it's all gone—all gone. You haven't anything left."
The two women looked on curiously, half inclined to remonstrate, yet half disposed to think that Daisy knew well what she was about.
"It's all gone, Daisy," repeated Isaac once more and he burst into tears.
"Yes; I'm so glad, father," said Daisy.
The old man looked up at her in startled wonderment, and Daisy smiled.