So altogether John Sinclair is not in the best of spirits just now, for while he is waiting might not someone else step in and secure the prize.
Mrs. Merivale sees the change, and guesses pretty accurately the reason of it. But while she pities him from her heart she feels rightly that nothing she can do will mend matters.
Daisy does not find her companion nearly so amusing and cheerful now as she used to, and one morning, feeling in extra good spirits herself, and only getting mono-syllabic answers to all her childish flow of chatter, she plainly informs him of that fact without the slightest regard to his feelings.
"Am I not?" says Sinclair, laughing a little and pulling himself together; for he had been leaning forward in his saddle wrapped in gloomy thoughts, until the child's abrupt remark roused him.
"Well, I am very sorry, Daisy. I'll try to be a little more lively in future. Shall I tell you a new story?"
Daisy looks at him, and then shakes her head.
"I like the old one best," she says, "about the princess, you know, and the wood-cutter. But I don't like the way it finishes up. You must make it end differently, Dr. John."
"Why, how did it end?—I almost forget now;" and he passes his hand over his eyes and strives to take his memory back to please his exacting little patient.
"Why, I believe I know it all better than you!" remarks the child with some contempt. "Don't you remember? The princess had a lot of brothers and sisters; but, you know, she can only have been a princess in disguise, because she was a kind of Cinderella at home. Then the wood-cutter, just because he was a wood-cutter, would not ask the princess to marry him, although he was dreadfully fond of her; and I think that was silly, you know, because it was quite likely that some fairy would have made him a prince when they were married, and then, you see, it would have been all right. You must make up a new ending," concludes Daisy authoritatively, "and make the wood-cutter ask the princess to marry him, and then they will both be happy ever after."
"Do you think they really would be?" asks Dr. John anxiously.