DAISY
Mr. Walters piqued himself on his sang-froid. If the fractus orbis had gone, as he would have expressed it, "to blue smash," "impavidum ferient ruinæ," he would have contemplated the predicament from a ludicrous rather than a perplexing point of view. Nevertheless, his eye grew brighter, and the colour deepened on his cheek, when Miss Douglas halted to lean over the rails and shake hands with him.
He was very fond of the black mare, you see, and believed firmly in her superiority to her kind.
"Oh! Daisy! I'm so glad to see you!" said Miss Douglas. "I never thought you'd be in London this open weather. I'm so much obliged to you, and you're the kindest person in the world; and—and—isn't she looking well?"
"You're both looking well," answered Daisy gallantly; "I thought I couldn't miss you if I walked up this side of the Row and down the other."
"Oh! Daisy! You didn't come on purpose!" exclaimed the lady, with rather a forced laugh, and symptoms of a blush.