"Mr. O'Reilly!" she exclaimed, "command yourself."
She spoke with a look of reproof and authority. Cornelius gazed at her with wonder, then coloured to the very temples.
"Oh! Miriam," he said, drawing back from her with a glance of the keenest reproach, "how could you imagine such a thing?"
He looked as if he could not even name it; then perceiving me as I still stood behind Miriam, he took me by the hand, and, sitting down on the sofa, he held me from him, looking me intently in the face as he slowly said—
"And did you too think I meant, I will not say to hurt, but so much as touch you?"
I looked at him; I thought of all his past kindness,—my heart swelled, the tears which had not flowed at his anger, gushed forth with the question; I threw my arms around his neck.
"Oh no, no!" I cried, "I never did think that, Cornelius, and I never could."
"Never?" he echoed; "are you sure, Daisy?"
"Never," I replied almost passionately, "never, Cornelius; if I angered you ever so much; if I saw your very hand raised against me, I should not fear one moment—for I know it never would come down."
His lips trembled slightly, the only sign of emotion he betrayed. He looked at me; our eyes met, and I felt that there was in his something which answered to all the love and faith of my heart.