“Now, Lutie,” added Royall, “I do think you ought to do the fair thing by Daisie.”
“What do you mean?”
“Why, call on her and invite her to Sea View on a visit. Of course, I understand that you’ve been jealous all the while, and wouldn’t have her here on account of Dallas Bain. But now we’re engaged, you needn’t mind.”
But an unerring instinct made Mrs. Fleming persist in her refusal.
“You ask too much, Royall. I won’t have the girl here till I’m sure of Dallas Bain,” she protested, in alarm.
“You’re still determined to marry him, if you can get him, coz?”
“Yes, I am; and I don’t care to bring him and that girl together, even if she is engaged to you. She’s dangerous, I tell you; and he’s in love with her, I’m certain, though they’ve never spoken a single word to each other. No telling what might happen if they got together.”
“Perhaps you’re right,” said Royall, looking uneasy and remembering that Daisie had betrayed such interest in Dallas that he had been forced into no end of fibs to destroy the romance with which she had invested him. “Perhaps you’re right. Better let well enough alone,” he agreed, and went away to buy the engagement ring.
But chance or fate is above us all and our petty scheming, as she found out that night at the dance, and in consequence she altered her plan of ignoring Daisie Bell.
What Annette had told her about Dallas going the next morning to beg Daisie’s pardon for the accident made her wild; hence her early call at the cottage and her malicious blurting out of the engagement.