"So should I," promptly replied Frank. "Perhaps some time we may see them together."
Her face took a brighter tint, though there was nothing in the sky to induce it. He passed his hand along the gate, until it rested on hers.
"Mamma talks of going abroad this summer," whispered Daisy. "I do not know whether it will be to Italy."
"I hope she will not take you with her!"
"It is Lydia's fault. She says this place tires her. And possibly," added Daisy, with a sigh, "when once we get abroad, we shall stay there."
"But, my darling, you know that must not be. I could not spare you. Why, Daisy, how could we live apart?"
Her hand, clasped tenderly, lay in his. Her whole frame thrilled as the hand rested there.
"Shall you always stay on at Trennach?" she questioned in low tones.
"Stay on at Trennach!" he repeated, in surprise. "I! Why, Daisy, I hope to be very, very soon away from it. I came to my uncle two years ago, of my own accord, to gain experience. Nothing teaches experience like the drudgery of a general practice: and I was not one of those self-sufficient young students who set up after hospital work with M.D. on their door-plate, and believe themselves qualified to cure the world. It is kill or cure, haphazard, with some of them."
"And—when you leave Trennach?" she asked, her clear eyes, clear this evening as amber, gazing out, as if she would fain see into the future.