Unshed tears were in the mother's eyes. "I will try to remember," she said, her voice low and tremulous. "But you are my 'Daisy' you know; all I have left in this world; and your father loved that name."
Daisy with a sudden movement flung herself on the arm of the great easy chair and hid her face in her mother's neck; when she tried to talk her voice choked with sobs.
"Oh, Mother, do please try to understand; you know what Father was to me, and you surely know that I love you with all my soul. If I hadn't, I—"
But the convulsive sobs came again, and she once more hid her face, while the mother's arms clasped her tenderly. A few minutes passed, then the girl sat erect and tried again.
"Mother dear, forgive me." As she spoke, she slipped to the footstool beside her mother's chair. "I didn't mean to worry you. I don't often go to pieces in this way, do I? But—you can't understand what I am going through! It seems so strange not to hear a word after almost five days! I thought I should certainly get a telegram, at least! Mamma, I didn't mean that about my name; at least not in the way it must have sounded. I shall get over that feeling, of course; but you see he did not know me by any other name; and when you used it, for a second it almost seemed as though I could hear his voice, and oh, Mother, I couldn't bear it! I spoke right out, before I thought.
"Mother, it seems as though you must understand what I mean! Don't you know you told me about how you loved Father so very much even right at the first? That is the way I feel about Rufus. Mother, I love him with all my soul, and I always shall! I never before knew what love meant, that kind of love, I mean and I can't tell you how it almost kills me to think that you don't believe in him!
"But you know you have hardly seen him. You have just let yourself be prejudiced by those horrid women who gossiped about him; just because he, was polite and helpful to those little flappers who were traveling alone; he showed them the same attention that any gentleman would. But I don't blame you, Mother dear; I suppose it is natural for mothers to feel so; when you never have had a chance to find out for yourself what a wonderful man he is. Besides, think how I helped it along!
"Why, mother, when I think of the way I let that awful Mrs. Dunlap, a perfect stranger, manage me so that I almost insulted him, it makes me feel as though I were going insane! Oh, I hope I shall never see or hear of her again! How could I let her make me treat him so! I don't see how he can ever forgive me! O, Mother! How can I live any longer! I wish I could die to-night!"
It was just then that the sound of the door bell pealed through the quiet house. The sound had instant effect on the nerves of the half insane girl. She sprang up quickly, evidently making a supreme effort at self-control, and spoke in a more natural tone.
"I'm afraid that's Nelson! I entirely forgot that he was to come to-night if he got back in time, to tell me how the vote went; as if I cared how they voted!"