"I cannot say that. Any excitement or disturbance would much delay it. Let him hear nothing and see nothing—except you, and some attendant that he is accustomed to."
"O doctor, can't you stay till he is better?"
"I will return again very soon, Mrs. Randolph. There is nothing to be done at present for which I am needed."
"But you will come back as soon as you can?"
"Certainly!"
"And O, Dr. Sandford, cannot you take Daisy away?"
"Where is she?"
"I don't know—she is not come home. Do take her away!"
The doctor went thoughtfully down stairs, and checking his first movement to go out of the front door, turned to the library. Nobody was there; but he heard voices, and passed out upon the piazza. Daisy's pony chaise stood at the foot of the steps; she herself had just alighted. Preston was there too, and it was his voice the doctor had first heard, in anxious entreaty.
"Come, Daisy!—it's capital down at the river; and I want to shew you something."