The doctor went thoughtfully downstairs, 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 show you something."
"I think I am tired now, Preston. I'll go another time," said
Daisy.
"Daisy, I want you now. Come! come! I want you to go now, this minute."
"But I do not feel like a walk, Preston. I can't go till I have had my dinner."
Preston looked imploringly at the doctor, towards whom Daisy was now mounting the steps. It is safe to say that the doctor would willingly have been spared his present task.
"Where have you been now, Daisy?" he said.
Daisy's face brightened into its usual smile at sight of him.
"I have been to Crum Elbow, Dr. Sandford."
"Suppose you go a little further and have luncheon with Mrs.
Sandford and me? It will not take us long to get to it."
"Does mamma say so, Dr. Sandford?"