"No, Mr. Thornton," Mr. McDonald replied. "To see Daisy would be useless
and only excite you more than you are excited now. You cannot see her."
"Yes, he will, father. If Guy wants to see me, he shall."
It was Daisy herself who spoke, and who a second time had been acting
the part of listener. Going up to Guy, she knelt down beside him, and,
laying her arms across his lap, said to him: "What is it, Guy? what is it you wish to say to me?"
The sight of her before him in all her girlish beauty, with that soft,
sweet expression on the face raised so timidly to his, unmanned Guy
entirely, and, clasping her in his arms, he wept passionately for a
moment, while he tried to say: "Oh, Daisy, my darling, tell me it is a horrid dream; tell me you are
still my wife, and go with me to the home I have tried to make so
pleasant for your sake. It is not like Elmwood, but I will some time
have one handsomer even than that, and I'll work so hard for you! Oh,
Daisy, tell me you are sorry for the part you had in this fearful
business, if, indeed, you had a part, and I'll take you back so gladly!
Will you, Daisy? will you be my wife once more? I shall never ask you
again. This is your last chance with me. Reflect before you throw it
away."
Guy's mood was changing a little, because of something he saw in
Daisy's face--a drawing back from him when he spoke of marriage.
"Daisy must not go back with you; I shall not suffer that," Mr. McDonald
said, while Daisy, still keeping her arms around Guy's neck, where she
had put them when he drew her to him, replied: "Oh, Guy! I can't go with you now; but I shall like you always, and I'm
so sorry for you. I never wanted to be married; but if I must, I'd
better have married Tom, or that old Chicago man; they would not feel so
bad, and I'd rather hurt them than you."
The utter childishness of the remark roused Guy, and with a gesture of
impatience, he put Daisy from him, and, rising to his feet, said
angrily: "This, then is your decision, and I accept it; but, Daisy, if you have
in you a spark of true womanhood you will some time be sorry for this
day's work; while you!" and he turned fiercely upon Mr. McDonald--"words
cannot express the contempt I feel for you; and know, too, that I
understand you fully, and am certain that were I the rich man I was when
you gave your daughter to me, you would not have taken her away. But I
will waste no more words upon you. You are a villain! and Daisy is--"
His white lips quivered a little as he hesitated a moment, and then
added: "Daisy was my wife."