I added no remark upon Mr. De Saussure's or his sisters'
peculiar way of enjoying themselves.
"But you are uncommonly silent," he went on presently; -
"triste, rêveuse. It is impossible not to suffer from it, - in
one who values your words as much as I do."
"Why, I thought you were apt to look upon things from a
different point of view, - not from mine," I said.
"I must be wrong then - always. Miss Randolph, you are of a
gentle and kind disposition, - I wish you would be my Mentor!"
"I am not old enough to be Mentor," I said.
"To be mine! Yes, you are," he rejoined eagerly. "I would not
have you a day older."
"I shall be that to-morrow," I said, laughing.
"But if you were mine," he said, changing his tone, "every day
would only add to your power and your qualifications for doing
me good. And I know that is what you love."
"I cannot see that I have done you the least good, so far, Mr.
De Saussure," I said, amused. "I think you must be mistaken."
"Will you try, Daisy?" he said insinuatingly, and stopping
short in our walk.
"Try what, Mr. De Saussure?" I said, beginning to be
bewildered.
"Surely you know! You are a little cruel. But you have the
right. Be my Mentor - be my darling - promise to be, one of
these days, my wife."
I dropped my arm from Mr. De Saussure's and stood in a maze, I
might say with truth, frightened. Up to that minute, no
suspicion of his purpose or mind regarding me had entered my
thoughts. I suppose I was more blind than I ought to have
been; and the truth was, that in the utter preoccupation of my
own heart, the idea that I could like anybody else but Mr.
Thorold, or that anybody else could like me, had been simply
out of sight. I knew myself so thoroughly beyond anybody's
reach, the prior possession of the ground was so perfect and
settled a thing, that I did not remember it was a fact hidden
from other eyes but mine. And I had gone on in my supposed
walled-in safety; - and here was somebody presuming within the
walls, who might allege that I had left the gate open.
However, to do Mr. De Saussure justice, I never doubted for a
moment that his heart might be in any danger of breaking if I
thrust him out. But for all that, I lost my breath in the
first minute of discovery of what I had been doing.
"You hesitate," said he. "You shall command me, Daisy. I will
go instantly, hard as it would be, and give all my power to
furthering the war at home; - or, if you bid me, I will keep
out of it, which would be harder still, were you not here
instead of there. Speak, won't you, -a good word for me?"