"Has Dr. Sandford gone?" she asked.
"He bid us good bye, mamma, you know. I suppose he took the
evening train, as he said."
"Then we shall have no more meddling."
"He means us only kindness, I am sure, mamma."
"I do not like kindness. I do not know what right Dr. Sandford
has to offer me kindness. I gave him none."
"Mamma, it seems to me that we are in a condition to receive
kindness, - and be very glad of it."
"You are poor-spirited, Daisy; you always were. You never had
any right pride of blood or of place. I think it makes no
difference to you who people are. If you had done your duty to
me, we should have been in no condition now to 'receive
kindness,' as you express it. I may thank you."
"What do you mean to do, mamma?"
"Nothing."
"Stay here, in this hotel?"
"Yes."
"It will be very expensive, mamma."
"I will meet the expense."
"But, mamma, - without funds?"
"I have a diamond necklace yet, Daisy."
"But, mamma, when that is gone? -"
"Do you think," she broke out with violence, "that this war is
going to last for ever? It cannot last. The Yankees will find
out what they have undertaken. Lee will drive them back. You
do not suppose he can be overcome?"
"Mamma - if the others have more men and more means -"
"They are only Yankees," - mamma said quietly, but with a
concentration of scorn impossible to give in words.
"They know how to fight," - I could not help saying.
"Yes, but we do not know how to be overcome! Do you think it,
Daisy?"
"Mamma - there was New Orleans - and Vicksburg - and
Gettysburg; - and now in Virginia -"
"Yes, now; these battles; you will see how they will turn. Do
you suppose this Yankee Grant is a match for Robert E. Lee?"
It was best to drop the discussion, and I dropped it; but it
had gone too far to be forgotten. Every bit of news from that
time was a point of irritation; if good for the South, mamma
asserted that I did not sympathise with it; if good for the
North, she found that I was glad, though I tried not to show
that I was. She was irritated, and anxious, and unhappy. What
I was, I kept to myself.