She looked him full in the face, and put both her hands in his impulsively.
"You are too good," she exclaimed, with fervor. "But you cannot afford so large a gift. No, I would only take it if you had a very large sum, and could not possibly miss it. I asked carelessly. I should not have done so--I was selfish to think of such a thing."
"I want to speak to you about something, also," said Roseleaf, after a strained pause. "I have noticed of late that your father has some trouble on his mind."
She started suddenly.
"Ah!" was all she said.
"And I have wondered if there was anything I could do to--to aid _him_--to relieve him. Because, I would like it very much if I could, on account of--of--"
She looked up inquiringly.
"I have been so much a member of your family, in a certain way, that a grief like this appeals strongly to me," he said, haltingly.
She paled slightly as she repeated his words.
"A grief?"
"Well, distress, annoyance, whatever it may be called. If there is anything I can do, I shall be more than happy."
The girl sat for some moments with her eyes on the ground.
"He _is_ troubled," she said, finally. "I am glad to talk with you, for I cannot get him to tell me anything. He is greatly troubled, and I am worried beyond expression. I can"t understand it. He has always confided in me so thoroughly, but now he shakes his head and says it is nothing, trying to look brighter even when the tears are almost ready to fall.
What can it be, Mr. Roseleaf? He has no companions outside of his office and this house? He sits by himself, and isn"t a bit like he used to be and every day I think he grows worse."
Roseleaf asked if Daisy had talked much with her sister about it.
"No," she said, with a headshake. "I don"t believe Millie has noticed anything. She is so occupied with her literary matters"--there was a sarcastic touch upon the word, that did not escape the listener--"she has no time for such things. I hope you won"t think I mean to criticise her," added the young girl, with a blush. "I know you care a great deal for my sister, and--"
She stopped in the midst of the sentence, leaving it unfinished. And Roseleaf thought how interesting this girl had become.
"Let me confide in you, Daisy," he said, in his softest tone. "I do not care "a great deal," nor even a very little for your sister. You see,"
he went on, in response to the startled look that greeted him, "I am to be a novelist. To be successful in writing fiction, I have been told that I ought to be in love--just once--myself. And I came here and tried very hard to fall in love with Miss Millicent; and I simply cannot."
Daisy"s fresh young laugh rang out on the air of the evening.
"Poor man!" she cried, with mock pity. "And hasn"t she tried to help you?"
"No. She hasn"t. And as soon as I get the work done I have commenced for her, I am going away."
The child--she was scarcely more than that--grew whiter, but the shadows of the evening hid the fact from her companion.
"You ought not to go," she said, slowly, and rather faintly, "until you have made another trial."
"Oh! It is useless!" he replied.
"Is it that you cannot love--Millie--or that you cannot love--any one?"
He hesitated, puzzled, himself, at the question.
"I never did love any one--any woman," he confessed, "and perhaps I never shall. But your sister seems peculiarly hard to love. Yet she is a very handsome girl and equipped with a mind of unusual calibre."
Daisy acknowledged this description of her sister"s charms. She remarked that it was strange that such a combination did not suffice to accomplish the desired result.
"There are people who do find her entertaining," she added. "Mr. Weil is one of them."
"Oh, Archie!" said Roseleaf. "He finds everything entertaining. It is nothing worth remarking. She is the exact description of his ideal in feminine face and form. He once gave me the list of the excellencies of a "perfect woman," and your sister has them all."
The younger Miss Fern had her own opinions about this matter. She thought the innocent man at her side had not quite gauged the interest that Mr. Weil took in her family.
"I will make a proposition," she said, with a light laugh, when they had talked longer upon the subject. "I am afraid it won"t seem worth much to you, and perhaps you can do better; but why can"t you stay here, and--if Millie won"t do--make love to _me_?"
Darkness is responsible for many things. In the light, Daisy could not have uttered those words, even in jest. There, when the sun had set and the stars were not yet on duty, she found the courage to make that suggestion.
"You are very kind," he stammered, when he grasped her meaning. "But I do not think it will answer. I am afraid love cannot be pushed to any point without its own initiative."
"That is probably the case with _real_ love," replied the girl, "but an imitation that would serve your purpose might be evolved in the way I have indicated. For instance, you could take my hand in yours--like this--and I could lean toward you in--this way. And then, if you had sufficient courage--"
Before he dreamed of doing it, it was done! He had kissed her on her tempting lips, placed within an inch of his own.
"You are too good a scholar," she pouted, rising to her feet in some confusion. "I did not give you leave to do that."
"I beg your pardon most humbly," he answered, with intense contrition.
"May I a.s.sure you that the act was wholly involuntary and that I am very sorry for it?"
She turned and surveyed him in the shadow.
"Are--you--_very_--sorry?" she repeated.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because I have made you angry."
"Do I seem angry?"
"At least, I have injured your feelings."
Her face was close to his again.
"Well, I forgive you. There, let us make up."
She raised herself on the tips of her toes and kissed him twice.
All the blood in this young man"s body seemed to rush to his head and then back with violence to his heart.