Melbourne House, Volume 1 | Page 5

Dinwiddie found us in the wood, and he took her home, and he brought me home first."
Daisy was somewhat of a diplomatist. Perhaps a little natural reserve of character might have been the beginning of it, but the habit had certainly grown from Daisy's experience of her mother's somewhat capricious and erratic views of her movements. She could not but find out that things which to her father's sense were quite harmless and unobjectionable, were invested with an unknown and unexpected character of danger or disagreeableness in the eyes of her mother; neither could Daisy get hold of any chain of reasoning by which she might know beforehand what would meet her mother's favour and what would not. The unconscious conclusion was, that reason had little to do with it; and the consequence, that without being untrue, Daisy had learned to be very uncommunicative about her thoughts, plans, or wishes. To her mother, that is; she was more free with her father, though the habit, once a habit, asserted itself everywhere. Perhaps, too, among causes, the example of her mother's own elegant manner of shewing truth only as one shews a fine picture,--in the best light,--might have had its effect. Daisy's diplomacy served her little on the present occasion.
"Daisy!" said her mother, "look at me." Daisy fixed her eves on the pleasant, handsome, mild face. "You are not to go anywhere in future where Mr. Dinwiddie is. Do you understand?"
"If he finds you lost out at night, though," said Mr. Randolph a little humorously, "he may bring you home."
Daisy wondered and obeyed, mentally, in silence; making no answer to either speaker. It was not her habit either to shew her dismay on such occasions, and she shewed none. But when she went up an hour later to be undressed for bed, instead of letting the business go on, Daisy took a Bible and sat down by the light and pored over a page that she had found.
The woman waiting on her, a sad-faced mulatto, middle-aged and respectable looking, went patiently round the room, doing or seeming to do some trifles of business, then stood still and looked at the child, who was intent on her book.
"Come, Miss Daisy," said she at last, "wouldn't you like to be undressed?"
The words were said in a tone so low they were hardly more than a suggestion. Daisy gave them no heed. The woman stood with dressing gown on her arm and a look of habitual endurance upon her face. It was a singular face, so set in its lines of enforced patience, so unbending. The black eyes were bright enough, but without the help of the least play of those fixed lines, they expressed nothing. A little sigh came from the lips at last, which also was plainly at home there.
"Miss Daisy, it's gettin' very late."
"June, did you ever read the parable of the tares?"
"The what, Miss Daisy?"
"The parable about the wheat and the tares in the Bible--in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew?"
"Yes, ma'am,"--came somewhat dry and unwillingly from June's lips, and she moved the dressing-gown on her arm significantly.
"Do you remember it?"
"Yes, ma'am,--I suppose I do, Miss Daisy--"
"June, when do you think it will be?"
"When will what, Miss Daisy?"
"When the 'Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.' It says, 'in the end of this world'--did you know this world would come to an end, June?"
"Yes, Miss Daisy--"
"When will it be, June?"
"I don't know, Miss Daisy."
"There won't be anybody alive that is alive now, will there?"
Again unwillingly the answer came: "Yes, ma'am. Miss Daisy, hadn't you better--"
"How do you know, June?"
"I have heard so--it's in the Bible--it will be when the Lord comes."
"Do you like to think of it, June?"
The child's searching eyes were upon her. The woman half laughed, half answered, and turning aside, broke down and burst into tears.
"What's the matter, June?" said Daisy, coming nearer and speaking awedly; for it was startling to see that stony face give way to anything but its habitual formal smile. But the woman recovered herself almost immediately, and answered as usual: "It's nothing, Miss Daisy." She always spoke as if everything about her was "nothing" to everybody else.
"But, June," said Daisy tenderly, "why do you feel bad about it?"
"I shouldn't, I s'pose," said the woman desperately, answering because she was obliged to answer; "I hain't no right to feel so--if I felt ready."
"How can one be ready, June? that is what I want to know. Aren't you ready?"
"Do, don't, Miss Daisy!--the Lord have mercy