He bowed. Poor fellow, he dared not trust
his voice now.

"And—it is best to be candid at once—I must
forbid any attempt at communication between
you and Miss Lamplugh. No letters,
messages, interviews — nothing. You must forget
each other, without a thought of renewing
this absurd affair."

"That, Lady Albinia, I cannot promise.
On the contrary, I must hold such communication
with Daisy as I can, and as she will
grant."

"Then, Mr. Musgrave, I must take my own
measures."

"As you will, my lady: I must overcome
them."

"Do you threaten me, sir?"

"No, Lady Albinia, I only warn you. You
may attempt to separate, but you will, never
succeed in separating, Daisy and myself. I will
find her wherever she may be hidden, and she
will be my wife in spite of all your opposition.
Do I not know her, and can I not trust her.
You are beating yourself against a rock!
Daisy's truth and my love will never yield!"
With these words, Charley Musgrave bowed,
and walked out of the room.

"We shall see! " said Lady Albinia, with a
peculiar flame in her sharp, brown eyes. " I
do not think I shall be outwitted by a reckless
boy and girl."

Tears, vows, prayers, all were unheeded;
Charley Musgrave must go. The aristocratic
Fate had cut the thread of love, and there
was no way of help. Daisy's indignation,
fierce and savage as her love was deep,
was of no avail. She besought Charley to
marry her in the face of her enemies, and to
allow them no passing moment of triumph.
But, the tutor had a little more knowledge of
the "proprieties," and told her to wait and be
hopeful. Charley Musgrave went away, and
poor Daisy was left shipwrecked and alone.

Lady Albinia followed up this first blow by
taking Daisy and the boys to London. She
and her servants had hard work to keep them
all together on the road, for they made
desperate attempts to escape, and had to be
watched like wild birds newly caught.
Lady Albinia was twice threatened with arrest
by policemen with tender hearts, who could
not believe that she had law or right on her
side when they saw the distress of her poor
prisoners; but her aristocratic nose and
perfect manners bore her over all such difficulties,
and she arrived iu London safely with her
charge.

In London, Lady Albinia was the
Macgregor with his foot upon his native heath.
She was absolute. Not even the ghost of
marital authority disturbed her on her
throne. The children were well watched;
and, in such a wilderness as London, had
but little chance against natives; to whom
the perplexing streets were as familiar, as
the wild-flowers on the mountains were to
them. They had only to submit; which
they did like tigers in a net: talking Arabic
among themselves, and weeping such
passionate tears as might have moved a heart
of stone. But a fashionable heart is a very
good imitation of stone, when the necessity
of appearances is brought into action.

Daisy was tortured. A French staymaker
was called in to imprison her figure in a
whale-bone pillory; then a French dressmaker was
called in, and Daisy stumbled over her trailing
gowns, and tore her lace flowers at every step.
Her feet were thrust into narrow-soled boots,
and in a short time she had corns; which,
besides  paining her very much, inexpressibly
disgusted her. Her hands were coaxed
into gloves which left a deep red mark round
her wrists; and she was not allowed to
walk — only to drive out in an open carriage
with her stepmother. Charley Musgrave's
letters were intercepted; the sharp brown
eyes read them first, and then the beak-
like fingers burnt them in the fire; so, as
Daisy was too innocent to know of post-
offices, and false addresses, and could not
have managed a clandestine correspondence,
even if she had known how, she could do
nothing but hope and wonder, and love and
trust. She knew that Charley was faithful,
she said, and she believed in him as passionately
as she mourned for him.

But the poor child began to fade. She
had a fixed pain in her side, a feverish
flush on her cheek, a cough, and a wild
wandering look in her bright eyes, that
reminded Mr. Lamplugh of the young
mother who had died ten years ago, in his
arms. She was weaker too; and her old
restless energy was quite subdued. All
she did, was to sit by the windows looking
into the park: tears filling up her hollow
eyes, and her trembling lips repeating low
songs in Arabic — all about the captive and
his love — and the desert and sweet liberty.

Mr. Lamplugh, frightened into manhood
by the sight of his pride and darling drooping
at his feet, sent for the family physician;
luckily a kind and skilful man. A glance
at the Bedouin child told him the whole secret
of her malady. She was dying, he said bluntly,
of restraint. She must just go back to
Todcroft, to her wild life of freedom again, if they
wished to save her.

"And, oh, papa! " sobbed Daisy, clasping
her thin hands together. " Give me back my
brothers and Charley again!"

"Aye," said the doctor. " Miss Daisy had
better be married to Charley, I think, and the
young gentlemen had better go back
to their old home too. You see, Mr. Lamplugh,
blood is stronger than breeding, and
Lady Albinia would scarcely have tamed
these Arab natures, if she had had them
from the cradle. She had better give up
the attempt, as it is. You want generations,
not individuals, for educational successes. Let
Lady Albinia adopt some Saxon child, if she
wants to prove some Saxon theory. The only