o _me_.
Bless you! I guess you got the worst of it."

He passed on with a laugh, never noticing that he had left Jasper
standing in the middle of the road, gasping indeed now, but from a
different cause. He put his hand to his heart. He felt his breath come
too fast for comfort. What had come to him? Had he seen a ghost?

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE CHILDREN'S GREAT-UNCLE.

It was a few days after this that, the morning being very bright and
sunshiny, the little maid, Anne, determined to give Daisy and the baby a
long morning in the park. Mrs. Home was expected back in a few days.
Harold was very much better, and Anne, being a faithful and loving
little soul, was extremely anxious that Daisy and the baby should show
as rosy faces as possible to greet their mother's return. Hinton, who
still occupied the drawing-rooms, was absent as usual for the day. Mr.
Home would not come in until tea time. So Anne, putting some dinner for
the children and herself, in the back of the perambulator, and the house
latch-key in her pocket, started off to have what she called to Daisy, a
"picnic in the park."

The baby was now nearly ten months old. His beauty had increased with
his growing months, and many people turned to look at the lovely little
fellow as Anne gayly wheeled him along. He had a great deal of hair,
which showed in soft golden rings under his cap, and his eyes, large and
gentle as a gazelle's, looked calmly out of his innocent face. Daisy,
too, was quite pretty enough to come in for her share of admiration,
and Anne felt proud of both her little charges.

Reaching the park, she wheeled the perambulator under the shade of a
great tree, and sitting down herself on a bench, took little Angus in
her arms. Daisy scampered about and inquired when her namesakes, the
starry daisies of the field, would be there for her to gather.

As the little child played and shouted with delight, and the baby and
small maid looked on, a stout, florid-faced man of foreign appearance,
passing slowly by, was attracted by the picturesque group. Daisy had
flung off her shabby little hat. Her bright hair was in wild confusion.
Her gray eyes looked black beneath their dark lashes. Running full tilt
across the stranger's path, she suddenly stumbled and fell. He stooped
to pick her up. She hardly thanked him, but flew back to Anne. The
foreign-looking man, however, stood still. Daisy's piquant little face
had caused him to start and change color