blushed very crimson, but her great eyes were steadfast and
without guile. "I like him very much, Mr. Linnevitch."

"Not too much--eh?"

Daisy did not answer. She did not know the answer.

"Liddle girl," said Linnevitch kindly, "you don't know noddings. What
was he saying to you, just now?"

"He said some evening he'd take me to an academy and learn me dancing,"
said Daisy.

"He said dot, did he?" said Linnevitch. "I say don't have nodding to do
with them academies. You ask Mrs. Linnevitch to tell you some
stories--eh?"

"But he didn't mean a regular dance-hall," said Daisy. "He said a place
for beginners."

"For beginners!" said Linnevitch with infinite sarcasm. And then with a
really tender paternalism, "If I am your father, I beat you sometimes
for a liddle fool--eh?"

Mrs. Linnevitch was more explicit. "I've knowed hundreds of girls that
was taught to dance," she said. "First they go to the hall, and then
they go to hell."

Daisy defended her favorite character. "Any man," she said, "that
carries a lock of his mother's white hair with him to help keep him
straight is good enough for me, I guess."

"How do you know it is not hair of some old man's beard to fool you? Or
some goat--eh? How do you know it make him keep straight--eh?"

Linnevitch began to mimic the quiet voice and elegant manner of Barstow:
"Good-morning, Miss Obloski, I have just given one dollar to a poor
cribble.... Oh, how do you do to-day, Miss Obloski? My mouth is full of
butter, but it don't seem to melt.... Oh, Miss Obloski, I am ready to
faint with disgust. I have just seen a man drink one stein of beer. I am
a temptation this evening--let me just look in dot locket and save
myself."

Daisy was not amused. She was even angry with Linnevitch, but too gentle
to show it. Presently she said good-night and went to bed.

"_Now_," said Mrs. Linnevitch, "she'll go with that young feller sure.
The way you mocked him made her mad. I've got eyes in my head. Whatever
she used to think, now she thinks he's a live saint."

"I wonder, now?" said Linnevitch. A few minutes' wondering must have
brought him into agreement with his wife, for presently he toiled up
three flights of stairs and knocked at Daisy's door.

"Daisy," he said.

"What is it, Mr. Linnevitch?" If her voice had not been tearful it would
have been cold.

The man winced. "Mebbe that young feller is O. K.," he said. "I have
come just to say that. Mebbe he is. But you just l