Is this your house?"

"Oh, dear, no," laughed Stanwick. "Upon my honor, you are not very
complimentary to my taste," he said, glancing around the meagerly
furnished apartment. "As near as I can understand it, the house is
occupied by three grim old maids. Each looks to be the twin of the
other. This was the first shelter I could find, and I had carried you
all the way from the boat in my arms, and under the circumstances,
after much consulting, they at last agreed to allow you to remain
here. Now you have the whole story in a nutshell."

"Why did they not send to Septima to come to me?" she asked
presently.

"Because they thought you were with your best protector--your
husband."

"Did you tell them that here, too?" asked Daisy, growing white and ill
with a dizzy horror. "Oh, Mr. Stanwick, send for them at once, and
tell them it is not so, or I must!" she added, desperately.

"You must do nothing of the kind, you silly child. Do you suppose they
would have sheltered you for a single instant if they had not believed
you were my wife? You do not know the ways of the world. Believe me,
it was the only course I could pursue, in that awkward dilemma,
without bringing disgrace and detection upon you."

As if in answer to the question that was trembling upon Daisy's lips,
he continued:

"I am stopping at a boarding-place some little distance from here.
This is not Baltimore, but a little station some sixty miles from
there. When you are well and strong you may go where you please,
although I frankly own the situation is by no means an unpleasant one
for me. I would be willing to stay here always--with you."

"Sir!" cried Daisy, flushing as red as the climbing roses against the
window, her blue eyes blazing up with sudden fire, "do you mean to
insult me?"

"By no means," responded Lester Stanwick, eagerly. "Indeed, I respect
and honor you too much for that. Why, I risked my life to save yours,
and shielded your honor with my name. Had I been your husband in very
truth I could not have done more."

Daisy covered her face with her hands.

"I thank you very much for saving me," she sobbed, "but won't you
please go away now and leave me to myself?"

_Roue_ and villain as Lester Stanwick was, he could not help feeling
touched by the innocence and beauty of little Daisy, and from that
instant he loved her with a wild, absorbing, passionate love, and he
made a vow, then and there, that he would win her.

From their bo