y soul.

"You shall never regret this hour, my darling," he cried, then in the
soft silvery twilight he took her to his heart and kissed her
rapturously.

His mother's bitter anger, so sure to follow--the cold, haughty
mother, who never forgot or forgave an injury, and his little sister
Birdie's sorrow were at that moment quite forgotten--even if they had
been remembered they would have weighed as naught compared with his
lovely little Daisy with the golden hair and eyes of blue looking up
at him so trustingly.

Daisy never forgot that walk through the sweet pink clover to the
little chapel on the banks of the lonely river. The crickets chirped
in the long green grass, and the breeze swayed the branches of the
tall leafy trees, rocking the little birds in their nests.

A sudden, swift, terrified look crept up into Daisy's face as they
entered the dim shadowy parlor. Rex took her trembling chilled hands
in his own; if he had not, at that moment, Daisy would have fled from
the room.

"Only a little courage, Daisy," he whispered, "then a life of
happiness."

Then as if in a dream she stood quite still by his side, while the
fatal ceremony went on; in a confused murmur she heard the questions
and responses of her lover, and answered the questions put to her;
then Rex turned to her with a smile and a kiss.

Poor little thoughtless Daisy--it was done--in a moment she had sown
the seeds from which was to spring up a harvest of woe so terrible
that her wildest imagination could not have painted it.

"Are we really married, Rex?" she whispered, as he led her out again
into the starlight; "it seems so much like a dream."

He bent his handsome head and kissed his pretty child-bride. Daisy
drew back with a startled cry--his lips were as cold as ice.

"Yes, you are my very own now," he whispered. "No one shall ever have
the right to scold you again; you are mine now, Daisy, but we must
keep it a secret from every one for awhile, darling. You will do this
for my sake, won't you, Daisy?" he asked. "I am rich, as far as the
world knows, but it was left to me under peculiar conditions. I--I--do
not like to tell you what those conditions were, Daisy."

"Please tell me, Rex," she said, timidly; "you know I am
your--your--wife--now."

Daisy blushed so prettily as she spoke. Rex could not refrain from
catching her up in his arms and kissing her.

"You _shall_ know, my darling," he cried. "The conditions were I
should marry