be said to have made his exit in a somewhat
shamefaced manner. Fortune put him at a disadvantage in that his partner
was far away, while Daisy stood triumphant by the side of hers and
watched him.

"Upon my honour," he exclaimed, hitting viciously at a flower, "I
believe she was humbugging me all the time!" And from that day to this
he thinks Miss Medland a flirt, and is very glad, for that among other
weighty reasons, that he had nothing more to do with her.

Her behaviour towards Dick Derosne was fairly typical of Daisy Medland's
attitude towards the world at large at this time. She made the mistake,
natural enough, of being defiant, of emphasising outwardly an
indifference that she did not feel, of anticipating slights and being
ready to resent slurs which were never intended or inflicted. There are
so many people in the world who want only an excuse for being kind, but
yet do want that, and who are ready to give much, but must be asked.
There were many among the upper circles of Kirton society who would have
been ready enough to act a friendly part, to overlook much, to play
protector to the girl, and do a favour to a man who had been and might
again be powerful; but they too needed to be asked--not of course in
words, but by a hint of gratitude waiting for them, a touch of
deference, some kind of appeal from the loneliness and desolation of a
doubtful position to the comfortable regions of unaspersed
respectability. They could not help feeling that Daisy, though by no
fault of hers, was yet one who should ask and accept as favours what
among equals are no more than courtesies. The knowledge of this point of
view drove Daisy into strong revolt against it: she was more, not less,
offhand than of yore; more, not less, ready to ignore people with whom
she was not in sympathy; more, not less, unscrupulous in outraging the
small conventions of society. And, unfortunately, Norburn was a man to
encourage instead of discouraging her in this course, for conventions
and respectability had always been a red rag to him. In the result the
isolation of the Medland household from most of the families of their
own level in the town, and from all of a higher, if there were any such,
grew from day to day, until it seemed that Daisy's "We three against the
world!" was to come true so far as the world meant the social circle of
their neighbours. Medland himself was too engrossed with larger matters
to note the progress of this outlaw