"Why, bless your dear little heart, you have been here many a night and many a week. We thought at one time you would surely die." "I wish I had," moaned Daisy. In the bitterness of her sorely wounded heart she said to herself that Providence had done everything for her without taking her life. "We thought," pursued Mrs. Tudor, gently, "that perhaps you desired to see my husband--he is a detective--upon some matter. You fainted when you were just within the gate." "Was it your garden?" asked Daisy, surprisedly. "I thought it was a park!" "Then you were not in search of Mr. Tudor, my dear?" asked his wife, quite mystified. "No," replied Daisy. "I wanted to get away from every one who knew me, or every one I knew, except Uncle John." "I shall not question her concerning herself to-day," Mrs. Tudor thought. "I will wait a bit until she is stronger." She felt delicate about even asking her name. "She will seek my confidence soon," she thought. "I must wait." Mrs. Tudor was a kind-hearted little soul. She tried every possible means of diverting Daisy's attention from the absorbing sorrow which seemed consuming her. She read her choice, sparkling paragraphs from the papers, commenting upon them, in a pretty, gossiping way. Nothing seemed to interest the pretty little creature, or bring a smile to the quivering, childish lips. "Ah! here is something quite racy!" she cried, drawing her chair up closer to the bedside. "_A scandal in high life._ This is sure to be entertaining." Mrs. Tudor was a good little woman, but, like all women in general, she delighted in a spicy scandal. A handsome stranger had married a beautiful heiress. For a time all went merry as a marriage-bell. Suddenly a second wife appeared on the scene, of which no one previously knew the existence. The husband had sincerely believed himself separated by law from wife number one, but through some technicality of the law, the separation was pronounced illegal, and the beautiful heiress bitterly realized to her cost that she was no wife. "It must be a terrible calamity to be placed in such a predicament," cried Mrs. Tudor, energetically. "I blame the husband for not finding out beyond a doubt that he was free from his first wife." A sudden thought seemed to come to Daisy, so startling it almost took her breath away. "Supposing a husband left his wife, and afterward thought her dead, even though she were not, and he should marry again, would it not be legal? Supposing the poor, deserted wife knew of it, but allowed him to marry that some one else, because she believed he was unhappy with herself, would it not be legal?" she repeated in an intense voice, striving to appear calm.