"You will do nothing of the kind," he interrupted, a hard, resolute look settling on his face. "I would have preferred winning you by fair means, if possible; if you make it impossible I shall be forced to a desperate measure. I had not intended adopting such stringent measures, except in an extreme case. Permit me to explain what I shall do to prevent you from making the slightest outcry." As he spoke he drew from his pocket a small revolver heavily inlaid with pearl and silver. "I shall simply hold this toy to your pretty forehead to prevent a scene. The minister will be none the wiser--he is blind? Do you think," he continued, slowly, "that I am the man to give up a thing I have set my heart upon for a childish whim?" "Believe me," cried Daisy, earnestly, "it is no childish whim. Oh, Mr. Stanwick, I want to be grateful to you--why will you torture me until I hate you?" "I will marry you this very day, Daisy Brooks, whether you hate me or love me. I have done my best to gain your love. It will come in time; I can wait for it." "You will never make me love you," cried Daisy, covering her face with her hands; "do not hope it--and the more you talk to me the less I like you. I wish you would go away." "I shall not despair," said Stanwick, with a confident smile. "I like things which I find it hard to obtain--that was always one of my characteristics--and I never liked you so well as I like you now, in your defiant anger, and feel more determined than ever to make you my own." Suddenly a new thought occurred to him as he was about to turn from her. "Why, how stupid of me!" he cried. "I could not bring the parson here, for they think you my wife already. I must change my plan materially by taking you to the parsonage. We can go from here directly to the station. I shall return in exactly fifteen minutes with a conveyance. Remember, I warn you to make no outcry for protection in the meantime. If you do I shall say you inherited your mother's malady. I am well acquainted with your history, you see." He kissed his finger-tips to her carelessly. "_Au revoir_, my love, but not farewell," he said, lightly, "until we meet to be parted nevermore," and, with a quick, springy step Lester Stanwick walked rapidly down the clover-bordered path on his fatal errand. In the distance the little babbling brook sung to her of peace and rest beneath its curling, limpid waters. "Oh, mother, mother," she cried, "what was the dark sorrow that tortured your poor brain, till it drove you mad--ay, mad--ending in death and despair? Why did you leave your little Daisy here to suffer so? I feel such a throbbing in my own poor brain--but I must fly anywhere, anywhere, to escape this new sorrow. God has forgotten me." She took one step forward in a blind, groping, uncertain way. "My last ray of hope has died out," she cried as the memory of his cruel words came slowly back to her, so mockingly uttered--"the minister would be none the wiser--he is blind."