"I should love any one who had you for a sister," replied Daisy, clasping the little figure she held still closer in her arms; adding, in her heart: "You are so like him." Birdie gave her such a hearty kiss, that the veil twined round her hat tumbled about her face like a misty cloud. "You must put me down while you fix your veil," said Birdie. "You can not see with it so. There are huge stones in the path, you would stumble and fall." "So I shall," assented Daisy, as she placed the child down on the soft, green grass. At that instant swift, springy footsteps came hurriedly down the path, and a voice, which seemed to pierce her very heart, called: "Birdie, little Birdie, where are you?" "Here, Brother Rex," called the child, holding out her arms to him with eager delight. "Come here, Rex, and carry me; I have broken my crutch." For one brief instant the world seemed to stand still around poor, hapless Daisy, the forsaken girl-bride. The wonder was that she did not die, so great was her intense emotion. Rex was standing before her--the handsome, passionate lover, who had married her on the impulse of the moment; the man whom she loved with her whole heart, at whose name she trembled, of whom she had made an idol in her girlish heart, and worshiped--the lover who had vowed so earnestly he would shield her forever from the cold, cruel world, who had sworn eternal constancy, while the faithful gleaming stars watched him from the blue sky overhead. Yes, it was Rex! She could not see through the thick, misty veil, how pale his face was in the gathering darkness. Oh, Heaven! how her passionate little heart went out to him! How she longed, with a passionate longing words could not tell, to touch his hand, or rest her weary head on his breast. Her brain whirled; she seemed, to live ages in those few moments. Should she throw herself on her knees, and cry out to him, "Oh, Rex, Rex, my darling! I am _not_ guilty! Listen to me, my love. Hear my pleading--listen to my prayer! I am more sinned against than sinning. My life has been as pure as an angel's--take me back to your heart, or I shall die!" "She has been so good to me, Rex," whispered Birdie, clinging to the veil which covered Daisy's face. "I broke my crutch, and she has carried me from the stone wall; won't you please thank her for me, brother?" Daisy's heart nearly stopped beating; she knew the eventful moment of her life had come, when Rex, her handsome young husband, turned courteously toward her, extending his hand with a winning smile. CHAPTER XIX. On the day following Rex's return home, and the morning preceding the events narrated in our last chapter, Mrs. Theodore Lyon sat in her dressing-room eagerly awaiting her son; her eyebrows met in a dark frown and her jeweled hands were locked tightly together in her lap.