"Yes," I said, almost desperately, "I want to know." There was a pause. He still stood by me, looking down in my face. "Do not look so pale, and above all so frightened," he said, gently; "there is no need. How you tremble!" he added, taking my hand in both his, and speaking very sadly, "Oh, Daisy! Daisy!" And he turned his look away with a strange expression of disappointment and pain, of shame and mortification. I hung down my head; I did not dare to look at him, to withdraw my hand, to move. I stood mutely expecting--what I knew not exactly; but I seemed to feel that it must be some shock, dreadful, because violent, that would perforce turn the current of my destiny, and compel it to flow through regions, where of itself, my will would never have led we. Vain fear; unfounded alarm. Cornelius turned to me, and said very calmly-- "The mistake into which I fell, was to think that we understood one another tacitly, Daisy. I do not love you now because I have reared you, but on your own merits, for the sake of that which you have become. And thus I thought that you too liked me, with a higher feeling than gratitude. In short, as I like you myself--as a very dear friend." He spoke simply and naturally. I breathed freely. "Oh! how good, how generous you are!" I exclaimed, moved to the heart by so much delicacy of affection. "You want to raise me to an equality with you. God bless you, Cornelius." I pressed his two hands in mine, with much emotion. "Are you happy?" he asked, looking down at me. "So very happy!" I replied, with a joyous smile. "I am glad of it," he said, trying to smile too. "Shall we resume the sitting?" I asked. "Not to-day. 1 am in no mood to work; I think I shall go out for a walk." I felt somewhat surprised that Cornelius did not ask me to join him; and so was Kate, when she learned from me--she had been in her room all this time--that he was gone out alone. "Why did you not go with him?" she asked, frowning slightly. "He did not ask me, Kate." "You have not quarrelled?" "Oh, no! we are very good friends." The cloud passed away from her brow. She kissed me and said "Of course you are." Cornelius did not come in until late in the evening; he had walked miles, and was so tired that he could scarcely speak. CHAPTER VII. I awoke the next morning with a severe headache; I rose and came down as usual, thinking to hide it; scarcely, however, had I entered the front parlour, when Cornelius asked what ailed me. "Only a headache," I replied, carelessly; but he seemed filled with concern. He made me return to my room where I slept for a few hours, but without feeling any better; I then again went down to the parlour and lay on the sofa. Cornelius, who according to his sister had gone up to listen at my door every ten minutes--sat by me holding my hand. "How feverish she is!" he said to Kate.