"I--had a headache," she stammered, "and--came out for a little walk." "But it is too cold for you, Daisy. The wind is in the north-east. I have never felt it keener." "It won't hurt me," gasped Daisy, believing his solicitude for her was all put on. She had believed that for some time now. The kinder Frank showed himself, the more she despised him. "You have been there to see a patient?" questioned Daisy, hardly knowing and certainly not caring what she did say. "Yes," replied Frank. "But she is better this morning; so I am off to others who want me more than she does." "Is it that Mrs. Bell from Trennach? I saw a bottle of medicine directed to West Street for her one day. Sam was putting it into his basket." "It is Mrs. Bell. She is worse than she used to be, for the disorder has made progress. And I fear she will grow worse, day by day now, until the end." "What a hypocrite he is!" thought Daisy: "I dare say there is as much the matter with her as there is with me. Of course he needs some plea of excuse--to be going there for ever after that wretched girl." "Do you come here pretty often?" went on Daisy, coughing to conceal the spleen in her tone, which she was unable to suppress. "I shall have to come here oftener in future, I fear," returned Frank, not directly answering the question; of which delay she took due note. Just for these few minutes, he had slackened his pace to hers, and they were walking side by side. "I am glad she is near me: I don't think any stranger would give her the care that I shall give her." "You speak as though you were anxious about her!" resentfully cried Daisy. "I am more than anxious. I would give half I am worth to be able to cure her." "Well, I'm sure!" exclaimed Daisy. "One would think you and these people must possess some bond of union in common." "And so we do," he answered. Perhaps the words were spoken incautiously. Daisy, looking quickly up at him, saw that he seemed lost in thought. "What is it?" she asked in a low tone: her breathing just then seeming a little difficult. "What is what?" "The bond of union between you and these Bells." The question brought him out of his abstraction. He laughed lightly: laughed, as Daisy thought, and saw, to do away with the impression the words had made: and answered carelessly. "The bond between me and Dame Bell? It is that I knew her at Trennach, Daisy, and learnt to respect her. She nursed me through a fever once." "Oh," said Daisy, turning her head away, indignant at what she believed was an evasion. The "bond," if there were any, existed, not between himself and the mother, but between himself and the daughter. "I dare say you attend them for nothing!" "Of course I do." "What would Mr. Max Brown say to that?" "What he pleased. Max Brown is not a man to object, Daisy." "You can't tell." "Yes, I can. If he did, I should pay him the cost of the medicines. And my time, at least, I can give."