Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Louise Pryor and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net MISS MCDONALD BY MRS. MARY J. HOLMES AUTHOR OF "THE LEIGHTON HOMESTEAD," "MILLBANK; OR, ROGER IRVING'S WARD," "MILDRED; OR, THE CHILD OF ADOPTION," "EDITH LYLE'S SECRET," "ETHELYN'S MISTAKE," ETC. THE MERSHON COMPANY RAHWAY, N.J. NEW YORK CONTENTS I. EXTRACTS FROM MISS FRANCES THORNTON'S JOURNAL II. EXTRACTS FROM GUY'S JOURNAL III. EXTRACTS FROM DAISY'S JOURNAL IV. AUTHOR'S STORY V. THE DIVORCE VI. EXTRACTS FROM DIARIES VII. FIVE YEARS LATER VIII. DAISY'S LETTER IX. DAISY, TOM, AND THAT OTHER ONE X. MISS MCDONALD XI. AT SARATOGA XII. IN THE SICK-ROOM XIII. DAISY'S JOURNAL MISS MCDONALD CHAPTER I EXTRACTS FROM MISS FRANCES THORNTON'S JOURNAL ELMWOOD, June 15, 18--. I have been out among my flowers all the morning, digging, weeding, and transplanting, and then stopping a little to rest. Such perfect successes as my roses are this year, while my white lilies are the wonder of the town, and yet my heart was not with them to-day, and it was nothing to me that those fine people staying at the Towers came into the grounds while I was at work, "just to see and admire," they said, adding that there was no place like Elmwood in all the town of Cuylerville. I know that, and Guy and I have been so happy here, and I loved him so much, and never dreamed what was in store for me until it came so suddenly and seemed like a heavy blow. Why did he want to get married, when he has lived to be thirty years old, without a care of any kind, and with money enough to allow him to indulge his taste for books, and pictures, and travel, and is respected by everybody, looked up to as the first man in town, and petted and cared for by me as few brothers have ever been petted and cared for; why, I say, did he want a change, and, if he must be married, why need he take a child of sixteen, whom he has only known since Christmas, and whose sole recommendation, so far as I can learn, is her pretty face? Daisy McDonald is her name, and she lives in Indianapolis, where her father is a poor lawyer, and Guy met her last winter in Chicago and fell in love at once, and made two or three journeys West on "important business," he said, and then, some time in May, told me he was going to bring me a sister, the sweetest little creature, with such beautiful blue eyes and wonderful hair. I was sure to love her, he said, and when I suggested that she was very young, he replied that her youth was in her favor, as he could more easily mold her to the Thornton pattern.