"`Really mean it! Mr Richard!'" said the young fellow, reproachfully. "Oh, Daisy, have you so mean an opinion of me? Do you take me for a contemptible liar?" "Oh no, no, no," sobbed the girl; "but they say--I always thought--I believed that you were engaged to Miss Eve." "A poor puny thing," said Richard, in a contemptuous tone; "and besides, she's my cousin." "But she thinks you love her," said Daisy. "Poor thing!" laughed Richard. "And I believe you love her." "Indeed I don't, nor anybody else but you, you beautiful little rosebud. Oh, Daisy, Daisy, how can you be so cruel!" "I'm not, I'm not cruel," sobbed poor Daisy; "but I want to do what's right." "Of course," whispered Richard. "But come along, let's go in the counting-house--to my room--it's safer there." "I won't, I won't," cried Daisy, indignantly. "At such a time of night, too! You oughtn't to ask me." "I only asked you for your own sake," said Richard, "because people might talk if they saw you with me here." "Oh yes," sobbed Daisy; "and they would. I must go." "Stop a moment," said Richard, catching her wrist. "Perhaps, too, it was a little for my own sake, because the men are so furious against me." "Oh yes, I heard," cried Daisy, with her voice shaking; "but they did not hurt you to-day?" "Not hurt me!" said Richard. "Why, they nearly killed me." "No, no," sobbed Daisy. "But they did; and they would if I hadn't been rescued." Daisy suppressed a hysterical cry, and Richard passed his arm round her little waist, and drew her to him. "Then you do love me a little, Daisy?" he whispered. "No, no, I don't think I do," sobbed the girl, without, however, trying to get away. "I believe you were going to meet Miss Eve this morning, and were disappointed because I was there." "Indeed I was not," said Richard. "But I'm sure you were expecting to see that great hulking hound, Tom Podmore." "That I was not," cried Daisy, impetuously; "and I won't have you speak like that of poor Tom, for I've behaved very badly to him, and he's a good--good, worthy fellow." "`Poor Tom!'" said Richard, with a sigh. "Ah, Daisy, Daisy." "Don't, Mr Richard, please," sobbed Daisy, who was crying bitterly. "`Poor Tom--Mr Richard,'" said the young man, as if speaking to himself. "Don't, don't, Mr Richard, please." "`Mr Richard.'" "Well, Dick, then. But there, I must go now." "Not just now, darling Daisy," whispered Richard, passionately. "Come with me--here we are close by the door." "No, no, indeed I will not," cried Daisy, firmly. "Not when I tell you it isn't safe for me to be in the streets at night, for fear some ruffian should knock out my brains?" "Oh, Dick, dear Dick, don't say so." "But I'm obliged to," he said, trying to draw her along, but she still resisted. "I wouldn't have you hurt for the world," she sobbed; "but, Richard-- Dick, do you really, really love me as much as you have said?"