Mary promised this, and wrote to Pierre giving him a tryst by the Serpentine three days hence. Adèle was sent to beg Daisy Harland to come at once to talk over some important news Mary had to tell her. Mary would have gone herself, but she could see that her grandmother would not be able to avoid being suspicious of her meeting Pierre, and she did not want to do anything that would prejudice the old lady still more against him. Daisy was much more discouraging than Grandmamma; she thought it was madness to think of marrying a French clerk who was the son of a common gardener, and who had at the moment neither money nor employment. "My dearest Mary, it's the most absurd idea I ever heard! Why, you would have to live in squalor unless you lived with Lady Flower, which of course would be impossible. You're too old for this kind of foolishness now. I saw no reason for your getting married in such a hurry. But I begin to understand now why your grandmother is so anxious to tie you up. She evidently knows you better than I do. Of course, he's a good-looking and--if that attracts you--a romantic young man. But there are dozens of them in England. As for being in love, you know as well as I do that love runs its course like measles or scarlet fever. You can recover from love, but you can't recover from marriage, which in this case would be like a serious accident. You'd be lame for the rest of your life." Lady Flower remarked how much surprised she had been to find that Mary's friend had grown so sensible. "It must be hunting, I suppose." "You only find her sensible because she dislikes the idea of my marrying Pierre." "She sees the position from the standpoint of an outsider. Listen, Mary, I have never said anything about your father to you. I don't even know how much you have guessed." Mary blushed hotly. The moment that she had dreaded for years was upon her. That dreadful secret, the consciousness of which had always clouded her intimate thoughts, was about to be revealed. She must steel herself to hear the proclamation of her illegitimacy. The definition in the dictionary flamed across her memory ... _not authorized by law_ ... _improper_ ... _not born in lawful wedlock_ ... _bastard_. _Bâtard!_ How often had she shivered over that in the French dictionary. How sedulously had she tried to ascertain what it really meant, in the way that no dictionary dares to reveal. And then those sickening hints from horrid girls ... the girls who came from South America were always the horridest.... No wonder Grandmamma looked serious and uncomfortable. If only a small portion of what was hinted were true, she must scarcely know how she was to look her granddaughter in the face and tell her not merely about herself, but about life and those mysterious beginnings of life that seemed to involve men and women in such horrors. "I have guessed a good deal," Mary admitted bravely.