Daisy
"But it may be right to consider what would be Mr. Randolph's wish on
the subject. If you take her, he may lose several hundred dollars'
worth of property: it is right for me to warn you. Would he choose to
run the risk?"
I remember now what a fire at my heart sent the blood to my face. But
with my hand in Dr. Sandford's, and those blue eyes of his reading me,
I could not keep back my thought.
"She ought to be her own mistress," I said.
A brilliant flash of expression filled the blue eyes and crossed
his face--I could hardly tell what, before it was gone. Quick
surprise--pleasure--amusement--agreement; the first and the two last
certainly; and the pleasure I could not help fancying had lent its colour
to that ray of light which had shot for one instant from those
impenetrable eyes. He spoke just as usual.
"But, Daisy, have you studied this question?"
"I think I have studied nothing else, Dr. Sandford."
"You know the girl is not yours, but your father's."
"She isn't anybody's," I said slowly, and with slow tears gathering in
my heart.
"How do you mean?" said he, with again the quiver of a smile upon his
lips.
"I mean," I said, struggling with my thoughts and myself, "I mean that
nobody could have a right to her."
"Did not her parents belong to your father?"
"To my mother."
"Then she does."
"But, Dr. Sandford," I said, "nobody _can_ belong to anybody--in that
way."
"How do you make it out, Daisy?"
"Because nobody can give anybody a _right_ to anybody else in that
way."
"Does it not give your mother a right, that the mother of this girl
and her grandmother were the property of your ancestors?"
"They could not be their property justly," I said, glad to get back to
my ancestors.
"The law made it so."
"Not God's law, Dr. Sandford," I said, looking up at him.
"No? Does not that law give a man a right to what he has honestly
bought?"
"No," I said, "it _can't_--not if it has been dishonestly sold."
"Explain, Daisy," said Dr. Sandford, very quietly; but I saw the gleam
of that light in his eye again. I had gone too far to stop. I went on,
ready to break my heart over the right and wrong I was separating.
"I mean, the _first_ people that sold the first of these coloured
people," I said.
"Well?" said the doctor.
"They could not have a right to sell them."
"Yes. Well?"
"Then the people that bought them could not have a right, any more," I
said.
"But, Daisy," said Dr. Sandford, "do you know that there are different
opinions on this very point?"
I was silent. It made no difference to me.
"Suppose for the moment that the first people, as you say, had no
precise right to sell the men and women they brought to this country;
yet those who bought them and paid honest money for them, and
possessed them from generation to generation--had not _they_ a right
to pass them off upon other hands, receiving their money back again?"
"I don't know how to explain it," I said. "I mean--if at first--Dr.
Sandford, hadn't the people that were sold, hadn't they rights too?"
"Rights of what sort?"
"A right to do what they liked with themselves, and to earn money, and
to keep their wives?"
"But those rights were lost, you know, Daisy."
"But _could_ they be?" I said. "I mean--Dr. Sandford, for instance,
suppose somebody stole your watch from you; would you lose the right
to it?"
"It _seems_ to me that I should not, Daisy."
"That is what I mean," I said.
"But there is another view of the case, Daisy. Take Margaret, for
instance. From the time she was a child, your father's, or your
mother's money has gone to support her; her food and clothing and
living have been wholly at their expense. Does not that give them a
right to her services? ought they not to be repaid?"
I did not want to speak of my father and mother and Margaret. It was
coming too near home. I knew the food and clothing Dr. Sandford spoke
of; I knew a very few months of a Northern servant's wages would have
paid for it all; was this girl's whole life to be taken from her, and
by my father and mother, and for such a cause? The feeling of grief
and wrong and shame got possession of me. I was ready to break my
heart in tears; but I could not show Dr. Sandford what I felt, nor
confess to what I thought of my father's action. I had the greatest
struggle with myself not to give way and cry. I was very weak bodily,
but I know I stood still and did not shed a tear; till I felt Dr.
Sandford's hands take hold of me. They put me gently back in the chair
from which I had risen.
"What is the matter, Daisy?" he said.
I would not speak, and he did not urge it; but I saw that he watched
me till I gained command of myself again.
"Shall we go home now?" he asked.
"In a minute. Dr. Sandford, I do not think papa knows about all
this--I do not think he knows about it as I do. I am sure he does not;
and when he knows he will think as I do."
"Or perhaps you will think as he does."
I was silent. I wondered if that could be possible--if I too could
have my eyes blinded as I saw other people's were.
"Little Daisy," said my friend the doctor, "but you are getting to be
not _little_ Daisy. How old are you?"
"I shall be fourteen in June."
"Fourteen. Well, it is no wonder that my friend whom I left a
philosopher at ten years old, I should find a woman at fourteen; but
Daisy, you must not take it on your heart that you have to teach all
the ignorant and help all the distressed that come in your way;
because simply you cannot do it."
I looked up at him. I could not tell him what I thought, because he
would not, I feared, understand it. Christ came to do just such work,
and His servants must have it on their hearts to do the same. I cannot
tell what was in my look, but I thought the doctor's face changed.
"One Molly Skelton will do for one four years," he said as he rose up.
"Come, Daisy."
"But, Dr. Sandford," I said, as I followed him, "you will not do
anything about sending Margaret back?"
"Nothing, till you do, Daisy."
Arrived at home, the doctor made me drink a raw egg, and lie down on
Mrs. Sandford's sofa; and he sat down and looked at me.
"You are the most troublesome patient that ever I had," said he.
"I am?" I exclaimed.
"Yes. Quite innocently. You cannot help it, Daisy; and you need not be
troubled about it. It is all in the way of my profession. It is as if
a delicate vessel of Egyptian glass were put to do the work of an iron
smelting furnace; and I have to think of all the possible bands and
hardening appliances that can be brought into use for the occasion."
"I do not understand," I said.
"No; I suppose not. That is the worst of it."
"But why am I an _Egyptian_ glass?" I asked. "I am not very old."
The doctor gave me one of those quick, bright glances and smiles that
were very pleasant to get from him and not very common. There came a
sort of glow and sparkle in his blue eye then, and a wonderful winsome
and gracious trick of the lips.
"It is a very doubtful sort of a compliment," said Mrs. Sandford.
"I did not mean it for a compliment at all," said the doctor.
"I don't believe you did," said his sister; "but what _did_ you mean?
Grant, I should like to hear you pay a compliment for once."
"You do not know Egyptian glass," said the doctor.
"No. What was it?"
"Very curious."
"Didn't I say that you couldn't pay compliments?" said Mrs. Sandford.
"And unlike any that is made nowadays. There were curious patterns
wrought in the glass, made, it is supposed, by the fusing together of
rods of glass, extremely minute, of different colours; so that the
pattern once formed was ineffaceable and indestructible, unless by the
destruction of the vessel which contained it. Sometimes a layer of
gold was introduced between the layers of glass."
"How very curious!" said Mrs. Sandford.
"I think I must take you into consultation, Daisy," the doctor went
on, turning to me. "It is found that there must be a little delay
before you can go up to take a look at Melbourne. Mrs. Sandford is
obliged to stop in New York with a sick sister; how long she may be
kept there it is impossible to say. Now you would have a dull time, I
am afraid; and I am in doubt whether it would not be pleasanter for
you to enter school at once. In about three months the school term
will end and the summer vacation begin; by that time Mrs. Sandford
will be at home and the country ready to receive you. But you shall do
whichever you like best."
"Mrs. Sandford will be in New York," I said.
"Yes."
"And I would see you constantly, dear, and have you with me all the
Saturdays and Sundays and holidays. And if you like it better, you
shall be with me all the time; only I should be obliged to leave you
alone too much."
"How long does the summer vacation last?" I inquired.
"Till some time in September. You can enter school now or then, as you
choose."
I thought and hesitated, and said I would enter at once. Dr. Sandford
said I was not fit for it, but it was on the whole the best plan. So
it was arranged, that I should just wait a day or two in New York to
get my wardrobe in order and then begin my school experience.
But my thoughts went back afterwards, more than once, to the former
conversation; and I wondered what it was about me that made Dr.
Sandford liken me to Egyptian glass.
CHAPTER IX.
SHOPPING.
It was settled that I should wait a day or two in New York to get my
wardrobe arranged, and then begin my school experience. But when we
got to New York, we found Mrs. Sandford's sister so ill as to claim
her whole time. There was none to spare for me and my wardrobe. Mrs.
Sandford said I must attend to it myself as well as I could, and the
doctor would go with me. He was off duty, he reported, and at leisure
for ladies' affairs. Mrs. Sandford told me what I would need. A warm
school dress, she said; for the days would be often cold in this
latitude until May, and even later; and schoolrooms not always warm. A
warm dress for every day was the first thing. A fine merino, Mrs.
Sandford said, would be, she thought, what my mother would choose. I
had silks which might be warm enough for other occasions. Then I must
have a thick coat or cloak. Long coats, with sleeves, were fashionable
then, she told me; the doctor would take me where I would find plenty
to choose from. And I needed a hat, or a bonnet. Unless, Mrs.
Sandford said, I chose to wear my riding-cap with the feather; that
was warm, and very pretty, and would do.
How much would it all cost? I asked. Mrs. Sandford made a rapid
calculation. The merino would be two dollars a yard, she said; the
coat might be got for thirty-five or thereabouts sufficiently good;
the hat was entirely what I chose to make it. "But you know, my dear,"
Mrs. Sandford said, "the sort of quality and style your mother likes,
and you will be guided by that."
Must I be guided by that?--I questioned with myself. Yes, I knew. I
knew very well; but I had other things to think of. I pondered. While
I was pondering, Dr. Sandford was quietly opening his pocket-book and
unfolding a roll of bills. He put a number of them into my hand.
"That will cover it all, Daisy," he said. "It is money your father has
made over to my keeping, for this and similar purposes."
"Oh, thank you!" I said, breathless; and then I counted the bills.
"Oh, thank you, Dr. Sandford: but may I spend all this?"
"Certainly. Mr. Randolph desired it should go, this and more of it, to
your expenses, of whatever kind. This covers my sister's estimate, and
leaves something for your pocket besides."
"And when shall we go?" I asked.
"To spend it? Now, if you like. Why, Daisy, I did not know--"
"What, sir?" I said as he paused.