"Daisy!" he exclaimed, warmly grasping my hand, - "Miss Randolph! where is Mrs. Randolph, and what brings you here?"
"Why, the train, to be sure, Grant," answered his sister-in- law. "What a man you are - for business! Do let Daisy rest and breathe and have something to eat, before she is obliged to give an account of herself. See, we are tired to death."
Perhaps she was, but I was not. However, the doctor and I both yielded. Mrs. Sandford and I withdrew to change our dresses, and then we had supper; but after supper, when she was again out of the room, Dr. Sandford turned to me and took my hand.
"I must go presently," he said. "Now, Miss Randolph, what is it?"
I sat down and he sat down beside me, still holding my hand, on a sofa in the room.
"Dr. Sandford, my cousin Gary is a prisoner and in the hospital. You wrote to mamma."
"Yes. I thought his mother might like to know."
"She is ill herself, in Georgia, and cannot come to Washington. Dr. Sandford, I want to go in and take care of him."
"You!" said the doctor. But whatever he thought, his countenance was impenetrable.
"Can I?" said he. "But, Daisy, you do not come under the regulations."
"Because, I know you can do what you like. You always could manage things for me."
He smiled a little, but went on in an unchanged tone.
"You are too young; and - excuse me - you have another disqualification."
"I do not see that I ought. I think I ought not."
"But you _will_, Dr. Sandford. My cousin was very dear to me when I was a child at Melbourne - I love him yet very much - no one would take so good care of him as I would; and it would be a comfort to me for ever. Do let me go in! I have come for that."
"You might get sick yourself," he said. "You do not know what you would be obliged to hear and see. You do not know, Daisy."
There was more in my answer than mere words; there was more, I know, in my feeling; and the doctor took the force of it. He looked very sober, though, upon my plan, which it was evident he did not like.
"Does Mrs. Randolph give her consent to this proceeding?" he asked.
"She knows I came that I might look after Preston. I did not tell her my plan any further."
"Mamma and I do not see things with the - same eyes, some things, Dr. Sandford. I think I _ought_ to do it."