Meantime Capt.  Drummond and his frisky horse had a ride which was likely to make both of them remember that thunderstorm.  They reached Dr. Sandford’s house; but then the Captain found that the doctor was not at home; where he was, the servant could not say.  The only other thing to do seemed to be to go on to Melbourne and at least let Daisy have the counsel of her father and mother.  To Melbourne the Captain drove as fast as his horse’s state of mind would permit.

The drawing room was blazing with lights as usual, and full of talkers.

“Hollo!” cried Gary McFarlane, as the Captain entered,—­“here he is.  We had given you up for a fossil, Drummond—­and no idea of your turning up again for another thousand years.  Shouldn’t have known where to look for you either, after this storm—­among the aqueous or the igneous rocks.  Glad to see you!  Let me make you acquainted with Dr. Sandford.”

“I am glad to see you, sir,” said the Captain involuntarily, as he shook hands with this latter.

“You haven’t left Daisy somewhere, changed into a stone lily?” pursued McFarlane.

“Yes,” said the Captain.  “Dr. Sandford, I am going to ask you to get ready to ride with me.  Mr. Randolph, I have left Daisy by the way.  She has hurt her foot—­I threw down a stone upon it—­and the storm obliged her to defer getting home.  I left her at a cottage near Crum Elbow.  I am going to take Dr. Sandford to see what the foot wants.”

Mr. Randolph ordered the carriage, and then told his wife.

“Does it storm yet?” she asked.

“The thunder and lightning are ceasing, but it rains hard.”

The lady stepped out of the room to get ready, and in a few minutes she and her husband, Capt.  Drummond and the doctor, were seated in the carriage and on their way to Mrs. Benoit’s cottage.  Capt.  Drummond told how the accident happened; after that he was silent; and so were the rest of the party, till the carriage stopped.

Mrs. Benoit’s cottage looked oddly, when all these grand people poured into it.  But the mistress of the cottage never looked more like herself, and her reception of the grand people was as simple as that she had given to Daisy.  Little Daisy herself lay just where her friend the Captain had left her, but looked with curious expression at the others who entered with him now.  The father and mother advanced to the head of the couch; the Captain and Juanita stood at the foot.  The doctor kept himself a little back.

“Are you suffering, Daisy?” Mr. Randolph asked.

The child’s eyes went up to him.  “Papa—­yes!”

She had begun quietly, but the last word was given with more than quiet expression, and the muscles about her lips quivered.  Mr. Randolph stooped and pressed his own lips upon them.

“I have brought Dr. Sandford to look at your foot, Daisy.  He will see what it wants.”

“Will he hurt me, papa?” said the child apprehensively.