So he poured out his own cup and left it to cool while he attended to Daisy; and when she would have no more, he took the cup from the tray and sent Mrs. Benoit off with the rest of the things.

“Now Daisy,” said he as he took away her bolstering pillows and laid her nicely down again, “now, Daisy, I am your confidential friend and physician, and I want to know what command Mrs. Randolph has given to trouble you.  It is my business to know, and you must tell me.”

He was so cool about it, and so determined, that Daisy was staggered.  He stood holding her hand and waiting for her answer.

“Mamma—­”

Daisy came to a great stop.  The doctor waited.

“It was about the little girl.”

“Very well.  Go on, Daisy.”

He took up his cup of tea now and began to sip it.  Poor Daisy!  She had never been more bewildered in her life.

“What about the little girl?”

“Mamma—­doesn’t want me to teach her.”

“Is it so favourite an amusement?”

“No, sir—­” said Daisy hesitatingly.

“Was that all the trouble?”

“No, sir.”

The doctor sipped his cup of tea and looked at Daisy.  He did not say anything more; yet his eyes so steadily waited for what further she had to say, that Daisy fidgeted; like a fascinated creature, obliged to do what it would not.  She could not help looking into Dr. Sandford’s face, and she could not withstand what she saw there.

“Dr. Sandford,” she began in her old-fashioned way, “you are asking me what is private between my mother and me.”

“Nothing is private from your physician, Daisy.  I am not Dr. Sandford; I am your physician.”

“But you are Dr. Sandford to mamma.”

“The business is entirely between you and me.”

Daisy hesitated a little longer, but the power of fascination upon her was irresistible.

“I was sorry not to teach the little girl,” she said at length; “but I was particularly troubled because—­because—­”

“Mrs. Randolph was displeased with your system of benevolence?”

“No—­not that.  Yes, I was troubled about that too.  But what troubled me most was—­that mamma would not let me speak to her, to tell her why I must not teach her.  I must not say anything to her again, at all.”

Dr. Sandford’s eyes, looking, saw that Daisy had indeed spoken out her trouble now.  Such a cloud of sorrow came over her brow; such witnessing redness about her eyelids, though Daisy let the witness of tears get no further.

“What do you suppose was your mother’s purpose in making that last regulation?” he went on in a cool business tone.

“I don’t know—­I suppose to punish me,”—­Daisy said faintly.

“Punish you for what?”

“Mamma did not like me to teach that little girl—­and I had done it, I mean I had begun to do it, without asking her.”

“Was it a great pleasure?” said the doctor.