Daisy was silent now.  Preston looked from her face to the doctor’s.

“Not only that, Daisy; but the moon then would be two hundred thousand miles within the circumference of the sun; the sun’s surface would be two hundred thousand miles beyond her.”

“Thank you, Dr. Sandford!”

“What for, Daisy?”

“I am so glad to know all that.”

“Why?”

Daisy did not answer.  She did not feel ready to tell her whole thought, not to both her friends together, at least; and she did not know how to frame her reply.  But then perceiving that Dr. Sandford was looking for an answer, and that she was guilty of the rudeness of withholding it, she blushed and spoke.

“It makes me understand some things better.”

“What, for instance?” said the doctor, looking as grave as ever, though Preston was inclined to laugh.  Daisy saw it; nevertheless she answered,

“The first chapter of Genesis.”

“O you are there, are you?” said the doctor.  “What light have I thrown upon the passage, Daisy?  It has not appeared to myself.”

Now Daisy hesitated.  A sure though childish instinct told her that her thoughts and feelings on this subject would meet with no sympathy.  She did not like to speak them.

“Daisy has peculiar views, Dr. Sandford,” said Preston.  But the doctor paid him no attention.  He looked at Daisy, lifted her up and arranged her pillows; then as he laid her back said, “Give me my explanation of that chapter, Daisy.”

“It isn’t an explanation, sir;—­I did not know there was anything to explain.”

“The light I have thrown on it then—­out of the sun.”

Preston was amused, Daisy saw; she could not tell whether the doctor was; his blue eyes gave no sign, except of a will to hear what she had to say.  Daisy hesitated, and hesitated, and then with something very like the old diplomacy she had partly learned and partly inherited from her mother, she said,

“If you will read the chapter, I will tell you.”

Now Daisy did not think Dr. Sandford would care to read the chapter, or perhaps have the time for it; but with an unmoved face he swung himself round on his chair and called on Mrs. Benoit for a Bible.  Preston was in a state of delight, and Mrs. Benoit of wonder.  The Bible was brought, Dr. Sandford took it, and opened it.

“We have only time for a short lecture to-day,” he remarked, “for I must be off.  Now Daisy, I will read, and you shall comment.”

Daisy felt worried.  She turned uneasily and rested her face on her hand, and so lay looking at the doctor; at his handsome calm features and glittering blue eye.  What could she say to him?  The doctor’s eye saw a grave sweet little face, a good deal flushed, very grave, with a whole burden of thought behind its unruffled simplicity.  It may be said, that his curiosity was as great as Daisy’s unwillingness.  He began, facing her as he read.  Juanita stood by, somewhat anxious.