Daisy in the Field (Paperback)

Excerpt: ...long while, you know, papa. She wanted them to go and join Beauregard." "And will they? Is that what they are gone for?" "I do not know if they will, papa. I suppose Mr. De Saussure will." "And not Marshall?" "I do not know about him." "What did you do, Daisy?" "Papa - you know I do not like the war." "How about liking the gentlemen?" "I am glad they are gone." "Well, so am I," papa answered; "but what had you to do with sending them home?" "Nothing, papa, - only that I unfortunately did not want them to stay." "And you could not offer them any reward for going?" "Papa, a man who would do such a thing for reward, would not be a man." "I think so too, Daisy. Your mother somehow takes a different view." "She cares only for the soldier, papa; not for the man." Papa was silent and thoughtful. There were no other intimate friends about us in Geneva; and our life became, I must confess, less varied and pleasant after the young men had gone. At first I felt only the relief; then the dulness began to creep in. Papa led the life of an invalid, or of one who had been an invalid; not an active life in any way; I thought, not active enough for his good. Some hours I got of reading with him; reading to him, and talking of what we read; they did my father good, and me too; but they were few, and often cut short. As soon as mamma joined us, our books had to be laid aside. They bored her, she said, or hindered her own reading; and she and papa played draughts and chess and piquet. Mamma was not in a bored state at other times; for she was busy with letters and plans and arrangements, always in a leisurely way, but yet busy. It was a sort of business with which I had no sympathy, and which therefore left me out. The cause of the South was not my cause; and the discussion of toilettes, fashions, costumes and society matters, was entirely out of my line. In all these, mamma found her element. Ransom was no resource to anybody; and of course not to me, with whom, now...