It was the latter part of March, and the crocuses and hyacinths were
just beginning to blossom in the garden at Stoneleigh, when the baby
Bessie first lay in the cradle which had rocked Archie in his infancy.
They did not call her Bessie at first; for there were many discussions
with regard to the name, Archie wishing her called Dora for his mother,
and Daisy inclining to Blanche, or Beatrice.
"I'll tell you what, Archie," she said one day. "There's that old maid
aunt of yours in America, with piles of money, they say. Let's name the
baby for her, and so get some of her filthy lucre."
"Call our baby Betsey? Are you crazy?" Archie asked. But Daisy was in
earnest, and carried her point, as she always did; and when at Easter
Lord Hardy stopped at Stoneleigh, on his way to his home in Ireland, he
was one of the sponsors for the child, who was christened _Betsey_.
"If I dared, I would add _Jane_ to it, for her Ladyship, which would
make her _Betsey Jane_; but that would be too much," Daisy said to Lord
Hardy, adding: "We shall call her Bessie, of course, and never Betsey.
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