ork for Marsham on two or three mornings a week.

"I saw her last week," said Marsham. "She always asks after you."

"I am so glad! I fell in love with her. Surely"--Diana
hesitated--"surely--some day--she will marry Mr. Frobisher?"

Marsham shook his head.

"I think she feels herself too frail."

Diana remembered that little scene of intimacy--of tenderness--and
Marsham's words stirred about her, as it were, winds of sadness and
renunciation. She shivered under them a little, feeling, almost
guiltily, the glow of her own life, the passion of her own hopes.

Marsham watched her as she sat on the other side of the fire, her
beautiful head a little bent and pensive, the firelight playing on the
oval of her cheek. How glad he was that he had not spoken!--that the
barrier between them still held. A man may find heaven or hell on the
other side of it. But merely to have crossed it makes life the poorer.
One more of the great, the irrevocable moments spent and done--yielded
to devouring time. He hugged the thought that it was still before him.
The very timidity and anxiety he felt were delightful to him; he had
never felt them before. And once more--involuntarily, disagreeably--he
thought of Alicia Drake, and of the passages between them in the
preceding summer.

Alicia was still at Tallyn, and her presence was, in truth, a constant
embarrassment to him. Lady Lucy, on the contrary, had a strong sense of
family duty toward her young cousin, and liked to have her for long
visits at Tallyn or in London. Marsham believed his mother knew nothing
of the old flirtation between them. Alicia, indeed, rarely showed any
special interest in him now. He admitted her general discretion. Yet
occasionally she would put in a claim, a light word, now mocking, now
caressing, which betrayed the old intimacy, and Marsham would wince
under it. It was like a creeping touch in the dark. He had known what it
was to feel both compunction and a kind of fear with regard to Alicia.
But, normally, he told himself that both feelings were ridiculous. He
had done nothing to compromise either himself or her. He had certainly
flirted with Alicia; but he could not honestly feel that the chief part
in the matter had been his.

These thoughts passed in a flash. The clock struck, and regretfully he
got up to take his leave. Diana rose, too, with a kindling face.

"My cousin will be here directly!" she said, joyously.

"Shall I find her installed when I