in front of her guest, holding a candle. Fanny Merton
followed. At Diana's statement as to her father's money the girl's face
had suddenly resumed its sly hostility. And as Diana walked before her,
Miss Merton again examined the house, the furniture, the pictures; but
this time, and unknown to Diana, with the air of one half jealous and
half contemptuous of all she saw.

Part II

"_The soberest saints are more stiff-necked
Than the hottest-headed of the wicked._"

CHAPTER VII

"I shall soon be back," said Diana--"very soon. I'll just take this book
to Dr. Roughsedge. You don't mind?"

The question was addressed--in a deprecatory tone--to Mrs. Colwood, who
stood beside her at the Beechcote front door.

Muriel Colwood smiled, and drew the furs closer round the girl's slim
throat.

"I shall mind very much if you don't stay out a full hour and get a good
walk."

Diana ran off, followed by her dog. There was something in the manner
both of the dog and its mistress that seemed to show impetuous
escape--and relief.

"She looks tired out!" said the little companion to herself, as she
turned to enter the hall. "How on earth is she going to get through six
weeks of it?--or six months!"

The house as she walked back through it made upon her the odd impression
of having suddenly lost some of its charm. The peculiar sentiment--as of
a warmly human, yet delicately ordered life, which it had breathed out
so freely only twenty-four hours before, seemed to her quick feeling
to have been somehow obscured or dissipated. All its defects,
old or new--the patches in the panelling, the darkness of the
passages--stood out.

And "all along of Eliza!" All because of Miss Fanny Merton! Mrs. Colwood
recalled the morning--Miss Merton's late arrival at the breakfast-table,
and the discovery from her talk that she was accustomed to breakfast in
bed, waited upon by her younger sisters; her conversation at breakfast,
partly about the prices of clothes and eatables, partly in boasting
reminiscence of her winnings at cards, or in sweepstakes on the "run,"
on board the steamer. Diana had then devoted herself to the display of
the house, and her maid had helped Miss Merton to unpack. The process
had been diversified by raids made by Miss Fanny on Diana's own
wardrobe, which she had inspected from end to end, to an accompaniment
of critical remark. According to her, there was very little that was
really "shick" in it