--what
did it mean?

Mrs. Colwood stood at the foot of the stairs a moment, lost in a trance
of wonderment. Her heart was really sore for Diana's disappointment, for
the look in her face, as she left the house. How on earth could the
visit be shortened and the young lady removed?

The striking of three o'clock reminded Muriel Colwood that she was to
take the new-comer out for an hour. They had taken coffee in the
morning-room up-stairs, Diana's own sitting-room, where she wrote her
letters and followed out the lines of reading her father had laid down
for her. Mrs. Colwood returned thither; found Miss Merton, as it seemed
to her, in the act of examining the letters in Diana's blotting-book;
and hastily proposed to her to take a turn in the garden.

Fanny Merton hesitated, looked at Mrs. Colwood a moment dubiously, and
finally walked up to her.

"Oh, I don't care about going out, it's so cold and nasty. And, besides,
I--I want to talk to you."

"Miss Mallory thought you might like to see the old gardens," said Mrs.
Colwood. "But if you would rather not venture out, I'm afraid I must go
and write some letters."

"Why, you were writing letters all the morning! My fingers would drop
off if I was to go on at it like that. Do you like being a companion? I
should think it was rather beastly--if you ask me. At home they did talk
about it for me. But I said: 'No, thank you! My own mistress, if
you please!'"

The speaker sat down by the fire, raised her skirt of purple cloth, and
stretched a pair of shapely feet to the warmth. Her look was
good-humored and lazy.

"I am very happy here," said Mrs. Colwood, quietly. "Miss Mallory is so
charming and so kind."

Miss Fanny cleared her throat, poked the fire with the tip of her shoe,
fidgeted with her dress, and finally said--abruptly:

"I say--have all the people about here called?"

The tone was so low and furtive that Mrs. Colwood, who had been putting
away some embroidery silks which had been left on the table by Diana,
turned in some astonishment. She found the girl's eyes fixed upon
her--eager and hungry.

"Miss Mallory has had a great many visitors"--she tried to pitch her
words in the lightest possible tone--"I am afraid it will take her a
long time to return all her calls."

"Well, I'm glad it's all right about that!--anyway. As mamma said, you
never know. People are so queer about these things, aren't they? As if
it was Diana's fault!"

Through all her wra