e's self to sleep with dulness from
morning till night. But as soon as she was safely packed off, then there
would be fine times, no doubt; the engagement would be announced; the
presents would begin to come in; the bridesmaids would be chosen. But
she would get nothing out of it--not she; she would not be asked to be
bridesmaid. She was not genteel enough for Diana.

Diana--_Diana_!--the daughter--

Fanny's whole nature gathered itself as though for a spring upon some
prey, at once tempting and exasperating. In one short fortnight the
inbred and fated antagonism between the two natures had developed
itself--on Fanny's side--to the point of hatred. In the depths of her
being she knew that Diana had yearned to love her, and had not been
able. That failure was not her crime, but Diana's.

Fanny looked haughtily round the table. How many of them knew what she
knew? Suddenly a name recurred to her!--the name announced by the butler
and repeated by Mr. Birch. At the moment she had been thinking of other
things; it had roused no sleeping associations. But now the obscure
under-self sent it echoing through the brain. Fanny caught her breath.
The sudden excitement made her head swim.--She turned and looked at the
white-haired elderly man sitting between her and Diana.

Sir James Chide!

Memories of the common gossip in her home, of the talk of the people on
the steamer, of pages in that volume of _Famous Trials_ she had studied
on the voyage with such a close and unsavory curiosity danced through
the girl's consciousness. Well, _he_ knew! No good pretending there. And
he came to see Diana--and still Diana knew nothing! Mrs. Colwood must
simply be telling lies--silly lies! Fanny glanced at her with contempt.

Yet so bewildered was she that when Sir James addressed her, she stared
at him in what seemed a fit of shyness. And when she began to talk it
was at random, for her mind was in a tumult. But Sir James soon divined
her. Vulgarity, conceit, ill-breeding--the great lawyer detected them in
five minutes' conversation. Nor were they unexpected; for he was well
acquainted with Miss Fanny's origins. Yet the perception of them made
the situation still more painfully interesting to him, and no less
mysterious than before. For he saw no substantial change in it; and he
was, in truth, no less perplexed than Fanny. If certain things had
happened in consequence of Miss Merton's advent, neither he nor any
other guest would be sittin