d between Diana's cousin and the young
Dunscombe solicitor. Lady Felton had expressed her concern for Miss
Mallory. "Poor thing!--do you think she knows? Why on earth did she
ever ask him to Beechcote! Alicia Drake told me she saw him there."

These things Sir James did not disclose. He played Diana's game with
perfect discretion. He guessed, even that Fanny was in the house, but he
said not a word. No need at all to question the young woman. If in such
a case he could not get round a rascally solicitor, what could he
do?--and what was the good of being the leader of the criminal Bar?

Only when Diana, at the end of their walk, shyly remarked that money was
not to stand in the way; that she had plenty; that Beechcote was no
doubt too expensive for her, but that the tenancy was only a yearly one,
and she had but to give notice at Michaelmas, which she thought of
doing--only then did Sir James allow himself a laugh.

"You think I am going to let this business turn you out of
Beechcote--eh?--you preposterous little angel!"

"Not this business," stammered Diana; "but I am really living at too
great a rate."

Sir James grinned, patted her ironically on the shoulder, told her to be
a good girl, and departed.

* * * * *

Fanny stayed for a week at Beechcote, and at the end of that time Diana
and Mrs. Colwood accompanied her on a Saturday to town, and she was
married, to a sheepish and sulky bridegroom, by special license, at a
Marylebone church--Sir James Chide, in the background, looking on. They
departed for a three days' holiday to Brighton, and on the fourth day
they were due to sail by a West Indian steamer for Barbadoes, where Sir
James had procured for Mr. Frederick Birch a post in the office of a
large sugar estate, in which an old friend of Chide's had an interest.
Fanny showed no rapture in the prospect of thus returning to the bosom
of her family. But there was no help for it.

By what means the transformation scene had been effected it would be
waste of time to inquire. Much to Diana's chagrin, Sir James entirely
declined to allow her to aid in it financially, except so far as
equipping her cousin with clothes went, and providing her with a small
sum for her wedding journey. Personally, he considered that the week
during which Fanny stayed at Beechcote was as much as Diana could be
expected to contribute, and that she had indeed paid the lion's share.

Yet that week--if he h