angs, anything save the hanging of his culprit's
head before his Emma. Reflection washed him clean. Secresy is not
a medical restorative, by no means a good thing for the baffled
amorously-adventurous cavalier, unless the lady's character shall have
been firmly established in or over his hazy wagging noddle. Reflection
informed him that the honourable, generous, proud girl spared him for
the sake of the house she loved. After a night of tossing, he rose right
heartily repentant. He showed it in the best manner, not dramatically.
On her accepting his offer to drive her down to the valley to meet the
coach, a genuine illumination of pure gratitude made a better man of
him, both to look at and in feeling. She did not hesitate to consent;
and he had half expected a refusal. She talked on the way quite as
usual, cheerfully, if not altogether so spiritedly. A flash of her
matchless wit now and then reduced him to that abject state of man
beside the fair person he has treated high cavalierly, which one craves
permission to describe as pulp. He was utterly beaten.

The sight of Redworth on the valley road was a relief to them both. He
had slept in one of the houses of the valley, and spoke of having had
the intention to mount to Copsley. Sir Lukin proposed to drive him back.
He glanced at Diana, still with that calculating abstract air of his;
and he was rallied. He confessed to being absorbed in railways, the new
lines of railways projected to thread the land and fast mapping it.

'You 've not embarked money in them?' said Sir Lukin.

The answer was: 'I have; all I possess.' And Redworth for a sharp
instant set his eyes on Diana, indifferent to Sir Lukin's bellow of
stupefaction at such gambling on the part of a prudent fellow.

He asked her where she was to be met, where written to, during the
Summer, in case of his wishing to send her news.

She replied: 'Copsley will be the surest. I am always in communication
with Lady Dunstane.' She coloured deeply. The recollection of the change
of her feeling for Copsley suffused her maiden mind.

The strange blush prompted an impulse in Redworth to speak to her at
once of his venture in railways. But what would she understand of them,
as connected with the mighty stake he was playing for? He delayed.
The coach came at a trot of the horses, admired by Sir Lukin, round a
corner. She entered it, her maid followed, the door banged, the horses
trotted. She was off.

Her destiny of th