e rules of Christian Society
are a blessed Government for us women. We owe it so much that there is
not a brick of the fabric we should not prop.' Emma's talk of obedience
to the Laws, being Laws, was repeated by the rebel, with an involuntary
unphrased comparison of the vessel in dock and the vessel at sea.

When Dacier next called to see Mrs. Warwick, he heard that she had gone
to Copsley for a couple of weeks. The lesson was emphasized by her not
writing:--and was it the tricky sex, or the splendid character of the
woman, which dealt him this punishment? Knowing how much Diana forfeited
for him, he was moved to some enthusiasm, despite his inclination to be
hurt.

She, on her return to London, gained a considerable increase of
knowledge as to her position in the eye of the world; and unlike the
result of her meditations derived from the clamouring tradesmen, whom
she could excuse, she was neither illuminated nor cautioned by that
dubious look; she conscientiously revolted. Lady Pennon hinted a word
for her Government. 'A good deal of what you so capitally call "Green
tea talk" is going on, my dear.' Diana replied, without pretending to
misunderstand.

'Gossip is a beast of prey that does not wait for the death of the
creature it devours. They are welcome to my shadow, if the liberty I
claim casts one, and it feeds them.' To which the old lady rejoined:
'Oh! I am with you through thick and thin. I presented you at Court, and
I stand by you. Only, walk carefully. Women have to walk with a train.
You are too famous not to have your troops of watchers.'

'But I mean to prove,' said Diana, 'that a woman can walk with her train
independent of the common reserves and artifices.'

'Not on highways, my dear!'

Diana, praising the speaker, referred the whole truth in that to the
material element of her metaphor.

She was more astonished by Whitmonby's candid chiding; but with him she
could fence, and men are easily diverted. She had sent for him, to bring
him and Percy Dacier together to a conference. Unaware of the project,
he took the opportunity of their privacy to speak of the great station
open to her in London being imperilled; and he spoke of 'tongues,' and
ahem! A very little would have induced him to fill that empty vocable
with a name.

She had to pardon the critic in him for an unpleasant review of her
hapless CANTATRICE; and as a means of evasion, she mentioned the poor
book and her slaughter of the heroi