said. Redworth's being then engaged upon the canvass of a borough,
added to the absurdity of his meddling with the dilemmas of a woman.
'Dear me, Emma! think of stepping aside from the parliamentary road to
entreat a husband to relent, and arrange the domestic alliance of a
contrary couple! Quixottry is agreeable reading, a silly performance.'
Lady Dunstane pleaded his friendship. She had to quit the field where
such darts were showering.

The first dinner-party was aristocratic, easy to encounter. Lord and Lady
Crane, Lady Pennon, Lord and Lady Esquart, Lord Larrian, Mr. and Mrs.
Montvert of Halford Manor, Lady Singleby, Sir Walter Capperston friends,
admirers of Diana; patrons, in the phrase of the time, of her father,
were the guests. Lady Pennon expected to be amused, and was gratified,
for Diana had only to open her mouth to set the great lady laughing. She
petitioned to have Mrs. Warwick at her table that day week, because the
marquis was dying to make her acquaintance, and begged to have all her
sayings repeated to him; vowed she must be salt in the desert. 'And
remember, I back you through thick and thin,' said Lady Pennon. To which
Diana replied: 'If I am salt in the desert, you are the spring'; and the
old lady protested she must put that down for her book. The witty Mrs.
Warwick, of whom wit was expected, had many incitements to be guilty of
cheap wit; and the beautiful Mrs. Warwick, being able to pass anything
she uttered, gave good and bad alike, under the impulsion to give out
something, that the stripped and shivering Mrs. Warwick might find a
cover in applause. She discovered the social uses of cheap wit; she laid
ambushes for anecdotes, a telling form of it among a people of no
conversational interlocution, especially in the circles depending for
dialogue upon perpetual fresh supplies of scandal; which have plentiful
crops, yet not sufficient. The old dinner and supper tables at The
Crossways furnished her with an abundant store; and recollection failing,
she invented. Irish anecdotes are always popular in England, as
promoting, besides the wholesome shake of the sides, a kindly sense of
superiority. Anecdotes also are portable, unlike the lightning flash,
which will not go into the pocket; they can be carried home, they are
disbursable at other tables. These were Diana's weapons. She was perforce
the actress of her part.

In happier times, when light of heart and natural, her vogue had not been
so en