shionably dressed, and the careful detail of her toilet pointed to no
lack of means. The younger woman, too, was exquisitely turned out, but
there was something so individual about her personality that it
dominated everything else, relegating her clothes to a very secondary
position. As in the case of an unusually beautiful gem, it was the
jewel itself which impressed one, rather than the setting which framed
it round.

She was very fair, with quantities of pale golden hair rather
elaborately dressed, and her eyes were blue--not the keen, brilliant
blue of those of the man beside her, but a soft blue-grey, like the sky
on a misty summer's morning.

Her small, exquisite features were clean-cut as a cameo, and she
carried herself with a little touch of hauteur--an air of aloofness, as
it were. There was nothing ungracious about it, but it was
unmistakably there--a slightly emphasised hint of personal dignity.

Diana regarded her with some perplexity; the girl's face was vaguely
familiar to her, yet at the same time she felt perfectly certain that
she had never seen her before. She wondered whether she were any
relation to the man with her, but there was no particular resemblance
between the two, except that both were fair and bore themselves with a
certain subtle air of distinction that rather singled them out from
amongst their fellows.

In repose, Diana noticed, the man's face was grave almost to sternness,
and there was a slightly worn look about it as of one who had passed
through some fiery discipline of experience and had forced himself to
meet its demands. The lines around the mouth, and the firm closing of
the lips, held a suggestion of suffering, but there was no rebellion in
the face, rather a look of inflexible endurance.

Diana wondered what lay behind that curiously controlled expression,
and the memory of certain words he had let fall during their journey
together suddenly recurred to her with a new significance attached to
them. . . . "Just as though we had any too many pleasures in life!" he
had said. And again: "Oh, for that! If we could have what we wanted
in this world! . . ."

Uttered in his light, half-bantering tones, the bitter flavour of the
words had passed her by, but now, as she studied the rather stern set
of his features, they returned to her with fresh meaning and she felt
that their mocking philosophy was to a certain extent indicative of the
man's attitude towards life.

So