thing warmer, and probably it never would have. But when she
thoroughly realised how unsatisfactory a basis he was about to build
his wedded happiness upon, a certain resentment on his behalf took
shape in her mind, as well as troubled anxiety for Meryl. From this it
was not a very far step to a warmer feeling still, and as we have
seen, the old gaieties ceased to attract her if he was not a partaker.
And then, knowing well that Meryl's heart was given elsewhere, she
spent no anxious moments as to whether this warmer feeling of hers
were unfair to her cousin. It was as though it was just held in
abeyance waiting for something to happen; and when the something had
happened, she swam out fearlessly into the deep water. With van Hert
it had necessarily been different. He knew nothing of Carew, and only
felt vaguely that Meryl had changed; nothing tangible that he could
take hold of, and yet a something that was as an invisible barrier
between their closer knowledge of each other. Puzzled and baffled, he
turned with eagerness to Diana's frank camaraderie, to awake suddenly
one evening to the fact that, unknown to him, his heart had slipped
out of his and Meryl's keeping into hers. Yet even then he tried to
deny the change even to himself; he would not believe he could so
suddenly transfer his affection. It was not until later, seeing the
whole from the vantage-ground of distance, that he realised his
affections had not been transferred. His affection for Meryl still
existed; he admired her profoundly as before. What had died was his
desire, starved by the growing sense that she chiefly suffered his
caress. But he had not the moral courage to go to her frankly and tell
her this; and rather than face the consequences he attempted to stifle
this strong longing for Diana and put himself beyond the reach of it.
Fortunately for all three, that practical common sense of Diana's,
which she was pleased to call selfish commonplaceness, dared swift,
unconventional measures, careless of consequences, rather than to sit
still and let the mistake pass beyond recall.

But at the beginning she had not given much thought to her own
personal feelings in the matter, and it was only after the ride with
van Hert she found these suddenly confronting her in their full
significance. And because the turn of events was becoming a little
overwhelming, she spent the hours between parting with him and his
coming interview with Meryl in a whirl of emoti