no force, while he would convict
Miss Lucilla of groundless alarm by ocular demonstration. It would be
enough, he was sure, to watch the young people together to prove beyond
cavil that Dorothea was aware of the gulf between the son of Mrs.
Wappinger, worthy woman though she might be, and a daughter of the
Pruyns. He had, therefore, astonished every one not only by accepting
the invitation himself, but by insisting that Miss Lucilla should do the
same, forcing her thus to become a witness to the vindication of his
wisdom.

Arrived on the spot, however, it vexed him to find that instead of being
a mere spectator, permitted to take notes at his ease, he was passed
from lady to lady--Mrs. Wappinger, Miss Lucilla, Mrs. Eveleth, in
turn--only to find himself settled down at last with a strange young
woman in widow's weeds, in a dim corner of the drawing-room. The meeting
was the more abrupt owing to the circumstance that Diane, unaware of his
arrival, had just emerged from the adjoining ball-room, which was
decorated for a dance. Mrs. Wappinger, coming forward at that minute
with a cup of tea for her, pronounced their names with hurried
indistinctness, and left them together.

With her quick eye for small social indications, Diane saw that, owing
to the dimness of the room and the nature of her dress, he did not know
her, while he resented the necessity for talking to one person, when he
was obviously looking about for another. With her tea-cup in her hand
she slipped into a chair, so that he had no choice but to sit down
beside her.

He was not what is called a lady's man, and in the most fluent of moods
his supply of easy conversation was small. On the present occasion he
felt the urgency of speech without inspiration to meet the need. With a
furtive flutter of the eyelids, while she sipped her tea, she took in
the salient changes the last five years had produced in him, noting in
particular that though slightly older he had improved in looks, and that
the dark-red carnation still held its place in his buttonhole.

"Very unseasonable weather for the time of year," he managed to stammer,
at last.

"Is it? I hadn't noticed."

His manner took on a shade of dignity still more severe, as he wondered
whether this reply was a snub or a mere ineptitude.

"You don't worry about such trifles as the weather," he struggled on.

"Not often."

"May I ask how you escape the necessity?"

"By having more pressing things to th