h when the next meet was to be, that she might take her guest to
see it.

"Fanny will be just as new to it all as I!" she said. "That's so nice,
isn't it?" Then she offered Mrs. Roughsedge cake, and looked at her
askance with a hanging head. "Have you heard--about the Vicar?"

Mrs. Roughsedge admitted it.

"I did lose my temper," said Diana, repentantly. "But _really!_--papa
used to tell me it was a sign of weakness to say violent things you
couldn't prove. Wasn't it Lord Shaftesbury that said some book he didn't
like was 'vomited out of the jaws of hell'? Well, the Vicar said things
very like that. He did indeed!"

"Oh no, my dear, no!" cried Mrs. Roughsedge, disturbed by the quotation,
even, of such a remark. Hugh Roughsedge grinned. Diana,
however, insisted.

"Of course, I would have given them up. Only I just happened to say that
papa always read everything he could by those two men--and then"--she
flushed--"Well, I don't exactly remember what Mr. Lavery said. But I
know that when he'd said it I wouldn't have given up either of those
books for the world!"

"I hope, Miss Mallory, you won't think of giving them up," said Hugh,
with vigor. "It will be an excellent thing for Lavery."

Mrs. Roughsedge, as the habitual peacemaker of the village, said hastily
that Dr. Roughsedge should talk to the Vicar. Of course, he must not be
allowed to do anything so foolish as to withdraw from the Club, or the
Miss Bertrams either."

"Oh! my goodness," cried Diana, hiding her face--and then raising it,
crimson. "The Miss Bertrams, too! Why, it's only six weeks since I
first came to this place, and now I'm setting it by the ears!"

Her aspect of mingled mirth and dismay had in it something so childish
and disarming that Mrs. Roughsedge could only wish the Vicar had been
there to see. His heretical parishioner fell into meditation.

"What can I do? If I could only be sure that he would never say things
like that to me again--"

"But he will!" said Captain Roughsedge. "Don't give in, Miss Mallory."

"Ah!" said Mrs. Roughsedge, as the door opened, "shall we ask Mr.
Marsham?"

Diana turned with a startled movement. It was evident that Marsham was
not expected. But Mrs. Roughsedge also inferred from a shrewd
observation of her hostess that he was not unwelcome. He had, in fact,
looked in on his way home from hunting to give a message from his
mother; that, at least, was the pretext. Hugh Roughsedge, reading him
with a host