ho
else should advise her if not he? In a hundred ways, practical and
tender, he had made her understand that, for her mother's sake and her
own, she was to him as a daughter.

She mentioned him to Fanny.

"Of course"--she hurried over the words--"we need only say that you have
been engaged. We must consult him, I suppose, about--about breach of
promise of marriage."

The odious, hearsay phrase came out with difficulty. But Fanny's eyes
glistened at the name of the great lawyer.

Her feelings toward the man who had betrayed her were clearly a medley
of passion and of hatred. She loved him as she was able to love; and she
wished, at the same time, to coerce and be revenged on him. The
momentary sense of shame had altogether passed. It was Diana who, with
burning cheeks, stipulated that while Fanny must not return to town, but
must stay at Beechcote till matters were arranged, she should not
appear during Sir James's visit; and it was Fanny who said, with
vindictive triumph, as Diana left her in her room; "Sir James'll know
well enough what sort of damages I could get!"

* * * * *

After dinner Diana and Sir James walked up and down the lime-walk in the
August moonlight. His affection, as soon as he saw her, had been
conscious of yet another strain upon her, but till she began to talk to
him _tete-a-tete_ he got no clew to it; and even then what he guessed
had very little to do with what she said. She told her cousin's story so
far as she meant to tell it with complete self-possession. Her cousin
was in love with this wretched man, and had got herself terribly talked
about. She could not be persuaded to give him up, while he could only be
induced to marry her by the prospect of money. Could Sir James see him
and find out how much would content him, and whether any decent
employment could be found for him?

Sir James held his peace, except for the "Yeses" and "Noes" that Diana's
conversation demanded. He would certainly interview the young man; he
was very sorry for her anxieties; he would see what could be done.

Meanwhile, he never communicated to her that he had travelled down to
Beechcote in the same carriage with Lady Felton, the county gossip, and
that in addition to other matters--of which more anon--the
refreshment-room story had been discussed between them, with additions
and ramifications leading to very definite conclusions in any rational
mind as to the nature of the bon