icient for him to be sensible of her influence, to restrain the
impetus he took from her. He had already wedded her morally, and much
that he did, as well as whatever he debated, came of Diana; more than
if they had been coupled, when his downright practical good sense could
have spoken. She held him suspended, swaying him in that posture; and he
was not a whit ashamed of it. The beloved woman was throned on the very
highest of the man.

Furthermore, not being encouraged, he had his peculiar reason for
delay, though now he could offer her wealth. She had once in his hearing
derided the unpleasant hiss of the ungainly English matron's title of
Mrs. There was no harm in the accustomed title, to his taste; but she
disliking it, he did the same, on her special behalf; and the prospect,
funereally draped, of a title sweeter-sounding to her ears, was
above his horizon. Bear in mind, that he underwent the reverse of
encouragement. Any small thing to please her was magnified, and the
anticipation of it nerved the modest hopes of one who deemed himself and
any man alive deeply her inferior.

Such was the mood of the lover condemned to hear another malignant
scandal defiling the name of the woman he worshipped. Sir Lukin
Dunstane, extremely hurried, bumped him on the lower step of the busy
Bank, and said:

'Pardon!' and 'Ha! Redwarth! making money?'

'Why, what are you up to down here?' he was asked, and he answered:
'Down to the Tower, to an officer quartered there. Not bad quarters, but
an infernal distance. Business.'

Having cloaked his expedition to the distance with the comprehensive
word, he repeated it; by which he feared he had rendered it too
significant, and he said: 'No, no; nothing particular'; and that caused
the secret he contained to swell in his breast rebelliously, informing
the candid creature of the fact of his hating to lie: whereupon thus
he poured himself out, in the quieter bustle of an alley, off the main
thoroughfare. 'You're a friend of hers. I 'm sure you care for her
reputation; you 're an old friend of hers, and she's my wife's dearest
friend; and I'm fond of her too; and I ought to be, and ought to
know, and do know:--pure? Strike off my fist if there's a spot on her
character! And a scoundrel like that fellow Wroxeter! Damnedest rage
I ever was in!--Swears... down at Lockton... when she was a girl. Why,
Redworth, I can tell you, when Diana Warwick was a girl!'

Redworth stopped him. 'Did he