e, the perfection of her cookery, the exultation of seeing him
enjoy it; while her heart was storing up its treasure of sorrow for the
unfolding by and by, and knew it, and covered it up, and went on
enjoying the minute. The criticism is sometimes made upon a writer here
and there, that he talks too much about _eating;_ and in a
high-finished and artificial state of society it is indeed true that
eating is eating, and nothing more. Servants prepare the viands, and
servants bring them; and the result is more or less agreeable and
satisfactory, but can hardly be said to have much of poetry or
sentiment about it. The case is not so with humbler livers on the
earth's surface. Sympathy and affection and tender ministry are wrought
into the very pie-crust, and glow in the brown loaves as they come out
of the oven; and are specially seen in the shortcake for tea, and the
favourite dish at dinner, and the unexpected dumpling. Among the
working classes, too,--it is true only of them?--the meals are the
breathing spaces of humanity, the resting spots, where the members of
the household come together to see each other's faces for a moment at
leisure, and to confer over matters of common interest that have no
chance in the rush and the whirl of the hours of toil. At any rate, I
know there was much more than the mere taste of the coffee in the cups
that Diana filled and Knowlton emptied; much more than the supply of
bodily want in the bread they eat.

The repast was prolonged and varied with very much talk; but it was
done at last. The kettle was set on one side, the table pushed back,
and Evan looked at his watch. Still talk went on quietly for a good
while longer.

"At what hour does your chief of staff open his barn doors?" said Evan,
looking at his watch again.

"Early," said Diana, not showing the heart-thrust the question had
given her. "Not till it is light, though."

"It will be desirable that I should get off before light, then. It is
not best to astonish him on this occasion."

"It is not near light yet, Evan?"

He laughed, and looked at her. "Do you know, I don't know when that
moment comes? I have not seen it once since I have been at Elmfield. It
shows how little truth there is in the theories of education."

Diana did not ask what he meant. She went to the door and looked out.
It was profoundly dark yet. It was also still. The rain was not
falling; the wind had ceased; hush and darkness were abroad. She came
b