dispose of you as he wishes, without your consent."

Diana stopped short, midway in the meadow. "I do not in the least
understand, Mr. Masters," she said. "How does He wish to dispose of me?"

"When you are his own, he will let you know," said the minister,
beginning to stroll onward again; and no more words passed till they
were nearing the house, when he said suddenly, "Whom do you think you
belong to now?"

Diana's thought made an instant leap at the words, a leap over hundreds
of miles of intervening space, and alighted beside a fine officer-like
figure in a dark blue military coat with straps on the shoulders. That
was where she "belonged," she thought; and a soft rose colour mantled
on her cheek, and deepened, half with happiness, halt with pride. The
question that had provoked it was forgotten; and the neighbourhood of
the house was now too near to allow of the inquiry being pressed or
repeated. The minister, indeed, was aware that for some time he and his
companion had been facing a battery; but Diana was in happy
unconsciousness; it was the thought of nothing present or near which
made her eyes droop and her cheeks take on such a bloom of loveliness.

Among the eyes that beheld, Mrs. Starling's had not been the least
keen, though she watched without seeming to watch. She saw how the
minister and her daughter came slowly over the meadow, engaged with
each other's conversation, while Miss Masters tripped on before them.
She noticed the pause in their walk, Diana's slow, thoughtful step; and
then, as they came near, her flush and her downcast eye.

"The minister's talk's very interestin'," whispered Mrs. Carpenter in
her ear.

"Not to me," said Mrs. Starling, wilfully misunderstanding. "Some folks
thinks so, I know. I can't somehow never get along with him."

"And Diana sha'n't," was her inward resolve; "but she can't be thinkin'
of the other feller."

As if to try the question, at the moment, Mrs. Reverdy appeared at the
top of the steps, just as the minister and Diana got to the foot of
them. She was in high glee, for her party was going off nicely, and the
tables were just preparing for supper.

"We want nothing now but Evan," she said with her unfailing laugh.
"Miss Starling, don't you think he might have come for this afternoon,
just to see so many friends?"

Diana never knew where she got the coolness to answer, "How long a
journey is it, Mrs. Reverdy?"

"O, I don't know! How far is it, Mr. Ma