d, not finding another word to add. For prevarication
was an accomplishment Diana knew nothing of. She closed her eyes, that
they might not see the figure standing there.

"Would you like me to fetch your mother to you?"

"No," she said, starting. "O no! Don't bring her, Basil."

"I will not," said he kindly. "Why should she not come?"

"Mother? never. Never, never! Not mother. I can't bear her"--said Diana
strangely.

Mr. Masters went down-stairs looking very grave. He took his supper,
for he needed it; and then he carried up a cup of tea, fresh made, to
Diana. She drank it this time eagerly; but there was no lightening of
his grave brow when he carried the cup down again. Something was very
much the matter, he knew now, as he had feared it last night. He
debated with himself whether he had better try to find out just what it
was. Miss Collins, by a judicious system of suggestion and inquiry,
might be led perhaps to reveal something without knowing that she
revealed anything; but the minister disliked that way of getting
information when it could be dispensed with. He had enough knowledge to
act upon; for the rest he was patient, and could wait.

That night he knew Diana did not sleep. He himself passed the night
again in his study, though not in the struggles of the night before. He
was very calm, stedfast, diligent; that is, his usual self entirely.
And, watching her without her knowing he watched, he knew by her
breathing and her changes of position that it was a night of no rest on
her part. Once he saw she was sitting up in the bed; once he saw that
she had left it and was sitting by the window.

The next day the minister did not leave home. He had no more urgent
business anywhere, he thought, than there. And he found Diana did not
make up by day what she had lost by night; she was always staring wide
awake whenever he went into the room; and he went whenever there was a
cup of tea or a cup of broth to be taken to her, for he prepared it and
carried it to her himself.

It happened in the course of the afternoon that Prince and the old
little green waggon came jogging along and landed Mrs. Starling at the
minister's door. This was a very rare event; Mrs. Starling came at long
intervals to see her daughter, and made then a call which nobody
enjoyed. To-day Miss Collins hailed the sight of her. Indeed, if the
distance had not been too much, Miss Collins would have walked down to
carry the tidings of Diana's