believe Mr. Masters thinks we should only care about God's eyes,"
Diana said quietly.

Mrs. Reverdy startled a little at that, and for a moment looked grave.
From Diana she had not expected this turn.

"I never think about anything!" she said then with a laugh, that looked
as if it were meant to be one of childlike, ingenuousness. "Don't think
me very bad. Everybody can't be good and discreet like you and Mr.
Masters."

"Very few people are like Mr. Masters," Diana assented.

"We all know that. And in the daily beholding of his superiority, have
you quite forgotten everything else?--your old lover and all?"

"Whom do you mean?" Diana asked, with a calm coldness at which she
wondered herself.

"I mean Evan, to be sure. You know he was your old lover. He wants to
see you. He has not forgotten you, at any rate. Have you entirely
forgotten him? Poor fellow! he has had a hard time of it."

"I have not forgotten Mr. Knowlton at all," Diana said with difficulty,
for it seemed to her that her throat was suddenly paralyzed.

"You have not forgotten him? I may tell him that? Do you know, he raves
about you?--I wish you could hear him once. He is Captain Knowlton now,
you must understand; he has got his advancement early; but one or two
people died, and somebody else was removed out of his way; and so he
stepped into his captaincy. Lucky fellow! he always has been lucky;
except just in one thing; and he thinks that spoils all. May he come
and see you, Diana? He has given me no peace until I would come and ask
you, and he will never have any peace, that I can see, if you refuse
him. Poor fellow! there he is out there all this time, champing the bit
worse than the horses."

And the woman said it all with her little civil smile and laugh, as if
she were talking about sugar plums!

"Is he here?" cried Diana.

"With the horses--waiting to know the success of my mission; and I have
been afraid to ask you, for fear you should say no; and I _cannot_
carry back such an answer to him. May I tell him to come in?"

"Why should not he come to see me, as well as any other friend?" said
Diana. But the quiver in her voice gave the answer to her own question.

"Of course!" said Mrs. Reverdy, rising with a satisfied face. "There is
no reason in the world why he should not, if you have kindness enough
left for him to let him come. Then I'll go out and tell him to come in;
for the poor fellow is sitting on sword's points all this while