midst of a strange crowd; and Diana, sitting at her window and looking
down into the busy street, felt alone and cast adrift as she never had
felt in her life before. _Her_ life seemed done, finished, as far as
regarded hope or joy; nothing left but weary and dragging existence;
and the eager hurrying hither and thither of the city crowd struck on
her view as aimless and fruitless, and so very drear to look at? What
was it all for?--seeing life was such a thing as she had found it. The
wrench of coming away from Pleasant Valley had left her with a reaction
of dull, stunned, and strained nerves; she was glad she had come away,
glad she was no longer there; and that was the only thing she was glad
of in the wide, wide world.

Some degree of rest came with the quiet of those hours alone in the
hotel. Basil was gone until the evening, and Diana had time to recover
a little from the fatigue of the journey, and in the perfect solitude
also from the overstrain of the nerves. She began to remember Basil's
part in all this, and to be sensible how true and faithful and kind he
was; how very unselfish, how patient with her and with pain. Diana
could have wept her heart out over it, if that would have done any
good; and indeed supposing that she could have shed tears at all, which
she could not just then. She only felt sore and sorry for her husband;
and then she took some pains with her toilet, and refreshed herself so
as to look pleasant to his eyes when he came home.

He came home only to a late supper. He looked somewhat weary, but his
eye brightened when he saw Diana, and he came up and kissed her.

"Diana--God is good," he said to her.

"Yes," she answered, looking up drearily, "I believe it."

"But you do not feel it yet. Well, remember, it is true, and you will
feel it some day. It is all right with Aunt Sutphen."

"She will let me come?"

"She is glad to have you come. The old lady is very much alone. And she
does me the honour to say that she expects my wife will know how to
behave herself."

"What does she mean by that?" said Diana, a little startled.

"I don't know! Aunt Sutphen has her own notions respecting behaviour. I
did not inquire, Diana; knowing that, whatever her meaning might be, it
was the same thing so far as you are concerned."

"Basil--you are very good!" Diana said after a pause and with a
trembling lip.

"I can take compliments from Aunt Sutphen," he said with a bit of his
old dry humorous