me. Indirectly, I look upon her as the cause of his death,
for if she had not driven both of us out of our own home, my father
might have been alive still. I shall not call on Mrs. Vrain, and I do
not think she will dare to call on me."

"I'm not so sure of that," rejoined Lucian, who was well acquainted with
the lengths to which Mrs. Vrain's audacity would carry her; "but let us
dismiss her, with all your other troubles. May I call on you again
before you leave town?"

"Occasionally," replied Diana, smiling and blushing; "and you will come
down to Berwin Manor when I send you an invitation?"

"I should think so," said Denzil, in high glee, as he rose to depart;
"and now I will say----"

"Good-bye?" said Miss Vrain, holding out her hand.

"No. I will use your own form of farewell--_au revoir_."

Then Lucian went out from the presence of his beloved, exulting that she
had proved so kind as not to dismiss him when she no longer required his
services. In another woman he would not have minded such ingratitude,
but had Diana banished him thus he would have been miserable beyond
words. Also, as Lucian joyfully reflected, her invitation to Berwin
Manor showed that, far from wishing to lose sight of him, she desired to
draw him into yet closer intimacy. There could be nothing but good
resulting from her invitation and his acceptance, and already Denzil
looked forward to some bright summer's day in the green and leafy
country, when he should ask this goddess among women to be his wife. If
encouragement and looks and blushes went for anything, he hardly doubted
the happy result.

In the meantime, while Lucian dreamed his dreams, Diana, also dreaming
in her own way, remained in town and attended to business. She saw her
lawyers, and had her affairs looked into, so that when she went to Bath
she was legally installed as the mistress of Berwin Manor and its
surrounding acres. As Lucian hinted, Lydia did indeed try to see her
stepdaughter. She called twice, and was refused admission into Diana's
presence. She wrote three times, and received no reply to her letters;
so the consequence was that, finding Diana declined to have anything to
do with her in any way whatsoever, she became very bitter. This feeling
she expressed to Lucian, whom she one day met in Piccadilly.

"As if I had done anything," finished Lydia, after a recital of all her
grievances. "I call it real mean. Don't you think so, Mr. Denzil?"

"If you ask me, M