She passed on in front of her guest, holding a candle.  Fanny Merton followed.  At Diana’s statement as to her father’s money the girl’s face had suddenly resumed its sly hostility.  And as Diana walked before her, Miss Merton again examined the house, the furniture, the pictures; but this time, and unknown to Diana, with the air of one half jealous and half contemptuous of all she saw.

Part II

     “The soberest saints are more stiff-necked
     Than the hottest-headed of the wicked.”

CHAPTER VII

“I shall soon be back,” said Diana—­“very soon.  I’ll just take this book to Dr. Roughsedge.  You don’t mind?”

The question was addressed—­in a deprecatory tone—­to Mrs. Colwood, who stood beside her at the Beechcote front door.

Muriel Colwood smiled, and drew the furs closer round the girl’s slim throat.

“I shall mind very much if you don’t stay out a full hour and get a good walk.”

Diana ran off, followed by her dog.  There was something in the manner both of the dog and its mistress that seemed to show impetuous escape—­and relief.

“She looks tired out!” said the little companion to herself, as she turned to enter the hall.  “How on earth is she going to get through six weeks of it?—­or six months!”

The house as she walked back through it made upon her the odd impression of having suddenly lost some of its charm.  The peculiar sentiment—­as of a warmly human, yet delicately ordered life, which it had breathed out so freely only twenty-four hours before, seemed to her quick feeling to have been somehow obscured or dissipated.  All its defects, old or new—­the patches in the panelling, the darkness of the passages—­stood out.

And “all along of Eliza!” All because of Miss Fanny Merton!  Mrs. Colwood recalled the morning—­Miss Merton’s late arrival at the breakfast-table, and the discovery from her talk that she was accustomed to breakfast in bed, waited upon by her younger sisters; her conversation at breakfast, partly about the prices of clothes and eatables, partly in boasting reminiscence of her winnings at cards, or in sweepstakes on the “run,” on board the steamer.  Diana had then devoted herself to the display of the house, and her maid had helped Miss Merton to unpack.  The process had been diversified by raids made by Miss Fanny on Diana’s own wardrobe, which she had inspected from end to end, to an accompaniment of critical remark.  According to her, there was very little that was really “shick” in it, and Diana should change her dressmaker.  The number of her own dresses was large; and as to their colors and make, Mrs. Colwood, who had helped to put away some of them, could only suppose that tropical surroundings made tropical tastes.  At the same time the contrast between Miss Fanny’s wardrobe, and what she herself reported, in every tone of grievance and disgust, of the family poverty, was surprising, though no doubt a great deal of the finery had been as cheaply bought as possible.