“We’ve all got our share of heaven, my dear,” he said at last, smiling a little.  “But I’m thinking yours may need some hard chiselling of fate to bring it into prominence.”

Diana wriggled her shoulders.

“It doesn’t sound nice, Pobs.  I don’t in the least want to be chiselled into shape, it reminds one too much of the dentist.”

“The gentleman who chisels out decay?  You’re exactly carrying out my metaphor to its bitter end,” returned Stair composedly.

“Oh, Joan, do stop him,” exclaimed Diana appealingly.  “I’m going to church this morning, and if he lectures me like this I shall have no appetite left for spiritual things.”

“I didn’t know you ever had—­much,” replied Joan, laughing.

“Well, anyway, I’ve a thoroughly healthy appetite for my breakfast,” said Diana, as they went into the dining-room.  “I’m feeling particularly cheerful just this moment.  I have a presentiment that something very delightful is going to happen to me to-day—­though, to be sure, Sunday isn’t usually a day when exciting things occur.”

“Dreams generally go by contraries,” observed Joan sagely.  “And I rather think the same applies to presentiments.  I know that whenever I have felt a comfortable assurance that everything was going smoothly, it has generally been followed by one of the servants giving notice, or the bursting of the kitchen boiler, or something equally disagreeable.”

Diana gurgled unfeelingly.

“Oh, those are merely the commonplaces of existence,” she replied.  “I was meaning”—­waving her hand expansively—­“big things.”

“And when you’ve got your own house, my dear,” retorted Joan, “you’ll find those commonplaces of existence assume alarmingly big proportions.”

Soon after Stair had finished his after-breakfast pipe, the chiming of the bells announced that it was time to prepare for church.  The Rectory pew was situated close to the pulpit, at right angles to the body of the church, and Diana and Joan took their places one at either end of it.  As the former was wont to remark:  “It’s such a comfort when there’s no competition for the corner seats.”

The organ had ceased playing, and the words “Dearly beloved” had already fallen from the Rector’s lips, when the churchdoor opened once again to admit some late arrivals.  Instinctively Diana looked up from her prayer-book, and, as her glance fell upon the newcomers, the pupils of her eyes dilated until they looked almost black, while a wave of colour rushed over her face, dyeing it scarlet from brow to throat.

Two ladies were coming up the aisle, the one bordering on middle age, the other young and of uncommon beauty, but it was upon neither of these that Diana’s startled eyes were fixed.  Behind them, and evidently of their party, came a tall, fair man whose supple length of limb and very blue eyes sent a little thrill of recognition through her veins.