Dacier said he had thought it better to wait for later reports.  ’I shall drive to Lugano this afternoon, and act on the information I get there.  Probably it ends my holiday.’

’Will you do me the favour to write me word?—­and especially tell me if you think he would like to have me near him,’ said Diana.  ’And let him know that if he wants nursing or cheerful companionship, I am at any moment ready to come.’

The flattery of a beautiful young woman to wait on him would be very agreeable to Lord Dannisburgh, Dacier conceived.  Her offer to go was possibly purely charitable.  But the prudence of her occupation of the post obscured whatever appeared admirable in her devotedness.  Her choice of a man like Lord Dannisburgh for the friend to whom she could sacrifice her good name less falteringly than she gathered those field-flowers was inexplicable; and she herself a darker riddle at each step of his reading.

He promised curtly to write.  ’I will do my best to hit a flying address.’

’Your Club enables me to hit a permanent one that will establish the communication,’ said Diana.  ’We shall not sleep another night at Rovio.  Lady Esquart is the lightest of sleepers, and if you had a restless time, she and her husband must have been in purgatory.  Besides, permit me to say, you should be with your party.  The times are troublous—­not for holidays!  Your holiday has had a haunted look, creditably to your conscience as a politician.  These Corn Law agitations!’

‘Ah, but no politics here!’ said Dacier.

’Politics everywhere!—­in the Courts of Faery!  They are not discord to me.’

‘But not the last day—­the last hour!’ he pleaded.

’Well! only do not forget your assurance to me that you would give some thoughts to Ireland—­and the cause of women.  Has it slipped from your memory?’

‘If I see the chance of serving you, you may trust to me.’

She sent up an interjection on the misfortune of her not having been born a man.

It was to him the one smart of sourness in her charm as a woman.

Among the boulder-stones of the ascent to the path, he ventured to propose a little masculine assistance in a hand stretched mutely.  Although there was no great need for help, her natural kindliness checked the inclination to refuse it.  When their hands disjoined she found herself reddening.  She cast it on the exertion.  Her heart was throbbing.  It might be the exertion likewise.

He walked and talked much more airily along the descending pathway, as if he had suddenly become more intimately acquainted with her.

She listened, trying to think of the manner in which he might be taught to serve that cause she had at heart; and the colour deepened on her cheeks till it set fire to her underlying consciousness:  blood to spirit.  A tremour of alarm ran through her.

His request for one of the crocuses to keep as a souvenir of the morning was refused.  ’They are sacred; they were all devoted to my friend when I plucked them.’