‘On the contrary—­or at least I saw a couple.’

’Tell me of them; we breed them here.  We sell them periodically to the newspapers!’

’Well, I started them in their natal locality.  I saw them, going down the churchyard, and bellowed after them with all my lungs.  I wanted directions to The Crossways; I had missed my way at some turning.  In an instant they were vapour.’

Diana smiled.  ’It was indeed a voice to startle delicate apparitions!  So do roar Hyrcanean tigers.  Pyramus and Thisbe—­slaying lions!  One of your ghosts carried a loaf of bread, and dropped it in fright; one carried a pound of fresh butter for home consumption.  They were in the churchyard for one in passing to kneel at her father’s grave and kiss his tombstone.’

She bowed her head, forgetful of her guard.

The pause presented an opening.  Redworth left his chair and walked to the mantelpiece.  It was easier to him to speak, not facing her.

‘You have read Lady Dunstane’s letter,’ he began.

She nodded.  ‘I have.’

‘Can you resist her appeal to you?’

‘I must.’

’She is not in a condition to bear it well.  You will pardon me, Mrs. Warwick . . .’

‘Fully!  Fully!’

’I venture to offer merely practical advice.  You have thought of it all, but have not felt it.  In these cases, the one thing to do is to make a stand.  Lady Dunstane has a clear head.  She sees what has to be endured by you.  Consider:  she appeals to me to bring you her letter.  Would she have chosen me, or any man, for her messenger, if it had not appeared to her a matter of life and death?  You count me among your friends.’

‘One of the truest.’

’Here are two, then, and your own good sense.  For I do not believe it to be a question of courage.’

‘He has commenced.  Let him carry it out,’ said Diana.

Her desperation could have added the cry—­And give me freedom!  That was the secret in her heart.  She had struck on the hope for the detested yoke to be broken at any cost.

’I decline to meet his charges.  I despise them.  If my friends have faith in me—­and they may!—­I want nothing more.’

‘Well, I won’t talk commonplaces about the world,’ said Redworth.  ’We can none of us afford to have it against us.  Consider a moment:  to your friends you are the Diana Merion they knew, and they will not suffer an injury to your good name without a struggle.  But if you fly?  You leave the dearest you have to the whole brunt of it.

‘They will, if they love me.’

‘They will.  But think of the shock to her.  Lady Dunstane reads you—­’

‘Not quite.  No, not if she even wishes me to stay!’ said Diana.

He was too intent on his pleading to perceive a signification.

‘She reads you as clearly in the dark as if you were present with her.’