Yet the perception of them made
the situation still more painfully interesting to him, and no less
mysterious than before. For he saw no substantial change in it; and he
was, in truth, no less perplexed than Fanny. If certain things had
happened in consequence of Miss Merton's advent, neither he nor any
other guest would be sitting at Diana Mallory's table that day; of that
he was morally certain. Therefore, they had not happened.
He returned with a redoubled tenderness of feeling to his conversation
with Diana. He had come to Overton for the Sunday, at great professional
inconvenience, for nothing in the world but that he must pay this visit
to Beechcote; and he had approached the house with dread--dread lest he
should find a face stricken with the truth. That dread was momentarily
lifted, for in those beautiful dark eyes of Diana innocence and
ignorance were still written; but none the less he trembled for her; he
saw her as he had seen her at Tallyn, a creature doomed, and consecrate
to pain. Why, in the name of justice and pity, had her father done this
thing? So it is that a man's love, for lack of a little simple courage
and common-sense, turns to cruelty.
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