"Has Mr. Marsham gone?"
"Yes," said Diana, looking at her.
Then the smile within broke out, flooding eyes and lips. Under the
influence of it, Mrs. Colwood's small tear-stained face passed through a
quick instinctive change. She, too, smiled as though she could not help
it; then she bent forward and kissed Diana.
"Is it all right?"
The peculiar eagerness in the tone struck Diana. She returned the kiss,
a little wistfully.
"Were you so anxious about me? Wasn't it--rather plain?"
Mrs. Colwood laughed.
"Sit down there, and tell me all about it."
She pushed Diana into a chair and sat down at her feet. Diana, with some
difficulty, her hand over her eyes, told all that could be told of a
moment the heart of which no true lover betrays. Muriel Colwood listened
with her face against the girl's dress, sometimes pressing her lips to
the hand beside her.
"Is he going to see Lady Lucy to-morrow?" she asked, when Diana paused.
"Yes. He goes up by the first train."
Both were silent awhile. Diana, in the midst of all the natural flutter
of blood and pulse, was conscious of a strong yearning to tell her
friend more--to say: "And he has brought me comfort and courage--as well
as love! I shall dare now to look into the past--to take up my father's
burden.
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