And the fact
that she was not there, that only the empty house that she had furnished
with so much girlish pleasure remained to bear its mute testimony to her
grief, made feeling all the hotter. Brookshire beheld her as a charming
and innocent victim, and, not being able to tell her so, found relief in
blaming and mocking at the man who had not stood by her. For it appeared
there was to be no engagement, although all Brookshire had expected it.
Instead of it, came the announcement of the tragic truth, the girl's
hurried departure, and the passionate feeling on her behalf of people
like the Roughsedges, or her quondam critic, the Vicar.
Marsham, thereupon, had become conscious of a wind of unpopularity
blowing through his constituency. Some of the nice women of the
neighborhood, with whom he had been always hitherto a welcome and
desired guest, had begun to neglect him; men who would never have
dreamed of allowing their own sons to marry a girl in Diana's position,
greeted him with a shade less consideration than usual; and the Liberal
agent in the division had suddenly ceased to clamor for his attendance
and speeches at rural meetings.
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