Muriel reluctantly produced
the letter in the _West Brookshire Gazette_, knowing that in the natural
course of things Diana must see it on the morrow.
Diana sat bowed over the letter and the news, and presently lifted up a
white face, kissed Muriel, who was hovering round her, and begged to be
left alone.
She went to her room. The windows were wide open to the woods, and the
golden August moon shone above the down in its bare full majesty. Most
of the night she sat crouched beside the window, her head resting on the
ledge. Her whole nature hungered--and hungered--for Oliver. As she
lifted her eyes, she saw the little dim path on the hill-side; she felt
his arms round about her, his warm life against hers. Nothing that he
had done, nothing that he could do, had torn him, or would ever tear
him, from her heart. And now he was wounded--defeated--perhaps
disgraced; and she could not help him, could not comfort him.
She supposed Alicia Drake was with him. For the first time a torment of
fierce jealousy ran through her nature, like fire through a forest
glade, burning up its sweetness.
CHAPTER XXI
"What time is the carriage ordered for Mr.
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