There was in her bosom a revolt at the legal consequences of the verdict--or blunt acquiescence of the Law in the conditions possibly to be imposed on her unless she went straight to the relieving phial; and the burden of keeping it under, set her wildest humour alight, somewhat as Redworth remembered of her on the journey from The Crossways to Copsley.

This ironic fury, coming of the contrast of the outer and the inner, would have been indulged to the extent of permanent injury to her disposition had not her beloved Emma, immediately after the tension of the struggle ceased, required her tenderest aid.

Lady Dunstane chanted victory, and at night collapsed.
By the advice of her physician she was removed to Copsley, where Diana's labour of anxious nursing restored her through love to a saner spirit.
The hopefulness of life must bloom again in the heart whose prayers are offered for a life dearer than its own to be preserved.

A little return of confidence in Sir Lukin also refreshed her when she saw that the poor creature did honestly, in his shaggy rough male fashion, reverence and cling to the flower of souls he named as his wife.

His piteous groans of self-accusation during the crisis haunted her, and made the conduct and nature of men a bewilderment to her still young understanding.