Her heart was really sore for Diana's disappointment, for the look in her face, as she left the house.

How on earth could the visit be shortened and the young lady removed?
The striking of three o'clock reminded Muriel Colwood that she was to take the new-comer out for an hour.

They had taken coffee in the morning-room up-stairs, Diana's own sitting-room, where she wrote her letters and followed out the lines of reading her father had laid down for her.

Mrs.Colwood returned thither; found Miss Merton, as it seemed to her, in the act of examining the letters in Diana's blotting-book; and hastily proposed to her to take a turn in the garden.
Fanny Merton hesitated, looked at Mrs.Colwood a moment dubiously, and finally walked up to her.
"Oh, I don't care about going out, it's so cold and nasty.

And, besides, I--I want to talk to you." "Miss Mallory thought you might like to see the old gardens," said Mrs.
Colwood.