He was a piping swain and Diana a complaisant shepherdess; but they had not yet entered into the promised Arcadia, and might never do so unless Diana was as kindly as he wished her to be.
Lucian was in love with Diana, but as yet he could not flatter himself that she was in love with him, so he resolved to win her affection--if it was free to be bestowed--by doing her will, and her will was to revenge the death of her father.

This was hardly a pleasant task to Lucian in his then peace-with-all-the-world frame of mind; but seeing no other way to gain a closer intimacy with the lady of his love, he took the bitter with the sweet, and set his shoulder to the wheel.
The next morning, therefore, Lucian called on the landlord of No.

13 and requested the keys of the house.

But it appeared that these were not in the landlord's keeping at the moment.
"I gave them to Mrs.Kebby, the charwoman," said Mr.Peacock, a retired grocer, who owned the greater part of the square.

"The house is in such a state that I thought I'd have it cleaned up a bit." "With a view to a possible tenant, I suppose ?" "I don't know," replied Peacock, with a rueful shake of his bald head, "although I'm hoping against hope.