met, but--"

"But?--but agreeable?"

"Oh yes," said Diana, uncertainly, and Mrs. Colwood thought she
colored--"oh yes--agreeable!"

"And he lives near here?"

"He is the member for the division. Such a crew as we shall meet there!"
Diana laughed out. "I had better warn you. But they have been very kind.
They called directly they knew I had taken the house. 'They' means Mr.
Oliver Marsham and his mother. I _am_ glad I've found his book!" She
went off embracing it.

Mrs. Colwood was left with two impressions--one sharp, the other vague.
One was that Mr. Oliver Marsham might easily become a personage in the
story of which she had just, as it were, turned the first leaf. The
other was connected with the name on the despatch-box. Why did it haunt
her? It had produced a kind of indistinguishable echo in the brain, to
which she could put no words--which was none the less dreary; like a
voice of wailing from a far-off past.




CHAPTER II


During the days immediately following her arrival at Beechcote, Mrs.