It took, indeed, but a short time to discover in Miss Mallory a hunger
for society which seemed to be the natural result of long starvation.
With her neighbors the Roughsedges she was already on the friendliest
terms. To Dr. Roughsedge, who was infirm, and often a prisoner to his
library, she paid many small attentions which soon won the heart of an
old student. She was in love with Mrs. Roughsedge's gray curls and
motherly ways; and would consult her about servants and tradesmen with
an eager humility. She liked the son, it seemed, for the parents' sake,
nor was it long before he was allowed--at his own pressing request--to
help in hanging pictures and arranging books at Beechcote. A girl's
manner with young men is always a matter of interest to older women.
Mrs. Colwood thought that Diana's manner to the young soldier could not
have been easily bettered. It was frank and gay--with just that tinge of
old-fashioned reserve which might be thought natural in a girl of gentle
breeding, brought up alone by a fastidious father. With all her
impetuosity, indeed, there was about her something markedly virginal
and remote, which is commoner, perhaps, in Irish than English women.
Mrs. Colwood watched the effect of it on Captain Roughsedge. After her
third day of acquaintance with him, she said to herself: "He will fall
in love with her!" But she said it with compassion, and without
troubling to speculate on the lady. Whereas, with regard to the Marsham
visit, she already--she could hardly have told why--found herself full
of curiosity.

Meanwhile, in the few days which elapsed before that visit was due,
Diana was much called on by the country-side. The girl restrained her
restlessness, and sat at home, receiving everybody with a friendliness
which might have been insipid but for its grace and spontaneity. She
disliked no one, was bored by no one. The joy of her home-coming seemed