as well as any other. But here was an intellectual, a patriotic
passion, veritable, genuine, not feigned.

Well!--the spectator admitted it--unwillingly--so long as the debater,
the orator, were still desirable, still lovely. She stole a glance at
Captain Roughsedge. Was he, too, so unconscious of sex, of opportunity?
Ah! _that_ she doubted! The young man played his part stoutly; flung
back the ball without a break; but there were glances, and movements and
expressions, which to this shrewd feminine eye appeared to betray what
no scrutiny could detect in Diana--a pleasure within a pleasure, and
thoughts behind thoughts. At any rate, he prolonged the walk as long as
it could be prolonged; he accompanied them to the very door of their
carriage, and would have delayed them there but that Diana looked at her
watch in dismay.

"You'll hear plenty of that sort of stuff to-night!" he said, as he
helped them to their wraps. "'Perish India!' and all the rest of it. All
they'll mind at Tallyn will be that the Afridis haven't killed a few
more Britishers."

Diana gave him a rather grave smile and bow as the carriage drove on.
Mrs. Colwood wondered whether the Captain's last remark had somehow
offended her companion. But Miss Mallory made no reference to it.
Instead, she began to give her companion some preliminary information as
to the party they were likely to find at Tallyn.

As Mrs. Colwood already knew, Mr. Oliver Marsham, member for the Western
division of Brookshire, was young and unmarried. He lived with his
mother, Lady Lucy Marsham, the owner of Tallyn Hall; and his widowed
sister, Mrs. Fotheringham, was also a constant inmate of the house.