On her side she made no dispositions for the marriage, but went about
her daily tasks as though she were to remain a maid at Lupton House
for a time as yet indefinite.

In Diana, Wilding had - though he was far from guessing it - an
entirely exceptional ally. Lady Horton, too, was favourably disposed
towards him. A foolish, worldly woman, who never probed beneath life's
surface, nor indeed dreamed that anything existed in life beyond that
to which her five senses testified, she was content placidly to
contemplate the advantages that must accrue to her niece from this
alliance.

And so mother and daughter in Mr. Wilding's absence pleaded his cause
with his refractory bride-elect. But they pleaded it to little real
purpose. Something perhaps they achieved in that Ruth grew more or
less resigned to the fate that awaited her. By repeating to herself
the arguments she had employed to Richard - that she must wed some
day, and that Mr. Wilding would prove no doubt as good a husband as
another - she came in a measure to believe them.

Richard meanwhile appeared to avoid her. Lacking the courage to adopt
the heroic measures which at first he had promised, yet had he grace
enough to take shame at his inaction. But if he was idle so far as
Mr. Wilding was concerned, there was no lack of work for him in other
connections. The clouds of war were gathering in that summer sky, and
about to loose the storm gestating in them upon that fair country of
the West, and young Westmacott, committed as he stood to the Duke of
Monmouth's party, was forced to take his share in the surreptitious
bustle that was toward. He was away two days in that week, having been
summoned to a meeting of the leading gentlemen of the party at White