"I believe it does," he said, gently, still smiling. "Well, when I make my speech, I shall remember that." She looked up suddenly. Their eyes met full. On her just parted lips the words she had meant to say remained unspoken. Then a murmur of voices from the garden reached them, as though some one approached. Marsham rose. "Shall we go into the garden? I ought to speak to Robins. How is he getting on?" Robins was the new head gardener, appointed on Marsham's recommendation. "Excellently." Diana had also risen. "I will get my hat." He opened the door for her. Hang those people outside! But for them she would have been already in his arms. Left to himself, he walked to and fro, restless and smiling. No more self-repression--no more politic delay! The great moment of life--grasped--captured at last! He in his turn understood the Faust-cry--"Linger awhile!--thou art so fair!" Only let him pierce to the heart of it--realize it, covetously, to the full! All the ordinary worldly motives were placated and at rest; due sacrifice had been done to them; they teased no more. Upgathered and rolled away, like storm-winds from the sea, they had left a shining and a festal wave for love to venture on. Let him only yield himself--feel the full swell of the divine force! He moved to the window, and looked out. _Birch_!--What on earth brought that creature to Beechcote. His astonishment was great, and perhaps in the depths of his mind there emerged the half-amused perception of a feminine softness and tolerance which masculine judgment must correct. She did not know how precious she was; and that it must not be made too easy for the common world to approach her. All that was picturesque and important, of course, in the lower classes; labor men, Socialists, and the like. But not vulgar half-baked fellows, who meant nothing politically, and must yet be treated like gentlemen. Ah! There were the Roughsedges--the Captain not gone yet?--Sir James and Mrs. Colwood--nice little creature, that companion--they would find some use for her in the future. And on the lower terrace, Alicia Drake, and--that girl? He laughed, amusing himself with the thought of Alicia's plight. Alicia, the arrogant, the fastidious! The odd thing was that she seemed to be absorbed in the conversation that was going on. He saw her pause at the end of the terrace, look round her, and deliberately lead the way down a long grass path, away from the rest of the party. Was the cousin good company, after all? Diana returned. A broad black hat, and sables which had been her father's last gift to her, provided the slight change in surroundings which pleases the eye and sense of a lover. And as a man brought up in wealth, and himself potentially rich, he found it secretly agreeable that costly things became her. There should be no lack of them in the future.