, and considered the great heiress extraordinarily handsome.
    »A golden miracle,« Diana gave her words to say. »Good looks and gold
together are rather superhuman. The report may be this time true.«
    Next afternoon the card of Lady Wathin requested Mrs. Warwick to grant her a
private interview.
    Lady Wathin, as one of the order of women who can do anything in a holy
cause, advanced toward Mrs. Warwick, unabashed by the burden of her mission, and
spinally prepared, behind benevolent smilings, to repay dignity of mien with a
similar erectness of dignity. They touched fingers and sat. The preliminaries to
the matter of the interview were brief between ladies physically sensible of
antagonism and mutually too scornful of subterfuges in one another's presence to
beat the bush.
    Lady Wathin began. »I am, you are aware, Mrs. Warwick, a cousin of your
friend Lady Dunstane.«
    »You come to me on business?« Diana said.
    »It may be so termed. I have no personal interest in it. I come to lay
certain facts before you which I think you should know. We think it better that
an acquaintance, and one of your sex, should state the case to you, instead of
having recourse to formal intermediaries, lawyers ...«
    »Lawyers?«
    »Well, my husband is a lawyer, it is true. In the course of his professional
vocations he became acquainted with Mr. Warwick. We have latterly seen a good
deal of him. He is, I regret to say, seriously unwell.«
    »I have heard of it.«
    »He has no female relations, it appears. He needs more care than he can
receive from hirelings.«
    »Are you empowered by him, Lady Wathin?«
    »I am, Mrs. Warwick. We will not waste time in apologies. He is most anxious
for a reconciliation. It seems to Sir Cramborne and to me the most desireable
thing for all parties concerned, if you can be induced to regard it in that
light. Mr. Warwick may or may not live; but the estrangement is quite
undoubtedly the cause of his illness. I touch on nothing connected with it. I
simply wish that you should not be in ignorance of his proposal and his
condition.«
    Diana bowed calmly. »I grieve at his condition. His proposal has already
been made and replied to.«
    »Oh, but, Mrs. Warwick, an immediate and decisive refusal of a proposal so
fraught with consequences ...!«
    »Ah, but,
