Diana of the Crossways

Redworth, and the Exterior o

e the crush for you,' said Lady Dunstane to Diana. 'I don't s

teness of the hour. She murmured, to sof

dly, for a man who had no loaded design, marshalling the troops in his active and capacious cranium, he fell upon calculations of his income, present and prospective, while she sat at the table and he stood behind her. Others were wrangling for

me, and a prospect of higher dividends to increase it; three hundred odd from his office, and no immediate prospects of an increase there; no one died there, no elderly martyr for the advancement of his juniors could b

are among the best ever written-or ever published: the raciest English I know. Frank, str

entering as a householder on that sum, in these days, would be stark nonsense: and a man two removes from a baronetcy has no right to set his reckoning on deaths:-if he does, he becomes a sort of meditative assassin. But what were the Fates

n character? I won't own that even. It brings out some but under excitement, when you have not always the real man.-Pray don't sneer at domestic life. Well

ds and death,'

the civil

e soldier-hero aims at a person

gets

is not

e is no lon

is t

d to the constable, when his hands were tied, You beat me with the fists, but my spirit is towering and kicks freely.'-Eight hundred? a thousand a year, two thousand, are as nothing in the calculation of a householder who means that the mistress of the house shall have the choicest of the fruits and flowers of the Four Quarters; and Thomas Redworth had vowed at his first outlook on the world of women, that never should one of the sisterhood coming under his charge complain of not having them in profusion. Consequently he was a settled bachelor. In the character of disengaged and unaspiring philosophical bachelor, he reviewed the revelations of her character betrayed by the beautiful virgin devoted to the sanguine coat. The thrill of her voice in speaking of soldier-heroes shot him to the yonder side of a gulf. Not knowing why, for he had no scheme, desperate or other, in his head, the least affrighted of men was frightened by her tastes, and by her aplomb, her inoffensiveness in freedom of manner and self-sufficiency-sign of purest breed

fellow's name' he he

it. He cocked his eye at Mr. Redworth's quick stare. 'Malkin!' And now we'll see whether the interi

d him, and that's to call the lady a jilt. There's not a point of difference, not a shade. I overheard him. I happened by the blessing of Providence to be by when he nam

to provoke a duel!' Mr. Redworth burst

g on. He became frigid, he politely bowed: 'Two, sir, if you haven't the gra

to the deuce!' M

p o' the cheek pe

I keep my pistols for bandits and law-breakers. Here,' said Mr. Redworth, better inspired as to the way of t

ner, Mr. Sullivan Smith proposed that they should go outside as soon as Mr. Redworth had finished supper-quite finished supper: for the reason

ly hypothetical. 'If you fight, you're a

will

on't

necessity to put a bullet or a couple of inches of steel through the man you've drunk with. And what's in your favour, she danced wit

eticall

ppositi

tain

heel moodily to wander in search of the foe. How one sane man could name another a donkey

edworth to have a talk over

among them, and you and I knew Jack Derry, who was good at most things. But the burlesque Irishman can't be ca

of Mr. Sullivan Smith, whom, as a

ir Lukin. 'I know nothing of the man h

his opinion, besides Miss Merion were parading; he sketched

ion's name to be mixed up

tune in England,' said Sir Lu

no mean report, startled the company of supping gentlemen. At the pitch of his voice,

e, and then, holding her prisoner to 'm, he sulks, the dirty dogcat goes and sulks, and he won't dance and won't do anything but screech up in corners that he's jilted. He said the word. Dozens of gen

emity by the worrying, stood in braced preparation for the E

if you lay a finger on me I

d the ring about him, to put his adversary entirely in the wrong before provoking the act of war. And then, as one intending gently to remonstrate, he was

, man down, he challenged the race of short-legged, thickset, wooden-gated curmudgeons: and let it be pugilism if their white livers shivered at the no

ffort,' Redworth said; and he observed generally: '

'll come along with me and a couple of friends. The

nd come alone,

ried up to Redworth, who had no doubt of

ne and Diana, after hearing in some anxiety of the hubbub below, beheld them enteri

pable of behaving like a man of the world and a gentleman. Only he has, or thinks he has, like lots of his countrymen, a raw wound-something that itches to be grazed. Champagne on that!... Irishmen, as far as I have seen of them, are, like horses, bundle

Irish character. We English are not bad horsemen. It's a

sition to put your metho

There's little

ng stick, a young lady's partner. By which he humbly understood that her friend approved him. A gentle delirium enfolded his brain. A householder's life is often begun on eight hundred a year: on less: on much less:-sometimes on nothing but resolution to make a fitting income, carving o

and the Irish; and better than I thought I should. St. Ge

ad of the sign

her interpretation to remain personal, for the sake of a

eturning to England?

tane's guest fo

s an estate in Surrey. He ta

t belie

entertained a sentiment amounting to

persuaded to walk in the train of Lord Larrian, and forth they trooped down a pathway of nodding heads and curtsies, resembling oak and birch-trees under a tempered gale, even to the shedding of leaves, for here a turban was picked up by Sir Lukin, there a jewelled ear-ring by the self-constituted attendant, Mr. Thomas Redworth. At the portico rang a wakening cheer, really worth hearing. The rain it rained, a

after the artificial!' she hea

ing over him, in gratitude for a timely word well sa