this pious errand without a special invitation from Mr. Longstaff. Even should he beg Diana to come to him Agatha was by no means sure her companion would go; but it was very certain she would not take such an extraordinary step at the mere suggestion of a servant.
"But you, dear lady, have the happiness not to be a servant," the old man rejoined. "Let the suggestion be yours."
"From me it could come with no force, for what am I supposed to know about your poor master?"
"You have not told the Diana what he told you the other day?"
Agatha answered this question by another question.
"Did he tell you what he had told me?"
The old man tapped his forehead an instant and smiled.
"A good servant, you know, dear lady, needs never to be told things! If you have not repeated my master's words to your beautiful friend, I beg you most earnestly to do so. I am afraid she is rather cold."
Agatha glanced a moment at the upper windows and then she gave a silent nod. She wondered greatly to find herself discussing Diana's character with this aged menial; but the situation was so strange and romantic that one's old landmarks of
