Diana looked at it in dismay.

It was the card of a young solicitor whom she had once met at a local tea-party, and decided to avoid thenceforward.
She said nothing, however, and plunged into inquiries as to her aunt and cousins.
"Oh! they're all right.

Mother's worried out of her life about money; but, then, we've always been that poor you couldn't skin a cent off us, so that's nothing new." Diana murmured sympathy.

She knew vaguely that her father had done a good deal to subsidize these relations.

She could only suppose that in his ignorance he had not done enough.
Meanwhile Fanny Merton had fixed her eyes upon Diana with a curious hostile look, almost a stare, which had entered them as she spoke of the family poverty, and persisted as they travelled from Diana's face and figure to the pretty and spacious room beyond.