The Testing of Diana Mallory | Page 5

Altogether, an
aspect of rich and glowing youth: no perfect beauty; but something

arresting, ardent--charged, perhaps over-charged, with personality. Mrs.
Colwood said to herself that life at Beechcote would be no stagnant
pool.
While they lingered in the drawing-room before church, she kept Diana
talking. It seemed that Miss Mallory had seen Egypt, India, and Canada,
in the course of her last two years of life with her father. Their travels
had spread over more than a year; and Diana had brought Mr. Mallory
back to the Riviera, only, it appeared, to die, after some eight months of
illness. But in securing to her that year of travel, her father had
bestowed his last and best gift upon her. Aided by his affection, and
stimulated by his knowledge, her mind and character had rapidly
developed. And, as through a natural outlet, all her starved devotion for
the England she had never known, had spent itself upon the Englands
she found beyond the seas; upon the hard-worked soldiers and civilians
in lonely Indian stations, upon the captains of English ships, upon the
pioneers of Canadian fields and railways; upon England, in fact, as the
arbiter of oriental faiths--the wrestler with the desert--the mother and
maker of new states. A passion for the work of her race beyond these
narrow seas--a passion of sympathy, which was also a passion of
antagonism, since every phase of that work, according to Miss Mallory,
had been dogged by the hate and calumny of base minds--expressed
itself through her charming mouth, with a quite astonishing fluency.
Mrs. Colwood's mind moved uneasily. She had expected an orphan girl,
ignorant of the world, whom she might mother, and perhaps mould.
She found a young Egeria, talking politics with raised color and a
throbbing voice, as other girls might talk of lovers or chiffons. Egeria's
companion secretly and with some alarm reviewed her own equipment
in these directions. Miss Mallory discoursed of India. Mrs. Colwood
had lived in it. But her husband had entered the Indian Civil Service,
simply in order that he might have money enough to marry her. And
during their short time together, they had probably been more keenly
alive to the depreciation of the rupee than to ideas of England's imperial
mission. But Herbert had done his duty, of course he had. Once or
twice as Miss Mallory talked the little widow's eyes filled with tears
again unseen. The Indian names Diana threw so proudly into air were,
for her companion, symbols of heart-break and death. But she played

her part; and her comments and interjections were all that was
necessary to keep the talk flowing.
In the midst of it voices were suddenly heard outside. Diana started.
"Carols!" she said, with flushing cheeks. "The first time I have heard
them in England itself!"
She flew to the hall, and threw the door open. A handful of children
appeared shouting "Good King Wenceslas" in a hideous variety of keys.
Miss Mallory heard them with enthusiasm; then turned to the butler
behind her.
"Give them a shilling, please, Brown."
A quick change passed over the countenance of the man addressed.
"Lady Emily, ma'am, never gave more than three-pence."
This stately person had formerly served the Vavasours, and was much
inclined to let his present mistress know it.
Diana looked disappointed, but submissive.
"Oh, very well, Brown--I don't want to alter any of the old ways. But I
hear the choir will come up to-night. Now they must have five
shillings--and supper, please, Brown."
Brown drew himself up a little more stiffly.
"Lady Emily always gave 'em supper, ma'am, but, begging your pardon,
she didn't hold at all with giving 'em money."
"Oh, I don't care!" said Miss Mallory, hastily. "I'm sure they'll like it,
Brown! Five shillings, please."
Brown withdrew, and Diana, with a laughing face and her hands over
her ears, to mitigate the farewell bawling of the children, turned to Mrs.
Colwood, with an invitation to dress for church.

"The first time for me," she explained. "I have been coming up and
down, for a month or more, two or three days at a time, to see to the
furnishing. But now I am at home!"
* * * * *
The Christmas service in the parish church was agreeable enough. The
Beechcote pew was at the back of the church, and as the new mistress
of the old house entered and walked down the aisle, she drew the eyes
of a large congregation of rustics and small shopkeepers. Diana moved
in a kind of happy absorption, glancing gently from side to side. This
gathering of villagers was to her representative of a spiritual and
national fellowship to which she came now to be joined. The old
church, wreathed in ivy and holly; the tombs in the