Lenoble will be so kind as to take me there, I--I would rather get the
cab from the stand. The man charges more when he is fetched off the rank,
I believe."
She could think of no better excuse for seeing Gustave alone than this
most sordid pretence. She blushed as she thought how mean a sound it must
have in the ears of the man for whose advantage she was plotting. Happily
M. Lenoble was not among the people who see nothing but meanness in the
desire to save sixpence. His aunt Cydalise had shown him the loveliness
of poverty; for there are vows of holy poverty that need no spoken
formula, and that are performed without the cloister.
"Poor girl!" thought M. Lenoble; "I dare say even the cost of her coach
is a consideration with her; and one dare not pay the coachman."
This was how Gustave read that blush of shame which for a moment dyed
Diana's cheek. Her father's was a very different reading.
"The minx sees my game, and is playing into my hands," thought he. "So
demure as she is, too! I should never have supposed her capable of such
a clever manoeuvre to secure ten minutes' _tete-a-tete_ with an
eligible admirer."
He bade his daughter good night with more than usual effusion. He began
to think that she might prove herself worthy of him after all.
The district between Omega Street and Sloane Square is after dusk of all
places the most solitary.
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