The time
had come in which a new means of extrication must be found as desperate
as the last, if need were. As Philip Sheldon had faced the situation
before, he faced it now--unshrinkingly, though with a gloomy anger
against destiny. It was hard for him that such a thing should have to be
repeated. If he pitied anybody, he pitied himself; and this kind of
compassion is very common with this kind of character. Do not the Casket
letters show us--if we may trust them to show us anything--that Mary
Stuart was very sorry for herself when she found herself called upon to
make an end of Darnley? In Mr. Swinburne's wonderful study in morbid
anatomy, there are perhaps no finer touches than those which reveal the
Queen's selfish compassion for her own heartlessness.
CHAPTER IV.
DIANA ASKS FOR A HOLIDAY.
Diana informed Mrs. Sheldon of her father's wish that she should leave
Bayswater. Before doing this, she had obtained the Captain's consent to
the revelation of her engagement to be married.
"I don't like to leave them in a mysterious manner, papa," she said. "I
have told Charlotte a good deal already, under a promise of secrecy; but
I should like to tell Mrs. Sheldon that there is a real reason for my
leaving her."
"Very well, my love, since you are so amazingly squeam--honourable,"
interposed the Captain, remembering how much depended on his daughter's
marriage, and what a very difficult person he had found her.
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