"Jack," the countess said on a sudden thought, "you have not seen the castle before, have you? You really must not waste such a lovely evening on something as prosaic as exploring the courtyard. You can do that by daylight. What you must see is the moat on the north side. There is still water back there. And of course it will look atitsmost splendid tonight with the moonlight on it. Oh, dear, if I were only not feeling so weary after a busy day. Age must be creeping up on me." She laughed merrily.
The marquess smiled and clasped his hands behind his back. Why contribute to the conversation when she was doing so excellently well on her own?
Diana waited tensely—and hopelessly.
"Diana!" The countess was struck by inspiration. "Of course, dear, you can show Jack the way around to the back. You have been there several times before."
"Perhaps everyone would care to walk around there after seeing the inside," Diana said, trying to keep her voice cool. But she felt something very like panic.
"And they would all surely spoil the atmosphere," her mother-in-law said. "It will be just perfect tonight, dear, in the quiet of evening, and Jack really should see it for the first time at its best. Run along now, and don't feel that you must hurry. You know the way home if the rest of us have started back already.How kind you are, dear, to relieve me of those extra few steps."
''It would be my pleasure, Mama,'' Diana said, her voice as brittle as her spine as she took the marquess's arm. Could he not have said something? Pretended fatigue? Expressed an eagerness to see the courtyard? But no, of course, he was enjoying all this.
Lord Kenwood smiled down at her. "The castle is in far better repair than I expected," he said.
"Yes," she agreed.
"I expected that I would be called upon to exclaim with admiration over a heap of a dozen mossy stones," he said.
"Did you?"
"Of course, the outer walls of castles were often far stronger than any other part of the structure. I suppose that inside it looks more the ruin that it is?"
"Yes."
"It is a shame that the moat does not still completely surround it."
"Yes."
''And I suppose that I will have to continue delivering these pearls of wisdom for the next half hour or so and expect monosyllables in reply."
"Y__"
"Or perhaps single letters in reply. What have I done to offend you, Diana? I mean specifically today. I have of course been the recipient of your displeasure since our arrival here. But I can understand that any well-bred lady might feel a certain vexation against the man who had unwittingly discovered that she was capable of being for less well-bred under certain, ah, very private circumstances. But what has happened today?"
"Nothing has happened today," she said. "You have not offended me."
"Were you annoyed that the ball Ernie so clumsily dropped out by the boundary was hit by me?" he asked. "But I presented him with the perfect chance for his moment of glory. He had no business dropping it, you know. I had not greased it."
"Gentlemen are foolish to take games so seriously," she said.
"I suppose we are," he agreed amiably. "But it is hard not to when there are so many lovely ladies looking on. I did not taunt Ernie when he could not find the ball in the bushes, if you remember. You are fond of old Ernie, are you not?"
"He is my brother-in-law," she said. "Teddy loved him."
"Ah, yes, Teddy;" he said. "Teddy was a fortunate man."
"Teddy is dead," she reminded him.
"Oh, quite so," he said. "But mere are doubtless many men, Diana, who would gladly die after four years with you rather than live a century without you."
"What utter nonsense," she said crossly.
"I, of course," he said, "am not a romantic. I would far prefer to have you and live for a century. So you will not tell me what I have done to offend you?"
"You have not offended me."
"Ah, spoken with an edge of marked irritation to your voice,'' he said. ''And we have arrived in view of the moat, I see.Or lake, rather.We will have to circumnavigate it so that we can see it inall itssplendor, with the moonlight across it and the castle behind it. We must not disappoint the countess, must we, or waste such an undoubtedly romantic setting."
