"Only three more days," sighed Lucian as he walked slowly down the path beside Diana, "and then that noisy London again."
"Perhaps it is as well," said Diana, in her practical way. "You would rust here. But is there any need for you to go back so soon?"
"I must--for my own peace of mind."
Diana started and blushed at the meaning of his tone and words.
Then she recovered her serenity and sat down on an old stone seat, near which stood a weather-beaten statue of Venus. Seeing that she kept silent in spite of his broad hint, Lucian--to bring matters to a crisis--resolved to approach the subject in a mythological way through the image of the G.o.ddess.
"I am sorry I am not a Greek, Miss Vrain," he said abruptly.
"Why?" asked Diana, secretly astonished by the irrelevancy of the remark.
Lucian plucked a red rose from the bush which grew near the statue and placed it on the pedestal.
"Because I would lay my offering at the feet of the G.o.ddess, and touch her knees to demand a boon."
"What boon would you ask?" said Diana in a low voice.
"I would beseech that in return for my rose of flowers she would give me the rose of womanhood."
"A modest request. Do you think it would be granted?"
"Do you?" asked Lucian, picking up the rose again.
"How can I reply to your parables, or read your dark sayings?" said Diana, half in earnest, half in mirth.
"I can speak plainer if you permit it."
"If--if you like!"
The young man laid the rose on Diana"s lap. "Then in return for my rose give me--yourself!"
"Mr. Denzil!" cried Diana, starting up, whereby the flower fell to the ground. "You--you surprise me!"
"Indeed, I surprise myself," said Lucian sadly. "That I should dare to raise my eyes to you is no doubt surprising."
"I don"t see that at all," exclaimed Diana coldly. "I like to be woo"d like a woman, not honoured like a G.o.ddess."
"You are both woman and G.o.ddess! But--you are not angry?"
"Why should I be angry?"
"Because I--I love you!"
"I cannot be angry with--with--shall we say a compliment."
"Oh, Diana!"
"Wait! wait!" cried Miss Vrain, waving back this too eager lover. "You cannot love me! You have known me only a month or two."
"Love can be born in an hour," cried Lucian eagerly. "I loved you on the first day I saw you! I love you now--I shall love you ever!"
"Will you truly love me ever, Lucian?"
"Oh, my darling! Can you doubt it? And you?" He looked at her hopefully.
"And I?" she repeated in a pretty mocking tone, "and I?" With a laugh, she bent and picked up the flower. "I take the rose and I give you--"
"Yourself!" cried the enraptured lover, and the next moment he was clasping her to his breast. "Oh, Diana, dearest! Will you really be my wife?"
"Yes," she said softly, and kissed him.
For a few moments the emotions of both overcame them too much to permit further speech; then Diana sat down and made Lucian sit beside her.
"Lucian," she said in a firm voice, "I love you, and I shall be your wife--when you find out who killed my poor father!"
"It is impossible!" he cried in dismay.
"No. We must prosecute the search. I have no right to be happy while the wretch who killed him is still at large. We have failed hitherto, but we may succeed yet! and when we succeed I shall marry you."
"My darling!" cried Lucian in ecstasy; and then in a more subdued tone: "I"ll do all I can to find out the truth. But, after all, from what point can I begin afresh?"
"From the point of Mrs. Vrain," said Diana unexpectedly.
"Mrs. Vrain!" cried the startled Lucian. "Do you still suspect her?"
"Yes, I do!"
"But she has cleared herself on the most undeniable evidence."
"Not in my eyes," said Diana obstinately. "If Mrs. Vrain is innocent, how did she find out that the unknown man murdered in Geneva Square was my father?"
"By his a.s.sumption of the name of Berwin, which was mentioned in the advertis.e.m.e.nt; also from the description of the body, and particularly by the mention of the cicatrice on the right cheek, and of the loss of the little finger of the left hand."
Diana started. "I never heard that about the little finger," she said hurriedly. "Are you sure?"
"Yes. I saw myself when I knew your father as Berwin, that he had lost that little finger."
"Then, Lucian, you did _not_ see my father!"
"What!" cried Denzil, hardly able to credit her words.
"My father never lost a finger!" cried Diana, starting to her feet. "Ah, Lucian, I now begin to see light. That man who called himself Berwin, who was murdered, was not my father. No, I believe--on my soul, I believe that my father, Mark Vrain, is alive!"
CHAPTER XXIII