"Begging your pardon, sir, I think if you were not so determined to deny yourself to friends, you would find that no one who had once known you would have forgotten."
The sick man glanced back at the note in his lap. It escaped him on the slippery silk and he made an involuntary effort with the useless arm to recover it. He frowned, and Marlitt, stooping quickly, picked up the sheet and restored it. The invalid read the letter once again.
"Send word to this young lady that I will see her at three-thirty to-day," he said at last.
With much rejoicing, Diana, when she had received this word, arrayed herself for the call. She wore a thin gray gown with a rose at the girdle, and Mrs. Lowell, regarding her with admiration, thought no one could be better equipped externally to win the fastidious masculine heart.
Herbert Loring thought so, too, when at the appointed hour she entered his room, and he received a swift impression of her fine quality.
"Welcome, my little cousin," he said as he met her eyes and the serene and charming smile irradiating her youthful beauty. "I am a useless hulk; can't get out of this chair without help. So you will pardon me."
She put her hand in the one he offered, and Marlitt placed a chair beside him in such fashion that she faced him.
"That makes it the more gracious of you to receive me," she replied.
"I should never have known what I missed, had I refused," he said gallantly. "My friend Wilbur has a very beautiful daughter."
Marlitt disappeared into the next room, and Diana blushed.