The invalid nodded. "I'll say Amen to anything you indicate," he returned readily.
How devoutly Diana hoped this promise might be kept!
"I have another reason for being glad to meet a man relative just now," she went on. "There are some people at the Inn where I am staying who present such a strange problem. When injustice is obviously being done, one longs to help."
Her companion nodded. "That is natural, but usually futile," he said. "It is a very good rule to 'keep off the grass.'"
"Yes, but this affair makes me very unhappy, Cousin Herbert."
"A shame," he returned, and he would like to have patted her pretty hand, but she was on his left side. "Too bad there is always some serpent in paradise. Don't be too tender-hearted, my dear. Don't be too tender-hearted. It doesn't pay. Of course, where-ever you go people will try to lay you under tribute. You must learn to wear an armor, a full suit of chain armor under your dainty costumes."
"This is not a question of money," said Diana, her heart beating faster and, for the first time, she quaked at the full realization of her errand. "Would you let me tell you about it, Cousin Herbert?"
"Why, of course, my child, if it is any satisfaction to you to confide in such a useless old cripple as I have become."
"You are far from that," returned the girl, steadying the voice which threatened to waver. "Your opinion on the subject will be very valuable to me."