He had not asked her to give up hunting, or dancing, or any of the gaiety in which she delighted. Yet the more she lived in touch with his strenuous life of earnest self-sacrifice, the less these things attracted her.
Diana's friends never found her dull; but they gradually grew to realise that her horizon had widened immeasurably beyond their own; that the focussing points in her field of vision were things totally unseen by themselves; that, in some subtle way, she had developed and grown beyond their comprehension. They loved her still, but they left her. Diana Rivers, of Riverscourt, ceased to be the centre of an admiring crowd.
They left her; but she was not conscious of their going.
She stood alone; yet did not know that she was lonely.
The only leaving of which she was aware, was that David had left her on their wedding-day; the only loneliness, that David never intended to return.
Truly, the little leaven had leavened the whole lump.
The glitter and the glamour of the kingdoms of this world had passed away. The kingdom of heaven held sway in Diana's heart.
But the King of that kingdom, at this period of Diana's life, was David.