"I hear also that you are the best shot in the neighborhood."
"Who has been talking to you about me?" he asked, with a slight knitting of the brows.
"Mr. Ferrier--a little."
He gave an impatient sigh, so disproportionate to the tone of their conversation, that Diana looked at him in sudden surprise.
"Haven't you often wondered how it is that the very people who know you best know you least?"
The question was impetuously delivered. Diana recalled Mr. Forbes's remarks as to dissensions behind the scenes. She stepped cautiously.
"I thought Mr. Ferrier knew everything!"
"I wish he knew something about his party--and the House of Commons!" cried Marsham, as though a passion within leaped to the surface.
The startled eyes beside him beguiled him further.
"I didn't mean to say anything indiscreet--or disloyal," he said, with a smile, recovering himself. "It is often the greatest men who cling to the old world--when the new is clamoring. But the new means to be heard all the same."