"I should think it was pleasanter work to watch sheep," said Mrs.
Flandin "Don't it make you feel bad to have him away so fur?"
"O, we're accustomed to having him away, you know; Evan has never been at home; we really don't know him as well as strangers do. We have just got a letter from him at his new post."
They had got a letter from him! Two bounds Diana's heart made: the first with a pang of pain that they should have the earliest word; the next with a pang of joy, at the certainty that hers must be lying in the post office for her. The blood flowed and ebbed in her veins with the violent action of extreme excitement. Yet nature did for this girl what only the practice and training of society do for others; she gave no outward sign. Her head was not lifted from her work; the colour of her cheek did not change; and when a moment after she found Miss Masters at her side, and heard her speaking, Diana looked and answered with the utmost seeming composure.
"I've been trying ever since you came to get round to you," Gertrude whispered. "I'm so glad to see you again."
But here Mrs. Flandin broke in. She was seated near.
"Ain't your hair a great trouble to you?"
Gertrude gave it a little toss and looked up.
"How do you get it all flying like that?"
"Everybody's hair is a trouble," said Gertrude. "This is as little as any."
"Do you sleep with it all round your shoulders? I should think you'd be in a net by morning."