"How am I to understand that?"
"Just so,"—said Diana, coming up to the stove and putting her fingers out towards the warmth.
"Where is the other half of your family?"
"I left mother at home."
"You came alone?"
"Yes, I came alone." Diana began to wonder a little at the situation in which she found herself, and to revolve in her mind how she could make use of it.
"Miss Diana, you have dared what no one else has dared."
"It was not daring," said the girl. "I did not think much of the storm, till I was so far on the way that it was as easy to come on as to go back."
A light rejoinder, which would have been given to anybody else, was checked on Mr. Masters' lips by the abstracted, apart air with which these words were spoken. He gave one or two inquisitive glances at the speaker, and was silent. Diana roused herself.
"Has nobody at all come to church?"