Diana could not reply. She was startled and troubled. She knew the fact was true.
"Basil won't like it if I let this go on; and I don't mean it shall. Is anything the matter between you and him?"
"What do you mean?" Diana asked, to gain time.
"You know what I mean. I spoke plain. Have you and he had any sort of a quarrel or disagreement?"
"Certainly not!"
"Certainly not?—then why aren't you happy?"
"Why do you ask me?" said Diana. "Why should you question my being happy?"
"I've got eyes, child; inconvenient things, for they see. You look and act like a marble woman; only that you are not cold, and that you move about. Now, that isn't your nature. What spell has come over you?"
"You know, Mrs. Sutphen," Diana answered with calmness, "there are many things that come up in the world to try one and trouble one; things one cannot help, and that one must bear."
"I know that, as well as you do. But a woman with the husband you have got, ought never to be petrified by anything that comes to her. In the first place, she has no cause; and in the second place, she has no right."