Diggs began to think he would never receive the second half of that payment. There was nothing to report. The marquess was seen out driving with various ladies, including Lady Jansen. He did not take Mira driving once. Mira Markham appeared everything that was correct. She went out several times to Hyde Park at the fashionable hour with a young Mr. Danby; she went to balls and parties. Mr. Diggs watched and listened and bribed to no avail. Everyone could tell the story about how she had pushed her sister into that fishpond, but it was repeated in a half-indulgent, half-admiring way, the servants taking their tone from their employers. The weather had turned unseasonably cold, and Mr. Diggs was beginning to feel his age. Nothing was going to happen, and nothing had happened. But in the heart of Lady Jansen, the Marquess of Grantley and Miss Mira Markham were churning emotions that did not appear on the surface. Lady Jansen could no longer, on the face of it, blame Mira for holding the marquess’s affections.
