title: Young Diana: An Experiment of the Future
author:  Marie Corelli 
description: Kessinger Publishing reprints over 1,500 similar titles all available through Amazon.com.
zlib_text: _**LADY CHANCE**_
  
  _**SHANNON DONNELLY**_
  
  Copyright © 2015
  
  For everyone who asked for the story of Diana and her captain — thank you for
  asking.
  
  **CHAPTER ONE**
  
  Diana did not want to keep playing. She let out a small breath and
  straightened, her corset pressing like fingers into her ribs. Here she was in
  her thirties now. She ought to be surrounded by a loving husband and children,
  and not left to make her own way in the world. Frowning, she tried to push
  back the gloom of her thoughts. She had never been one to mope and saw no use
  in cultivating such a poor habit now. And a boring one at that. She would
  focus on the game at hand.
  
  Her nose itched, but it would never do to scratch it—such a dreadful tell for
  the cards she held. She glanced around the room instead.
  
  Golden candle flames flickered, casting dim pools of light into the long,
  narrow room. Through the tall windows she could glimpse the pale gray of dawn.
  She shifted in her chair—it had grown hard—and forced open heavy ey