“Oh, Uncle John,” she began eagerly; but then stopped all at once: for the vague talk in which a young man’s name is involved, which does not tell for very much among women, becomes uncomfortable and suspect when a man is admitted within hearing. She changed her mind and her tone, but could not change her colour, which rose high under her troubled eyes. “Oh, I suppose it was nothing,” she said, “it was not about me; it was about Ronald--something about Ronald and Mr. Fred Dirom: though they could not even know each other--could they know each other?” “I can’t tell you, Effie: most likely not; they certainly have not been together here; but they may have met as young men meet--somewhere else.” “Perhaps that was what it was. But yet I don’t see what Ronald could have to do with it.” Here Effie stopped again, and grew redder than ever, expecting that Mr. Moubray would ask her, “To do with--what?” and bring back all the confusion again. But the minister was more wise. He began to perceive vaguely what the character of the suggestion, which had made Effie angry, must have been. It was much clearer to him indeed than it was to her, through these two names, which as yet to Effie suggested no connection. “Unless it is that Fred Dirom is here and Ronald away,” he said, “I know no link. And what sort of a fellow is Fred Dirom, Effie? for I scarcely know him at all.” “What sort of a fellow?” Mr. Moubray was so easy, and banished so carefully all meaning from his looks, that Effie was relieved. She began to laugh. “I don’t know what to say. He is like the girls, but not quite like the girls.” “That does not give me much information, my dear.” “Oh, Uncle John, they are all so funny! What can I say? They talk and they talk, and it is all made up. It is about nothing, about fancies they take in their heads, about what they think--but not real thinking, only fancies, thinking what to say.” “That’s the art of conversation, Effie,” the minister said. “Conversation? Oh no, oh, surely not!--conversation would mean something. At Allonby it is all very pretty, but it means nothing at all. They just make stories out of nothing, and talk for the sake of talking. I laugh--I cannot help it, though I could not quite tell you why.” “And the brother, does he do the same?” “Oh, the brother! No, he is not so funny, he does not talk so much. He says little, really, on the whole, except”--here Effie stopped and coloured and laughed softly, but in a different tone. “Except?” repeated Uncle John. “Well, when he is walking home with me. Then he is obliged to speak, because there is no one else to say anything. When we are all together it is they who speak. But how can he help it? He has to talk when there is only me.” “And is his talk about fancies too? or does he say things that are more to the purpose, Effie?”