She had much to tell of the loss of her diamonds by a burglary last week, and of their recovery through the agency of detectives whose charges were exorbitant. She acquainted Flint with every detail of the conduct of the family and the servants, the police and the detectives. As she went on, people began to listen, and the talk around the table, which had lagged a little, started up more briskly than before. "I have noticed," said Winifred to Captain Blathwayt, "that there are two subjects which will make even dull people lively,--burglaries and mind-cure." "Aw, I don't know much about burglaries,--never had one in the family; but I think a lot about mind-cure and all that sort of thing." "Confirmation of my theory!" said Winifred, with an impertinence which felt safe in banking on the lack of perception in the person whose dignity was assailed. "Do you believe in the mind-cure?" asked Miss Wabash, who had caught the phrase across the table. "It depends on the mind," Flint answered. "Oh, no, it doesn't; not at all. That's the first principle of the science. You only need to resign yourself and let the influence flow over you." "Does it make any difference whose influence it is?" "Oh, I suppose so. It must be trained influence, and it seems to work better when it is paid for." "Most things do," observed Flint. "My cousin says--" Flint never knew exactly what Miss Wabash's cousin did say, for at that point in the conversation his attention was irresistibly attracted by the talk of his opposite neighbors. "Now there's a lot in it, I'm sure," the man of the monocle was saying, bending toward Winifred with what Flint considered objectionable propinquity,--"telepathy, don't you know, and--and all that sort of thing. I had no idea I was to meet you to-night, but as I was standing on the doorstep I remembered how you looked at that dinner out in Cheyenne, and a remark you made to me--do you recollect?" "The dinner, perfectly; the remark, not at all." "Well, I sha'n't repeat it, for it was deucedly severe on the English. Really, you know, we're not half bad; but you don't care for your cousins over the water, I am afraid. Do you?" "I think the cousins over the water are much like those on this side,--the relationship is simply an opportunity for intimate acquaintance. Some Englishmen are the most charming of their sex; others are--well, quite the reverse." "To which do _I_ belong?" asked the Captain, turning toward her more openly and leaving his terrapin untasted, which meant much with Blathwayt. "Can you doubt?" Winifred responded with a radiant but wholly non-committal smile. Self-possessed as she was outwardly, however, she felt Flint's eyes upon her, and experienced a sense of annoyance at the attitude of both men. Her host on the other side came to her relief at the moment.