Some one else saw the smile and the blush, and it needed but a glance in the direction in which they had been bestowed for Trixie to interpret them. Florence, unfortunately, by this time despairing of making any way with the girl beside her, had allowed her thoughts to wander far from the present, and was paying but little attention to what passed, till rousing herself suddenly she began an animated conversation with the man on her other side, thus throwing Imogen altogether on the mercy of her left-hand neighbour, Oliver Helmont. He had not yet been introduced to her, but a word to Trixie on the opposite side had the desired effect, and in a minute or two Imogen began to feel considerably more at home than she could have believed possible. There was no harm in Oliver, as the saying goes. He was a good-natured rattle, more or less selfish, but honest and well-meaning, and not without some faint capacity somewhere about him for a species of hero-worship. And though there were few to whom he would have owned it, the hero down at the bottom of his heart was his cousin Reginald. So when, encouraged by his pleasant genial face and manner, Imogen confided to him the history of the morning's misadventures, they soon found themselves on common ground. "Major Winchester was so kind," said the girl, after relating Rex's good offices. "We should have been there still, but for him." Oliver's face beamed. "Just like him," he said. "He is awfully kind. Fact is," here he lowered his voice to a confidential whisper, "I don't think there's another fellow like him, search the world over. It isn't every one he takes to though, so a good many people call him a prig and a saint, and all that style of thing. My sisters now, though they've known him all their lives--naturally so, as he's our cousin--they don't get on with him, except Florence; she's rather made an alliance with him lately, or he with her, since she's been so down in the mouth, you know." Imogen did not "know," but she scarcely felt as if she could ask for an explanation. "That's his way--any one in trouble, or helpless, or that he can be any good to, you see." "Yes," said the girl, smiling, "I do see, for we were very helpless, and he was of great good to us." "No wonder," said Oliver, feeling as if he were putting things rather awkwardly. "In _this_ case his benevolence was certainly a pleasure." "Thank you," said Imogen, laughing. "But you see," he went on, "in a general way, Rex isn't at all a ladies' man; he's rather standoff and severe, and he's got very, very particular ideas. I never dare stand up for him to my sisters. Not that he needs it, but they'd only make fun of me, you see. Trixie pretty nearly hates Rex, I do believe," he added, almost in a whisper, "and Alicia can't stand him. He's down upon them both in their different ways, you see."