Her gossip always made a point of flirting round impropriety, and she was at pains to damn her own flawless character by arch implications. She had cultivated French, and now was a walking chronicle of the demi-monde, as well as a living picture of its most prominent inhabitants. A passport to her friendship was the possession of a past, and she hastened to attribute amorous adventures to all her dearest friends on any foundation or none. The foundation did not matter; the point was that the suggestion glorified them in her eyes; part of her admiration for Lady Adela arose from the fact that she suspected that saintly woman of having ‘consoled herself’ during the lifetime of the late James Darnley. Mrs. Mimburn’s knowledge of her sister-in-law’s untried and incorruptible virtue was never allowed to interfere with this romantic possibility; in the face of all probability, in the face of all evidence, she must imagine some such episode in any career that touched her own, or else immediately cease to take any interest in it. So far had she travelled from the mental chastity that ruled in Darnley-on-Downe. So, between mother and aunt, the young Kingston Darnley journeyed through boyhood to maturity. Lady Adela was an ideal parent, and discharged her maternal duties with a gentle ease that made her son’s progress altogether pleasant. She was one of the cushion-women whose numbers nowadays are yearly diminishing. Without initiative, without any clearness of mind, she had the placid receptivity that often accompanies such a temperament. The lack of colour in her own character made it harmonious and restful as a background to more vivid personalities. Therefore, without effort or desire on her part, she attracted confidence. She was good to lean on; she listened well--though often without hearing, and always without understanding. But her sweet acquiescence gave everyone the idea of being fully comprehended, and her incapacity for independent action added to her value as a recipient of confidences. She could be trusted to say little and do less; and the large majority who, in making confession, only desire a sympathetic listener, felt that Lady Adela was an altogether soft and comfortable personality to repose against. What more could be required? The faithful adviser frequently gives much less, and is, as a rule, much less valued than the imperturbable Lady Adelas of life. Kingston Darnley was universally held to be highly fortunate in his mother, and, by the time he came of age, as he had neither married an actress nor gone to ruin on the turf, her skill in managing him was considered marvellous, and even beyond what might reasonably have been expected. ‘I assure you, La-la, considering what young men are nowadays, I do think you have done wonders,’ said Mrs. Mimburn, who had called to congratulate her sister-in-law on the latest triumph achieved by her diplomacy.