Mrs. Mimburn had a very terse answer to the riddle of young-manhood. Human nature presented no mysteries to her mind; woman was the solution of them all. She sniffed knowingly. ‘I think _I_ could manage it, La-la,’ she replied. ‘However, you are marrying off Kingston, and that is the great thing. I suppose he is very much in love?’ ‘Oh, very, very, even before I suggested it. And she adores him, of course. I saw that long ago. But dear Kingston is so simple and good, he had no idea until I told him.’ ‘And he proposed--when? Yesterday?’ ‘After lunch, dear Min. I asked Gundred on purpose, and we had some really delightful Caviare biscuits. And then I managed to leave them in the drawing-room--and--and--it came off, dear Min. I am so pleased.’ ‘What does Mr. Mortimer say, La-la?’ ‘Naturally he is charmed, Minna. What should he be? Besides, nobody cares much what Mr. Mortimer says. But his dear aunt, Lady Agnes, is quite on our side. In fact, you may imagine that she and I talked it all out between us.’ Mrs. Mimburn laughed. ‘What an obedient boy Kingston must be,’ she said. ‘Had he nothing to say in the matter?’ ‘Kingston trusts to his mother to know best,’ answered Lady Adela with gentle dignity. ‘Gundred is altogether pretty and good and sweet, so what more could he want? Besides, as I pointed out to him--and he quite understood--such a marriage will be a great help to him in his career, when he finds one.’ ‘But Mr. Mortimer is very silly, surely,’ protested Mrs. Mimburn. ‘How can he be a help to anyone?’ ‘One shouldn’t be harsh,’ replied Lady Adela, ‘and I am sure when he succeeds to the dukedom nobody will think him as foolish as they do now.’ Mrs. Mimburn was still in a carping mood. ‘The Duke himself is actually an imbecile, isn’t he?’ she asked. ‘How dreadful to marry into a family where there is madness, La-la! A mad, ga-ga--great-uncle, isn’t it? Yes. Poor Gundred!’ However, Lady Adela refused, as always, to take any but a hopeful view. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘we must trust that it will all be for the best. And there is a little insanity in my own family, too, Min, so that will make us quite quits, won’t it? No; the only thing I do regret is that dear Gundred has not got more relations. You see, Lady Agnes has never married, and Gundred is an only child herself, so that really poor Kingston will hardly have got so many nice new connections as I could have wished. There was an Isabel Mortimer, I am told, an aunt of Gundred’s, but they don’t talk about her. She married a New Zealander, or something dreadful, and went out there and died. I forget if she left any children, but of course it can’t matter whether she did or not.’ Mrs. Mimburn scented romance, and immediately became more friendly towards the match.