"Oh, I--I--don't know," murmured the Imp in forlorn shyness. This man was--was actually--the--the Prime Minister! Matters would have been rather better if he had consented to look just a little like it. As it was, her head was in a whirl. Lady Evenswood called him "Robert" too! Nothing about Lady Evenswood had impressed her as much as that, not even the early acquaintance with Addie Tristram. "Well then, what's the girl like?" asked Disney. "Robert, don't frighten Madame Zabriska." "Frighten her? What do you mean?" "Oh, tell him what I mean, George," laughed Lady Evenswood, turning to Southend. Mr Disney seemed genuinely resentful at the idea that he might frighten anybody. "Are you a member of the conference too, Southend?" "Well, yes, I--I'm interested in the family." He telegraphed a glance of caution to the old lady; he meant to convey that the present was not a happy moment to broach the matter that was in their minds. "I'm sorry I interrupted. Can you give me five minutes in another room, Cousin Sylvia?" He rose and waited for her. "Oh, but can't you do anything?" blurted out the Imp suddenly. "Eh?" His eyes under their heavy brows were fixed on her now. There was a deep-lying twinkle in them, although he still frowned ferociously. "Do what?" "Why, something for--for Harry Tristram?" He looked round at each of them. The twinkle was gone; the frown was not. "Oh, was that the conference?" he asked slowly. "Well, what has the conference decided?" It was Mina whom he questioned, for which Southend at least was profoundly thankful. "He'd have bitten my head off, if the women hadn't been there," he confided to Iver afterward. Mr Disney slowly sat down again. Mina did not perceive the significance of this action, but Lady Evenswood did. "It's such an extraordinary case, Robert. So very exceptional! Poor Addie Tristram! You remember her?" "Yes, I remember Addie Tristram," he muttered--"growled," Mina described it afterward. "Well, what do you want?" he asked. Lady Evenswood was a woman of tact. "Really," she said, "it can't be done in this way, of course. If anything is to come before you, it must come before you regularly. I know that, Robert." The Imp had no tact. "Oh, no," she cried. "Do listen now, Mr Disney. Do promise to help us now!" Tact is not always the best thing in the world. "If you'll tell me in two words, I'll listen," said Mr Disney. "I--I can't do that. In two words? Oh, but please----" He had turned away from her to Southend. "Now then, Southend?" Lord Southend felt that he must be courageous. After all the women were there. "In two words? Literally?" Disney nodded, smiling grimly at Mina's clasped hands and imploring face. "Literally--if you can." There was a gratuitous implication that Southend and the rest of the world were apt to be loquacious. "Well, then," said Southend, "I will. What we want is----" After one glance at Lady Evenswood, he got it out. "What we want is--a viscounty."