"Six, I was told," observed Miss S., with an air of preferring accuracy. "Oh, I should be very pleased to see him married to Janie--Mr Tristram, I mean, of course--but she mustn't expect too much, my dear. Where's your uncle?" "At Fairholme, I expect," answered the Imp demurely. As a matter of fact the Major had gone to Exeter on a business errand. "Fairholme?" Miss S.'s air was significant, Mina's falsehood rewarded. Mina threw out a smile; her visitor's pursed lips responded to it. "He goes there a lot," pursued Mina, "to play golf with Mr Iver." "So I've heard." Her tone put the report in its proper place. To play golf indeed! "I think Janie's rather fond of Mr Tristram, anyhow." This was simply a feeler on Mina's part. "Well, my dear, the position! Blent's been under a cloud--though people don't seem to mind that much nowadays, to be sure. But the new Lady Tristram! They've always been the heads of the neighborhood. She'll have him, no doubt, but as for being in love with him--well, could you, Madame Zabriska?" "Yes," said the Imp, without the least hesitation. "I think he's most attractive--mysterious, you know. I'm quite taken with him." "He always looks at me as if I wanted to pick his pocket." "Well, you generally do--for your charities." The laugh was confined to Mina herself. "But I know the manner you mean." "Poor young man! I'm told he's very sensitive about his mother. That's it perhaps." The guess was at all events as near as gossip generally gets to truth. "It would make him a very uncomfortable sort of husband though, even if one didn't mind having that kind of story in the family." With a flash of surprise--really she had not been thinking about herself, in spite of her little attempts to mystify Miss S.--Mina caught that lady indulging in a very intent scrutiny of her, which gave an obvious point to her last words and paved the way (as it appeared in a moment) for a direct approach to the principal object of Miss S.'s visit. That this object did not come to the front till Miss S. was on her feet to go was quite characteristic. "I'm really glad, my dear," she observed, hanging her silk bag on her arm, "to have had this talk with you. They do say such things, and now I shall be able to contradict them on the best authority." "What do they say?" "Well, I never repeat things; still I think perhaps you've a right to know. They do say that you're more interested in Harry Tristram than a mere neighbor would be, and--well, really, I don't quite know how to put it." "Oh, I do!" cried Mina, delightedly hitting the mark. "That uncle and I are working together, I suppose?" "I don't listen to such gossip, but it comes to my ears," Miss S. admitted. "What diplomatists we are!" said the Imp. "I didn't know we were so clever. But why do I take Janie to Mingham?" "They'd say that Bob Broadley's no real danger, and if it _should_ disgust Harry Tristram----"