o 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----"

"I am clever! Dear Miss Swinkerton, I never thought of anything half so
good myself. I'll tell uncle about it directly."

Miss S. looked at her suspiciously. The innocence seemed very much
over-done.

"I knew you'd laugh at it," she observed.

"I should do that even if it was true," said Mina, thoroughly enjoying
herself.

Miss S. took her leave, quite undecided whether to announce on the best
authority that the idea was true, or that it was quite unfounded. One
thing only was certain; whatever she decided to say, she would say on
the best authority. If it turned out incorrect in the end, Miss S. would
take credit for an impenetrable discretion and an unswerving loyalty to
the friends who had given her their confidence.

Mina was left very unquiet. Miss S. chimed in with the Major; the
neighborhood too seemed in the same tune. She could laugh at the
ingenuities attributed to her, yet the notions which had given them
birth found, as she perceived more and more clearly, a warrant in her
feelings, if not in her conduct. Look at it how she would, she was
wrapped up in Harry Tristram; she spent her days watching his fortunes,
any wakeful hour of the night found her occupied in thinking of him. Was
she a traitor to her friend Janie Iver? Was that treachery bringing her
back, by a roundabout way, to a new alliance with her uncle? Did it
involve treason to Harry himself? For certainly it was hard to go on
helping him toward a marriage with Janie Iver.

"But I will all the same if he wants it," she exclaimed, as she paced
about on the terrace, glancing now and t