for having crossed his
Rubicon. He had opened his campaign with all the success he could have
expected. Like a wise man, Iver held nothing true till it was proved;
but like a wise man also he dubbed nothing a lie merely because it was
new or improbable. And on the whole he had done the Major justice. He
had smiled for a moment when he hinted that Duplay and Harry were not
very cordial; the Major met him by a straightforward recognition that
this was true, and by an indirect admission of the reason. As to this
latter Iver had dropped no word; but he would give Duplay a hearing. Now
it remained only to bring Mina to reason. If she spoke, the case would
be so strong as to demand inquiry. The relief in Duplay's mind was so
great that he could not explain it, until he realized that his niece's
way of treating him had so stuck in his memory that he had been prepared
to be turned from Iver's doors with contumely. Such an idea seemed
absurd now, and the Major laughed.

Mina was strange, Duplay never ceased to think that. They had parted on
impossible terms; but now, as soon as he appeared, she ran at him with
apparent pleasure and with the utmost eagerness. She asked nothing about
his expedition either, though she could easily have guessed where he had
been and for what purpose. She almost danced as she cried:

"I've seen her! I've been talking to her! I met her in the meadow near
Matson's cottage, and she asked me the way back to Blent. Uncle, she's
wonderful!"

"Who are you talking about?"

"Why, Cecily Gainsborough, of course. I just remember how Lady Tristram
spoke. She speaks the same way exactly! I can't describe it, but it's
the sort of voice that makes you want to do anything in the world it
asks. Don't you know? She told me a lot about herself; then she talked
about Blent. She's full of it; she admires it most tremendously----"

"That's all right," interrupted Duplay with a malicious smile. "Because,
so far as I can understand, she happens to own it."

"What?" The Imp stood frozen into stillness.

"You've been talking to Lady Tristram of Blent," he added with a nod.
"Though I suppose you didn't tell her so?"

To Lady Tristram of Blent! She had never once thought of that while they
talked. The shock of the idea was great, so great that Mina forgot to
repudiate it, or to show any indignation at Harry's claims being passed
by in contemptuous silence. All the while they talked, she had thought
of the girl as far