removed from Blent, as even more of a visitor to the
countryside than she herself was, a wonderful visitor indeed, but no
part of their life. And she was--well, at the least she was heir to
Blent! How had she forgotten that? The persistent triumph of Duplay's
smile marked his sense of the success of his sally.

"Yes, and she'll be installed there before many months are out," he went
on. "So I hope you made yourself pleasant, Mina?"

Mina gave him one scornful glance, as she passed by him and ran out on
to her favorite terrace. There was a new thing to look and to wonder at
in Blent. The interest, the sense of concern in Blent and its affairs,
which the news of the engagement had blunted and almost destroyed,
revived in her now. She forgot the prose of that marriage arrangement
and turned eagerly to the poetry of Cecily Gainsborough, of the poor
girl there in the house that was hers, unwitting guest of the man who
was---- The Imp stopped herself with rude abruptness. What had she been
about to say, what had she been about to think? The guest of the man who
was robbing her? That had been it. But no, no, no! She did not think
that. Confused in her mind by this new idea, none the less she found her
sympathy going out to Harry again. He was not a robber; it was his own.
The blood, she cried still, and not the law. But what was to be done
about Cecily Gainsborough? Was she to go back to the little house in
London, was she to go back to ugliness, to work, to short commons? There
seemed no way out. Between the old and the new attraction, the old
allegiance and the new claim to homage that Cecily made, Mina Zabriska
stood bewildered. She had a taste now of the same perplexity that she
had done so much to bring on poor Mr Neeld at Fairholme. Yet not quite
the same. He did not know what he ought to do; she did not feel sure of
what she wanted. Both stood undecided. Mr Cholderton's Journal was still
at its work of disturbing people's minds.

But Major Duplay was well content with the day's work. If his niece had
a divided mind she would be easier to bend to his will. He did not care
who had Blent, if only it passed from Harry. But it was a point gained
if Mina could think of its passing from Harry to somebody who would be
welcome to her there. Then she would tell the story which she had
received from her mother, and the first battle against Harry Tristram
would be won. The excitement of fighting was on the Major now. He could
nei