talk with
Harry had given rise. There was now not only the very grave question
whether Robert Disney--to say nothing of Somebody Else--would entertain
the idea. There was another, a much less obvious one--whether Harry
himself would welcome it. And a third--whether she herself would welcome
it for him. However, when Southend next called on her, she professed her
readiness to attack or at least to reconnoitre the task from which he
and John Fullcombe and the rest had shrunk.

"Only," she said, "if I were you, I should find out tolerably early--as
soon as we know that there's any chance at all--what Mr Tristram himself
thinks about it."

"There's only one thing he could think!" exclaimed Southend.

"Oh, very well," smiled Lady Evenswood.

A long life had taught her that only facts convince, and that they often
fail.

XVII

RIVER SCENES AND BRIC-A-BRAC

The Blent was on fire indeed, and Mina Zabriska occupied a position rich
in importance, prolific of pleasure. Others, such as Iver and Miss S.,
might meet Mr Gainsborough as he took timid rambles; they could extort
little beyond a dazed civility. Others again, such as Janie Iver and Bob
Broadley, might comfort themselves with the possession of a secret and
the conviction that they too could produce a fair sensation when the
appropriate (and respectable) time arrived; for the present they
commanded no public interest. Others again, the Major notably, strove
after importance by airs of previous knowledge and hints of undisclosed
details. Even Mrs Trumbler made her cast, declaring that she had always
known (the source of the information was left in obscurity) that pride
such as Harry Tristram's was the sure precursor of a fall. None of them
could compete with Mina Zabriska. To her alone the doors of Blent were
open; she held exclusive right of access to its hidden mistress. The
fact caused unmeasured indignation, the reason excited unresting
curiosity. This state of things ought to have made Mina very happy. What
more could woman want?

One thing only, but that a necessity--somebody to talk to about it. She
had nobody. Janie showed no desire to discuss Blent or anything or
anybody connected therewith, and with Janie out of the question there
was nobody to whom loyalty allowed her to talk. The Major, for instance,
was one of the enemy. She might pity him as an uncle--he was perplexed
and surly, because somehow he never happened to meet Miss Iver now--but
she