e account of her friendship with Mona, and of her previous
acquaintance with her in Miss Marsden's school.

"Then you have only been friends for a very short time," was his comment
when she had finished.

"Only for a few weeks, papa," she replied.

"And has she never mentioned to you since the date of your friendship
her former acquaintance with your brother Charlie?"

"No, she has not, but I am aware of it notwithstanding," confessed she,
wondering more than ever.

"Well, it seems they became acquainted in London at the house of my
friend Mrs. Cameron--Mr. Cameron's sister it turns out, although I was
not aware of the circumstance until to-day."

Here Mr. Kimberly paused, looked at Minnie with an amused expression for
a minute or two, and then went on--

"You look rather bewildered, and now I come to think of it, I dare say
it is rather a bewildering thing to be treated like an old woman of
fifty. I need scarcely have told you of this so soon--especially as you
will hear of it soon enough from lips fitter to speak of it than mine,
but one always feels the need of a confidante, however old he may be and
young she may be."

"And I shall be prouder of nothing than of being yours," she returned,
stroking his grey hair lovingly.

"Not even of the Presidentship of the Hollowmell Mission?" enquired he
incredulously.

"O, Mabel is that," she replied, her face clouding again as the thought
flashed across her mind that perhaps Mabel would be that no more.

"Well, the position of arbitrator between discontented miners and their
employers," he suggested, anxious to divert her thoughts from the gloomy
subject he had unwittingly touched on.

"Not even of that," she declared, brightening a little. "Besides, all
the girls have a share in that--but to our confidences again. What of
Charlie and Mona?"

"I suppose you couldn't guess?"

"I am sure I couldn't," she asserted. Then added laughingly, "unless
they've fallen in love with each other--by-the-way," she continued,
growing suddenly serious again; "that isn't as altogether an improbable
think as it looks--I remember coming to the conclusion that Charlie had
fallen in love with her writing, and thinking that it was almost
equivalent to falling in love with herself."

"Well, that is just what has happened to them--though I rather think it
happened before the creation of your ingenious theory. It appears they
had some misunderstanding, or quarrel or something of that