"He'll see it—just as I see it!" Cecily went on. "And, Mina——"
She paused again. Still Mina had no words, and no comfort for her. This sight of the other side of the question was too sudden. It was Harry then, and Harry only, who had really been in her thoughts; and Cecily, her friend, was to be used as a tool. There might be little ground for blaming Southend who had never seen her, or Lady Evenswood who had been brought in purely in Harry's interest. But how stood Mina, who was Cecily's friend? Yet at last a thought flashed into her mind and gave her a weapon.
"Well, what did you come to London for?" she cried defiantly. "Why did you come, unless you meant that too?"
Cecily started a little and lay back in her chair.
"Oh, I don't know," she murmured despondently. "He hates me, but if he's offered Blent and me he'll—he'll take us both, Mina, you know he will." An indignant rush of color came on her cheeks. "Oh, it's very easy for you!"
In a difficulty of that sort it did not seem that even Mr Disney could be of much avail.
"Oh, you Tristrams!" cried Mina in despair.