"Is it? You must get it better than that, you know, before I can do anything. Good-night."
"Oh, stop, do stop! Do say what you mean!"
"I shan't do anything of the kind. You may tell Lady Evenswood what I've said and she'll tell you what I mean."
"Oh, but please——"
"If you stop me any longer, I shall send you to the Tower. Tell Lady Evenswood and Southend. If I didn't do my business better than you do yours——!" He shrugged his shoulders with a good-natured rudeness. "Good-night," he said again, and this time Mina dared not stop him. Twenty yards further on he halted once more of his own accord and fell into thought. Mina watched him till he moved on again, slowly making his way across the Mall and toward St James's Street. A great thing had happened to her—she felt that; and she had news too that she was to tell to Southend and Lady Evenswood. There was considerable unsettlement in the Imp's mind that night.
The next day found her at Lady Evenswood's. The old lady and Southend (who had been summoned on Mina's command—certainly Mina was getting up in the world) understood perfectly. They nodded wise heads.
"I was always inclined to think that Robert would take that view."
"He fears that the Bearsdale case won't carry him all the way. Depend upon it, that's what he feels."
"Well, there was the doubt there, you see."
Mina was rather tired of the doubt in the Bearsdale