"Fairholme?" Miss S.'s air was significant, Mina's falsehood rewarded. Mina threw out a smile; her visitor's pursed lips responded to it.
"He goes there a lot," pursued Mina, "to play golf with Mr Iver."
"So I've heard." Her tone put the report in its proper place. To play golf indeed!
"I think Janie's rather fond of Mr Tristram, anyhow." This was simply a feeler on Mina's part.
"Well, my dear, the position! Blent's been under a cloud—though people don't seem to mind that much nowadays, to be sure. But the new Lady Tristram! They've always been the heads of the neighborhood. She'll have him, no doubt, but as for being in love with him—well, could you, Madame Zabriska?"
"Yes," said the Imp, without the least hesitation. "I think he's most attractive—mysterious, you know. I'm quite taken with him."
"He always looks at me as if I wanted to pick his pocket."
"Well, you generally do—for your charities." The laugh was confined to Mina herself. "But I know the manner you mean."
"Poor young man! I'm told he's very sensitive about his mother. That's it perhaps." The guess was at all events as near as gossip generally gets to truth. "It would make him a very uncomfortable sort of husband though, even if one didn't mind having that kind of story in the family."