"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?"