"Then I shall talk myself. Yes; I wish to speak plainly, and to you I intend to speak plainly, since you are the only man I respect."
"Thank you!"
"I daresay you are priggish," went on Lady Jim, finding it a marvellous relief to speak loudly and without reserve; "but you are honest in spite of it, and you don't gossip, though you are a parson. In trouble I shall always come to you, padre."
"You are in trouble now," hinted Kaimes, smiling at her frankness.
"Eh! What? Yes, of course, Jim's dead." She choked over the lie, and returned to laugh at ease in her chair. "Where has he gone, Lionel?"
"Don't, Lady James! I admit that he had his faults."
"Be honest. He had nothing else but faults."
"No, no! We all have our good points."
"Give me a list of Jim's," she suggested derisively.
"For the moment, I can't think----"