"The worse! No!" returns Minnie, with a superb smile.
"Who says he was?"
"Mrs. Errington."
"Pooh! Ten to one it isn't true then. She has her good points, poor woman, but the Ancrams are all liars; every one of them! Greatest liars in all the Midland Counties. It runs in the family, like gout."
"It does not seem likely, certainly, that Mr. Diamond should have confided the circumstance to Mrs. Errington," observed Minnie, thoughtfully.
"Confided! No; I never knew a man less likely to confide anything to anybody."
"However, after all, it is a thing which all the world might know, isn't it, papa?"
Dr. Bodkin was not interested in the question. He gave a great loud yawn, and declared it was time for Minnie to go to bed.
"It doesn't follow that I'm sleepy because you yawn, papa!" she said saucily.
"You are tired though, puss! I see it in your face. Go to bed. Mrs. Bodkin, get Minnie off to rest."