You mean----?"

The other two smiled. Mr Disney scowled a little. Obviously he had hoped
to find his relative alone.

"Madame Zabriska met Addie Tristram years ago at Heidelberg, Robert; and
she's been staying down at Blent--at Merrion Lodge, didn't you say, my
dear?"

Mr Disney had sat down.

"Well, what's the young fellow like?" he asked.

"Oh, I--I--don't know," murmured the Imp in forlorn shyness. This man
was--was actually--the--the Prime Minister! Matters would have been
rather better if he had consented to look just a little like it. As it
was, her head was in a whirl. Lady Evenswood called him "Robert" too!
Nothing about Lady Evenswood had impressed her as much as that, not even
the early acquaintance with Addie Tristram.

"Well then, what's the girl like?" asked Disney.

"Robert, don't frighten Madame Zabriska."

"Frighten her? What do you mean?"

"Oh, tell him what I mean, George," laughed Lady Evenswood, turning to
Southend. Mr Disney seemed genuinely resentful at the idea that he might
frighten anybody.

"Are you a member of the conference too, Southend?"

"Well, yes, I--I'm interested in the family." He telegraphed a glance of
caution to the old lady; he meant to convey that the present was not a
happy moment to broach the matter that was in their minds.

"I'm sorry I interrupted. Can you give me five minutes in another room,
Cousin Sylvia?" He rose and waited for her.

"Oh, but can't you do anything?" blurted out the Imp suddenly.

"Eh?" His eyes under their heavy brows were fixed on her now. There was
a deep-lying twinkle in them, although he still frowned ferociously. "Do
what?"

"Why, something for--for Harry Tristram?"

He looked round at each of them. The twinkle was gone; the frown was
not.

"Oh, was that the conference?" he asked slowly. "Well, what has the
conference decided?" It was Mina whom he questioned, for which Southend
at least was profoundly thankful. "He'd have bitten my head off, if the
women hadn't been there," he confided to Iver afterward.

Mr Disney slowly sat down again. Mina did not perceive the significance
of this action, but Lady Evenswood did.

"It's such an extraordinary case, Robert. So very exceptional! Poor
Addie Tristram! You remember her?"

"Yes, I remember Addie Tristram," he muttered--"growled," Mina described
it afterward. "Well, what do you want?" he asked.

Lady Evenswood was a woman of tact.

"Really," she said, "it can't be done in this