She was near him.

She heard his voice every day, and saw his face.

That was something.

And it was better than absence.
Minnie used always to come to her and pour forth long accounts of Lord Hawbury--how he looked, what he said, what he did, and what he proposed to do.

Certainly there was not the faintest approach to love-making, or even sentiment, in Hawbury's attitude toward Minnie.
His words were of the world of small-talk--a world where sentiment and love-making have but little place.