Fleda wondered. "The other day?" "The lawyers can scarcely do the packing," Mrs. Gereth humorously remarked.!

"No, I'm not afraid now." Fleda shook her head wearily. "No—I was only in love with him!"

Fleda colored; she hesitated. "Because he's too stupid!" Save on one other occasion, at which we shall in time arrive, little as the reader may believe it, she never came nearer to betraying to Mrs. Gereth that she was in love with Owen. She found a dim amusement in reflecting that if Mona had not been there and he had not been too stupid and he verily had asked her, she might, should she have wished to keep her secret, have found it possible to pass off the motive of her action as a mere passion for Poynton. "On the occasion, at papa's, that Mrs. Brigstock told you of, and one day, since then, down at Maggie's." Owen stared. "To Waterbath? She was to have spent the night in town, don't you know? But when she left me, after our talk, I said to myself that she would take an evening train. I know I made her want to get home."