Again our young lady reflected. "I think I'm rather glad you didn't." Fleda was mystified. "People surely knew at Poynton," she objected, "if, as you say, she's there."!

Fleda had got up; she took a turn round the room. "You 'required' the very best pieces—the morceaux de musée, the individual gems!" "Mine?" Fleda looked vague.

The ring of his question made his anger at Mona almost resemble for a minute an anger at Fleda; and this resemblance in turn caused our young lady to observe how handsome he looked when he spoke, for the first time in her hearing, with that degree of heat, and used, also for the first time, such a term as "perpetrated." In addition, his challenge rendered still more vivid to her the mere flimsiness of her own aid. "Yes, you've been perfect," she said. "You've had a most difficult part. You've had to show tact and patience, as well as firmness, with your mother, and you've strikingly shown them. It's I who, quite unintentionally, have deceived you. I haven't helped you at all to your remedy." "It has lasted long enough for my purpose. There was something I wanted to know, but I think I know it now." The girl hesitated. "What do people say of that? I mean the 'world.'"