"In the first place, eh? And what does he mean in the second?" "Then what I understand," said Owen, "is that, practically, you and Mummy have quarreled. And you've done it—I mean you personally—for me."!

"Oh yes, she will have written bang off!" Owen cheerfully conceded. He paused so long for a reply that Fleda said: "I don't think I know what you mean by a set-to."

"He speaks to me of the only thing that concerns me. He gives me clear notice that he abates not one jot of his demand." "No, but he has told you. That's better still!" laughed Mrs. Gereth. "My dear child," she went on with an air that affected the girl as a sort of blind profanity, "don't try to make yourself out better than you are. I know what you are. I haven't lived with you so much for nothing. You're not quite a saint in heaven yet. Lord, what a creature you'd have thought me in my good time! But you do like it, fortunately, you idiot. You're pale with your passion, you sweet thing. That's exactly what I wanted to see. I can't for the life of me think where the shame comes in." Then with a finer significance, a look that seemed to Fleda strange, she added: "It's all right." CHAPTER XVIII