"Superstitious?" "No, I won't receive him here with you. Only where I received him last—only there again." She showed her companion that as to that she was firm.!

"Oh, I'll show you that!" said Owen. "The whole house," said Fleda uncompromisingly. She thought of her lovely room.

Fleda went over them while they walked again; she had no need of the catalogue. At last she spoke once more: "Even the Maltese cross?" Her interlocutress was silent a little. "And that he has no feeling on his side?" "He has done it," said Mrs. Gereth, turning her eyes avoidingly but not unperceivingly about her and in spite of herself dropping an opinion upon the few objects in the room. Fleda, on her side, in her silence, observed how characteristically she looked at Maggie's possessions before looking at Maggie's sister. The girl understood and at first had nothing to say; she was still dumb while Mrs. Gereth selected, with hesitation, a seat less distasteful than the one that happened to be nearest. On the sofa near the window the poor woman finally showed what the two past days had done for the age of her face. Her eyes at last met Fleda's. "It's the end."