"That you had had a long talk with me, without seeing your mother at all?" Fleda gave a bold dramatic laugh. "Thank you, my love—with all the best things at Ricks!"!

"Then what do you make of his aversion to her?" "He answered it sufficiently by rushing off on the spot to see you."

Owen's face, at this, showed a reviving dread, the fear of some darksome process of her mind. "If you speak for yourself I can understand, but why is it hideous for me?" "Ah, then he did put his case to you!" Mrs. Gereth exclaimed, with an accent of triumph. "You seemed to speak just now as if really nothing of any consequence had passed between you." "Why so? It will be always so much done," said Fleda. "Though I'm poor," she added with a smile, "I don't mind the shilling."