"Give them up to whom?" Mrs. Gereth more boldly stared. "I can easily fancy what the Brigstocks say!" Fleda permitted herself to remark without solemnity.!

Fleda was infinitely shaken; she was silent a little. "Yes, I understand. Did she go to you to complain of me?" "He hasn't told her so," Fleda said.

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." "So much that they're all, and that she can let everything else absolutely depend upon them?" "We've already talked a long time," smiled Fleda.