Mrs. Brigstock's round eyes grew rounder. "All day long?" "Yes, I didn't quite understand—but I think I understand now. The case is simple and logical enough. She's a person who's upset by failure and who blooms and expands with success. There was something she had set her heart upon, set her teeth about—the house exactly as she had seen it."!

"Well, was it I, pray, who perpetrated the wrong? Ain't I doing what I can to get the thing arranged?" Her companion again looked at her in silence. "I thought you had gone to her for several months."

"Up to this time," said Fleda, after a pause, "your mother has had no doubt of my being on hers." "Go on—I can bear it now," said Mrs. Gereth. Her companion had just perceptibly paused. "Misses them—rather! She was awfully sweet on them." Fleda remembered how sweet Mona had been, and reflected that if that was the sort of plea he had prepared it was indeed as well he shouldn't see his mother. This was not all she wanted to know, but it came over her that it was all she needed. "You see it puts me in the position of not carrying out what I promised," Owen said. "As she says herself"—he hesitated an instant—"it's just as if I had obtained her under false pretenses." Just before, when he spoke with more drollery than he knew, it had left Fleda serious; but now his own clear gravity had the effect of exciting her mirth. She laughed out, and he looked surprised, but went on: "She regards it as a regular sell."