"I've got a perfect case—I could have her up. The Brigstocks say it's simple stealing." Fleda appeared to consider: she appreciated her visitor's magnanimous use of the plural. "Mona won't die," she replied.!

"She'll never, never break off!" said Fleda. CHAPTER III

Even yet, however, he hung back; and she remembered how, at the end of his hour at Ricks, she had been put to it to get him out of the house. He had in general a sort of cheerful slowness which helped him at such times, though she could now see his strong fist crumple his big, stiff gloves as if they had been paper. "But even if there's no letter—" he began. He began, but there he left it. Fleda, on the threshold, kissed her; then they went out. "Not yet; remember that I only got here last night." She appeared to herself ignobly weak. "I had had no idea what she was doing; I was taken completely by surprise. She managed it wonderfully."