"By not looking like a fool!" cried Mrs. Gereth very sharply. She kissed her, however, on the spot, to make up for this roughness, and summarily took off her hat, which, on coming into the house, our young lady had not removed. She applied a friendly touch to the girl's hair and gave a businesslike pull to her jacket. "I say don't look like an idiot, because you happen not to be one, not the least bit. I'm idiotic; I've been so, I've just discovered, ever since our first days together. I've been a precious donkey; but that's another affair." "That's your great feeling about him," Fleda said; "but how, after what has happened, can it be his about you?"!

"What of that?" asked Fleda. "It wasn't with me you were in love, my duck." Then Mrs. Gereth added: "I'll go and tell him."

"Oh no, we haven't quarreled a bit!" Then with a smile: "We've only diverged." "So it appears." "I don't know anything in the world half so well as you. If I were as clever as you I might hope to get round her." Owen hesitated; then he went on: "In fact I don't quite see what even you can say or do that will really fetch her."