"Oh no, back to town. I'll write to you to-morrow." Her profuse preparations had all this time had no sequel, and, with a laugh that she felt to be awkward, she hastily complied with his request. "It's sure to be horrid," she said; "we don't have at all good things." She offered him also bread and butter, of which he partook, holding his cup and saucer in his other hand and moving slowly about the room. She poured herself a cup, but not to take it; after which, without wanting it, she began to eat a small stale biscuit. She was struck with the extinction of the unwillingness she had felt at Ricks to contribute to the bandying between them of poor Mona's name; and under this influence she presently resumed: "Am I to understand that she engaged herself to marry you without caring for you?"!

"Where did you separate?" Fleda asked. "What has made the difference?"

"You'll tell her what you think she ought to do?" he asked with some eagerness. "Write to him that you must see him again," said Mrs. Gereth. Fleda stared. "Then she's not to live there?"