"I haven't the least idea," Fleda repeated. Fleda was mystified. "People surely knew at Poynton," she objected, "if, as you say, she's there."!

Mrs. Gereth gave her a long last look, then turned abruptly away. "It's an awful bore you didn't really get it out of him! Well, come to tea," she added rather dryly, passing straight into the house. Owen looked out into Raphael Road. "She did care for me awfully. But she can't stand the strain."

"For Mummy's answer?" Owen stared and looked perplexed; he was more and more fevered with so much vivid expression of his case. "Don't you think that if I'm here she may hate it worse—think I may want to make her reply bang off?" "To help, and to help so as to please me. That was the way to take them; it was what they had least expected. I marched up to them and looked each straight in the eye, giving him the chance to choose if he'd gratify me or gratify my son. He gratified me. They were too stupid!" Owen's bewilderment visibly increased. "You think, then, as she does, that I must send down the police?"