Fleda disliked to appear not to take account of his brevity, but it was just because she was struck by it that she felt the pressure of the desire to know more. What it suggested was simply what her intelligence supplied, for he was incapable of any art of insinuation. Wasn't it at all events the rule of communication with him to say for him what he couldn't say? This truth was present to the girl as she inquired if Mona greatly resented what Mrs. Gereth had done. He satisfied her promptly; he was standing before the fire, his back to it, his long legs apart, his hands, behind him, rather violently jiggling his gloves. "She hates it awfully. In fact, she refuses to put up with it at all. Don't you see?—she saw the place with all the things." "No. I knew only that you had had, in London, all that you told me, that day, to do; and it was Mona's idea that after your sister's marriage you were staying on with your father. So I thought you were with him still."!

"Gone?" She was in the man's hands; she clung to him. Fleda felt the full need of giving a reason for her departure; but at first she only said with cheerful frankness: "I departed."

"I remembered how you had tied my hands about saying a word to Owen." Fleda, as if she had been holding her breath, gave the sigh of a listening child. "At that place you spoke of in town?" Fleda thought an instant. "Anything in the wide world you may require."