CHAPTER I "I see you think she may refuse to discuss it at all," said Owen.!

Fleda was infinitely shaken; she was silent a little. "Yes, I understand. Did she go to you to complain of me?" "Yesterday morning. I saw him."

"I can't tell you what they were, but they were powerful. She knew how," said Mrs. Gereth. Finally, after an interval, the girl exclaimed: "But the mere fatigue of it, the exhaustion of such a feat! I drag you to and fro here while you must be ready to drop." In the place at the corner, on the chance of its saving time, Fleda wrote her telegram—wrote it in silence under Mrs. Gereth's eye and then in silence handed it to her. "I send this to Waterbath, on the possibility of your being there, to ask you to come to me." Mrs. Gereth held it a moment, read it more than once; then keeping it, and with her eyes on her companion, seemed to consider. There was the dawn of a kindness in her look; Fleda perceived in it, as if as the reward of complete submission, a slight relaxation of her rigor.