"You'll tell her what you think she ought to do?" he asked with some eagerness. Mrs. Gereth thought again: she found her young friend suggestive. "Only she won't see them."!

"No. He told me nothing but the great gawk of a fact. I saw him but for three minutes." She was silent again, and Fleda, as before some lurid image of this interview, sat without speaking. "Do you wish to appear as if you don't care?" Mrs. Gereth presently demanded. Mrs. Brigstock looked at Owen and considered: nothing showed in her face but that it turned a deeper pink. "I should like him to go with me." There was no menace in her tone, but she evidently knew what she wanted. As Owen made no response to this Fleda glanced at him to invite him to assent; then, for fear that he wouldn't, and would thereby make his case worse, she took upon herself to declare that she was sure he would be very glad to meet such a wish. She had no sooner spoken than she felt that the words had a bad effect of intimacy: she had answered for him as if she had been his wife. Mrs. Brigstock continued to regard him as if she had observed nothing, and she continued to address Fleda: "I've not seen him for a long time—I've particular things to say to him."

Mrs. Gereth stared as at some gross material ravage. "Another footing? What other footing?" "I'm only prepared for the worst. The Brigstocks will simply send any telegram on." "So as not to aggravate Mona, naturally. We've had a narrow course to steer, but thank God we're at last in the open!"