"Then if anything has come of it here, it has come precisely of just four. That's literally, by the inventory, all there are!" said Mrs. Gereth. "She has proved it. Will you believe it if you see the letter?"!

Fleda, at this, thought it best also to laugh. "Since I didn't let you know, why did you come?" "Oh, she has dispelled it."

"A bibelot the more or the less," Fleda said, "could have made little difference in this grand general view of you. I take you simply for the greatest of all conjurers. You've operated with a quickness—and with a quietness!" Her voice trembled a little as she spoke, for the plain meaning of her words was that what her friend had achieved belonged to the class of operation essentially involving the protection of darkness. Fleda felt she really could say nothing at all if she couldn't say that she knew what the danger had been. She completed her thought by a resolute and perfectly candid question: "How in the world did you get off with them?" "Nothing but her luncheon. But I got everything!" "Oh dear, yes!" said Owen.