"If we have lost?" Fleda repeated as she paused again. "Well, I am, and I'm the person most concerned. Of course I didn't use just those words: I was perfectly civil, quite as civil as she. But I told her I didn't consider she had a right to put me any such question. I said I wasn't sure that even Mona had, with the extraordinary line, you know, that Mona has taken. At any rate the whole thing, the way I put it, was between Mona and me; and between Mona and me, if she didn't mind, it would just have to remain."!

Her interlocutress was silent a little. "And that he has no feeling on his side?" Mrs. Gereth stared as at some gross material ravage. "Another footing? What other footing?"

The girl hung fire a few seconds. "Derived from him." Mrs. Gereth watched Fleda and considered. "You haven't any idea if they are waiting for the things?" "Yes, Mona will. She'll open it under the pretext of having it repeated; and then she'll probably do nothing. She'll keep it as a proof of your immodesty."