Mrs. Gereth seemed to wonder at this. "You won't receive him here with me?" "What did she mean by that?"!

"How came you to know my house?" Fleda asked. "They've looked very beautiful, and they've been very beautiful. Oh, I've told her the sort you are!" the young man pursued.

"I said to her that her question revealed a total misconception of the nature of my present relations with my son. I said to her that I had no relations with him at all, and that nothing had passed between us for months. I said to her that my hands were spotlessly clean of any attempt to make him make up to you. I said to her that I had taken from Poynton what I had a right to take, but had done nothing else in the world. I was determined that if I had bit my tongue off to oblige you I would at least have the righteousness that my sacrifice gave me." Again the good lady looked hard at her young hostess. "I came, I believe, Fleda, just, you know, to plead with you." "In seven minutes."