"They've looked very beautiful, and they've been very beautiful. Oh, I've told her the sort you are!" the young man pursued. "You didn't ask him?"!

"I don't exactly know what you mean by a regular kick-up. We shall naturally have a great deal of discussion—if she consents to discuss the matter at all. That's why you must decidedly give her two or three days." "Then why doesn't he marry her? He's giving you an extraordinary chance."

Rather musingly and absently Fleda shook her head. "I don't mind anything." "To save you? I see. You mean I must get rid of her for you." His blankness showed for a little that he felt the chill of her cold logic; but as she waited for his rejoinder she knew to which of them it cost most. He gasped a minute, and that gave her time to say: "You see, Mr. Owen, how impossible it is to talk of such things yet!" "Why, of any reviving pleasure that one might feel in such an exhibition. I shall feel none at all. You may personally take it as you like; but what conceivable good will it do?"