"Then why doesn't she do it?" "I'm dashed if I want to!" Owen honestly declared. "But what's a fellow to do if she won't meet a fellow?"!

"If you'll go for him yourself, I'll wait here," said Fleda. Fleda marveled: her companion had in an instant become young again. "Away from Mona? How in the world—?"

"What she said to me just before she went: she meant to plead with me." Fleda, before this, had fallen forward on her companion's neck, and the two women, clinging together, had got up while the younger wailed on the other's bosom. "You smooth it down because you see more in it than there can ever be; but after my hideous double game how will you be able to believe in me again?" "She was stored in an empty barn—stuck away for a sale; a matter that, fortunately, I've had neither time nor freedom of mind to arrange. I've simply, in my extremity, fished her out again."