"The case," said Fleda coldly, "is as I've had the honor to state it." "No. I'm tired of them: I'm not tired of you. This is the way for you to feel most how much I rest on you." Fleda had a compunction, wondering as they continued to stroll whether it was right after all to leave her. She believed, however, that if the flame might for the moment burn low, it was far from dying out; an impression presently confirmed by the way Mrs. Gereth went on: "But one's fatigue is nothing. The idea under which one worked kept one up. For you I could—I can still. Nothing will have mattered if she's not there."!

"I see you think she may refuse to discuss it at all," said Owen. Fleda stopped in front of her hostess. "I gave him my opinion that you're very logical, very obstinate, and very proud."

"I can't tell you what they were, but they were powerful. She knew how," said Mrs. Gereth. "Perhaps you've a right to say that you left it a little to mine." Mixed up with the spoils there, rising before him as if she were in a manner their keeper, she felt that she must absolutely dissociate herself. Mrs. Gereth had made it impossible to do anything but give her away. "I can only tell you that, on my side, I left it to her. I never dreamed either that she would pick out so many things." "But she'll only have been here a few minutes. What sort of a visit is that?" Fleda cried.