"And leave his house as bare as your hand? There's nothing in it that isn't precious." Owen stared. "You haven't lifted a finger! It's I who have taken possession."!

CHAPTER XVII "I just came on the mere chance," she said. "Mona found yesterday, somewhere, the card of invitation to your sister's marriage that you sent us, or your father sent us, some time ago. We couldn't be present—it was impossible; but as it had this address on it I said to myself that I might find you here."

"He recognized rot! You know what I think of him." Fleda knew; she had no wish to challenge a fresh statement. Mrs. Gereth made one—it was her sole, faint flicker of passion—to the extent of declaring that he was too abjectly weak to deserve the name of a man. For all Fleda cared!—it was his weakness she loved in him. "He took strange ways of pleasing you!" her friend went on. "There was no obligation till suddenly, the other day, the situation changed." "If he went," Fleda asked, "doesn't that exactly prove that he recognized one?" "I want to take her in the right way, don't you know?—treat her as if I gave her more than just an hour or two."