"That would have been the sane, sound, immediate course to adopt. With a grain of gumption you'd both instantly have felt it. I should have found a way to take you, you know, if I'd been what Owen's supposed to be. I should have got the business over first; the rest could come when you liked! Good God, girl, your place was to stand before me as a woman honestly married. One doesn't know what one has hold of in touching you, and you must excuse my saying that you're literally unpleasant to me to meet as you are. Then at least we could have talked, and Owen, if he had the ghost of a sense of humor, could have snapped his fingers at your refinements." "The strain of what?"!

"I mean unless everything is different." She spoke with decision, but Owen seemed still unsatisfied. "You won't go away, I hope?"

"That of course hasn't made her love me better." "I don't know," said Owen. "I thought I might hear this morning." "I must take it on trust," the girl pursued. "And what if Mona doesn't give you up?" she added.