"It wasn't with me you were in love, my duck." Then Mrs. Gereth added: "I'll go and tell him." "Does Mona?"!

"Why must I?" Fleda asked after a moment. "Why, of the whole wretched thing."

She had at that moment turned away from this solution, precisely because she saw in it the great chance of her secret. If she should determine him to adopt it she might put out her hand and take him. It would shut in Mrs. Gereth's face the open door of surrender: she would flare up and fight, flying the flag of a passionate, an heroic defense. The case would obviously go against her, but the proceedings would last longer than Mona's patience or Owen's propriety. With a formal rupture he would be at large; and she had only to tighten her fingers round the string that would raise the curtain on that scene. "You tell me you 'say' you love her, but is there nothing more in it than your saying so? You wouldn't say so, would you, if it's not true? What in the world has become, in so short a time, of the affection that led to your engagement?" "Well, darling, what did you tell him?" Mrs. Gereth blandly inquired. "Not Mr. Gereth, I mean—nor his wife?"