"The honor and good name of a man you hate?" Fleda gave a bold dramatic laugh. "Thank you, my love—with all the best things at Ricks!"!

"I can't tell you what it is to me to feel you on my side!" Owen exclaimed. "Only that she left me thinking she had got something."

"Oh, of course she likes everything that's nice." And Owen, who constitutionally disliked questions—an answer was almost as hateful to him as a "trick" to a big dog—smiled kindly at Fleda and conveyed that she would understand what he meant even if his mother didn't. Fleda, however, mainly understood that Mrs. Gereth, with an odd, wild laugh, held her so hard that she hurt her. Mrs. Gereth looked hard at her young friend, showing she saw she must believe her. "Then you're perverse, you're wicked. Will you swear he doesn't know?" "I've pulled myself together." Fleda paused; then she added: "And I've seen Mr. Owen."