"Quite proper," said Mrs. Gereth austerely. Then to Fleda: "Please go to him." "If he went," Fleda asked, "doesn't that exactly prove that he recognized one?"!

"My just giving everything back?" She felt sick; she sank upon a seat, staring up at him. "Do you mean that great house is lost?"

Fleda thought best to show bravery too, and to show it from the first. "What you expected, dear Mrs. Gereth, is exactly what I came up to ascertain. It struck me as right to do that first. I mean to ascertain, without making preparations." "I'm glad, then, it didn't arrive. Shouldn't you like him to go?" Fleda asked. At the sight of him two fresh waves passed quickly across her heart, one at the heels of the other. The first was an instant perception that this encounter was not an accident; the second a consciousness as prompt that the best place for it was the street. She knew before he told her that he had been to see her, and the next thing she knew was that he had had information from his mother. Her mind grasped these things while he said with a smile: "I saw only your back, but I was sure. I was over the way. I've been at your house."