"I took hold of them hard—I put them in the forefront. I made them work." CHAPTER X!

Fleda hesitated a moment; after which she exclaimed with a certain hard pride: "He's enough in love with me for anything!" "That you had had a long talk with me, without seeing your mother at all?"

"How can I get at him? He'll come when he's ready," Fleda replied. At this, grasping her hard, Fleda laughed; then she achieved the exploit of delicately kissing her. "I'm not in the least afraid to be alone with you, or of your tearing me to pieces. I'll answer any question that you can possibly dream of putting to me." Mrs. Gereth looked dark and void. "Yes, but I hadn't heard from you then that you could invent nothing better than, as you call it, to send him back to her."