"No. I knew only that you had had, in London, all that you told me, that day, to do; and it was Mona's idea that after your sister's marriage you were staying on with your father. So I thought you were with him still." "You didn't know I was here?"!

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?" "So as not to aggravate Mona, naturally. We've had a narrow course to steer, but thank God we're at last in the open!"

"She abused you, and I defended you. She denounced you—" He had laughed at his way of putting it, but Fleda remained grave. "Is that what you came to say to her?" "Well," said Mrs. Gereth profoundly, "it will be clear enough that Mona has."