"I couldn't stand the way she treated you, and that was what I had to say to her," Owen returned. "Put the place as it was." In his offhand way he added: "You know what I mean!"!

"A great mistake! That's all right." He spoke—it wasn't clear to her why—as if this declaration were a great point gained. "Painful?" Mrs. Gereth stared. "What pain can I ever feel again?"

CHAPTER XVI Fleda, meanwhile, had had time to make her reflections, which were moreover the continued throb of those that had occupied the interval between Owen's departure and his mother's return. If she should now repeat his words, this wouldn't at all play the game of her definite vow; it would only play the game of her little gagged and blinded desire. She could calculate well enough the effect of telling Mrs. Gereth how she had had it from Owen's troubled lips that Mona was only waiting for the restitution and would do nothing without it. The thing was to obtain the restitution without imparting that knowledge. The only way, also, not to impart it was not to tell any truth at all about it; and the only way to meet this last condition was to reply to her companion, as she presently did: "He told me nothing whatever: he didn't touch on the subject." "You'll last quite as long—" Here Fleda suddenly hesitated.