Fleda faltered a moment. "I think she has gone too far." Then she added: "I shall immediately tell her that I've said that to you." Mrs. Gereth stood there in all the glory of a great stroke. "I've settled you." She filled the room, to Fleda's scared vision, with the glare of her magnificence. "I've sent everything back."!

"They may not have known of my leaving." Fleda wondered afresh; it struck her as scarcely supposable that some sign shouldn't have flashed from Poynton to London. If the storm was taking this term of silence to gather, even in Mona's breast, it would probably discharge itself in some startling form. The great hush of every one concerned was strange; but when she pressed Mrs. Gereth for some explanation of it, that lady only replied, with her brave irony: "Oh, I took their breath away!" She had no illusions, however; she was still prepared to fight. What indeed was her spoliation of Poynton but the first engagement of a campaign? "That's what he calls it," said Fleda.

"I've got a perfect case—I could have her up. The Brigstocks say it's simple stealing." "I mean unless everything is different." Fleda hesitated; she had not quite had a definite idea. "Well—he'll give them up."