"So you didn't ask?" The words had the note of surprise. "Oh, if you speak the word!" the girl murmured very gravely, but happy at least to know that in this direction Mrs. Gereth confessed herself warned and helpless. Then she added: "How can I go on living with you on a footing of which I so deeply disapprove? Thinking as I do that you've despoiled him far more than is just or merciful—for if I expected you to take something, I didn't in the least expect you to take everything—how can I stay here without a sense that I'm backing you up in your cruelty and participating in your ill-gotten gains?" Fleda was determined that if she had the chill of her exposed and investigated state she would also have the convenience of it, and that if Mrs. Gereth popped in and out of the chamber of her soul she would at least return the freedom. "I shall quite hate, you know, in a day or two, every object that surrounds you—become blind to all the beauty and rarity that I formerly delighted in. Don't think me harsh; there's no use in my not being frank now. If I leave you, everything's at an end."!

"In seven minutes." Fleda, at this, thought it best also to laugh. "Since I didn't let you know, why did you come?"

"Then why doesn't he marry her? He's giving you an extraordinary chance." Fleda stopped in front of her hostess. "I gave him my opinion that you're very logical, very obstinate, and very proud." Fleda hesitated; she had not foreseen that so simple an inquiry could disconcert her. "I'm afraid I don't know."