"Wouldn't it perhaps after all be better," she asked, "before doing this, to see if we can make his whereabouts certain?" "Oh yes, I told her exactly, and that you had been most awfully kind, and that I had placed the whole thing in your hands."!

She met his eyes with all the tenderness she had not yet uttered, and she had not known till this moment how great was the accumulation. "Perhaps, after all," she risked, "there may be even in a stone still some little help for you." "Ah, really?" cried Fleda, achieving a radiance of which she was secretly proud. "How very exciting!"

"Well, those things are between yourselves, and you seem to me both poor creatures at best." Mrs. Gereth spoke with a rich humor which tipped with light for an instant a real conviction. "I don't know what you've got in your veins: you absurdly exaggerated the difficulties. But enough is as good as a feast, and when once I get you abroad together—!" She checked herself as if from excess of meaning; what might happen when she should get them abroad together was to be gathered only from the way she slowly rubbed her hands. "I dare say I did; it was for the 19th. But we've altered that—she wants to shift it." He looked out of the window; then he said: "In fact, it won't come off till Mummy has come round." Mrs. Gereth seemed to wonder at this. "You won't receive him here with me?"