"Puts you in the situation of expecting that I shall do this thing just simply to oblige you?" "Mine?" Fleda looked vague.!

"I can't tell you what they were, but they were powerful. She knew how," said Mrs. Gereth. "I mean with the threat of enforcement and that sort of thing."

"So much the better, if it's the kind of one you desire." That was the most she could say, and having made it sound as dry as possible she lapsed into a silence so pointed as to deprive him of all pretext for not leaving her. Still, nevertheless, he stood there, playing with his hat and filling the long pause with a strained and anxious smile. He wished to obey her thoroughly, to appear not to presume on any advantage he had won from her; but there was clearly something he longed for beside. While he showed this by hanging on she thought of two other things. One of these was that his countenance, after all, failed to bear out his description of his bliss. As for the other, it had no sooner come into her head than she found it seated, in spite of her resolution, on her lips. It took the form of an inconsequent question. "When did you say Mrs. Brigstock was to have gone back?" "Didn't you ask?" Mrs. Gereth spoke as if she might have said, "What then were you doing all the while?" "I'm unhappy because I torment you, and you don't understand me."