Fleda was silent a little. "All that didn't answer her question." "I'm glad, then, it didn't arrive. Shouldn't you like him to go?" Fleda asked.!

"That's horrible!" said Fleda, looking at him in woe. Mrs. Gereth turned on her sharply. "Ready for what? Ready to see me ruined without a reason or a reward?"

Her profuse preparations had all this time had no sequel, and, with a laugh that she felt to be awkward, she hastily complied with his request. "It's sure to be horrid," she said; "we don't have at all good things." She offered him also bread and butter, of which he partook, holding his cup and saucer in his other hand and moving slowly about the room. She poured herself a cup, but not to take it; after which, without wanting it, she began to eat a small stale biscuit. She was struck with the extinction of the unwillingness she had felt at Ricks to contribute to the bandying between them of poor Mona's name; and under this influence she presently resumed: "Am I to understand that she engaged herself to marry you without caring for you?" "Wherever he is, I can bear it," Fleda said. "But I haven't the least idea where he is." "Determined her to what?"