y to exclaim: "You
haven't yet told me, you know, how it is you propose to 'make' me!"

"Give everything back?" Fleda looked into the pot again and uttered her
question with a briskness that she felt to be a little overdone. "Why,
by putting the question well before you; by being so eloquent that I
shall persuade you, shall act upon you; by making you sorry for having
gone so far," she said boldly; "by simply and earnestly asking it of
you, in short; and by reminding you at the same time that it's the first
thing I ever have so asked. Oh, you've done things for me--endless and
beautiful things," she exclaimed; "but you've done them all from your
own generous impulse. I've never so much as hinted to you to lend me a
postage-stamp."

"Give me a cup of tea," said Mrs. Gereth. A moment later, taking the
cup, she replied: "No, you've never asked me for a postage-stamp."

"That gives me a pull!" Fleda returned, smiling.

"Puts you in the situation of expecting that I shall do this thing just
simply to oblige you?"

The girl hesitated. "You said a while ago that for me you _would_ do
it."

"For you, but not for your eloquence. Do you understand what I mean by
the difference?" Mrs. Gereth asked as she stood stirring her tea.

Fleda, to postpone answering, looked round, while she drank it, at the
beautiful room. "I don't in the least like, you know, your having taken
so much. It was a great shock to me, on my arrival here, to find you had
done so."

"Give me some more tea," said Mrs. Gereth; and there was a moment's
silence as Fleda poured out another cup. "If you were shocked, my dear,
I'm bound to say you concealed your shock."

"I know I did. I was afraid to show it."

Mrs. Gereth drank off her second cup. "And you're not afraid now?"

"No, I'm not afraid now."

"What has made the difference?"

"I've pulled myself together." Fleda paused; then she added: "And I've
seen Mr. Owen."

"You've seen Mr. Owen"--Mrs. Gereth concurred. She put down her cup and
sank into a chair, in which she leaned back, resting her head and gazing
at her young friend. "Yes, I did tell you a while ago that for you I'd
do it. But you haven't told me yet what you'll do in return."

Fleda thought an instant. "Anything in the wide world you may require."

"Oh, 'anything' is nothing at all! That's too easily said." Mrs. Gereth,
reclining more completely, closed her eyes with an air of disgust, an
air indeed of inviting slumber.

Fleda