weighed her question as if he felt the responsibility of his
answer. But that answer came in a moment, and, as Fleda could see, out
of a wealth of memory. "She never wanted them particularly till they
seemed to be in danger. Now she has an idea about them; and when she
gets hold of an idea--Oh dear me!" He broke off, pausing and looking
away as with a sense of the futility of expression: it was the first
time Fleda had ever heard him explain a matter so pointedly or embark at
all on a generalization. It was striking, it was touching to her, as he
faltered, that he appeared but half capable of floating his
generalization to the end. The girl, however, was so far competent to
fill up his blank as that she had divined, on the occasion of Mona's
visit to Poynton, what would happen in the event of the accident at
which he glanced. She had there with her own eyes seen Owen's betrothed
get hold of an idea. "I say, you know, _do_ give me some tea!" he went
on irrelevantly and familiarly.

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?"

Owen looked out into Raphael Road. "She _did_ care for me awfully. But
she can't stand the strain."

"The strain of what?"

"Why, of the whole wretched thing."

"The whole thing has indeed been wretched, and I can easily conceive its
effect upon her," Fleda said.

Her visitor turned sharp round. "You _can_?" There was a light in his
strong stare. "You can understand it's spoiling her temper and making
her come down on _me_? She behaves as if I were of no use to her at
all!"

Fleda hesitated. "She's rankling under the sense of her wrong."

"Well, was it _I_, pray, who perpetrated the wrong? Ain't I doing what I
can to get the thing arranged?"

The ring of his question made his anger at Mona almost r