t
you, and I want you much more than you've allowed me to explain. You'll
see if I'm not all right, if you'll let me come to you. Don't be
afraid--I'll not hurt you nor trouble you. I give you my honor I'll not
hurt any one. Only I _must_ see you, on what I had to say to Mrs. B. She
was nastier than I thought she could be, but I'm behaving like an angel.
I assure you I'm all right--that's exactly what I want you to see. You
owe me something, you know, for what you said you would do and haven't
done; what your departure without a word gives me to understand--doesn't
it?--that you definitely can't do. Don't simply forsake me. See me, if
you only see me once. I shan't wait for any leave--I shall come down
to-morrow. I've been looking into trains and find there's something that
will bring me down just after lunch and something very good for getting
me back. I won't stop long. For God's sake, be there."

This communication arrived in the morning, but Fleda would still have
had time to wire a protest. She debated on that alternative; then she
read the note over and found in one phrase an exact statement of her
duty. Owen's simplicity had expressed it, and her subtlety had nothing
to answer. She owed him something for her obvious failure, and what she
owed him was to receive him. If indeed she had known he would make this
attempt she might have been held to have gained nothing by her flight.
Well, she had gained what she had gained--she had gained the interval.
She had no compunction for the greater trouble she should give the young
man; it was now doubtless right that he should have as much trouble as
possible. Maggie, who thought she was in her confidence, but was
immensely not, had reproached her for having left Mrs. Gereth, and
Maggie was just in this proportion gratified to hear of the visitor with
whom, early in the afternoon, she would have to ask to be left alone.
Maggie liked to see far, and now she could sit upstairs and rake the
whole future. She had known that, as she familiarly said, there was
something the matter with Fleda, and the value of that knowledge was
augmented by the fact that there was apparently also something the
matter with Mr. Gereth.

Fleda, downstairs, learned soon enough what this was. It was simply
that, as he announced the moment he stood before her, he was now all
right. When she asked him what he meant by that state he replied that he
meant he could practically regard himself henceforth as