ame conscious,
before the party arrived, of an amused, diplomatic pity for them. Almost
as much as Mrs. Gereth's her taste was her life, but her life was
somehow the larger for it. Besides, she had another care now: there was
some one she wouldn't have liked to see humiliated even in the form of a
young lady who would contribute to his never suspecting so much
delicacy. When this young lady appeared Fleda tried, so far as the wish
to efface herself allowed, to be mainly the person to take her about,
show her the house, and cover up her ignorance. Owen's announcement had
been that, as trains made it convenient, they would present themselves
for luncheon and depart before dinner; but Mrs. Gereth, true to her
system of glaring civility, proposed and obtained an extension, a dining
and spending of the night. She made her young friend wonder against what
rebellion of fact she was sacrificing in advance so profusely to form.
Fleda was appalled, after the first hour, by the rash innocence with
which Mona had accepted the responsibility of observation, and indeed by
the large levity with which, sitting there like a bored tourist in fine
scenery, she exercised it. She felt in her nerves the effect of such a
manner on her companion's, and it was this that made her want to entice
the girl away, give her some merciful warning or some jocular cue. Mona
met intense looks, however, with eyes that might have been blue beads,
the only ones she had--eyes into which Fleda thought it strange Owen
Gereth should have to plunge for his fate and his mother for a
confession of whether Poynton was a success. She made no remark that
helped to supply this light; her impression at any rate had nothing in
common with the feeling that, as the beauty of the place throbbed out
like music, had caused Fleda Vetch to burst into tears. She was as
content to say nothing as if, Mrs. Gereth afterwards exclaimed, she had
been keeping her mouth shut in a railway-tunnel. Mrs. Gereth contrived
at the end of an hour to convey to Fleda that it was plain she was
brutally ignorant; but Fleda more subtly discovered that her ignorance
was obscurely active.

She was not so stupid as not to see that something, though she scarcely
knew what, was expected of her that she couldn't give; and the only mode
her intelligence suggested of meeting the expectation was to plant her
big feet and pull another way. Mrs. Gereth wanted her to rise, somehow
or somewhere, and was prepared