nds,
that a fellow didn't understand. Poor Owen went through life with a
frank dread of people's minds: there were explanations he would have
been almost as shy of receiving as of giving. There was therefore
nothing that accounted for anything, though in its way it was vivid
enough, in his picture to Fleda of his mother's virtual refusal to move.
That was simply what it was; for didn't she refuse to move when she as
good as declared that she would move only with the furniture? It was the
furniture she wouldn't give up; and what was the good of Poynton without
the furniture? Besides, the furniture happened to be his, just as
everything else happened to be. The furniture--the word, on his lips,
had somehow, for Fleda, the sound of washing-stands and copious bedding,
and she could well imagine the note it might have struck for Mrs.
Gereth. The girl, in this interview with him, spoke of the contents of
the house only as "the works of art." It didn't, however, in the least
matter to Owen what they were called; what did matter, she easily
guessed, was that it had been laid upon him by Mona, been made in effect
a condition of her consent, that he should hold his mother to the
strictest accountability for them. Mona had already entered upon the
enjoyment of her rights. She had made him feel that Mrs. Gereth had been
liberally provided for, and had asked him cogently what room there would
be at Ricks for the innumerable treasures of the big house. Ricks, the
sweet little place offered to the mistress of Poynton as the refuge of
her declining years, had been left to the late Mr. Gereth, a
considerable time before his death, by an old maternal aunt, a good lady
who had spent most of her life there. The house had in recent times been
let, but it was amply furnished, it contained all the defunct aunt's
possessions. Owen had lately inspected it, and he communicated to Fleda
that he had quietly taken Mona to see it. It wasn't a place like
Poynton--what dower-house ever was?--but it was an awfully jolly little
place, and Mona had taken a tremendous fancy to it. If there were a few
things at Poynton that were Mrs. Gereth's peculiar property, of course
she must take them away with her; but one of the matters that became
clear to Fleda was that this transfer would be immediately subject to
Miss Brigstock's approval. The special business that she herself now
became aware of being charged with was that of seeing Mrs. Gereth safely
and singly