The sense of her adversary's dryness, which was ominous of something she
couldn't read, made Fleda, before complying, linger a little on the
terrace; she felt the need moreover of taking breath after such a flight
into the cold air of denial. When at last she rejoined Mrs. Gereth she
found her erect before the drawing-room fire. Their tea had been set out
in the same quarter, and the mistress of the house, for whom the
preparation of it was in general a high and undelegated function, was in
an attitude to which the hissing urn made no appeal. This omission, for
Fleda, was such a further sign of something to come that, to disguise
her apprehension, she immediately and without an apology took the duty
in hand; only, however, to be promptly reminded that she was performing
it confusedly and not counting the journeys of the little silver shovel
she emptied into the pot. "Not _five_, my dear--the usual three," said
her hostess, with the same dryness; watching her then in silence while
she clumsily corrected her mistake. The tea took some minutes to draw,
and Mrs. Gereth availed herself of them suddenly 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."