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So happily Grace ran on and Paul looked up from his desk at her, digging his fingers into his white hair, smiling at her in just the old confidential way that he used to have before Maggie came. She revived, too, her old habit of talking to herself. This had always been an immense relief to her it had helped her to feel reassurance.
"But did he look unhappy?" persisted Maggie. "I can't say he looked happy, dear Mousey; but it was quite different when he came back from seeing you. You know you always had the art of stilling any person's trouble. You and my aunt Buxton are the only two I ever knew with that gift." "I am so sorry he has any trouble to be stilled," said Maggie. "And I think it will do him a world of good.
"Oh, what a startling announcement!" said Maggie, quite mistress of herself, though not without some inward flutter. "I wonder where Lucy is." Lucy had not been deaf to the signal, and after an interval long enough for a few solicitous but not hurried inquiries, she herself ushered Stephen in.
Uncle Ruthven that which proved a mystery to Maggie and Bessie need prove no mystery to us was a generous giver, and when he did a kind action it was carried out munificently; and the wrappings being taken off and the cover of the box removed, a most tempting sight was disclosed. "There is a note to tell you who it is from," said Maggie, seeing an envelope lying on the top of the bonbons.
For a space of reckonable time there was complete silence. Then once more a blast of wind tore up from the south-west, rain shattered against the window, and the house vibrated to the shock. As the date approached Maggie felt her anxieties settle down, like a fire, from turbulence to steady flame.
Thinking him to be asleep, Maggie started to leave the room, but he called her back, saying, "Don't go; stay with me, won't you?" "Certainly," she answered, drawing a chair to the bedside. "I supposed you were sleeping." "I was not," he replied. "I was thinking of you and of Rose. Your voices are much alike. I thought of it yesterday when I lay upon the rock."
This quarrel was a grievous disappointment to Maggie who had often been promised that when she should be a good girl she should go and stay with her aunts in London. She had invented for herself a strange fascinating picture of the dark, mysterious London house, with London like a magic cauldron bubbling beyond it. There was moreover the further strangeness of her aunt's religion.
"Well, they ain't because he's separated 'em." Miss Flora was rocking a little faster now. "But why?" demanded Miss Maggie. "He says he wants a rest. That he's worked hard all his life, and it's time he took some comfort. He says he doesn't take a minute of comfort now 'cause Jane's hounding him all the time to get more money, to get more money.
Nancy Banister had declined her invitation with decision; Constance Field had withered her with a look. Now she must secure Maggie. "I wish you'd come," she said, following Maggie and Prissie to the door of the theater. "It will be an awful disappointment if you don't! We all reckoned on having you." "What do you mean, Rose?" "We thought you wouldn't be above a bit of fun.
He ought to tremble more." "Nonsense, Maggie! As if any one could tremble at me! You think he is conceited, I see that. But you don't dislike him, do you?" "Dislike him! No. Am I in the habit of seeing such charming people, that I should be very difficult to please? Besides, how could I dislike any one that promised to make you happy, my dear thing!" Maggie pinched Lucy's dimpled chin.
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