Page:What Maisie Knew (Chicago & New York, Herbert S. Stone & Co., 1897).djvu/109

Rh with the idea of the inconvenience suffered by any lady who marries a gentleman producing on other ladies the charming effect of Sir Claude. That such ladies would freely fall in love with him was a reflection naturally irritating to his wife. One day when some accident—some report of a banged door or some scurry of a scared maid—had rendered this truth particularly vivid Maisie, receptive and profound, suddenly said to her companion: "And you, my dear, are you in love with him too?"

Even her profundity had left a margin for a laugh; so she was a trifle startled by the solemn promptitude with which Mrs. Wix plumped out: "Over head and ears. I've never—since you ask me—been so far gone."

This boldness had none the less no effect of deterrence for her when, a few days later—it was because several had elapsed without a visit from Sir Claude—her governess turned the tables. "May I ask you, miss, if you are?" Mrs. Wix brought it out, she could see, with hesitation, but clearly intending a joke. "Why, yes!" the child made answer, as if in surprise at not having long ago seemed sufficiently to commit herself;