Page:What Maisie Knew (Chicago & New York, Herbert S. Stone & Co., 1897).djvu/165

Rh the child's own tears to flow. But Maisie could not have told you if she had been crying at the image of their separation or at that of Sir Claude's untruth. As regards this deviation it was agreed between them that they were not in a position to bring it home to him. Mrs. Wix was in dread of doing anything to make him, as she said, "worse;" and Maisie was sufficiently initiated to be able to reflect that in speaking to her as he had done he had only wished to be tender of Mrs. Beale. It fell in with all her inclinations to think of him as tender, and she forbore to let him know that the two ladies had, as she would never do, betrayed him.

She had not long to keep her secret, for the next day, when she went out with him, he suddenly said in reference to some errand he had first proposed: "No, no; we won't do that—we 'll do something else!" On this, a few steps from the door, he stopped a hansom and helped her in; then, following her, he gave the driver, over the top, an address that she lost. When he was seated beside her she asked him where they were going; to which he replied: "My dear child, you'll see." She saw, while she watched and wondered, that they took the direction of