Page:What Maisie Knew (Chicago & New York, Herbert S. Stone & Co., 1897).djvu/180

166 "No worse than you!" he gayly rejoined.

"Handsome is that handsome does!" she exclaimed in the same spirit. "You can take off your things," she went on, releasing Maisie.

The child, on her feet, was all emotion. "Then I'm just to stop—this way?"

"It will do as well as any other. Sir Claude, to-morrow, will have your things brought."

"I 'll bring them myself. Upon my word I 'll see them packed!" Sir Claude promised. "Come here and unbutton."

He had beckoned his young companion to where he sat and he helped to disengage her from her coverings while Mrs. Beale, from a little distance, smiled at the hand he displayed. "There 's a stepfather for you! I 'm bound to say, you know, that he makes up for the want of other people."

"He makes up for the want of a good nurse!" Sir Claude laughed. "Don't you remember I told you so the very first time?"

"Remember? It was exactly what made me think so well of you!"

"Nothing would induce me," the young man said to Maisie, "to tell you what made me think so well of her." Having divested