Page:What Maisie Knew (Chicago & New York, Herbert S. Stone & Co., 1897).djvu/201

Rh The Captain, at the same elevation as her ladyship, gaped wide; then of course, like every one else, he was convulsed. But he instantly caught himself up, echoing her bad words. "A damned old brute—your mother?"

Maisie had already her second movement. "I think she tried to make him angry."

The Captain's stupefaction was fine. "Angry?—she? Why, she 's an angel!"

On the spot, as he said this, his face won her over; it was so bright and kind and his blue eyes had such a reflection of some mysterious grace that, for him at least, her mother had put forth. Her fund of observation enabled her, as she gazed up at him, to place him: he was a candid, simple soldier, very brave—she came back to that—but at the same time very soft. At any rate he struck a note that was new to her and that after a moment made her say: "Do you like her very much?"

He smiled down at her, hesitating but looking pleasanter and pleasanter. "Let me tell you about your mother!"

He put out a big military hand which she immediately took, and they turned off together to where a couple of chairs had been placed under one of the trees. "She told