Page:What Maisie Knew (Chicago & New York, Herbert S. Stone & Co., 1897).djvu/258

244 was presented to that prospect would have shown a spectator the long road she had travelled. "Well, but that won't put Mrs. Beale—"

"In the same comfortable position—?" Beale took her up with relish; he had sprung to his feet again, shaking his legs and looking at his shoes. "Right you are, darling! Something more will be wanted for Mrs. Beale." He hesitated; then he added: "But she may not have long to wait for it."

Maisie also for a minute looked at his shoes, though they were not the pair she most admired, the laced yellow "uppers" and patent-leather complement. At last, with a question, she raised her eyes. "Are you not coming back?"

Once more he hung fire; after which he gave a small laugh that, in the oddest way in the world, reminded her of the unique sounds she had heard emitted by Mrs. Wix. "It may strike you as extraordinary that I should make you such an admission; and in point of fact you 're not to understand that I do. But we 'll put it that way to help your decision. The point is that that 's the way my wife will presently be sure to put it. You 'll hear her shrieking that she 's deserted, so