Page:What Maisie Knew (Chicago & New York, Herbert S. Stone & Co., 1897).djvu/284

270 Ida gave a sound of indulgent mockery. "I like your scare. I know your game. I did n't see the person I risked seeing—but I had been ready to take my chance of her." She addressed herself to Maisie; she had encircled her more closely. "I asked for you, my dear, but I saw no one but a dirty parlor-maid. She was red in the face with the great things that, as she told me, had just happened in the absence of her mistress; and she luckily had the sense to have made out the place to which Sir Claude had come to take you. If he had n't given a false scent I should find you here: that was the supposition on which I 've proceeded." Ida had never been so explicit about proceeding or supposing, and Maisie, drinking this in, was aware that Sir Claude shared her fine impression of it. "I wanted to see you," his wife continued, "and now you can judge of the trouble I 've taken. I had everything to do in town to-day, but I managed to get off."

Maisie and her companion, for a moment, did justice to this achievement; but Maisie was the first to express it. "I'm glad you wanted to see me, mamma." Then after a concentration more deep and with a plunge