Page:What Maisie Knew (Chicago & New York, Herbert S. Stone & Co., 1897).djvu/292

278 friend. "How do you know what she may say?"

"She must risk it," Ida remarked.

"I only want to protect you," he continued to the child.

"You want to protect yourself—that 's what you mean," his wife replied. "Don't be afraid. I won't touch you."

"She won't touch you—she won't!" Maisie declared. She felt by this time that she could really answer for it, and something of the emotion with which she had listened to the Captain came back to her. It made her so happy and so secure that she could positively patronize mamma. She did so in the Captain's very language. "She 's good, she 's good!" she proclaimed.

"Oh, Lord!" Sir Claude, at this, ejaculated. He appeared to have emitted some sound of derision that was smothered, to Maisie's ears, by her being again embraced by his wife. Ida released her and held her off a little, looking at her with a very queer face. Then the child became aware that their companion had left them and that, from the face in question, a confirmatory remark had proceeded.

"I am good, love," said her ladyship.