Page:What Maisie Knew (Chicago & New York, Herbert S. Stone & Co., 1897).djvu/316

302 "Then we shall live here?"

He did n't treat it quite as definitely as she liked. "Since we 've come to save money!"

This made her press him more. "How long shall we stay?"

"Oh, three or four days."

It took her breath away. "You can save money in that time?"

He burst out laughing, starting to walk again and taking her under his arm. He confessed to her on the way that she too had put a finger on the weakest of all his weaknesses, the fact, of which he was perfectly aware, that he probably might have lived within his means if he had never done anything for thrift. "It's the happy thoughts that do it," he said; "there's nothing so ruinous as putting in a cheap week." Maisie heard afresh, among the pleasant sounds of the closing day, that steel click of Ida's change of mind; she thought of the ten-pound note it would have been delightful at this juncture to produce for her companion's encouragement. But the idea was dissipated by his saying irrelevantly, in the presence of the next thing they stopped to admire: "We shall stay till she arrives."

She turned upon him. "Mrs. Beale?"