Page:What Maisie Knew (Chicago & New York, Herbert S. Stone & Co., 1897).djvu/323

Rh "No; yesterday morning. She drove to me straight from the station. It was remarkable. If I had a job to get off she did nothing to make it worse—she did a great deal to make it better." Mrs. Wix hung fire, though the flame in her face burned brighter; then she became capable of saying: "Her ladyship's kind! She did what I didn't expect."

Maisie, on this, looked straight at her stepfather's back; it might well have been for her, at that hour, a monument of her ladyship's kindness. It remained as such, at all events, monumentally still, and for a time that permitted the child to ask of their companion: "Did she really help you?"

"Most practically." Again Mrs. Wix paused; again she quite vibrated. "She gave me a ten-pound note."

At that, still looking out, Sir Claude, in the window, laughed loud. "So, you see, Maisie, we 've not quite lost it!"

"Oh, no!" Maisie responded. "Isn't that too charming?" She smiled at Mrs. Wix. "We know all about it." Then, on her friend's showing such blankness as was compatible with such a flush, she pursued: "She does want me to have you?"