Page:What Maisie Knew (Chicago & New York, Herbert S. Stone & Co., 1897).djvu/397

Rh "The one to keep me abroad?"

"The one to give you a home." Mrs. Wix saw further; she mastered all the portents. "Oh, she 's cruelly clever! It 's not a moral sense." She reached her climax. "It's a game!"

"A game?"

"Not to lose him. She has sacrificed him—to her duty."

"Then won't he come?" Maisie pleaded.

Mrs. Wix made no answer; her vision absorbed her. "He has fought. But she has won."

"Then won't he come?" the child repeated.

Mrs. Wix hesitated. "Yes, hang him!" She had never been so profane.

For all Maisie minded! "Soon—tomorrow?"

"Too soon—whenever. Indecently soon."

"But then we shall be together!" the child went on. It made Mrs. Wix look at her as if in exasperation; but nothing had time to come before she precipitated: "Together with you!" The air of criticism continued, but took voice only in her companion's bidding her wash herself and come down. The silence of quick ablutions fell upon