Page:What Maisie Knew (Chicago & New York, Herbert S. Stone & Co., 1897).djvu/453

Rh responsibility. Never was a young person more directly committed and confided." He appeared to say this over, at the ceiling, through his smoke, a little for his own illumination. It carried him, after a pause, somewhat further. "Though, I admit, it was to each of us separately."

He gave her so, at that moment and in that attitude, the sense of wanting, as it were, to be on her side—on the side of what would be in every way most right and wise and charming for her—that she felt a sudden desire to show herself as not less delicate and magnanimous, not less solicitous for his own interests. What were these but that of the "regularity" he had just before spoken of? "It was to each of you separately," she accordingly, with much earnestness, remarked; "but—don't you remember?—I brought you together."

He jumped up with a delighted laugh. "You brought us together, you brought us together. Come!"

 XXXI

remained out with him for a time of which she could take no measure save that