Page:What Maisie Knew (Chicago & New York, Herbert S. Stone & Co., 1897).djvu/480

466 in a certain way at Mrs. Wix. "You need n't do that," she heard him say; "she has means."

"Means?—Maisie?" Mrs. Beale shrieked. "Means that her vile father has stolen!"

"I 'll get them back—I 'll get them back. I'll look into it." He smiled and nodded at Mrs. Wix.

This had a fearful effect on his other friend. "Have n't I looked into it, I should like to know, and haven't I found—an abyss? It 's too inconceivable, your cruelty to me!" she wildly broke out. She had hot tears in her eyes.

He spoke to her very kindly, almost coaxingly. "We'll look into it again; we'll look into it together. It is an abyss, but he can be made—or Ida can! Think of the money they're getting now!" he laughed. "It 's all right, it 's all right," he continued. "It would n't do—it would n't do. We can't work her in. It 's perfectly true—she 's unique. We 're not good enough—oh no!" And, quite exuberantly, he laughed again.

"Not good enough, and that beast is?" Mrs. Beale shouted.

At this, for a moment, there was a hush in the room, and in the midst of it Sir