Page:What Maisie Knew (Chicago & New York, Herbert S. Stone & Co., 1897).djvu/52

38 squeeze, a question of which the motive was a desire for information as to the continuity of a certain sentiment. "Did papa like you just the same while I was gone?" she inquired, full of the sense of how markedly his favor had been established in her presence. She had bethought herself that this favor might, like her presence, and as if depending on it, be only intermittent and for the season. Papa, on whose knee she sat, burst into one of those loud laughs of his that, however prepared she was, seemed always, like some trick in a frightening game, to leap forth to make her jump; then, before Miss Overmore could speak, he replied: "Why, you little donkey, when you're away what have I left to do but just to love her?" Miss Overmore hereupon immediately took her from him, and they had, over her, an hilarious little scrimmage of which Maisie caught the surprised observation in the white stare of an old lady who passed in a victoria. Then her beautiful friend remarked to her very gravely: "I shall make him understand that if he ever again says anything as horrid as that to you I shall carry you straight off and we'll go and live somewhere together and be good