What Maisie Knew

Mrs. Wix faced her a moment; then as if with a bewildered sniff: 'You had better ask her!' But she had no sooner uttered the words than she caught herself up. 'Lord o' mercy, how we talk!'

Maisie felt that however they talked she must see him, but she said nothing more for a time, a time during which she conscientiously finished dressing and Mrs. Wix also kept silence. It was as if they each had almost too much to think of, and even as if the child had the sense that her friend was watching her and seeing if she herself were watched. At last Mrs. Wix turned to the window and stood—sightlessly, as Maisie could guess—looking away. Then our young lady, before the glass, gave the supreme shake. 'Well, I'm ready. And now to see him!'

Mrs. Wix turned round, but as if without having heard her. 'It's tremendously grave.' There were slow still tears behind the straighteners.

'It is—it is.' Maisie spoke as if she were now dressed quite up to the occasion; as if indeed with the last touch she had put on the judgement-cap. 'I must see him immediately.'

'How can you see him if he doesn't send for you?'

'Why can't I go and find him?'

'Because you don't know where he is.'

'Can't I just look in the salon?' That still seemed simple to Maisie.

Mrs. Wix, however, instantly cut it off. 'I wouldn't have you look in the salon for all the world!' Then she explained a little: 'The salon isn't ours now.'

'Ours?'

'Yours and mine. It's theirs.'

'Theirs?' Maisie, with her stare, continued to echo. 'You mean they want to keep us out?'

Mrs. Wix faltered; she sank into a chair and, as Maisie had often enough seen her do before, covered her face with her hands. 'They ought to, at least. The situation's too monstrous!'

Maisie stood there a moment—she looked about the room. 'I'll go to him—I'll find him.'

'I won't! I won't go near them!' cried Mrs. Wix.

'Then I'll see him alone.' The child spied what she had been looking for—she possessed herself of her hat. 'Perhaps I'll take him out!' And with decision she quitted the room.

When she entered the salon it was empty, but at the sound of the opened door some one stirred on the balcony, and Sir Claude, stepping straight in, stood before her. He was in light fresh clothes and wore a straw hat with a bright ribbon; these things, besides striking her in themselves as the very promise of the grandest of grand tours, gave him a certain radiance and, as it were, a tropical ease; but such an effect only marked rather more his having stopped short and, for a longer minute than had ever at such a juncture elapsed, not opened his arms to her. His pause made her pause and enabled her to reflect that he must have been up some time, for there were no traces of breakfast; and that though it was so late he had rather markedly not caused her to be called to him. Had Mrs. Wix been right about their forfeiture of the salon? Was it all his now, all his and Mrs. Beale's? Such an idea, at the rate her small thoughts throbbed, could only remind her of the way in which what had been hers hitherto was what was exactly most Mrs. Beale's and his. It was strange to be standing there and greeting him across a gulf, for he had by this time spoken, smiled and said: 'My dear child, my dear child!' but without coming any nearer. In a flash she saw he was different—more so than he knew or designed. The next minute indeed it was as if he caught an impression from her face: this made him hold out his hand. Then they met, he kissed her, he laughed, she thought he even blushed: something of his affection rang out as usual. 'Here I am, you see, again—as I promised you.'

It was not as he had promised them—he had not promised them Mrs. Beale; but Maisie said nothing about that. What she said was simply: 'I knew you had come. Mrs. Wix told me.'

'Oh yes. And where is she?'

'In her room. She got me up—she dressed me.'

Sir Claude looked at her up and down; a sweetness of mockery that she particularly loved came out in his face whenever he did that, and it was not wanting now. He raised his eyebrows and his arms to play at admiration; he was evidently after all disposed to be gay. 'Got you up?—I should think so! She has dressed you most beautifully. Isn't she coming?'

Maisie wondered if she had better tell. 'She said not.'

'Doesn't she want to see a poor devil?'

She looked about under the vibration of the way he described himself, and her eyes rested on the door of the room he had previously occupied. 'Is Mrs. Beale in there?'

Sir Claude looked blankly at the same object. 'I haven't the least idea!'

'You haven't seen her?'

'Not the tip of her nose.'

Maisie thought: there settled on her, in the light of his beautiful smiling eyes, the faintest purest coldest conviction that he wasn't telling the truth. 'She hasn't welcomed you?'

'Not by a single sign.'

'Then where is she?'

Sir Claude laughed; he seemed both amused and surprised at the point she made of it. 'I give it up!'

'Doesn't she know you've come?'

He laughed again. 'Perhaps she doesn't care!'

Maisie, with an inspiration, pounced on his arm. 'Has she gone?'