What Maisie Knew

He met her eyes and then she could see that his own were really much graver than his manner. 'Gone?' She had flown to the door, but before she could raise her hand to knock he was beside her and had caught it. 'Let her be. I don't care about her. I want to see you.'

'Then she hasn't gone?'

Maisie fell back with him. He still looked as if it were a joke, but the more she saw of him the more she could make out that he was troubled. 'It wouldn't be like her!'

She stood wondering at him. 'Did you want her to come?'

'How can you suppose—?' He put it to her candidly. 'We had an immense row over it.'

'Do you mean you've quarrelled?'

Sir Claude was at a loss. 'What has she told you?'

'That I'm hers as much as yours. That she represents papa.'

His gaze struck away through the open window and up to the sky; she could hear him rattle in his trousers- pockets his money or his keys. 'Yes—that's what she keeps saying.' It gave him for a moment an air that was almost helpless.

'You say you don't care about her,' Maisie went on. 'Do you mean you've quarrelled?'

'We do nothing in life but quarrel.'

He rose before her, as he said this, so soft and fair, so rich, in spite of what might worry him, in restored familiarities, that it gave a bright blur to the meaning—to what would otherwise perhaps have been the palpable promise—of the words.

'Oh your quarrels!' she exclaimed with discouragement.

'I assure you hers are quite fearful!'

'I don't speak of hers. I speak of yours.'

'Ah don't do it till I've had my coffee! You're growing up clever,' he added. Then he said: 'I suppose you've breakfasted?'

'Oh no—I've had nothing.'

'Nothing in your room?'—he was all compunction. 'My dear old man!—we'll breakfast then together.' He had one of his happy thoughts. 'I say—we'll go out.'

'That was just what I hoped. I've brought my hat.'

'You are clever! We'll go to a cafe.' Maisie was already at the door; he glanced round the room. 'A moment—my stick.' But there appeared to be no stick. 'No matter; I left it—oh!' He remembered with an odd drop and came out.

'You left it in London?' she asked as they went downstairs.

'Yes—in London: fancy!'

'You were in such a hurry to come,' Maisie explained.

He had his arm round her. 'That must have been the reason.'

Halfway down he stopped short again, slapping his leg. 'And poor Mrs. Wix?'

Maisie's face just showed a shadow. 'Do you want her to come?'

'Dear no—I want to see you alone.'

'That's the way I want to see you!' she replied. 'Like before.'

'Like before!' he gaily echoed. 'But I mean has she had her coffee?'

'No, nothing.'

'Then I'll send it up to her. Madame!' He had already, at the foot of the stair, called out to the stout patronne, a lady who turned to him from the bustling, breezy hall a countenance covered with fresh matutinal powder and a bosom as capacious as the velvet shelf of a chimneypiece, over which her round white face, framed in its golden frizzle, might have figured as a showy clock. He ordered, with particular recommendations, Mrs. Wix's repast, and it was a charm to hear his easy brilliant French: even his companion's ignorance could measure the perfection of it. The patronne, rubbing her hands and breaking in with high swift notes as into a florid duet, went with him to the street, and while they talked a moment longer Maisie remembered what Mrs. Wix had said about every one's liking him. It came out enough through the morning powder, it came out enough in the heaving bosom, how the landlady liked him. He had evidently ordered something lovely for Mrs. Wix. 'Et bien soigne, n'est-ce-pas?'

'Soyez tranquille'—the patronne beamed upon him. 'Et pour Madame?'

'Madame?' he echoed—it just pulled him up a little.

'Rien encore?'

'Rien encore. Come, Maisie.' She hurried along with him, but on the way to the cafe he said nothing.

XXX

 

After they were seated there it was different: the place was not below the hotel, but further along the quay; with wide, clear windows and a floor sprinkled with bran in a manner that gave it for Maisie something of the added charm of a circus. They had pretty much to themselves the painted spaces and the red plush benches; these were shared by a few scattered gentlemen who picked teeth, with facial contortions, behind little bare tables, and by an old personage in particular, a very old personage with a red ribbon in his buttonhole, whose manner of soaking