y fell into complete disruption. Maggie,
although she did not look, could feel Martin's anger like a flame
beside her. She was aware that Aunt Anne and Mr. Warlock were, like
some beings from another world, distant from the general confusion. Her
one passionate desire was to get up and leave the place; to her intense
relief she heard Aunt Anne's clear voice:

"I think, Mrs. Warlock, we must be turning homewards. Shall I send you
those papers about the Perteway's Mission? ... Such splendid work. I
think it would interest you."

It was as though a hole had suddenly opened in the floor of the neat
little drawing-room and they were all hurrying to leave without, if
possible, tumbling into it. There was a general shaking of hands.

Mrs. Warlock said kindly to Maggie:

"Do come soon again, dear. It does an old lady good to see young faces."

Martin was near the door. He almost crushed Maggie's hand in his: "I
must see you--soon," he whispered.

Free from the house Maggie and her aunt walked home in complete
silence. Maggie's heart was a confusion of rage, surprise, loneliness
and pride. No one had ever behaved like that to her before. And what
had she done? What was there about her that people hated? ... Why? ...
Why? She felt as though, in some way, it had all been Aunt Anne's
fault. Why did not Aunt Anne speak? Well, if they all hated her she
would go on her own way. She did not care.

But alone in her room, her face, indignant, proud, quivering,
surprising her in the long mirror by its strangeness, and causing her
to feel, because it did not seem to belong to her, more lonely than
ever, she burst out:

"I can't stand it. I CAN'T stand it. I'll get away ... so soon as ever
I can!"

CHAPTER III

MAGGIE AND MARTIN

That moment in her bedroom altered for Maggie the course of all her
future life. She had never before been, consciously, a rebel; she had,
only a week before, almost acquiesced in the thought that she would
remain in her aunts' house for the rest of her days; now Mr. Magnus,
the Warlocks, and her new dress had combined to fire her determination.
She saw, quite suddenly, that she must escape at the first possible
moment.

The house that had been until now the refuge into which she had escaped
became the jumping-off place for her new adventure.

Until now the things in the house had been there to receive her as one
of themselves; from this moment they were there to prevent, if
possible, her