ng: "It's young Mr. Warlock, Miss, and he says if your aunts
isn't in you'll do."

"Ask him to come up, Martha," said Maggie, and then held herself there,
rooted, where she stood so that she should not run to him and fling her
arms round his neck. She felt at once with that quick perception that
was hers, in spite of her ignorance of life, that this was no moment
for love-making, and that he wanted something quite other from her.

He closed the door behind him, looked round the room, didn't come to
her, but stayed where he was.

"I've been trying to see you all day," he said. "How long have we got
alone do you think?" She never took her eyes from his face. "Until
seven probably. Aunt Elizabeth's in Lambeth and Aunt Anne's in bed."

"That's luck." He drew a breath of relief, then moved over to the
fireplace. "Maggie, I've come to say we mustn't see one another any
more."

Some one, some vast figure shadowy behind her, moved suddenly forward
and caught her in his arms and his embrace was deadly cold. She stood
where she was, her hands at her side, looking steadfastly at him.

"Why?" she said. "Because--because--the fact is, I've been wrong
altogether. Maggie, I'm not the sort of man for you to have anything to
do with. You don't know much about life yet, do you? I'm about the
first man you've ever met, aren't I? If you'd met another man before
me, you'd have cared for him as much."

She said nothing and he seemed to be confused by her steady gaze,
because he looked down and continued to speak as though to himself:

"I knew at once that there was danger in our meeting. With other girls
they can look after themselves. One hasn't any responsibility to them.
It's their own affair, but you believe every word a fellow says. And if
we'd been friends it wouldn't have mattered, but from the very first we
weren't that--we were something more."

"You were so different from any other girl. I've wanted to be good to
you from the beginning, but now I see that if we go on I shall only be
bad. It all comes in the end to my being bad--really bad--and I want
you to know it."

"I don't know," said Maggie, "that I've thought very
much whether you're good or bad. And it doesn't matter. I can look
after myself."

"No, you can't," he said vehemently, making a step towards her and then
suddenly stopping. "That's just it--you can't. I've been thinking all
the time since the other evening when we were together, and I've seen
that you