ggie.

"Don't think that I've been unfair," said Katherine. They were sitting
now side by side on Maggie's bed and Katherine's hand was on Maggie's
knee. "I'll tell you exactly how it happened. Paul was interested in
you from the moment that he saw you at my house ever so long ago. He
asked ever so many questions about you, and the next time he stayed he
wanted me to write and ask you to come and stay. Well, I didn't. I knew
from what you told me that you cared for somebody else, and I didn't
want to get Paul really fond of you if it was going to be no good. You
see, I've known Paul for ages. He's nearly ten years older than I, but
he used to come and stay with us at Garth, when he was at Cambridge and
before he was a clergyman."

"I'm very fond of him. I know the others think he's stupid simply
because he doesn't know the things that they do, but he's good and kind
and honest, and just exactly what he seems to be."

"I like him," repeated Maggie, nodding her head.

"He's been wanting to be married," went on Katherine, "for some time.
I'm going to tell you everything so that I shall have been perfectly
fair. Grace wants him to be married too. All her life she's looked
after him and he's always done exactly what she told him. He's rather
lazy and it's not hard for some one to get an influence over him. Well,
she's not really a very good manager. She thinks she is, but she isn't.
She arranges things and wants things to stay just where she puts them,
but she arranges all the wrong unnecessary things. Still, it's easy to
criticise, and I'm not a very good manager myself. I think she's
growing rather tired of it and would like some one to take it off her
hands. Of course Paul must marry the right person, some one whom she
can control and manage, and some one who won't transplant her in Paul's
affection. That's her idea. But it's all nonsense, of course. You can't
have your cake and eat it. She simply doesn't understand what marriage
is like. When Paul marries she'll learn more about life in a month than
she's learnt in all her days. Well, Maggie, dear, she thinks you're
just the girl for Paul. She thinks she can do what she likes with you.
She thinks you're nice, of course, but she's going to 'form' you and
'train' you. You needn't worry about that, you needn't really, if you
care about Paul. You'd manage both of them in a week. But there it
is--I thought I ought to warn you about Grace."

"As to Paul, I believe you'd b