e happy. You'd have your home and your
life and your friends. Skeaton isn't so bad if you live in it, I
believe, and Paul could get another living if you weren't happy there."

Did Katherine have any scruples as she pursued her argument? A real
glance at Maggie's confiding trustful gaze might have shaken her
resolve. This child who knew so little about anything--was Skeaton the
world for her? But Katherine had so many philanthropies that she was
given to finishing one off a little abruptly in order to make ready for
the next one.

She was interested just now in a scheme for adopting illegitimate
babies. She thought Maggie an "angel" and she just longed for her to be
happy. Nevertheless Maggie was very ignorant, and it was a little
difficult to see what trade or occupation she would be able to adopt.
She was nearly well now and Katherine did not know quite what to do
with her. Here was an admirable marriage, something that would give a
home and children and friends. What could be better? She had just
passed apparently through a love affair that could have led to no
possible good--solve the difficulty, make Maggie safe for life, and
pass on to the illegitimate babies!

"Of course, I don't love him," said Maggie, staring in front of her.

"But you like him," said Katherine. "It isn't as though Paul were a
very young man. He wouldn't expect anything very romantic. He isn't
really a romantic man himself."

"And I shall always love Martin," pursued Maggie.

Katherine's own romance had fulfilled itself so thoroughly that it had
almost ceased to be romantic. The Trenchard blood in her made her a
little impatient of unfulfilled romances.

"Don't you think, Maggie, dear," she said gently, "that it would be
better to forget him?"

"No, I don't," said Maggie, moving away from Katherine. "And I should
have to tell Paul about him. I'd tell Paul the exact truth, that if I
married him it was because I liked him and I thought we'd be good
friends. I see quite clearly that I can't sit for ever waiting for
Martin to come back, and the sooner I settle to something the better.
If Paul wants a friend I can be one, but I should never love him--even
though Martin wasn't there. And as to the managing, I'm dreadfully
careless and forgetful."

"You'd soon learn," said Katherine.

"Do you think I should?" asked Maggie. "I don't know, I'm sure. As to
Grace, I think we'd get on all right. There's a greater difficulty than
that though."